A scripts-only build is a build that reuses the content from the previous build, rather than rebuilding it.
When testing script changes it can be useful to force a scripts-only build to avoid the time taken to rebuild the content. This can be useful if you know that there are data changes, but want to quickly test a code change, without applying the pending data changes.
To create a scripts-only build, create a build with the Force skip data build option, as follows:
Note: The Force skip data build option doesn’t work if there have been any changes in the serialization layout of the scriptsA piece of code that allows you to create your own Components, trigger game events, modify Component properties over time and respond to user input in any way you like. More info
See in Glossary in the project. For example, when you add a new field to a MonoBehaviour then you must perform a regular or clean Player build to serialize the assets to match the new class definition.
You can also pass the BuildOptions.BuildScriptsOnly flag when calling BuildPipeline.BuildPlayer in custom build scripts.
The incremental build pipeline automates scripts-only builds. On platforms that support it, Unity automatically reuses the content from the previous build, as long as the content hasn’t changed. In that case it’s not necessary to explicitly invoke a scripts-only build.