2D Essentials in Godot 4.3+

All examples target Godot 4.3+ with no deprecated APIs. GDScript is shown first, then C#.

Related skills: player-controller for CharacterBody2D movement patterns, animation-system for AnimatedSprite2D and sprite animation, physics-system for collision shapes and raycasting, camera-system for Camera2D follow and shake, shader-basics for 2D shaders and post-processing, godot-optimization for rendering and draw call tuning.

---

1. Canvas Layers and Draw Order

Draw Order Rules

Within a single canvas layer, nodes draw in scene tree order, nodes listed lower in the Scene panel draw on top. Use z_index to override without rearranging the tree.

# Draw this node above siblings (default z_index is 0)
z_index = 10

# z_index is relative to the parent by default (z_as_relative = true);
# set it false to make this node's z_index absolute
z_as_relative = false

CanvasLayer

CanvasLayer creates a separate rendering layer with its own transform, independent of the camera. Higher layer values draw on top.

Layer	Typical Use
-1	Parallax backgrounds
0	Default game layer (all Node2D without CanvasLayer)
1	HUD / UI overlay
2	Pause menu, screen transitions

# Scene tree example
Main
├── ParallaxBackground (CanvasLayer, layer = -1)
│   └── Parallax2D (follow_viewport = false, the layer doesn't follow the camera)
├── World (Node2D, default layer 0)
│   ├── TileMapLayer
│   └── Player
└── HUD (CanvasLayer, layer = 1)
    └── Control

Note: CanvasLayers are NOT required to control draw order. For objects within the same game world, use z_index or scene tree ordering. CanvasLayers are for elements that should be independent of the camera (HUD, parallax, transitions).

Canvas Transform

Camera2D works by modifying the viewport's canvas_transform. For manual control: