Resource Pattern in Godot 4.3+

Resources are Godot's built-in data containers. Use them for configuration, item definitions, character stats, and any data that lives outside the scene tree. All examples target Godot 4.3+ with no deprecated APIs.

Related skills: inventory-system for Resource-based item definitions, save-load for Resource serialization, component-system for data-driven component configuration, ability-system for Resource-based ability definitions built on this pattern.

1. What Are Resources

A Resource is a reference-counted data object that:

• Is saved as a .tres (text) or .res (binary) file on disk
• Is editable directly in the Godot Inspector
• Is loaded once and shared by default — every node that loads the same path gets the same in-memory object
• Can be nested inside other Resources and PackedScenes
• Survives scene changes (unlike Node state, which is discarded on scene reload)

Because Resources are shared by default, they are ideal for read-only data (item definitions, audio settings, ability blueprints). For per-instance mutable state, call make_unique() or duplicate() — see section 8.