Any

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The Any state provides one shared transition source for conditions that should redirect the graph from several normal states. Use it for a global interrupt instead of duplicating the same outgoing transition on every state.

The Any structural state node in a State Designer graph.

Any is structural: it does not run Actions and normal states do not transition into it. Its outgoing transitions point to the Action States that perform the actual behavior.

Set it up in the graph

  1. Add an Any state.
  2. Add the destination Action State that should handle the interrupt.
  3. Connect Any to that destination state.
  4. Select the transition and add the Conditions that allow the interrupt.
  5. Use Continuous evaluation when the condition should be checked while a normal state is active.

Keep a transition on its normal source state when only that state needs it. Use Any when the same rule genuinely applies across several states.

Example: flee at low health

Suppose Idle, Patrol, and Chase should all stop when the character’s health becomes low. Connect Any to a Flee Action State and place the low-health Condition on that one transition.

The Any state connected to Flee so one low-health condition can interrupt normal states.

This replaces separate Idle-to-Flee, Patrol-to-Flee, and Chase-to-Flee transitions. Flee still owns the Actions that perform the escape behavior; Any only provides the shared route into it.

How it runs

While Idle, Patrol, or Chase is active, State Designer can evaluate the Any-to-Flee transition. When the low-health Condition becomes valid, the current state exits and Flee becomes active. The Any state is never entered as the current behavior state.

Leave Can Reenter disabled for this persistent low-health check so the transition does not restart Flee while Flee is already active. Enable it only when a new interrupt should deliberately restart an already active destination state.

Choose conditions and priority

The Any-to-Flee transition Inspector showing the conditions that control the global interrupt.

  • Use All Condition Mode when every Condition must be valid, or Any when one valid Condition is enough.
  • Use Continuous evaluation for an immediate global interrupt. Other evaluation modes are better suited to transitions that should wait for state or Action progress.
  • Reorder Any’s outgoing transitions to set their priority. When more than one transition is valid, the first valid transition in the list runs for that update, so place the most important interrupt first.
  • Enable only the transitions that should currently participate in the graph.