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Attempt to call function 'play' in base 'Nil' on a null instance.

The call ran on null. The variable never received a node, or the node was freed.

Cause

The GDScript VM reports a null callee as base Nil. play() is the method you asked for; the failure is the instance, not a missing AnimationPlayer method. An @onready path that did not resolve, a freed node, or a function that returned null all look like this.

Fix

@onready var animation: AnimationPlayer = $AnimationPlayer

func play_hit() -> void:
	if animation == null:
		return
	animation.play("hit")

Related

• Timer timeout snippet

Godot Dev Tools is a Pulse Works Studio project. All error explainers.