Level Design 101/Enemy placement

Placing enemies properly is harder than many people realize, as bad placement of enemies can seriously damage the appeal of a level, whereas good placement will make it feel more professional. This page provides tips on how to properly place enemies in a level.

General tips

• Don't place too many enemies. Doing so will make you face numerous problems: It may result in your level being crowded and hard to navigate in. Overplacement might also hurt the visuals of your map, especially when placed in huge clusters. Additionally, too many enemies might make your levels frustrating, especially when placed at the wrong spots. Enemies should provide a danger for the player and keep them on their toes, but they should not be so numerous that the player can't avoid them. Placing too few enemies is usually less of a problem, and a level can still be enjoyable without any enemies, but this can make your level feel empty and deserted if not pulled off correctly. The key is to strike a balance, but you should typically try to stay on the side of less enemies when designing a level.

• Don't put enemies where the player can't dodge them. This especially applies to ledges that can be reached with springs. Don't put enemies near the edge or the player has no chance but to get hit when trying to reach that ledge. In the worst case, that means that the player loses all rings, can't recollect them, and dies at the next attempt. Use caution with enemies that have a fast attack pattern, such as the Jet Jaw. Don't place those in tight spaces or the player will have a very hard time dodging them.

• Use a small set of enemies and use them consistently throughout the level. SRB2 has lots of different types of enemies for a reason: to vary the types of robots you encounter in different levels. Don't try to put every single kind of enemy in one level, and instead focus on a selection that you feel is appropriate for your level.

• Enemies should always fit the theme of the level. Don't place an enemy in a situation where it wouldn't fit, e.g. Minuses on a steel floor or Robo-Hoods in a volcano setting. Ask yourself, does this robot look like it might be in this sort of environment? Some enemies, such are Crawlas, are more ambiguous and can be used in many different situations, but even those do not necessarily fit everywhere.

• Enemies, like everything else, should be put to creative use. Even though enemies don't allow for the kind of flexibility that sector-based gimmicks do, there are still ways to be creative, at least with more complex types of enemies. Try to make sure that the enemies are integrated into gameplay by using them uniquely. Use them in spots where they provide an actual challenge and make the player invest some effort into avoiding them. Just like with gimmicks, don't use enemies in the exact same way again and again in a level, or it will become repetitive and monotonous.

• Forcing the player to kill all the enemies in the room is a bad idea. Linedef type 313 is often used for gimmicks like this, but they are generally considered tedious and annoying. This effect should be used in a different manner, such as unlocking a secret, or occasionally as a triggered trap that the player should have avoided. Don't make rooms where the player has no choice but to fight enemies.

Specific enemy placement tips

Blue Crawla and Red Crawla

• The Crawla is one of the weakest enemies in the game, and thus doesn't provide a real challenge to the player. It is intended to be used in very easy levels.
• Whereas the blue Crawla is so slow as to almost be stationary, the red Crawla is considerably faster and might be able to approach a slowly moving player. This makes it more effective in situations where the player is likely to move slowly.
• One way to make Crawlas more dangerous is using them to "guard" small elevated platforms, which forces the player either to bounce off them or to try and land next to them. In moderation this can be enjoyable, but it can also get repetitive and annoying rather quickly, especially when the player cannot see them beforehand.
• In old versions of SRB2, Crawlas were the only ground-based enemies available, which led to them being used in almost all levels regardless of theme and difficulty, often in large quantities. Today SRB2 has a much larger enemy selection, and this practice is largely frowned upon. Use Crawlas only when they are appropriate for your level, not just for the sake of using them.
• If placed in open areas, Crawlas are more "easy targets to bounce on" than enemies.

Stupid Dumb Unnamed RoboFish

• The SDURF is the weakest enemy in the entire game. As such, it is usually used for decoration.
• A SDURF can only can function as a hazard if the player is likely to hit it while not in their spin state. Such scenarios are uncommon, since SDURFs always stay in one location while jumping up and down, which makes them very easy to avoid. Some good examples of scenarios where SDURFs are hazardous are as a timing challenge in combination with a diagonal spring, or while the player is riding a Rollout Rock over a lake.
• Since Amy and Fang can't spin, SDURFs are somewhat more hazardous when playing as one of them, and thus could fit well as obstacles in a path exclusive to them. They move up and down quickly enough that it requires good timing for Fang to shoot them.
• Always put SDURFs over water. It doesn't make sense to put them over anything else, even another liquid like slime, acid or lava.
• Be careful when adjusting the jump height of the SDURF. If its jump height is too high or too low, it will look strange.

