Attackwall

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-03

Overview

Attackwall is a behavior node used in the DST AI system to enable entities (typically structures like beefalo or bosses) to detect, rotate toward, and attack wall-type entities within a 60° forward-facing cone (±30° from current facing). It relies on the combat, locomotor, and health components to perform target acquisition, stopping movement, and attack execution. This node integrates into behavior trees as a leaf or decision point, commonly used by non-player characters that need to defend fixed positions or structures.

Usage example

local inst = CreateEntity()
inst:AddComponent("combat")
inst:AddComponent("locomotor")
inst:AddComponent("health")

-- Add an AI brain with a behavior tree containing AttackWall
inst:AddComponent("brain")
inst:AddBehavior("attackwall", "behaviours/attackwall.lua")
inst.brain:PushBackBehavior("attackwall")

Dependencies & tags

Components used: combat, locomotor, health Tags: Checks for wall tag on potential targets (ATTACKWALL_MUST_TAGS); uses softstop state tag logic via locomotor:Stop.

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
target	Entity or nil	nil	Currently selected wall entity to attack; set in Visit() when a valid target is found.
status	number	READY	Internal behavior status (READY, RUNNING, SUCCESS, FAILED). Inherited from BehaviourNode.
done	boolean	false	Used internally to control behavior progress; initialized to false at start of RUNNING phase.

Main functions

Visit()

• Description: Executes the behavior logic once per tick when the node is active in the behavior tree. First, searches for a wall target within a 1.5 radius and ±30° cone in front of the entity. If found, stops movement and transitions to RUNNING. In RUNNING, performs combat attacks using combat:TryAttack and ends with SUCCESS (if attack initiated) or FAILED (if target invalid or attack fails).Sleeps for 1 second after each attack attempt.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: Nothing (behavior status is stored internally in self.status).
• Error states: May set status to FAILED if no target is found (READY → FAILED), or if target becomes invalid or dead (RUNNING → FAILED). The behavior fails silently if combat:TryAttack returns false (e.g., on cooldown or out of range).

Events & listeners

• Listens to: None (uses event-driven component calls like inst:PushEvent("doattack") internally via combat:TryAttack).
• Pushes: None directly, but triggers events indirectly via components:
  • locomotor:Stop() → pushes "locomote" event.
  • combat:TryAttack() → pushes "doattack" event if attack proceeds.