problem with OnEnterCollider2D

Unity Engine
1

Basically: i’m setting up a game in which an enemy run to a tomato plant, and when it reaches it then it start attacking it. If the enemy stop touching the plant then the attack stop. (I omitted part of the code about the attacking every few seconds.)

The problem i run into is that if the enemy touches anything, then it start attacking the plant, even if it doesnt touch it directly:

example. the enemy starts moving, i run with my player into the enemy to block it, but for some reason the enemy can still attack the plant even if it’s not in contact.

As i programmed it, my basic thinking is “when the enemy touches the plant, it gets the component script of the plant, so that it knows what to attack” but i don’t know why, the enemy knows what to attack even before touching it.

can you tell me how to fix this?

 private void OnTriggerEnter2D(Collider2D collision)
    {
        if (collision = Objective)
        {
            target = collision.GetComponent<Tomato_Plant>();
            touching = true;
            Debug.Log(touching);
        }

    }


    private void OnCollisionStay2D(Collision2D collision)
    {
       
        contact = collision;
       
        if (contact != null)
        {
            Attack();
        }
        else
        {
            contact = null;
        }
    }


    private void Attack()
    {
        if (contact != null)
        {
           
            if (touching == true)
            {
              target.TakeDamage(damage);
                

                Debug.Log("Plant took damage");
            }
        }
        else
        {
            touching = false;
        }
       
    }
}
2

You probably haven’t configured your colliders so that you can differentiate between them.
You need to use collider masks. This is a frequent issue with beginners trying to set this up.

Here is, for example, one such answer. You can look about it on the internet (or here on the forum) there are hundreds or even thousands of explanation for how this works. If you have further specific questions, I’m glad to help.

3

i’m trying to look around it but thing is: i want my enemy to collide with everything, but only the collision with the plant can set an event. right now i tried to fix it with:

 bool skin = Enemy.IsTouching(Objective);
        if (skin == true)
        {
           target = collision.GetComponent<Tomato_Plant>();
            touching = true;
            Debug.Log(touching);
        }


        else
        {
            target = null;
            touching = false;
        }

but now if i try to move the enemy away, it gives me an error saying that “Object reference not set to an instance of an object”, basically it seems that if my pg is touching the enemy then it goes crazy.

can i fix this with this layer mask thing?