Gold Buzz and Red Buzz

• The greatest strength of Buzzes is that can sneak up on the player from behind. This can be very annoying when the player hasn't seen the Buzz beforehand, so you should place them in more open areas to give the player the chance of seeing the Buzz before it attacks.
• The red Buzz is much faster than its golden counterpart, making it more difficult for the player to shake off.
• Buzzes can be placed underwater, but they will never go into water by themselves. This is something you might either want to avoid or use to your advantage, depending on the effect you are going for.
• For effective placement, put them in places you expect the player to be going slower and be distracted by other things. Very vertical areas are obvious bets.

Spring Shell (Green) and Spring Shell (Yellow)

• The best areas to place Spring Shells are those where the player can use their springs to reach higher-up platforms.
• Green Spring Shells lose their springs when destroyed, while springs from yellow Spring Shells will remain and fall to the ground. Therefore, it is better to use yellow Spring Shells where it is necessary to use them to progress in a level, and green Spring Shells for backtracking, optional routes or secrets.
• Placing Spring Shells in areas with ceiling hazards is a great way to work with their innate capabilities to provide more challenge.
• Combine placement of them with aerial or enemies it's difficult to ground attack to force the player to jump and more chances to hit the springs.

Deton

• Detons are very hard enemies to place well, because they are very fast, home in on the player, and cannot be killed with standard abilities.
• Detons should always be placed so that they will see the player as he moves past or away from them, not towards them. An exception to this is if there are obstacles between the Deton and the player, as is the case in Techno Hill Zone Act 2.
• Always ensure that it is possible for a good player to escape from the Deton unharmed. This can be done either by giving the player cover, or by putting the Deton on a twisting path, so that it will explode against a wall when it tries to curve towards the player.

Turret

• Turrets are by far the most powerful and annoying enemies in the game. Use with extreme caution.
• Never place more than one Turret in a room.
• Turrets should usually be placed in the center of a room. Often, they are also on an elevated platform.
• Provide lots of cover for the player, so they can shield themselves from the Turret's shots. A skilled player might be able to run fast enough to dodge the Turret without cover, but you should still give them the luxury.
• The only way to kill a Turret is to submerge it in liquid or crush it. Often, a room that contains a Turret will provide a switch that destroys the Turret, as can be observed in Techno Hill Zone Act 2.

Skim

• Skims should always be placed in liquid. They can be placed on dry land, but they will merely stick to the ground and do nothing.
• It's possible to raise a body of water that contains Skims, but because they are not affected by gravity, they will continue to float in the air if you lower it.
• You shouldn't put too many Skims in one body of water, as they can become quite a dangerous and annoying threat when the player is underwater.
• Make sure the player can move fast when under Skim attack. When players are forced to perform slow jumps or stop for air bubbles, they will get hit and eventually die without a chance.

Jet Jaw

• Although Jet Jaws can move in the air, always place them in water, as anything else would be illogical.
• Since Jet Jaws can be relatively difficult to dodge when chasing the player, don't put them too close together; they should be relatively far apart from each other.
• Never put these enemies in cramped spaces. They only work in fairly large bodies of water, where the player has enough room to dodge their attack.

Crushstacean

• Simple ground area denial. They're designed to make a circle of area around them hazardous to walk through, forcing the player to jump over a wide area or slow down and time their attacks.
• Crushstaceans don't move much on their own, but their claws can reach great distances and can catch the player by surprise. They are best placed in moderately large areas where the player has enough distance to see the Crushstacean, but not large enough that they are a total non-threat.
• You can place Crushstaceans either on land or in water. Water gives the player more time to react, but also forces them to time their attacks better.

