Aura

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-20

Overview

The Aura component applies periodic effects, typically damage, to entities within a specific radius. It relies on the combat component to perform area attacks and manages internal scheduling to trigger these effects at set intervals. State changes regarding whether the aura is currently affecting targets are communicated via events.

Usage example

local inst = CreateEntity()
inst:AddComponent("aura")
inst.components.aura.radius = 5
inst.components.aura.tickperiod = 2
inst.components.aura.auratestfn = function(inst, target) return true end
inst.components.aura:Enable(true)

Dependencies & tags

Components used: combat Tags: Excludes noauradamage, INLIMBO, notarget, noattack, flight, invisible, playerghost.

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
radius	number	3	The effective range of the aura around the entity.
tickperiod	number	1	Time in seconds between each aura effect tick.
active	boolean	false	Indicates if the aura scheduling task is currently running.
applying	boolean	false	Indicates if the aura successfully hit targets in the last tick.
pretickfn	function	nil	Optional function called before each tick logic executes.
auratestfn	function	nil	Optional custom function to validate potential targets.
auraexcludetags	table	{...}	List of tags used to exclude entities from aura effects.
_fn	function	function	Internal wrapper for auratestfn bound to the instance.

Main functions

Enable(val)

• Description: Toggles the aura scheduling task on or off. Manages the internal active state and cancels or creates periodic tasks accordingly.
• Parameters: val (any) - If val ~= false, the aura enables; otherwise, it disables.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: If disabling while applying is true, pushes a stopaura event.

OnTick()

• Description: Executes the logic for a single aura tick. Calls pretickfn if set, then invokes combat:DoAreaAttack to apply effects to nearby entities.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: Updates applying state based on whether hits occurred (> 0) and pushes startaura or stopaura events if the state changes.

GetDebugString()

• Description: Returns a formatted string containing current radius, active state, tick period, and applying status for debugging purposes.
• Parameters: None.
• Returns: string - Debug information.

Events & listeners

• Listens to: None (internally manages tasks via inst:DoPeriodicTask).
• Pushes: startaura - Fired when the aura begins applying effects to targets.
• Pushes: stopaura - Fired when the aura stops applying effects or is disabled.