Level Components

Map Components are what the player has to use to navigate through in order to complete levels in Geometry Dash. A combination of platforms, hazards, triggers, decorations and cosmetic effects form the design of levels.

Note: Mentions of tabs are in reference to those displayed by the Build tool of the level editor.

Platforms= Platforms are usually safe to make vertical contact with and travel over. Platforms consist of blocks, located under the first tab and by default occupy one square unit; other platforms, located under the second tab and come in various shapes and sizes, and slopes, introduced in Update 1.8, located under the fourth tab and may allow the icon to travel at angles (horizontal movement speed remains constant). Some platforms are physical objects while others must be used in combination with outlines as they do not have a physical condition and are decorative. Introduced in Update 1.4, smaller scale platforms when selected will decrease the grid's scale to assist in positioning (a feature of Update 1.9). Certain platforms introduced in Update 1.6 have special properties, whose block and slope variants are located under the second tab.
 * Fading platforms will become increasingly transparent when the icon is in close proximity. Crashing will reveal all fading platforms on screen.
 * Destructible blocks will be destroyed in horizontal collisions and sometimes in vertical collisions.

Slopes
Outlines= Outlines are unfilled components which are often used in conjunction with fake blocks to make them real. Invisible blocks are sometimes used instead of outlines, however, and sometimes Alpha triggers are used to hide outlines. They all have the same hitbox as their filled-in counterparts regardless of appearance.

Slopes
Hazards= There are various forms of hazards which will destroy the icon under any contact. Hazards consist of spikes and pits, located under the fifth tab; animated monsters, introduced in Update 2.0 and located under the seventh tab, and rotating saw-blades, introduced in Update 1.4 and located under the eleventh tab. Introduced in Update 1.4, smaller scale hazards when selected will decrease the grid's scale to assist in positioning (a feature of Update 1.9). Certain hazards introduced in Update 1.6 have special properties.
 * Fading spikes and saw-blades will become increasingly transparent when the icon is in close proximity. Crashing will reveal all fading hazards on screen.
 * Fake spikes with black outlines will not destroy the icon and act like decorations.

Saw-blades
3D= 3D objects are often used to make a level look more polished. It is first seen in Blast Processing and was used in conjunction with colored 3D outlines in Geometrical Dominator for the first time. These have been prominently used since to make the game more visually striking and to add multicolored raised ground. Special= Pads and rings influence the direction of travel. Pads only need to be touched to activate their effect, while rings need to be tapped as the player passes over them (triangular rings need to be held down). Rings only work once, and will become inactive when used.

Although these components are often part of completing a level, they can be positioned in such a way that redirects the player into a hazard, needing to be avoided in such instances. In some official and online levels, they are normally marked with an 'X' to indicate which jump rings should not be activated (with two notable exceptions).

Rings

 * Green is the only currently existent ring to have not a pad equivalent.
 * However, if a green pad were to exist, it could be used with no crashable items in the way. Placing a magenta or yellow pad on top of a blue pad will cause a interesting effect, which does not kill the player on ground but provides a sort of green ring effect in the air.
 * Due to the downwards effect of the black orb, it probably won't get a pad equivalent, too.
 * However, a pad could force the player down abruptly when touched.
 * Creators achieved a similar effect to the green ring by placing a purple or yellow ring inside a gravity portal (allowing the player to jump immediately after switching gravity), which was used before Update 2.0. This however, requires precise timing.
 * However, that allowed the creators to decide the player to either press the jump ring before or after the gravity portal, which can allow two passageways.
 * The new green and red arrow orbs can be rotated to send the player in certain direction, the limit for the rotation is ±70°.
 * In the second example video for 2.1, there is a dash orb which uses the player's colors. The blue circle uses the player's primary color and the white arrow uses the player's secondary color. The colors match the cube's appearance in the video.

Portals
For the complete article, see Portals.

Portals can modify the way the icon interacts with the level, and can force the cube to assume another form, such as the ship, gravity ball, UFO, wave, or robot. They vary into two different types: Form portals, which changes the form of the player, or Manipulation portals, which changes how the player interacts with the level. These manipulation portals can change a form's speed, size, direction of gameplay, or direction of gravity. Update 1.1 introduced mirror portals, which reverses the screen's direction. Update 1.8 also introduced dual portals, which creates a clone of the player. Update 2.0 introduced the teleportation portals, where the player enters a blue portal and exits an orange portal in another location.

Collectibles
Collectibles are objects which players can collect in a level. Keys are used as a visual guide for touch-triggered triggers. Secret Coins in official levels can be used to unlock demon levels and new icons. User Coins are found in user-created levels and serve the same purpose as Secret Coins but are also used to unlock the Vault. In Update 2.1, RobTop mentioned that there will be three new key skins, such as buttons.



Decorations=

Ground decorations
These are decorations which are made to be placed on the ground or on something like fake spikes or the fire in Viking Arena. Monsters (which are out of the player's way) or fake colored thorns are sometimes used as ground decorations. Animated decorations were introduced in 2.0 as animated fake thorns. More grass-related ground decorations were introduced in 2.0 as well.

Regular decorations
These decorations can be placed anywhere and often tend to pulse. Some, however, do not. These often come in the form of blocks and slopes but also in the form of clouds. Lines modeled after the theme of the level are very common (e.g. the hexagon-shaped decorations in Hexagon Force).

Pulsating decorations
The punctuation, arrow and geometric decorations pulsate in time with the music. These are often used to signify specific instances or mislead the player/tell them where to go.

Rotating decorations
Fake sawblades rotate and are often used on things in the shape of a sawblade (e.g. real sawblades, real gears, the Clutterfunk spike sets in the first ship section and behind saws for appeal).

Environment manipulators= A number of map components are purely cosmetic, or may have effects applied to them. Physical objects can cycle through colours and opacity, which may be distracting while playing. In contrast, what may look like physical objects can also be background objects, which may again fool the player (for example fake spikes, sawblades, and thorns).

Other objects may be used as markers to identify routes or hazards (punctuation marks, crosses, arrow signs, etc). Three-dimensional blocks were also introduced in Update 1.9 and in-game text, with 12 different fonts, was introduced in Update 2.0, which does not affect gameplay but has the potential to make a level look more polished.

In Update 2.0, infinite color channels were introduced, allowing players to now use a lot of colors in various background objects and tiles, unlike before in 1.9, when players are limited to only four color channels.

Moving, pulsing and disappearing triggers can also be used to either confuse a player or make a level better and more vibrant. Also introduced in Update 2.0 was keys and keyholes. Their function is only to serve as a visual guide for the invisible triggers (such as move triggers, toggle triggers, alpha triggers, rotate triggers, etc.)

Background and transition
The background can change colour as a way to create a more vibrant gameplay experience. Other map components can enter and leave the screen, not physically affecting anything, as further visual enhancement, but may reduce the amount of time the player has to react to their entry. With Update 2.0, grounds with two colors were introduced.