Solaris
| Solaris | |
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| Creator | Donker19 |
| Map pack | Solaris System |
| Strawberries | 26 |
| Difficulty | Intermediate-Expert |
| Soundtrack |
02 • Building 03 • Main Menu 04 • Rubedo 05 • Bonebottom 06 • power cycle 07 • Planet 08 • End of the Universe 09 • Gameplay 2 |
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Solaris is the first (and until the Dark Side Update, the only) map in the Solaris System, made by Donker19 and released sometime in 2020. The map contains 26 strawberries, a lot of jelly juggling, a sun-themed setting, and a story featuring Madeline and Badeline with appearances from Madeline's mom and Theo at the end. In August 2023, the map was updated to add the "Better Times" subchapter. Said subchapter features a modified version of the setting with a lot more green, a secondary story taking place three years after the main one, and the B-Side cassette of Solaris (which doesn't really do anything due to the lack of a B-Side).
Stories[edit | edit source]
Warning: The stories featured in Solaris mention a suicide attempt and self-harm. If you are sensitive to these topics, you may wish to not play the map or expand the sections below.
Start and Anger[edit | edit source]
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Madeline finds herself dreaming of a strange sun-like planet with clouds, stars, and other Farewell-like decorations. Several different mechanics are resprited to fit its theme. Start introduces the map's main entities (jellyfish, touch switches, and triple dash crystals) and spends its rooms demonstrating them. At the end of Start, Badeline appears, asking where Madeline is this time. Madeline is unusually angry here, telling Badeline to leave her alone and that she doesn't need her help. Badeline is surprised by this attitude, still not knowing where they are. She exclaims that she told Madeline that it wouldn't work, hinting at an event that happened earlier. Madeline, obviously frustrated and lost, continues telling Badeline to leave, which she does.
Soon after, the Bird appears, teaching Madeline how to perform jellyvators. Madeline observes that she could gain more height if she grabs the jellyfish later. This trick ends up being essential later on in the map. Anger, the second subchapter of Solaris, begins. The music becomes less calm, actual jelly juggling starts appearing, and the rooms become larger to allow for it. Resprited springs and spikes (fire) also start appearing, though the fire is rarely used in the rest of the map aside from Better Times. |
Bargaining[edit | edit source]
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At the end of Anger, Madeline encounters a structure that looks like a redder version of the Mirror Temple, though it doesn't have the Temple's mirror effects. Badeline tells her to stop, saying that the temple looks dangerous and saying that she wants to feel better as much as Madeline does. Madeline doesn't care, thinking that they don't deserve it after what they tried to do. As Madeline enters the temple, the lighting gets significantly duller and the music changes again to a darker, less energetic track. The mechanics used in this subchapter differ significantly from the rest of the map, featuring yellow bubbles (which kill Madeline if she stays inside for too long) and resprited swap blocks. After a few rooms, the Bird appears again to teach Madeline neutral jumps, allowing her to climb walls without using stamina. |
Depression[edit | edit source]
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As Madeline exits the temple, the lighting gets even duller and the clouds in the background disappear. Badeline appears again, having come to the conclusion that Madeline's right and they need to wake up and finish what they tried. Madeline says that they can't just leave all their loved ones behind, but Badeline believes that they don't deserve it. Madeline, overcome by hopelessness, agrees that they need to wake up and finish this. The stars and sky still in the background disappear entirely, replaced by a black hole with an orange vortex around it. Blue glitch tiles also replace the foreground tiles. This subchapter's gameplay consists mostly of four colors of cassette blocks, similar to Farewell's Stubbornness. Wind also appears occasionally from here. The music changes yet again to an atmospheric Hollow Knight-esque song. Throughout the subchapter, Madeline considers what she's doing and if she really wants to go through with it. At the end of the subchapter, Madeline talks to Badeline, having come to the conclusion that they do matter and that they need to accept that. Badeline is concerned about everyone else, who could be mad at them, and Madeline says that this is why they need to wake up and apologize to them. Madeline is determined that they can get out of this, like how they got out of rock bottom in Reflection. Badeline is convinced, resolving to do all she can to help them wake up. |
Acceptance and Perseverance[edit | edit source]
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After Madeline resolves to wake up and set things right, the scenery shifts one last time. The lighting brightens; clouds, stars, and other decorations from the first two checkpoints return, though the glitch tiles and black hole with an orange vortex remain. The cassette blocks disappear, with jelly juggling now making up the rest of the map's gameplay. power cycle, a more hopeful song that sounds like it could have been from Celeste itself, starts playing. Badeline also starts helping Madeline here using Badeline orbs. During Acceptance, resprited dash switches and gates appear, with Madeline having to throw jellyfish to activate them. A book also teaches her a technique to activate zippers with a jellyfish. Perseverance is essentially a continuation of Acceptance, though its gameplay is switched up with the addition of lightning and power boxes. At the end of Perseverance, Madeline reaches a room with a Crystal Heart, which she and Badeline think will end the dream after collection. The path to the heart is significantly less open and more difficult than the rest of the map, making it seem to be the final room of Solaris. |
Freedom[edit | edit source]
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After going through this final room, Madeline collects the Crystal Heart, and... nothing happens. Madeline notices this and asks why they aren't awake. Badeline doesn't know, thinking that they might not be ready yet, and that something may still be holding them back. Madeline thinks she knows why this is, and that it's because she's still afraid of the future and if her friends and family would be mad at them. Badeline confesses that she's afraid too, but that they have to get over this and put the past behind them. Madeline agrees, observing that Badeline still manages to teach her so much. They then get ready to finish all this, leading to the true final room of Solaris.
