Arena Survivor: Part 3: Survive the Swarm

Spawn enemy waves with timers, detect collisions between enemies and the player, use groups for entity filtering, and create escalating difficulty.

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Chapter 1

Wave Setup

Your shooter works, but enemies just trickle in forever. Let's add a wave system with a counter, a timer, and a spawn loop that drops groups of enemies at once.

Constant spawning gets stale fast. Waves give fights a shape: a rush of enemies, then a quiet moment to breathe before the next group hits harder.

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What You'll Build

You will create an enemy spawning system that sends waves of enemies at the player. Enemies chase the player using direction vectors, die when hit by bullets, and damage the player on contact. A Timer node controls spawn rate, and groups let you filter enemies from other nodes. The difficulty escalates as waves progress.

Learning Goals

✓Timer nodes and the timeout signal for recurring events
✓Connecting signals in code with connect() and in the editor
✓Node groups for filtering (add_to_group, is_in_group, get_tree().get_nodes_in_group)
✓randf_range() and randi_range() for random spawn positions
✓Tracking game state with variables (wave count, enemies alive)

GDScript Concepts in This Part

GDScript Timers & Signals PracticeLearn Godot 4 signals + timers in GDScript: Signal.connect(), Callable.bind(), await create_timer(), Timer cooldowns, safe connect/disconnect, and copy-paste recipes.GDScript Collisions PracticeFix body_entered not firing, understand monitoring vs monitorable, configure collision layers/masks, and debug with Visible Collision Shapes. RigidBody2D contact_monitor explained.GDScript Groups & Pickups PracticeMaster Godot 4 groups: add_to_group in code and editor, is_in_group filtering, call_group broadcasting, get_nodes_in_group queries. Build clean pickup and trigger systems.GDScript Randomness Practicerandf_range, randi_range, RandomNumberGenerator, pick_random, rand_weighted, and shuffle bags. Master randomness for spawns, loot, procedural content, and fair variation.

Tips

✨Spawn enemies at random positions along the screen edges using randf_range() — this prevents them from appearing on top of the player.
✨Use groups to tag enemies so bullets can check is_in_group("enemies") before dealing damage.