---
title: "Actor movement chips"
package: "@phaser-ae/actors"
tier: Free
version: 3.0.0-2
released: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-19
description: "The movement behaviours arcade enemies are made of, seek, flee, orbit, home, patrol and wander, plus motion, splitting, timers and hyperspace, for anything with a position and velocity."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/actors
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# Actor movement chips

The movement behaviours arcade enemies are made of: seek, flee, orbit, home in, patrol, wander and more. Each chip is
one step of one behaviour on any object with a position and a velocity, so they mix freely and fit whatever your game
already uses for its things.

## What it does

A mover is anything with `x`, `y`, `vx` and `vy`, and optionally a rotation. Every chip takes the mover, its target,
its numbers and the frame's `dt`, and moves it one step. `seek` accelerates towards a point and `flee` away from one;
`orbit` circles a point by steering, so a released orbiter keeps its momentum; `home` flies at a constant speed with a
limited turn rate, which is what makes a missile dodgeable; `approach` walks straight at a target and says when it has
arrived; `patrol` loops through waypoints; `wander` nudges a heading at random. Because each chip is just a step, an
enemy can seek the player while evading bullets, or patrol until the player comes in range.

Around the chips sit the pieces every arcade game ends up writing. `integrate` applies velocity with drag per second,
gravity and a speed cap, so the feel stays the same at any frame rate. `splitInto` breaks one thing into several at
its position, each keeping the parent's momentum plus an outward fan, so a rock breaks rather than two new rocks
appearing. A `Timer` fires on the step it runs out, and its `use` spends a ready timer once and re-arms it, which is a
reload in one line. `hyperspace` jumps a mover to a random spot clear of everything you list, with a chance of a bad
landing if you want one.

## Features

- **Pursuit and escape** — `seek`, `flee`, `evade` the nearest threat in range, and `approach` with no momentum.
- **Missiles and orbits** — `home` with a turn-rate limit, `orbit` by steering, `converge` on a centre at a fixed rate.
- **Routines** — `patrol` waypoints in a loop, `wander` at random, `drift` at constant velocity with spin.
- **Aim-aware enemies** — `avoidAim` advances only while the player is not aiming at it.
- **Carrying** — `carry` places cargo on its carrier at an offset, for thieves that steal and run.
- **Motion** — `integrate` with per-second drag, gravity and a speed cap; `speedOf` and `faceVelocity`.
- **Splitting** — `splitInto` breaks a parent into children that inherit its momentum, with count, speed and spread.
- **Timers** — `createTimer` with repeat, a ready start, a consume-once `use`, progress and reset.
- **Hyperspace** — a random jump a set distance clear of listed objects, with an optional danger rate.

## Good for

- **Fixed-screen arcade shooters**, where mines seek, bombs home and saucers patrol, in the style of Asteroids.
- **Arena shooters** with crowds of chasers, each a chip or two, in the style of Robotron.
- **Rock-blasting games** that need splitting with momentum and a hyperspace button.
- **Closing-in attacks**, where enemies tighten on a point at a fixed rate with `converge`.
- **Raiders that carry things away**, using `carry` and `flee` together.
- **Weapon reloads and spawn timers** anywhere, using the timer's reload gate.

## Make it yours

Every chip takes its own numbers, so tuning an enemy is changing a handful of values: acceleration, drag and top
speed for a seeker, speed and turn rate for a missile, radius and rate for an orbiter, speed and waypoints for a
patrol. Chips combine per enemy and change by state, and the random chips take your own seeded random function.

Two materially different uses: a space shooter where mines `seek` the ship with light drag, bombs `home` at 140 units a
second turning two radians a second, and rocks `drift` and `splitInto` two on a hit; and a maze shooter where robots
`approach` the player in straight lines, a thief `carry`s a pickup while it `flee`s, and a `Timer` paces each wave's
spawns.

## A quick look

Seeking mines, homing bombs, a reload gate and a rock that splits:

```ts
import { chips, splitInto, createTimer } from '@phaser-ae/actors';
const reload = createTimer(0.25, { ready: true });
game.step('enemies', dt => {
  for (const m of mines) chips.seek(m, ship, { accel: 120, drag: 0.4, maxSpeed: 160 }, dt);
  for (const b of bombs) chips.home(b, ship, { speed: 140, turn: 2 }, dt);
  if (fire && reload.use()) shoot();
  reload.update(dt);
});
const pieces = splitInto(rock, { count: 2, speed: 50, rng: () => game.rng.next() });
```

## Works with

- `maths` — required, for angles.
- `steering` — for flocks and crowds that avoid each other.
- `control-feels` — for the player's own control profiles.
- `interaction-rules` — for what happens when one kind of thing meets another.
- `asteroid-field` — when you want a complete rock-blasting game's rules rather than the parts.

## Good to know

- Chips move the mover themselves, so do not also let physics move the same object in the same step.
- They steer one agent at a time, with no flocking, separation or crowd avoidance; `steering` has those.
- `hyperspace` gives up after its number of tries, 20 by default, and lands where the last try fell.
- The pack draws nothing and holds no list of actors; your game owns its objects and calls the chips.

---

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