How to access nodes in GDScript - Godot 4

Here are the different ways to access nodes in GDScript:

# if 'ChildNode' is a child of the node this script is attached to
@onready var child_node=get_node("ChildNode")

# this is the shorthand notation for `get_node`
@onready var child_node_shorthand=$ChildNode

# to access a parent of the node this script is attached to
# quotation marks are needed if you use a dot or a slash in the
# path name
@onready var parent_node=$".."

# if 'SiblingNode' is a sibling of the node this script is attached to
@onready var sibling_node=$"../SiblingNode"


# Paths can be chained to access nodes anywhere in the tree
@onready var far_away_node=$"../../Node1/Node2/Node3/FarAwayNode"

# if a node in the tree has "Access as unique name" enabled,
# the following will work regardless of where the node is
@onready var unique_far_away_node=%FarAwayNode

To enable "Access as unique name" for a node, right click on it in the inspector and select "Access as unique name". A percentage sign will appear next to it in the inspector.