Prologue

Prologue 

Prologue
Strawberries	None
Sides	Interlude
Characters	• Madeline  • Granny  • Bird
Soundtrack	Celeste OST: 01  •   Prologue
Level navigation Prologue → Forsaken City

The Prologue is the first chapter the player unlocks in Celeste's level progression. It introduces the three basic moves within the game: a jump, a climb, and a dash. Madeline (she appears earlier during the save creation screen) and Granny, also known as the Old Woman, are introduced in this chapter as characters.

Three gameplay objects are introduced in this chapter: falling blocks (albeit a special variety which falls on its own), a collapsing bridge, and the (in)famous intro car.

The Prologue isn't considered an A-Side, but instead an "interlude" chapter, similar to the Epilogue. Additionally, the chapter does not have any checkpoints, but does have a few spawn points throughout. Its length is shorter than all C-Sides, but it is longer than the epilogue.

Plot

For the list of dialogues, check Prologue/Dialogues.

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This is it, Madeline.     Just breathe.     Why are you so nervous? Madeline, having just arrived at the foot at Celeste Mountain by car, is about to embark on a journey. She jumps across several pits, narrowly avoiding a falling block of ice. The Bird is then introduced; it teaches Madeline how to climb up a wall vertically. After making it past a few bumpy hills, she arrives in front of a shack, where an old woman also known as Granny lives. Madeline asks the old woman whether she is on the right trail or no. After the woman confirms Madeline's statement, the mountain climber subsequently asks about the falling block of ice she encountered earlier. The old woman start laughing, claiming that the mountain might be "too much" for Maddy, but she stays determined and states that she'll be fine. Granny then warns her about how Celeste Mountain is a strange place, where she might end up seeing things, but Madeline ignores her. As soon as Madeline steps onto the bridge, it starts collapsing under her feet. Managing to make it alive as she jumps across falling pieces, as the music intensifies and introduces the "Madeline" leitmotif for the first time, the bridge ends up self-destructing to the point where she can no longer make it to the other side. After making a leap of faith, the bird makes a reappearance, teaching Madeline how to dash in order to save her. Madeline starts panting as soon as she arrives on the other side safely. The camera scrolls upwards towards the night sky, and the text "You can do this." appears. Subsequently, the player is returned back to the map screen, but now with Chapter 1 unlocked.

Speedrun strategies

It is impossible to dash during the prologue, except at the very end. Therefore, the only way to progress quickly is via bunnyhopping and cornerboosting throughout the level. It is also possible to skip the dash cutscene right when Madeline stops falling.

Trivia

• Upon release, the final dash cutscene wasn't meant to be skippable, however speedrunners ended up finding an exploit which required frame perfect menu management in order to save time. The devs ended up making it skippable in version 1.2.6.0 to remove the requirement of a very precise and tedious skip at the beginning of a chapter.
  • This original skip also allowed skipping the "You can do this" text that appears following the dash cutscene; however, this "feature" was removed, because the developers wanted to remind speedrunners that they can do it, as a message of encouragement.

Celeste base game chapters

• 

  Prologue

• 

  Forsaken City

• 

  Old Site

• 

  Celestial Resort

• 

  Golden Ridge

• 

  Mirror Temple

• 

  Reflection

• 

  Summit

• 

  Epilogue

• 

  Core

• 

  Farewell