4.x

RigidBody2D: Move to Target

Problem

You want a rigid body to move to a target position.

Solution

Using RigidBody2D can be tricky. Because it’s controlled by Godot’s physics engine, you need to apply forces rather than moving it directly. Before doing anything with rigid bodies, I highly recommend looking at the RigidBody2D API doc.

To move a body, we need to apply a push in a given direction - a force. Once the body is moving, we want the force to get smaller as we get closer to the final position.

This is the perfect situation to use the Vector2.distance_to() function. It will tell us how far away the target is, and we can use that to set the force.

# Smoothly move to target
extends RigidBody2D

var linear_force = 5
var target = position


func _physics_process(delta):
    var dist = position.distance_to(target)
    constant_force = dir * linear_force * dist
Use linear damp

If you try this using the default RigidBody2D settings, you will notice that the body shoots right past the target. This is due to the body’s Linear/Damp property, which has a default setting (found in the Project Settings of 1). This value represents “friction” and controls how quickly a moving rigid body will come to a stop when no force is applied. Increasing this value will ensure that your body coasts to a stop at the target. Experiment with how this value and the linear_force interact to get the exactly the movement you’re looking for.