If you're tired of the basic health system, setting up a roblox custom fall damage script is one of the easiest ways to make your game feel more realistic and polished. Let's be honest—the default Roblox physics can feel a bit like everyone is made of bouncy rubber. You can fall from a skyscraper, hit the ground, and just keep running like nothing happened. If you're building a survival game, a hardcore obby, or just something where stakes actually matter, you need players to fear heights.
The cool thing about writing your own script is that you aren't stuck with a "one size fits all" solution. You can decide exactly how much a ten-stud drop hurts versus a fifty-stud drop. You can even add effects like screen shakes or leg injuries if you're feeling fancy.
Why Go Custom Instead of Using the Default?
Roblox does have some built-in logic for taking damage, but it's pretty limited. Most of the time, developers find themselves wanting more control. Maybe you want players to take zero damage if they land in water, or perhaps you want the damage to be exponential—where a small fall is a scratch, but a long fall is instant game over.
By using a roblox custom fall damage script, you're basically taking the reins. You get to define the "lethality" of your world. It adds a layer of strategy to the gameplay. Suddenly, jumping off a ledge isn't a shortcut; it's a risk. It changes how players navigate your maps, making them look for stairs or ladders instead of just throwing themselves into the abyss.
How the Logic Actually Works
Before we jump into the code editor, it's worth understanding the "how" behind the script. You don't want to just copy and paste something without knowing why it works. Usually, a fall damage script listens for a change in the player's state.
Roblox characters (Humanoids) have different states: Running, Jumping, Falling, and Freefall, among others. The most efficient way to track a fall is to wait for the character to switch from a "Freefall" state to a "Landed" state.
When the player starts falling, the script records their height (the Y-axis). When they hit the ground, the script checks the height again. You subtract the landing height from the starting height, and boom—you have the total distance fallen. From there, it's just simple math to decide how much health to take away based on that distance.
Writing the Basic Script
You'll want to place this script in ServerScriptService so it handles everything server-side. This prevents exploiters from just turning off the script on their own end. Here's a simple way to structure it:
```lua game.Players.PlayerAdded:Connect(function(player) player.CharacterAdded:Connect(function(character) local humanoid = character:WaitForChild("Humanoid") local lastHeight = 0 local isFalling = false
humanoid.StateChanged:Connect(function(oldState, newState) if newState == Enum.HumanoidStateType.Freefall then lastHeight = character.PrimaryPart.Position.Y isFalling = true elseif newState == Enum.HumanoidStateType.Landed and isFalling then isFalling = false local fallDistance = lastHeight - character.PrimaryPart.Position.Y -- Define your threshold here if fallDistance > 20 then local damage = (fallDistance - 20) * 1.5 humanoid:TakeDamage(damage) end end end) end) end) ```
In this snippet, we're checking if the player fell more than 20 studs. If they did, we do a little math to apply damage. You can tweak that 1.5 multiplier to whatever feels right for your game. If you want it to be super punishing, crank it up to 5. If you want it to be a light tap, drop it to 0.5.
Making it Feel More "Human"
A script that just chunks your health bar is fine, but it's a bit dry. To make your roblox custom fall damage script stand out, you should add some "juice." Think about what happens in real life (or at least in more cinematic games) when someone falls from a height.
First, sound effects. A "thud" or a "crunch" goes a long way. You can trigger a sound to play at the player's feet right when they land. It's a small detail, but it makes the impact feel heavy.
Second, consider a camera shake. You can send a remote event to the client to shake their screen slightly if the fall was particularly nasty. It adds to that feeling of "Ouch, that really hurt."
Third, you could even affect the player's movement. If they take more than 50% damage from a fall, maybe give them a temporary "WalkSpeed" penalty. It simulates a sprained ankle or just the wind being knocked out of them. It's these little touches that turn a simple script into a proper game mechanic.
Handling the Edge Cases
Programming is mostly about handling the weird stuff that players do. For example, what happens if a player is falling but then they start using a hang glider? Or what if they hit a jump pad halfway down?
If your game has mechanics like double jumping or flying, a basic roblox custom fall damage script might get confused. It might think the player "landed" when they actually just triggered a flight power, leading to them taking damage in mid-air.
To fix this, you might need to add checks to see if certain items are equipped or if the player is in a specific "power-up" state. You'd basically tell the script: "Hey, if the player is currently using the jetpack, ignore the fall distance."
Another big one is water. Most games have a "no damage if you land in water" rule. To do this, you can cast a ray downward right before the player lands to see what material they're about to hit. If the material is Enum.Material.Water, you set the damage to zero. It saves the player from a frustrating death when they actually made a perfect dive.
Testing and Balancing
I've spent way too many hours debugging scripts like this only to realize the math was just "off." Balancing is key. If the damage is too high, players get frustrated because they feel like they're walking on eggshells. If it's too low, they ignore the mechanic entirely.
I usually start by testing the "minimum height." What's the smallest jump that should hurt? Usually, around 15 to 20 studs is the sweet spot where it feels like a jump that would actually hurt your knees.
Then, test the "lethal height." From how high should a player die instantly? In many games, a 100-stud drop is a pretty certain death sentence. Once you have those two points, you can decide if the damage between them should be linear (a straight line) or exponential (getting much worse the further you fall).
Common Mistakes to Avoid
One mistake I see a lot is people trying to use a while true do loop to constantly check a player's height. Please, don't do that. It's a massive waste of server resources. Using the StateChanged event is much cleaner because it only fires when something actually happens. Your server will thank you, especially if you plan on having 30+ players in a single instance.
Another thing is forgetting to account for lag. Sometimes, a player might "rubber band" back up into the air. If your script isn't careful, it might calculate a negative fall distance or something equally weird. Always make sure to use math.max(0, fallDistance) just to be safe so you aren't accidentally healing players by making them fall upwards.
Final Thoughts
Creating a roblox custom fall damage script is a great "Level 2" scripting project. It's more complex than a "Hello World" but simpler than a full inventory system. It teaches you about player states, server-client communication, and game balance.
Once you get the basics down, you can start adding all the bells and whistles. Maybe players with high "Stamina" stats take less damage? Or maybe certain boots reduce fall damage? The possibilities are pretty much endless once you have that core logic working. So, get into Studio, mess around with the numbers, and see what feels best for your specific game. Happy building!