Celeste is a precision platformer by Maddy Makes Games, built by Matt Thorson and Noel Berry and released on 25 January 2018. Madeline climbs a mountain with three tools: a jump, a wall grab limited by stamina, and a single air dash that only recharges when she touches ground or a crystal. Every screen is a self-contained problem, deaths restart the screen instantly, and the game counts your deaths without ever punishing them. An Assist Mode ships in the options menu and lets you change speed, stamina, dash count and invincibility, and Chapter 9, Farewell, was added free in September 2019.
Starting Celeste can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
Celeste is a action game built around One air dash with eight directions and Climbing on a stamina meter. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Role
| Role | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Story climber | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Strawberry completionist | Excellent for beginners | Clear a chapter for the story first, then return through chapter select and sweep the side rooms with the layout already in your head. |
| Assist Mode climber | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| B-Side cassette runner | Excellent for beginners | Finish an A-Side, grab its cassette, then run the B-Side while the chapter's central mechanic is still fresh. |
| Golden Strawberry runner | Situational | Practise the individual hard screens through chapter select until they are automatic, then attempt the full run and expect dozens of resets. |
Our recommendation: Start with Strawberry completionist. Targets all 175 ordinary strawberries across the eight chapters. Winged strawberries escape the moment Madeline touches the ground, and seeded strawberries need every seed in the room collected first, so both demand a route rather than improvisation.
Avoid Golden Strawberry runner as your first pick. A Golden Strawberry asks you to clear an entire chapter from the first screen to the last without dying once. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn One air dash with eight directions
Madeline has a single dash by default, aimed in any of eight directions, and it refills when she lands, grabs a refill crystal or touches certain surfaces. Some chapters hand out a second dash through pink crystals, but the base rule never changes, so almost every screen is built around spending one dash at exactly the right moment. Because the dash also cancels your fall, holding it until the last instant is usually safer than spending it early.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how One air dash with eight directions works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to Forsaken City
The opening chapter and the game's teaching ground, built around spinners, refill crystals and the basic dash. It is also where most players first find a strawberry that requires backtracking, which sets the pattern for every chapter after it.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Wall climb: it's the most accessible early upgrade. Holding grab sticks Madeline to a wall and drains stamina, which only recovers on the ground. Tapping grab to reposition costs far less than hanging while you plan, and the flashing warning means you have about a second left.
Step 4: Understand Climbing on a stamina meter
Holding the grab button sticks Madeline to a wall and drains a stamina bar that recovers only when she is on the ground. She flashes when the bar is nearly empty, which is the game telling you to jump rather than keep hanging. New players burn the entire bar holding on while thinking, which is why so many early deaths are falls rather than spikes.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Old Site
Introduces dream blocks, the dark surfaces you dash straight through. The chapter is shorter than the first but leans harder on chaining dashes without a ground touch in between.
Essential Mechanics Explained
One air dash with eight directions
Madeline has a single dash by default, aimed in any of eight directions, and it refills when she lands, grabs a refill crystal or touches certain surfaces. Some chapters hand out a second dash through pink crystals, but the base rule never changes, so almost every screen is built around spending one dash at exactly the right moment. Because the dash also cancels your fall, holding it until the last instant is usually safer than spending it early.
Climbing on a stamina meter
Holding the grab button sticks Madeline to a wall and drains a stamina bar that recovers only when she is on the ground. She flashes when the bar is nearly empty, which is the game telling you to jump rather than keep hanging. New players burn the entire bar holding on while thinking, which is why so many early deaths are falls rather than spikes.
Assist Mode toggles in the options
Assist Mode is a menu, not a difficulty setting, and each option is separate. Game Speed can be lowered, Infinite Stamina removes the climb limit, Air Dashes can be locked to two or infinite, Dash Assist freezes time while you aim a dash, and Invincible removes hazard damage. The game marks that assists were used and otherwise leaves you alone, so it is a tuning panel rather than an easy mode.
Strawberries, hearts and cassettes
There are 175 ordinary strawberries across the eight main chapters, and they only count once Madeline lands safely on solid ground rather than the moment she touches them. Winged strawberries fly away if you touch the ground, seeded ones require collecting every seed in a room first. Each chapter also hides one cassette tape, which unlocks that chapter's B-Side, and one crystal heart, which is what gates access to the later chapters.
Momentum tech: hypers, supers and wavedashes
Underneath the simple controls sits a set of movement tricks the game never teaches. A super is a jump out of a horizontal dash for extra distance, a hyper is the crouched version that trades height for a long low leap, and a wavedash is a diagonal-down dash into a jump that fires you along the ground. The Farewell update added the demo dash, a crouched dash input that makes several of these easier to trigger, and none of them are needed to finish the story.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Holding the grab button while planning a route, which empties the stamina bar and drops Madeline before she has moved
2. Dashing the moment a gap appears rather than at the last frame, which wastes the dash and the fall cancel that comes with it
3. Treating Assist Mode as cheating and grinding a chapter for hours, when a single toggle would have taught the same screen in minutes
4. Chasing strawberries on a first pass through a chapter instead of learning the layout, which turns every collectible into a blind attempt
5. Ignoring crystal hearts because they look optional, then finding the later chapters locked behind a heart count
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand One air dash with eight directions and Climbing on a stamina meter
- Choose Strawberry completionist as starting role
- Clear Forsaken City main content
- Acquire Wall climb or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Old Site
- Tap the grab button to reposition rather than holding it, because stamina only refills when Madeline touches the ground and holding while you think is the most common cause of falls.
- Delay your dash until the last possible moment, since the dash also freezes your fall and an early dash usually lands you short.
Tips for New Players
- Tap the grab button to reposition rather than holding it, because stamina only refills when Madeline touches the ground and holding while you think is the most common cause of falls.
- Delay your dash until the last possible moment, since the dash also freezes your fall and an early dash usually lands you short.
- A strawberry does not count until Madeline lands safely on solid ground, so grabbing one and then dying immediately loses it.
- Winged strawberries fly away the instant you touch the ground, so plan the whole route in the air before you go for one.
- Seeded strawberries need every seed in the room collected first, and the seeds follow you, so a death resets the whole chain.
- Wall jumps cost no stamina at all, so climbing a shaft with jumps rather than grabs will get you far higher on the same bar.
- Assist Mode options are individual toggles, so turning on Infinite Stamina alone leaves every other rule intact.
- Deaths are instant restarts with no penalty and no lives, which means repeated attempts are cheaper than stopping to study a screen.
- The cassette tape in each chapter unlocks that chapter's B-Side, and crystal hearts are what open the later chapters, so collect hearts if you want to reach the end.
- Learn the hyper, a crouched jump out of a horizontal dash, before attempting B-Sides, because several rooms are built assuming you know it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Assist Mode make the game easier in one step?
No, it is a panel of separate switches. You choose among lowered Game Speed, Infinite Stamina, Air Dashes set to two or infinite, Dash Assist for aiming, and Invincible. Turning on one option leaves the rest of the game exactly as designed.
How many strawberries are there?
There are 175 ordinary strawberries across the eight main chapters. Golden Strawberries, awarded for clearing a chapter start to finish without dying, add to that count and take the total to 200.
What are B-Sides and C-Sides?
Every chapter hides one cassette tape, and collecting it unlocks a B-Side, a remixed and much harder version of that chapter built around its central mechanic. C-Sides are shorter, harder still, and unlock after you have finished the B-Sides.
Is Chapter 9 paid DLC?
No. Farewell was released free in September 2019 and is a full extra chapter, longer and considerably harder than anything in the base game. It sits behind story progress and a crystal heart requirement rather than a purchase.
Do I need to learn advanced movement to finish it?
Not for the story. The eight main chapters are designed around jump, climb and one dash. Hypers, supers, wavedashes and the demo dash matter for B-Sides, C-Sides, Golden Strawberries and community maps, and the game never requires them to reach the ending.
More Celeste Guides
- Celeste Celeste Overview
- Celeste Best Builds
- Celeste Tier List
- Celeste Walkthrough
- Celeste Tips & Tricks
- Celeste Weapons Guide
- Celeste Combat Guide
- Celeste Boss Guide
- Celeste Maps & Locations
- Celeste Crafting Guide
- Celeste Classes & Characters
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- Monster Hunter Wilds Beginner's Guide: action game with similar mechanics