Robo-Hood

• Robo-Hoods are used to force the player to move. Staying in one place or slowing down is very dangerous, so it forces the player to make quicker decisions about where to go.
• Even though Robo-Hoods sometimes jump at the player, they are intended primarily to be stationary snipers. The best place for Robo-Hoods is often some sort of precarious vantage point, like a tree branch or the edge of castle ramparts. Don't make them too difficult to see, however; players shouldn't be taken completely by surprise with a volley of arrows.
• Despite their rapid fire rate, Robo-Hoods are rather weak, so they don't have to be used too sparingly. However, it can be very repetitive to place too many of them, so be moderately selective and creative with their placement.

Lance-a-Bot

• Lance-a-Bots are very powerful enemies that take two hits to kill and can charge at the player. They are fit for both open rooms and longer, narrower areas. Their charge forces players to speed up to avoid it, or defeat them before they start charging.
• Because they take two hits to kill, Lance-a-Bots often invite players to make a fight or flight decision. This makes them useful for areas where there is a risk/reward factor in collecting useful items.
• Placed alongside more passive enemies like Egg Guards, Lance-a-Bots can serve a compelling hazard.

Egg Guard

• Moving on a semi-fixed path, these enemies patrol and guard an area. They force the player to slow down and time their jumps and use precision. If not, the player could get bounced a large distance away.
• Egg Guards are tough to kill since they have to be attacked from the rear, but they pose little threat to the player's immediate well-being unless the player directly attacks them. They should be used to block of parts of the path or other areas from the player. Don't try to arrange them so that they hurt the player – it won't produce the desired effect.
• These enemies are best placed in small groups, which makes them more proficient in blocking the player than just one.
• The room you decide to place the Egg Guards in matters enormously. Don't put them in the middle of a larger, flat area, because then the player can just ignore them – they won't have anything to block. But at the same time, if the room you place them in is too cramped, it will be too annoying to try to get around them. An effective but rather challenging place to put them is near pits, because running into them will bounce the player into the pit. In these situations, make sure the player has enough room to avoid them or it will become frustrating.
• If the ceiling is low, Tails will not be able to fly over them and Knuckles will not be able to climb around them. Depending on the situation, this may be something you want or something you'd rather avoid.

Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard

• The most dangerous things about BASHes are their airspeed and fast turnaround time. To use this to your advantage, put them in fairly large rooms.
• Don't place too many BASHes at once or the player will feel like they are constantly ambushed. Most rooms will already feel overloaded with more than one BASH.
• Always make sure that the player can see a BASH the moment they enter the room. Because they are so fast and agile, an unseen BASH can easily take a player by surprise.

Green Snapper

• Anti-spin enemies, forcing the player to jump and/or escape their range by running quickly or attempting to find vertical areas to climb.
• Green Snappers are tough to kill and move at high speeds when the player notices them. They work well in open areas because of their wide range.
• Avoid populating areas with Green Snappers too densely. A single Green Snapper can already serve as a threat to a fairly large area of land.
• Though Green Snappers were designed primarily to go with desert theming, they would also be at home in a beach-themed or jungle-themed level.

Minus

• Minuses carry objects and enemies. Their primary objective is ambushing players.
• Minuses are fast, sneaky enemies which can hit a jumping player very easily and pierce a spindash. Therefore, using them on small platforms and other areas which emphasize jumping skill will make them very dangerous. It's possible to use them in such situations, but make sure the player is able to avoid them.
• On narrow paths, use only one at once; in more open areas, you can use groups of two or three.
• Usually, you should place Minuses so that they will attack from the front of the player, rather than from the back or the side. As they only appear when the player gets close to them, the player should be able to spot the Minus at the same time that it spots the player.
• With their carrying ability, they allow stationary enemies to move and slow-moving enemies to accelerate. Combine with other enemies for hilarity.

Canarivore

• Canarivores' main threat is not hurting the player, but slowing them down. They cannot move and are best placed hanging from ceilings in narrow areas or above platforms, to make for timing challenges.
• Avoid placing Canarivores in open areas; their breath can be easily walked around if you do, making them hardly a threat.

Unidus

• The Unidus is best placed in situations where players have limited space to dodge the spikeballs that it throws at them, such as hallways and narrow platforms. However, be careful not to limit the space too much or the spikeballs will become impossible to avoid. It throws them at a fixed height, so areas with lots of height variation don't see much effectiveness from them.
• Make sure players can always clearly see a Unidus before it starts throwing spikeballs, so they have a fair chance to dodge them.
• The Unidus should generally not be placed in groups, since this may overwhelm the player by forcing them to dodge too many spikeballs at once.

