If you're tired of that boring default green line at the top of the screen, learning how to write a roblox custom health bar script is basically a rite of passage for any developer. It's one of those small changes that instantly makes a game feel like an actual polished experience rather than just another template. To be honest, the default Roblox health bar is fine for testing, but if you're building a horror game, a fast-paced shooter, or a stylized RPG, that generic UI just kills the vibe.
In this article, I'm going to walk you through how I usually handle this. We aren't just going to make a bar that "works"—we're going to make one that looks smooth, handles health changes properly, and doesn't break the second a player respawns.
Why you should ditch the default health bar
Let's be real: the default UI is iconic, but it's also very "2010." Most modern games on the platform hide the core GUI elements and replace them with something that matches their specific aesthetic. When you create a roblox custom health bar script, you get total control. You can change the colors, add animations, display exact numbers, or even make the bar shake when the player is low on health.
The best part? It's not actually that complicated. Once you understand how to hook into the Humanoid's properties, the rest is just standard UI work.
Setting up the UI components first
Before we even touch a script, we need something for the script to actually move. I usually start by creating a ScreenGui in StarterGui. Let's name it "HealthGui." Inside that, you'll want a Frame that acts as the container—let's call this "Background."
This background frame is what provides the "empty" look of the bar (usually a dark gray or a deep red). Inside that Background frame, you'll place another frame called "HealthFill." This is the actual bar that will grow and shrink.
A quick tip on UI scaling: Always use Scale instead of Offset when setting the size of your HealthFill. If you use Offset (pixels), your bar might look huge on a phone and tiny on a 4K monitor. If you set the HealthFill size to {1, 0}, {1, 0}, it will perfectly fill its parent background frame. Our script will then just change that first number (the X-Scale) from 1 down to 0 as the player takes damage.
Writing the roblox custom health bar script
Now for the fun part. You'll want to put a LocalScript inside your HealthGui. We use a LocalScript because the UI is client-side—we want the player's own computer to handle the visual updates for their own health.
Here is the logic I usually follow. First, you need to get the player and their character. Since characters can respawn, it's best to use a function that resets the connection every time the character loads.
lua local player = game.Players.LocalPlayer local character = player.Character or player.CharacterAdded:Wait() local humanoid = character:WaitForChild("Humanoid") local fill = script.Parent.Background.HealthFill -- Path to your fill frame
The most straightforward way to track health is by using the HealthChanged event. It's much more efficient than using a while true do loop, which can actually lag your game if you have too many things running at once.
Making it smooth with TweenService
If you just set the size of the bar directly, it'll "snap" to the new health value. It looks a bit jittery. To make it look professional, we use TweenService. This allows the bar to slide smoothly from one value to another.
In your roblox custom health bar script, you'll define a TweenInfo object. I usually go with a duration of 0.3 or 0.5 seconds and an EasingStyle like "Quad" or "Cubic" to give it a nice, organic feel. When the health changes, you calculate the percentage (Health divided by MaxHealth) and tell the TweenService to move the HealthFill's size to that new percentage.
Handling character respawns
One mistake I see people make all the time is forgetting that the character disappears when the player dies. If your script only looks for the Humanoid once at the start, it'll break the moment the player hits a reset button or falls into a lava pit.
To fix this, I always wrap the main logic in a function and use player.CharacterAdded:Connect(). This ensures that every time the player gets a fresh character, the UI re-links itself to the new Humanoid. It's a simple step, but it saves you from a lot of "Why is my health bar stuck at zero?" bug reports later on.
Adding some extra polish
If you want to go the extra mile, there are a few things you can add to your roblox custom health bar script to make it really stand out.
Dynamic Color Changes
Why stay green all the time? You can script the bar to change color based on how much health is left. If the health percentage is above 0.7, keep it green. If it drops below 0.3, turn it bright red. This gives the player a clear, visual warning that they're in trouble without them even having to look directly at the bar.
Adding Text Labels
Most players like to see the actual numbers. You can add a TextLabel on top of your bar. In your script, every time the health changes, just update the TextLabel.Text property to say something like math.floor(humanoid.Health) .. " / " .. humanoid.MaxHealth. Using math.floor is important because Roblox health can sometimes be a decimal (like 99.998), and seeing a bunch of random numbers looks messy.
Shaking Effects
For high-action games, I like to make the entire UI shake slightly when the player takes a big hit. You can do this by slightly offsetting the Background frame's position for a few frames using a random number generator and then tweening it back to its original spot. It's a small detail, but it adds a lot of "oomph" to the combat.
Disabling the default health bar
You can't just put your custom UI on the screen and call it a day—you have to tell Roblox to hide the old one, or else you'll have two health bars competing for attention.
In a separate LocalScript (or at the top of your current one), you need to use SetCoreGuiEnabled. It looks like this: game:GetService("StarterGui"):SetCoreGuiEnabled(Enum.CoreGuiType.Health, false)
I usually put this in a script inside StarterPlayerScripts so it runs immediately when the player joins. This keeps the screen clean and ensures your custom creation is the star of the show.
Common pitfalls to avoid
While making a roblox custom health bar script is relatively simple, there are a few things that trip people up.
- ZIndex issues: Sometimes your health fill might hide behind the background frame. Make sure your HealthFill has a higher
ZIndexthan the Background frame. - Anchor Points: If you want your bar to shrink towards the left, make sure your Anchor Point is set to
(0, 0.5)or(0, 0). If it's set to the center, the bar will shrink from both sides, which looks a bit weird for a health bar. - Ignoring GuiInset: By default, Roblox leaves a little gap at the top of the screen for the top bar. If you want your health bar to be at the very, very top, you'll need to toggle the
IgnoreGuiInsetproperty on your ScreenGui.
Wrapping things up
Creating a roblox custom health bar script is honestly one of the most rewarding "quick fixes" you can do for your game's UI. It doesn't take hours of coding, but the visual impact is massive. By using TweenService for smoothness, handling respawns correctly, and maybe adding some color-shifting logic, you'll have a UI element that looks like it belongs in a top-tier front-page game.
The best part is that once you've written this script once, you can basically copy and paste it into any future project. It's a foundational skill that'll serve you well as you keep building more complex systems. So, go ahead and get rid of that default green bar—your game will look much better for it.