Abysspillar Minion

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-04

Overview

The abysspillar_minion prefab represents a deployable platform in the Rifts biome, used to extend mobility across the Void during boss encounters. It is designed to attach to and detach from one of two large abyss pillars (leftpillar or rightpillar), and transitions between an inactive "statue" state and an active, physics-enabled state. It integrates with multiple core components: inspectable for status display, locomotor and embarker for movement, entitytracker to manage associations with large pillars, and state graphs for gameplay logic. The prefab supports saving/loading and network replication for client-server consistency.

Usage example

local minion = SpawnPrefab("abysspillar_minion")
minion.Transform:SetPosition(x, 0, z)
minion:Activate()
minion.components.entitytracker:TrackEntity("leftpillar", bigpillar_entity)
minion:SetOnBigPillar(bigpillar_entity, true)

Dependencies & tags

Components used: inspectable, locomotor, embarker, entitytracker, follower, transform, animstate, soundemitter, physics, network
Tags: monster, soulless, mech, notarget, NOBLOCK, electricdamageimmune
Additional tags applied during activation: ignorewalkableplatformdrowning (added in Activate)

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
broken	boolean	nil	Set by MakeBroken() to indicate the minion is visually broken and non-functional.
sg	StateGraph or nil	nil	The assigned state graph during activation; nil indicates inactive state.

Main functions

MakeBroken(inst)

• Description: Visually renders the minion as broken: plays the "broken" animation and sets the build to abyss_pillar_minion_broken_build. Typically called on load if saved as broken.
• Parameters: inst (Entity) — the entity to break (same as self within method).
• Returns: Nothing.

IsActivated(inst)

• Description: Checks whether the minion is currently active (i.e., has an assigned state graph).
• Parameters: inst (Entity) — the entity instance.
• Returns: true if inst.sg ~= nil, otherwise false.

PreActivate(inst)

• Description: Begins the activation transition (play "turn_on_pre" animation and sound). Idempotent — does nothing if already activated.
• Parameters: inst (Entity).
• Returns: Nothing.

Activate(inst)

• Description: Fully activates the minion: enables physics, switches to eight-faced orientation, assigns the "SGabysspillar_minion" state graph, and transitions to the "activate" state if not asleep.
• Parameters: inst (Entity).
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: No-op if already activated (inst.sg ~= nil).

Deactivate(inst)

• Description: Deactivates the minion: clears the state graph, removes the "ignorewalkableplatformdrowning" tag, disables physics, reverts to two-faced orientation and zero rotation, and plays shutdown animations/sounds.
• Parameters: inst (Entity).
• Returns: Nothing.

Flip(inst)

• Description: Rotates the minion 180° if inactive. Used to align orientation when detaching from a pillar.
• Parameters: inst (Entity).
• Returns: Nothing.
• Error states: Rotation is skipped if IsActivated() returns true.

GetBigPillar(inst)

• Description: Retrieves the associated large pillar (left or right) tracked by the entitytracker component.
• Parameters: inst (Entity).
• Returns: (bigpillar, isLeft) where bigpillar is the Entity or nil, and isLeft is true if the left pillar is selected, false if the right, or nil if neither tracked.

SetOnBigPillar(inst, bigpillar, leftminion)

• Description: Moves the minion to attach onto the given bigpillar, aligns its orientation, and updates tracking to remember the pillar it's attached to. First deactivates the minion.
• Parameters:
  • bigpillar (Entity) — the large pillar to attach to.
  • leftminion (boolean) — true if this is the left-side minion, used to determine rotation.
• Returns: Nothing.

RemoveFromBigPillar(inst)

• Description: Stops the follower behavior, detaching the minion from any pillar it was following.
• Parameters: inst (Entity).
• Returns: Nothing.

OnSave(inst, data)

• Description: Records the minion's state for persistence: whether broken and whether activated.
• Parameters:
  • inst (Entity).
  • data (table) — the save table to populate.
• Returns: Nothing.

OnLoad(inst, data)

• Description: Restores the broken state from saved data.
• Parameters:
  • inst (Entity).
  • data (table) — loaded data; if truthy and contains broken, calls MakeBroken.
• Returns: Nothing.

OnLoadPostPass(inst, ents, data)

• Description: Finalizes post-load restoration: reattaches to tracked pillar if still present, or re-activates if persisted as active (should be rare for properly tracked minions).
• Parameters:
  • inst (Entity).
  • ents (table) — entity resolution map (unused in this implementation).
  • data (table) — loaded data.
• Returns: Nothing.

Events & listeners

• Listens to: None directly — event callbacks are managed internally by the StateGraph and EntityTracker components (e.g., "onremove" via TrackEntity).
• Pushes: None — no inst:PushEvent calls are present.