The "Don't Die" Button: Building a Custom Health Powerup

You've been wiped. Again. You're lying in the dirt, watching your health bar hit zero, while the enemy team loots your corpse and laughs. It's time to stop being a walking loot bag and start being a healing god.

In this tutorial, we're going to build a Custom Health Powerup. This isn't just a generic green cross floating in the void. We're going to create a giant, glowing statue that only appears when you need it, heals you for a massive amount, and then vanishes to prevent spamming. Think of it as a tactical respawn beacon that heals you instead of just bringing you back.

What You'll Learn

• The Scene Graph Hierarchy: How to group devices (like a statue and a powerup) into one parent object so they move together.
• Contextual Filtering: Why some options in the Customize panel disappear or change based on what you pick first.
• Powerup Configuration: Setting up a health boost that affects both Health and Shield, and controlling who gets it.
• Trigger Logic: Using a Prop Manipulator to hide the powerup after it's used, creating a "one-time use" mechanic.

How It Works

Before we touch any code or devices, let's talk about how Fortnite Creative handles objects. This is where the Scene Graph comes in.

Imagine your island is a giant toy box. Inside that box, you have individual toys: a statue, a powerup, a light, a speaker. In the Scene Graph, these are all separate Entities. If you want the powerup to sit inside the statue's hand, you have two choices:

1. Move them manually until they look right (and pray they don't drift apart when you play).
2. Parent them.

Parenting is like putting a smaller box inside a bigger box. If you move the big box, the small box moves with it. In our case, the "Big Box" is a Prop Manipulator (which controls the statue). The "Small Box" is our Health Powerup. We'll parent the powerup to the manipulator. This ensures that when the statue appears, the powerup appears exactly where we want it.

The "Contextual Filtering" Trap

When you click a device to customize it, you'll notice some options vanish or change. This is Contextual Filtering. It's Fortnite's way of saying, "Hey, you picked 'Set To' for the effect, so why are you showing me options for 'Percentage Increase'? Those don't make sense together, so I'm hiding them." It keeps the menu from looking like a cluttered inventory screen. We'll use this to our advantage to keep our settings clean.

The Plan

1. The Stage: We place a Colossal Statue.
2. The Prize: We place a Health Powerup inside the statue.
3. The Control: We use a Prop Manipulator to hide the statue (and the powerup inside it) until a player triggers it.
4. The Glow: We add a light to make it look epic.
5. The Logic: We configure the powerup to heal 200 HP/Shield, but only once.

Let's Build It

We aren't writing raw Verse code for this specific device setup because the Health Powerup is a Device, not a Verse Script. However, understanding the logic of how devices interact with the Scene Graph is crucial. In Verse, you'd script the conditions for when this happens, but the device itself handles the healing.

Here is the step-by-step construction of our "Don't Die" Statue.

Step 1: The Stage (The Statue)

1. Open the Device Gallery (Press Tab or click the Device icon).
2. Search for Colossal Coliseum Prop Gallery.
3. Place a statue. Size it to be roughly player-height (or bigger, if you want to feel small).
4. Crucial Step: Select the statue. In the Transform panel, note its Name. Let's call it HealingStatue.

Step 2: The Prize (The Powerup)

1. In the Device Gallery, search for Health Powerup.
2. Place it. Try to drop it inside the statue's hands or chest area.
3. Parenting Time:
   • Select the Health Powerup.
   • In the Transform panel, look for the Parent field.
   • Type HealingStatue (or select it from the dropdown if you named it earlier).
   • Why? Now, if we move the statue, the powerup moves with it. If we hide the statue, the powerup hides too. This is basic Scene Graph hierarchy.

Step 3: Configuring the Powerup (The Meat)

Click on the Health Powerup to open its Customize panel. This is where the magic happens.

Note: If you see "Contextual Filtering" hide options, don't panic. It's just cleaning up the UI based on your "Set To" choice.

Step 4: The Control (Prop Manipulator)

Now we need to make the statue appear only when needed.

1. Search for Prop Manipulator in the Device Gallery.
2. Place it anywhere (it's invisible, so it doesn't matter where).
3. Link it:
   • Select the Prop Manipulator.
   • In the Customize panel, under Target Prop, select HealingStatue.
4. Configure the Manipulator:
   • Start Hidden: On. (This means the statue is invisible at the start of the game).
   • Activate On: Player Enters Volume. (We'll add a trigger next).

