How to make a kill brick script for your Roblox game

If you're trying to figure out how to make a kill brick script for your Roblox game, you've probably realized that this is basically a rite of passage for every new developer. Whether you're building an "Obby" (obstacle course) or just want to add some dangerous lava to your world, the kill brick is the foundation of it all. It's a simple concept: player touches part, player goes "oof," and then they respawn.

While it sounds simple, there are actually a few different ways to approach it. You can make a script that kills a player instantly, or you could get a bit fancier and make a brick that slowly drains their health. In this post, we're going to walk through the easiest way to get this running and then look at some ways to polish it so it doesn't break your game.

Setting up your part in Studio

Before we even touch any code, we need something for the player to actually hit. Open up Roblox Studio and find the Model tab at the top. Click on the Part icon to drop a basic brick into your workspace.

Now, you can make this look like whatever you want. Most people go for the classic "neon red" look because it scream "don't touch me." To do that, just select your part, go to the Properties window, and change the color to red and the material to Neon.

One thing that trips up beginners is forgetting to Anchor the part. If you don't click the Anchor button in the top menu, your kill brick might just fall through the floor or roll away when someone bumps into it. Once your part is positioned exactly where you want it, we're ready to add the logic.

Writing the basic kill script

To get started, hover over your part in the Explorer window on the right. Click the little plus (+) button and search for Script. This will open up a new tab with the classic "Hello World" text. Go ahead and delete that; we don't need it.

Here is the most straightforward way to write the code:

```lua local killBrick = script.Parent

local function onTouch(otherPart) local character = otherPart.Parent local humanoid = character:FindFirstChild("Humanoid")

if humanoid then humanoid.Health = 0 end

end

killBrick.Touched:Connect(onTouch) ```

Let's talk about what is actually happening here. It's not just magic; it's a sequence of events. First, we define killBrick as script.Parent. This just tells the script, "Hey, look at the part you are currently inside of."

The onTouch function is where the heavy lifting happens. Whenever anything touches the brick, Roblox sends information about that thing (the otherPart) to the function. Since players are made of many parts—like feet, legs, and torsos—the otherPart is usually one of those.

We then look at the Parent of that part. If your left foot touches the brick, the parent of your foot is your entire character model. Inside that character model, there's an object called a Humanoid. This is what controls health, jumping, and walking. If the script finds the Humanoid, it sets the health to zero. Simple as that.

Why use FindFirstChild?

You might notice I used character:FindFirstChild("Humanoid") instead of just saying character.Humanoid. This is a really important habit to get into. In the world of game development, things don't always load or exist when you expect them to.

If a random soccer ball or a falling tree hits your kill brick, those things don't have a Humanoid. If you just wrote character.Humanoid, the script would throw an error and stop working because it's looking for something that isn't there. Using FindFirstChild basically tells the script to check if it exists first. If it doesn't find it, the script just moves on quietly without crashing.

Adding a "Debounce" for better performance

One thing you'll notice in Roblox is that the Touched event fires a lot. If you stand on a brick, your character is technically "touching" it dozens of times every second. While an instant-kill script doesn't strictly need a delay, it's a good idea to learn about "Debouncing."

A debounce is basically a cooling-off period. It prevents the script from running over and over again in a tiny fraction of a second. Even though the player is already dead, the script might still be trying to kill them fifty more times before they respawn. It's not a huge deal for one brick, but if you have hundreds of them, it can cause lag.

Here's how you'd add a simple debounce:

```lua local killBrick = script.Parent local isTouching = false

local function onTouch(otherPart) if isTouching == false then local character = otherPart.Parent local humanoid = character:FindFirstChild("Humanoid")

 if humanoid then isTouching = true humanoid.Health = 0 task.wait(1) isTouching = false end end

end

killBrick.Touched:Connect(onTouch) ```

By adding that isTouching variable, we're essentially putting a lock on the door. The script checks if the door is open (false), runs the code, locks the door (true), waits a second, and then unlocks it.

Damage bricks vs. Kill bricks

Sometimes you don't want an instant death. Maybe you're making a toxic waste pool or a bed of spikes where the player should have a chance to escape. In that case, you just need to tweak one line of code.

Instead of humanoid.Health = 0, you would write something like: humanoid.Health = humanoid.Health - 10

This takes away 10 hit points every time the function runs. If you use this method, you definitely want to use the debounce logic we talked about earlier. Without a wait time, the script will drain all 100 health points in about a blink of an eye, making it feel just like an instant-kill brick anyway. By setting a task.wait(0.5), the player loses 10 health every half-second they stand on it.

Common mistakes to watch out for

If you followed the steps and your script isn't working, don't worry—it happens to everyone. Usually, it's something small.

Check your capitalization: Luau (the language Roblox uses) is very picky. Humanoid is not the same as humanoid. Touched is not the same as touched. If the script isn't working, check the Output window in Studio. It'll usually tell you exactly which line has a typo.
Is the script inside the part? Make sure the script is a child of the brick itself. If it's just sitting in the Workspace or in a folder somewhere else, script.Parent won't point to the brick.
Is the part too small? Sometimes if a part is tiny or buried under the floor, the "Touch" doesn't register correctly.

Taking it a step further

Once you've mastered how to make a kill brick script, you can start doing some pretty cool stuff. You could make the brick change colors when it's "active" and "inactive." You could add a sound effect that plays a "zap" noise when someone hits it. You could even make a script that kills only players on a certain team.

The most important thing is to keep experimenting. Most of the fun in Roblox development comes from taking a basic script like this and seeing how you can twist it into something unique for your own game. Now get out there, open up Studio, and start building! It might be a little frustrating at first if you run into bugs, but once you see that first player (even if it's just you) hit that lava and respawn, it's a pretty great feeling of accomplishment.