Pterabyte

• Pterabytes' main threat is that they grab an unsuspecting player and drop them after a few seconds. This means that they are extremely dangerous if placed over a hazardous area like lava, but completely harmless otherwise.
• Avoid placing Pterabytes too high up; a good player should be able to defeat them by jumping from above.

Pyre Fly

• Pyre Flies float in the air and do not move much, but have a wide attack range. They are fit for fire themed levels, but would not be out of place in any non-water level.
• Pyre Flies are fit for both open and closed areas, and serve as good hazards for high-up platforming or timing challenges.
• Note that if the player is wearing an Elemental Shield or Flame Shield, Pyre Flies no longer serve as timing-based challenges and are instead simple aerial enemies.

Dragonbomber

• Dragonbombers' only attack pattern is to drop timed bombs below them. Since the bombs have quite the area of effect, they don't need to be accurate about where to drop them, but even then, you'll want to place them somewhere where their bombs are hard to skirt around or to simply run away from, and preferentially above the player's immediate reach.
• That said, Dragonbombers are unique in that they're the only enemy with a projectile that can cause an explosion with knockback. Players hit by the explosion radius will be additionally knocked from their footing, which you can use to your advantage. The explosions can also trigger Blast Linedef Executors, allowing them to be used in more creative settings by interacting with the map.

Spincushion

• Forcing the player to move very quickly, Spincushions are one of the toughest enemies in the game and represent a large threat. Therefore, you should be very careful with them and place them very sparingly.
• The best way to place Spincushions without being cheap and annoying is to place them out in the open, in large rooms where the player will see it long before it begins its attack sequence - or placing them in an area that limits their range.
• Like Crawla Commanders, Spincushions work well in gimmicks where the player must destroy all the enemies in a room to advance, since they provide a challenge in combat. In such a situation, don't place too many Spincushions or the player will have a hard time avoiding damage. Two Spincushions are usually enough.
• Because Spincushions attack very quickly but have a mostly harmless cool-down phase, they are useful in situations where you want to force the player to perform an action quickly, before the Spincushion attacks.
• Placing Spincushions in areas with slopes allows them to jump and assault the player from the air as well. High levels of danger.

Snailer

• Snailers, despite their limited mobility and poor eyesight, can be very dangerous in platforming sections because of their fast fire rate. They force the player to move and dodge.
• Make sure players can dodge the shots of Snailers. Putting them in narrow hallways may give players the feeling they have no chance but to get hit.
• Snailers can't move horizontally but have infinite vertical range, so they can be easily used in situations where players gain height or repeatedly visit an area.

Jetty-Syn Bomber and Jetty-Syn Gunner

• Jetty-Syns are very fast and have powerful attacks, which forces the player to keep moving in order to avoid them. This can add difficulty to platforming sections, as players risk getting hurt when standing in one spot for too long.
• Gunners pose a more immediate threat since they have a larger attack range, but Bombers are more difficult to kill as they will try to hover over the player. Because these features complement each other, beware of combining both types of Jetty-syns, which makes them much more difficult to avoid and kill than just one type.
• Don't place these enemies in large quantities. Old versions of Aerial Garden Zone used an extreme amount of Jetty-Syns to force the player to keep moving. However, many players instead chose to stop and kill all the Jetty-Syns before continuing, which made the level tedious. The level now uses Bumblebores to achieve the intended effect.

Pop-up Turret

• Pop-up Turrets have a moderate fire rate and a fast shooting speed, so you usually don't want to have a lot of them in the same place.
• The best position for Pop-up Turrets is in the corner of a room or the edge of a platform. This allows players to run past them more easily, but also forces them to go slightly out of their way to destroy them.
• Forcing the player to directly approach a Pop-up Turret, for example by placing it on a platform the player has to jump across, can make it a very challenging enemy and can quickly become annoying when done multiple times in succession.

Penguinator

• Penguinators attack the player by sliding at them, which means they work quite well in open areas, but may be a little too annoying in closed areas.