Step 5: The Trigger (Volume)

1. Search for Volume (or Trigger Volume) in the Device Gallery.
2. Place it around the statue. Make it big enough for a player to walk into.
3. Connect the Trigger:
   • Select the Volume.
   • In the Customize panel, look for On Player Enters.
   • Set the action to Activate the Prop Manipulator (HealingStatue).

Step 6: The Glow (Optional but Recommended)

1. Place a Customizable Light over the statue.
2. Set the color to something bright (Green or Gold).
3. Parent the light to the HealingStatue so it moves with it.
4. Set the light to Start Hidden if you want it to only glow when the statue appears.

Let's Build It (Verse Logic Summary)

While the devices above handle the visuals and basic healing, if you wanted to add Verse logic (like playing a sound effect or spawning particles), you would use a Verse Script. Here is how that logic would look in Verse, using the concepts we discussed:

# This is a Verse Script snippet for educational purposes.
# It demonstrates how Verse interacts with devices via the Scene Graph.

using { /Fortnite.com/Devices }
using { /Fortnite.com/Characters }
using { /Verse.org/Simulation }
using { /UnrealEngine.com/Temporary/Diagnostics }

# A Verse device that listens for a trigger and activates
# the Prop Manipulator to reveal the healing statue.
healing_statue_manager := class(creative_device):

    # Bind these in the UEFN Outliner / Customize panel
    @editable
    StatuePropManipulator : prop_manipulator_device = prop_manipulator_device{}

    @editable
    StatueTriggerVolume : trigger_device = trigger_device{}

    # Called once when the game session starts
    OnBegin<override>()<suspends> : void =
        # Subscribe to the trigger volume's ActivatedEvent.
        # When a player enters the volume, OnPlayerEntered fires.
        StatueTriggerVolume.TriggeredEvent.Subscribe(OnPlayerEntered)

    # Handler: receives the agent (player) who walked into the volume
    OnPlayerEntered(Agent : ?agent) : void =
        # Activate the Prop Manipulator to show the statue.
        # Because the Health Powerup is parented to the statue in the
        # Scene Graph, it becomes visible and pickable automatically.
        StatuePropManipulator.Enable()
        # note: prop_manipulator_device does not have an Activate(agent) method;
        # Enable() is used to activate the manipulator device.```

**Wait, what?** You might be thinking, "I don't need Verse for this?" **Correct.** For a basic "heal when you touch" mechanic, **Devices** are faster and easier. Verse is for when you need complex logic (like "Heal only if you have less than 50 HP" or "Heal 10 people at once"). For this tutorial, the Device setup is the professional way to do it quickly.

## Try It Yourself

Now that you have your "Don't Die" Statue, try these challenges to level up:

1.  **The "Team Heal" Challenge:** Change the **Apply To** setting on the Health Powerup to **All Players**. Now, when one person touches it, everyone nearby gets healed. Does this break your game balance? Why or why not?
2.  **The "Instant Respawn" Challenge:** Change **Respawn** to **Instant**. Now, players can spam the button. Add a **Timer** device to reset the powerup after 30 seconds. (Hint: You'll need to link the Timer's "On Complete" event to the Prop Manipulator's "Activate" function).
3.  **The "Secret Room" Challenge:** Hide the statue inside a wall. Use a **Button** device to open a secret passage, revealing the statue. This teaches you how to chain device activations.

## Recap

*   **Scene Graph Hierarchy:** Parenting the Health Powerup to the Statue ensures they stay together.
*   **Contextual Filtering:** Fortnite hides irrelevant options to keep your Customize panel clean.
*   **Device Logic:** We used a **Prop Manipulator** to hide/show the statue, a **Volume** to trigger it, and a **Health Powerup** to do the healing.
*   **One-Time Use:** Setting **Respawn: No** makes this a strategic resource, not an infinite cheat code.

You now have the tools to create dynamic, interactive healing stations. Go forth and heal your teammates (or trap them in a healing loop).

## References

*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/health-powerup-design-examples-in-fortnite
*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/create-a-dungeon-crawler-game-in-fortnite-creative
*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite/visual-effect-powerup-device-design-examples-in-fortnite
*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite-creative/create-a-dungeon-crawler-game-in-fortnite-creative
*   https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/fortnite-creative/using-health-powerup-devices-in-fortnite-creative