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so I have the RB2D collision layer just for collisions, and I have a area2d collision layer for detecting contact between cloned nodes, but it doesnt detect the two earth nodes touching unless I set the area2D collision mask to layer 1 and I'm not sure why.
Sounds like you misconfigured your layers and masks. The collision mask determines which layers it can touch, so it sounds like you have the earth Rigidbody on layer 1 and are trying to detect the body.
I want the RB2D on layer 1 so it collides with other bodies but I want some way to detect when it has collided with a clone of the area2d so I put area2D on layer 2. is there a better way to detect cloned nodes?
You can create a Group for the planet then check in your code if that's what the area is touching. Ex: if body.is_in_group("planet"): #do something
that worked. thanks so much!