Freedom, the true final room of Solaris, is a longer, larger, and more difficult room. Planet, a far more energetic and spacey song, starts playing. The room begins with one of the hardest jelly juggling sections in the map, featuring a large amount of touch switches. This leads to a Badeline boost which activates space wind (a stronger upwind variant), leading to a section with lots of lightning and a few more touch switches. To collect these switches, Madeline must throw her jellyfish into the lightning, losing them in the process. She then falls into a falling section with space wind still blowing, with neutral jumps and wallbounces required to get past a few obstacles. The Bird also appears near the neutral-requiring part, once again standing on spinners. Afterwards, the space wind stops, and the only thing left in the room to go through is a relatively simple wavedash into a jellyfish. This leads to yet another (trivial) fall leading to the power box, which Madeline must break to get to the final Badeline boosts and end the room. The final boost is positioned above a small "island" with the Summit's flag, 7C's pink tree, and Granny, who encourages her to continue living.
Badeline boosts Madeline up a final time, with Madeline waking up directly afterwards in the hospital with her mom and Theo nearby. Both of them apologize, with Madeline apologizing for her attempt and Theo and her mom apologizing for not being there for her. The map finally ends here, after a discussion between the three about what Madeline's done. |
Better Times[edit | edit source]
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Madeline dreams of an area similar to Solaris, but with more grass and stone and some of the background objects colored bright green. Badeline wonders where they are this time, with Madeline answering that she doesn't know. Badeline then suggests that they go find out, which they do.
Between each gameplay room is a room with an easy-to-reach strawberry, which are the same type of strawberry as the ones in Solaris. After a few rooms, Madeline remarks that the area looks familiar, as if they've been there before in a distant, fleeting memory. Badeline is concerned about whether this dream will be good or bad, and Madeline wonders if it's bittersweet and if they might find the meaning of the dream if they continue on. She then asks if Badeline will be okay if they keep going, with Badeline answering that she will. Madeline then remarks that discomfort can sometimes be productive, and Badeline thanks Madeline for asking. They continue on. Some rooms and strawberries later, Madeline and Badeline observe that the area is very beautiful, though something feels sad, as if the place is bringing them some sort of peace that they lost long ago. She then wonders if it's from when they attempted suicide three years back (this attempt causing the plot of Lunaris and Solaris), or even if it's before they met on Celeste Mountain. Badeline thinks it's a nice, although sad, feeling. She then asks if Madeline would be okay if they kept going, with Madeline answering yes.
A few rooms later, Madeline encounters a black spring variant which is far more powerful than a normal spring. After this, Madeline questions why they miss the past so much. Badeline doesn't know, and Madeline theorizes that maybe it isn't them missing the past as it is a desire to rewrite their various mistakes. Badeline asks what they'd have learned if it were possible to rewrite those mistakes. Madeline gets distracted, observing that the strawberries are very pretty and have stars in them.
Before the cassette room at the end of the checkpoint, Madeline asks again what they've learned, sometimes feeling like they haven't changed at all. Badeline gives examples of them learning from mistakes, such as when they distanced themselves from their friends and family and later realized that they needed them then more than ever. Badeline then compares this to the stained glass windows they saw when their dad used to take them to church, with this being illustrated through breaking three different colored depictions of crystal hearts and their fragments being used to create a new, larger, more beautiful heart. Madeline finds this amazing, theorizing that Badeline is actually the deep-thinking side of her. They then get ready to wake up, and the dream ends shortly after the cassette room.