Pophat

• Pophats are stationary and fire bullets at the player in a parabolic fashion. While this means their shots are hard to predict, it also implies in them being very inaccurate since they take a considerable amount of time to land, especially when the player is allowed to move a lot, but in turn, they can become very challenging when the player is forced to stay in the same place for too long.
• Due to the nature of their shots, placing Pophats in too low ceilings makes them useless, since the farther their target is, the higher they'll need to fire to try to score a hit, which means an equally higher chance of the shot simply hitting the ceiling. It is thus best to place them in open areas.

Goomba

• Don't use Goombas outside of Mario mode. They are completely out of place in any other situation.
• Goombas behave identically to blue Crawlas, so use them in similar situations.

Crawla Commander

• These enemies are very persistent and have excellent vision, so always try to make sure that Crawla Commanders are fully visible, enabling the player to see the enemy at the same time the enemy sees the player.
• Don't put more than two Crawla Commanders in the same room. They can become very annoying in groups, and the player is likely to just spin in place and wait for them to approach rather than attacking them.
• Crawla Commanders are ideal enemies for a room with the Trigger Linedef Executor – No More Enemies effect, since they provide a challenge in combat.

Spinbobert

• Spinboberts move up and down without interacting with the player, but unlike SDURFs, it is possible to get hurt by the enemy while jumping into it. This makes these enemies useful for timing-based challenges, like areas where the enemy is placed directly between two small platforms.

Cacolantern

• Cacolanterns are an extremely dangerous enemy that moves at great heights and distances and fires deadly bullets. Therefore, they are a good fit for large open areas.
• The sooner the player notices a Cacolantern, the easier it is for them to defeat it. This makes the Cacolantern another enemy good for timing-based challenges.

Hangster

• These bat enemies hide on ceilings and fly around for a bit when they notice the player. They fit well in dark, closed rooms where the player should be wary of hazards.

Hive Elemental and Bumblebore

• Given its stationary nature and its constant spawning of hazards that chase you, Hive Elementals pose to the players an interesting choice: to confront them and be able to traverse the level safely, or to just keep pressing on with Bumblebores on your tail. For the Hive Elemental to be effective, make sure both choices have the same weight: running away should make the upcoming sections considerably harder if you're being chased by Bumblebores, but stopping to take down the Hive Elemental should also be a significant detour.
• Bumblebores are very annoying, both to fight and to be chased by. That's why the hazard they represent should only exist if the player chooses to run away from the Hive Elemental. Make sure to have safe, open spaces where the player can stop and engage with them, preferentially also where the Hive Elemental is.
• A Hive Elemental that is too late in spawning any Bumblebores might as well be dead: make sure it can see the player seconds in advance so enough Bumblebores are present when the player has to make their choice. It's also valid to place them behind corners where the player won't immediately see them unless they turn around or explore the area some more. Don't hide them, however: they should be in plain sight so the player has a fair choice.

Buggle

• The defining feature of the Buggle is the bubble around it that grants air. Therefore, it doesn't make sense to use it above water.
• Buggles behave the same as Buzzes, so the same tips as for Buzzes also apply here.
• The player only has one chance to get air from a Buggle. Therefore, you should make sure that the player can still beat your level without drowning even without using the Buggle's bubble, especially if you want your level to be multiplayer-compatible.
• Defeating the Buggle will cause the player to immediately breathe the bubble, which puts them in their falling state. This can make the Buggle extremely dangerous when placed over pits or other hazards, an effect that is often exploited in Azure Temple Zone. Note that this doesn't apply when the player has an Elemental Shield or Bubble Shield.

Banpyura

• Banpyuras are technically inoffensive, but the spring they carry can be a sneaky weapon if the player is careless. They are best placed in platforms the player is forced to share with them, from which they can force the player to do the same section over again or outright plunge them into surrounding hazards.

Pointy

• Pointies sound tough in theory, because of their powerful armor, but their movement pattern makes them fairly easy to avoid. The larger the room, the easier it is to avoid them, so place them in moderately small rooms.
• Because of their flat appearance, Pointies are ideal for 2D sections. When using them in a 2D section, make sure that the player isn't moving too fast before encountering them, or they will run right into them.