Celeste Assist Mode, collectibles, and unlocks
Checked: 2026-10-02 / Standard PC/Steam game and Farewell. Checked against the official changelog through the listed v1.4.1.0 notes. Mods and platform-specific achievements are excluded.
Check movement failures separately from unmet unlock requirements. You do not need every strawberry before progressing toward the main story's summit. You need a cassette to enter a B-Side and hearts if a heart gate blocks your path.
The five Assist settings
- Select the intended save in File Select and enable Assist Mode.
- Enter a chapter and open Assist settings while paused. Change only the setting related to the action you are struggling with.
- Check your movement in the same room and restore settings if needed. Also check the indicator in File Select to avoid changing the wrong save.
Game Speed
Slows the game's movement.
When to use it: Reduce it in a room where you want to check the order of movement, jumps, and dashes. Once you can complete the room, try again at the original speed.
Before restoring normal settings: The controls feel different at reduced speed. If speed alone does not solve the problem, check your directional input too.
Infinite Stamina
Removes the stamina limit for holding onto walls.
When to use it: Use it when you want to hold a wall while looking for the next platform, or isolate why you fall while climbing.
Before restoring normal settings: Wall-grabbing time is limited again under normal rules. Identify a platform where you can rest before trying again.
Air Dashes
Choose Normal, 2, or Infinite. Normal follows the number ordinarily available in that situation.
When to use it: Increase the count to explore a route. When practicing with the normal count, check where you can refill your dash.
Before restoring normal settings: A route crossed with extra dashes may not be possible under normal settings.
Dash Assist
Choose a direction while holding the dash button, then release it to dash.
When to use it: If you struggle to aim diagonally, choose the direction before releasing the button. This is a separate assist from infinite dashes.
Before restoring normal settings: Added in v1.3.1.0. Older versions do not have the same menu.
Invincibility
An assist that prevents death on contact with ordinary hazards such as spikes.
When to use it: Use it to inspect the route beyond a hazard, then return that room to normal settings if you wish.
Before restoring normal settings: You still need to reach the completion point and meet collectible requirements. It does not guarantee survival in every situation.
Practice steps within one room
- Choose one route to the exit. If a strawberry detour has you stuck, aim for the normal exit first.
- Identify what went wrong. Check jump distance, dash direction, dash count, and wall-grab stamina separately.
- If speed is the problem, lower Game Speed. If direction is the problem, try Dash Assist. Avoid changing everything at once; check which assist helped you complete the room.
- Choose where you will land next. Before returning to normal stamina or dash counts, find resting platforms and dash-refill points.
- Complete the room with the same settings before restoring them. Choose whether to continue with assistance or practice again under normal settings according to your own goals.
Review normal controls
v1.4.0.0 added Grab Mode, which lets you toggle grabbing instead of holding the button. If holding buttons is difficult, check the control options outside Assist Mode too.
Jump buffering before landing
Pressing and holding jump shortly before landing gives you a window to jump as you land.
Movement to check: If pressing after you see the landing is too late, try beginning the input just before landing.
Grace period after leaving a ledge
You have a brief window to jump after leaving the edge of a platform.
Movement to check: If you jump too early at an edge, delay the input slightly. This does not allow you to jump from anywhere in midair.
Adjustment near the jump peak
Holding the jump button makes the transition to falling gentler near the peak.
Movement to check: If you fall short of a gap, check whether you are releasing the button immediately.
Climb jumps and wall jumps
Jumping upward while holding a wall uses stamina. Jumping away from the wall is a different action.
Movement to check: If you fall while repeatedly climbing the same wall, look for a route away toward the opposite wall or a platform.
Moving-platform momentum
Jumping from a moving platform adds its momentum to your jump. That momentum remains briefly after the platform stops.
Movement to check: Try jumping while the platform moves and just after it stops separately. Do not assume dash count alone explains why you fall short.
Corner correction
Jumps and horizontal dashes have a system that adjusts your position around corners.
Movement to check: Do not rush into hazards relying on correction. v1.4.0.0 changed correction at corners with spikes.
The checks above are practice suggestions built from the developer's explanation of movement assistance. They do not guarantee completion times or success rates.
Collectible requirements and purposes
Red strawberries
Touching one does not immediately secure it; it follows behind you. Stop somewhere safe to collect it.
Not needed for normal story progression. They count toward the 30-, 80-, and 175-strawberry Steam achievements and affect the epilogue presentation.
Winged strawberries
They flee if you dash in that room. First look for a route without dashing.
Restart the room to try again if you fail. It may be possible to touch one even after it begins to flee.
Strawberry seeds
Collect all the seeds in a room to make a strawberry appear. Touching the ground before finishing resets the collected seeds.
Plan the order of the seeds and your final landing spot first.
Cassettes
Collect them in the A-Sides of Chapters 1–8. Each unlocks that chapter's B-Side.
Any one cassette unlocks Gateway. Chapter 9 has no B-Side cassette.
Crystal Hearts
In Chapters 1–8, A-Side hearts are blue, B-Side completion hearts red, and C-Side completion hearts gold. Dash into a heart to collect it.
They meet heart-gate requirements. The blue heart in Chapter 8's A-Side is also that chapter's completion point.
Regular golden strawberries
Extra deathless challenges unlocked after completing Chapter 8's B-Side. The winged golden strawberry has different requirements and is excluded from this unlock point.
None of Steam's 32 achievements requires golden strawberries. Treat achievement completion and collecting everything as separate goals.
Moon Berry
A hidden collectible near the end of Farewell. You must take a separate route from normal chapter completion to get it.
Required for Wow. The Farewell completion achievement does not substitute for it.
Choose your next action from the unlock requirements
The main story's summit
Requirement: Progress through the A-Sides of Chapters 1–7.
Next action: Progression does not require every strawberry or completed B-Sides first. Aim for the next room and chapter exit.
Each chapter's B-Side
Requirement: Collect the cassette in that chapter's A-Side.
Next action: Switch between A-Side and B-Side in Chapter Select. A different chapter's cassette does not unlock the B-Side you want.
Chapter 8: Core
Requirement: After reaching the main story's summit, meet the count required by the heart gate at the entrance.
Next action: If you lack hearts, collect blue A-Side hearts or red B-Side completion hearts. Cassettes and hearts are separate collectibles.
C-Sides
Requirement: First aim to complete Chapter 8's B-Side, then check whether C-Sides are available in Chapter Select.
Next action: After unlocking them, Thanks For Playing still requires completing all C-Sides in Chapters 1–8.
Chapter 9: Farewell
Requirement: Check for Farewell in Chapter Select and for the heart gate during the chapter.
Next action: There is a heart gate partway through too. Distinguish the chapter appearing from meeting the conditions to finish it.
Frequently asked questions
Q. Should I look for cassettes or hearts first?
For a B-Side, look for that chapter's cassette. If a heart gate blocks you, look for blue hearts or red hearts from B-Side completions. Collecting a cassette does not increase your heart count.
Q. My strawberry disappears when I fail, even though I touched it
A strawberry you touch first follows behind you. Secure the collection somewhere safe. In seed rooms, landing before collecting every seed resets the attempt.
Q. Are Dash Assist and infinite dashes the same?
Dash Assist pauses briefly while you choose a direction; Air Dashes changes the number of uses. If direction alone is the problem, you can practice without increasing the count.
Q. Chapter 9 appeared, but I am blocked partway through
Farewell appearing in Chapter Select and being able to pass the heart gate partway through are separate matters. Check the requirement shown on the gate and collect any missing hearts first.
Scope of verification
Standard PC/Steam game and Farewell. Checked against the official changelog through the listed v1.4.1.0 notes. Mods and platform-specific achievements are excluded. This article cross-references sources for control, collectible, and achievement requirements. It does not include hands-on verification of every section, all strawberry locations, or every blue-heart puzzle solution. Heart-gate counts and precise C-Side and Chapter 9 appearance conditions remain unspecified, including version-dependent requirements, until independent source comparison is complete.
Official changelog / The developer's explanation of movement assistance