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Gameplay[edit | edit source]
Start[edit | edit source]
The first two rooms of Solaris are fairly straightforward, with little to no jelly juggling involved. The third room introduces the only custom mechanic in Solaris: a triple-dash crystal, which changes Madeline's hair to a dark blue while she has three dashes. Resprited zippers and switch gates first appear here. This checkpoint ends in an area teaching the player how to do jellyvators, adding that the technique can let you go higher if you grab the jellyfish later.
5 strawberries are located here. These strawberries have been resprited to fit the theme of Solaris.
Anger[edit | edit source]
This subchapter is less straightforward and more difficult than Start, with jellyvators and jelly juggling being commonplace. Resprited springs and spikes (the latter of which now looks like fire) appear here. Its rooms are also significantly larger due to the openness and the large amount of jellyfish.
5 strawberries are located here.
Bargaining[edit | edit source]
This subchapter happens inside a Mirror Temple-esque structure, with the area itself becoming duller. Instead of jelly juggling, this subchapter mainly contains yellow bubbles (which force fast bubbling by killing Madeline if she stays inside for too long) and resprited swap blocks. Neutral jumps are introduced and taught here, though they are mostly just used in this subchapter and the next one.
4 strawberries are located here.
Depression[edit | edit source]
After Madeline exits the temple, the background shifts from a dark sky with stars and clouds to an Event Horizon-like black hole, with the purple area around it being recolored into orange. The area gets even darker and duller, and blue glitch tiles and decals start appearing. This subchapter mainly contains cassette blocks of four colors, making it similar to Stubbornness.
2 strawberries are located here.
Acceptance[edit | edit source]
This subchapter has the scenery change one last time, with it becoming brighter and the stars and clouds reappearing, though the glitch tiles remain. Jelly juggling returns, being even harder and more confusing this time. Badeline starts helping you here in the form of Badeline boosts. A new technique is taught here, detailing how to get past zippers while holding a jellyfish without losing said jellyfish. Resprited dash switches and gates first appear here and are used for the rest of the level.
1 strawberry is located here.
Perseverance[edit | edit source]
This subchapter is more or less a continuation of Acceptance, though the gameplay is switched up with power boxes and resprited (bluer) lightning. It ends in a large room with the Crystal Heart at the end, though this is not the end of the chapter.
There are no strawberries here.
Freedom[edit | edit source]
This subchapter is the final room of Solaris, containing every resprited entity so far (except for fire). It begins with a difficult jelly juggling section, which ends in a Badeline boost and an appearance of space wind (a stronger, unused variant of upwards-blowing wind). This space wind section lasts for a large part of the room, even after Madeline loses the jellyfish, leading to a "falling" section. After the space wind section ends, the room is mostly over, and the path to the power box is mostly straightforward. After breaking it, Badeline boosts you up to a small floating "island", where you can then dash into the final Badeline boost and end the chapter.
This subchapter contains no strawberries, but it does contain the Sunberry, which is a resprited Moonberry. Instead of going right and up, the player can go left, leading to the Sunberry path. This path is similar to the Moonberry path in Farewell, though significantly harder. Like in Farewell, this path leads to a secret and difficult room which ends in the Sunberry and a Badeline boost that takes you to the end of the chapter.
Better Times[edit | edit source]
Better Times is a lot less open and more vertical than Solaris itself. Its clouds are entirely a bright green, and the stars and other background decorations have a lot more green in them. The tiles themselves have a lot more grass, with some stone added in. Fire and ice walls also appear often. Significantly more powerful black-colored springs also appear in the final rooms of the subchapter.
9 strawberries are in this subchapter, with all but two of them obviously placed in rooms between the gameplay rooms.
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- All of the Bird's appearances in Solaris have it standing on spinners. How the Bird does not explode due to this is unknown.
- The fifth track used in Solaris, power cycle, was made by Kuraine, who also made the Summit's B-Side remix, No More Running.
- Though Solaris is said to have Intermediate to Expert difficulty gameplay, most of the map is considered to be somewhere in Advanced with Start being intermediate and Better Times and some of the later parts being low expert.
- In some versions of the map, the vortex around the black hole in Perseverance became brighter the further you went into the subchapter, similar to what happens in Farewell's Reconciliation subchapter.