Difficulty

Difficulty is a measure of skill and effort a player must have to complete a certain Celeste map, room, or challenge. Difficulty in vanilla Celeste is never defined. Instead, B-Sides are naturally positioned harder than A-Sides, C-Sides are a notch above both, and Farewell's difficulty is close to the C-Sides. Mods have a much greater flexibility when it comes to difficulty. Therefore, a few difficulty scales have been developed for modded maps. This article describes the most popular ones.

Spring Collab scale

The scale introduced in Spring Collab and subsequently used in Strawberry Jam Collab is one of the most common ones used in the Celeste community, separating maps into several broad categories by their difficulty. There are also modifiers indicating whether it is easier or harder than the average in said category (commonly known as green, yellow, red, and cracked (Grandmaster only)). The maps are divided by multiple factors: the precision required, input density, the tech used in them and the complexity of executing it (e.g., tech with setups is easier), or other criteria. One example is Lava Layer, a Grandmaster map from Strawberry Jam that doesn't use any advanced tech but features incredibly tight movement.

A map being longer or shorter does not affect its difficulty on this scale, rather it is rated based on the hardest room of the map.

The shortenings and other names are given in parentheses. Grandmaster+ difficulties are not in Spring Collab; they are extensions of this scale, developed as harder maps released.

Beginner (beg)

Most of Celeste's base game chapters and some B-Sides fall into Beginner difficulty. Some basic movements, such as Dream Jumps, fall within the scope of beginner difficulty. Beginner maps generally have few tight jumps or maneuvers and seldom use more advanced tech. An example of a Beginner map is the road less traveled (A-Side) or Banana Mountain.

Intermediate (int)

A screen of an Intermediate-difficulty map Temple of a Thousand Skies

Intermediate-difficulty maps often feature supers, hypers and wavedashes. The precision needed is higher than in beginner maps, but it is still relatively lenient compared to higher difficulties. C-Sides and most B-Sides fall into this category, alongside Farewell.

Advanced (adv)

Advanced maps are a relatively small step up from what Celeste's base game has to offer. It may introduce tech not seen in the base game such as reverse hypers/supers. Examples of Advanced-difficulty maps include Glyph and Another Farewell Map.

Expert (exp)

A screen of an Expert-difficulty map Golden Alleyway. Note that the gates can be triggered by pressing Grab.

Expert maps are far harder than anything in vanilla. They often require cornerboosts and ultras. These maps also demand more precision and fast input requirements. Examples include Monika's D-Sides Pack (excluding 9D) and Solaris.

Grandmaster (gm)

Grandmaster maps are some of the hardest maps available in Celeste. They are generally limited to top-tier players. These maps often feature advanced tech almost consistently, including chained ultras, spike jumps, and core hypers. Deep knowledge of the game and consistency at frame-limited (≈ 4-frame) tech is expected at this level.

Grandmaster+ (gm+)

Grandmaster+ difficulties (namely Grandmaster+1, Grandmaster+2, and Grandmaster+3, abbreviated to GM+1, GM+2, and GM+3 respectively) are difficulties harder than Grandmaster, where the number after the "+" indicates how many tiers above Grandmaster it is. Very few of these maps exist, including MOCE // LXVI, and The Solar Purgatory.

Hardlist

Celeste's Hardest Maps Clear List is a catalogue of maps that are at least green Grandmaster+1 difficulty, along with videos of their clears. They are split into three tiers (1 Star — 3 Star) by their difficulty. Each star is divided into high and low subtiers.

1 Star

1-Star maps are green Grandmaster+1 to yellow Grandmaster+1 difficulty maps. Some examples are MOCE // CPVL and Passionfruit Pantheon (high); Mauve and SWAPSLUT (low).

2 Star

2-Star maps are red Grandmaster+1 maps up to green Grandmaster+2 maps. Examples of 2-Star maps are Crystal Garden (high) and Avian Ascension (low).

3 Star

3-Star maps are the hardest humanly possible maps of Celeste, being at or above yellow Grandmaster+2 difficulty. The low 3-Star tier includes maps like D1D7, Madeline Votes in the 2020 U.S. Election D-Side, MOCE // LXVI, and 5B Funnier Version. The high tier only includes The Solar Purgatory, Penumbra, and Forsaken City TASide.

Top Golden List

There is also a difficulty scale for deathless challenges. The Top Golden List from the Custom Map Golden Strawberry List (link) uses a tier system for comparing the difficulty of deathless challenges (usually golden berry runs). A golden is called standard list difficulty if it is easier than Hell Trio (goldens of vanilla 6B, 7B, and 8B). Goldens above the difficulty of Hell Trio are ranked in tiers, where a Tier 7 golden is only slightly harder than Hell Trio, and a Tier 0 golden is near the hardest golden berries ever collected. Also, Tiers 0-3 are split into two or three subtiers (Low, Mid, High).

The most popular goldens for each tier are listed below.

Here, [FC] means full clear, and [C/FC] means either normal clear or full clear (which are of similar difficulty).

The Top Golden List as of August 14, 2024

• Standard Tier: Anything easier than or as hard as the golden berries for 6B, 7B, and 8B.
• Tier 7: Chromatic Complex|Chromatic Complex [C/FC] (SJ), Delusional Canopy, Static Shift, Void-Side B-Side (from Glyph)
• Tier 6: Cryoshock D-Side [C/FC], Delusional Canopy [FC], Mirror Temple D-Side [C/FC], Strawberry Pi [FC], UFO Nest B-Side
• Tier 5: Teletown [C/FC], UFO Nest A-Side [C/FC], Ultra Difficult (SC)
• Tier 4: Mango Mesa (SJ), The Summit CC-Side
• Low Tier 3: Another Farewell Map A-Side [C/FC], Solaris (old)
• Mid Tier 3: Ferocious Sanctuary+, Glyph [FC]
• High Tier 3: Distant Wasteland, Shattersong [FC] (SJ)
• Low Tier 2: Farewell CC-Side [FC], Grandmaster Heart Side [New] (SC)
• Mid Tier 2: Forsaken Undercity, Reflection D-Side (v3.0), Solaris [FC]
• High Tier 2: Calypta [FC], The Solar Express [FC] (SJ)
• Low Tier 1: Starfruit Supernova, The Summit D-Side [C/FC], Superfecta
• Mid Tier 1: Midnight Aquarium [FC], Pinball Purgatory
• High Tier 1: Everlasting Farewell, Summit Prologue [FC]
• Low Tier 0: Celestial Resort L-Side, MOCE // LXVI, Pinball Purgatory [FC], and The Big Reveal.
• High Tier 0: 7D With Single Dash... (Old), Darkmoon Ruins [C/FC], Passionfruit Pantheon, and Waterbear Mountain [FC].
• Tier X: This is the theoretical tier above Tier 0, currently having no clears. Deathless challenges such as Final Goodbye Platinum or Strawberry Jam Grandmaster Lobby Deathless are Tier X.