Strawberry Jam Collab/Pinball Purgatory

Pinball Purgatory
Creator	Maya
Collab	Strawberry Jam Collab
Strawberries	5 1
Difficulty	Grandmaster
Soundtrack	Cabinet Madeline: Pumber Edition

Pinball Purgatory is a cracked-difficulty Grandmaster map created by M47a (Maya). It is widely considered the most difficult map in the collab (not including heartsides). The map features Madeline playing on a pinball machine titled 'Pumber.' The actual gameplay is within the pinball machine, which uses extremely precise bumper hits to direct Madeline in the right path.

Location

Pinball Purgatory is located in the bottom right corner of the Grandmaster Lobby.

Mechanics

Pinball Purgatory primarily uses bumpers for all of its gameplay. The bumpers used have custom sprites. There are also three types of modded bumpers. The first gives the player two dashes on hitting it, the second doesn't refill the player's dash upon hit, and the last restricts the player from hitting it again by turning into a fire core mode bumper. The other gimmicks in the map are moon blocks, touch switches and touch gates, momentum springs, normal and double dash refills, and, in one room, a Theo crystal.

Levels

Each room of Pinball Purgatory has a specific level name, as a pinball machine would for each level. All berry rooms in the map have a 'B' before the room number.

In total, the level contains 9 main rooms, 4 berry rooms, and 2 intro rooms. Here is a list of every main room and berry room with a small description for each.

Lv 01: Ready ?

This room is around green Grandmaster difficulty, using basic bumper techs and a few ultras.

Lv 02: Helix

This room is a big step up from the first room. It uses a lot of ultras and has a bunch of two-frame timings. It is also the first non-tutorial room that uses moonboosts and bumper phase.

Lv 03: Pursuit

This room introduces moving bumpers. It doesn't use too many techniques except two moon boosts, but its difficulty resides in keeping up with the moving bumper you have to use during the whole room.

Lv 04: Phase

This room's main mechanic is bumper phase: there are four of them (six if you go for the berry). Apart from the bumper phase, this room has almost no tech used, but it has a lot of very tight dashes (especially during the last third of the room)

Lv 05: Delta

This room is a small step down in difficulty compared to the previous ones, it doesn't use much tech and doesn't have any very tight dashes. The main gimmick of this room is that you go down during most of it, but it doesn't have anything unique.

Lv B2: Instability

This room is the first berry room in the map, you can get to it by falling into the pit near the beginning of Lv 06: Symbiosis. This is also arguably the easiest berry room of the map. It consists of collecting touch switches that move when you get to them while not getting thrown into a spinner by a bumper: there isn't any solid ground and you're almost always bouncing on bumpers. Once you collect all touch switches, blocks will appear and give you a safe path to the berry.

Lv 06: Symbiosis

This room has a similar concept to Lv 03: Pursuit, but there are two moving bumpers. The bumpers are also much faster and make you chain ultras and bumper phase quickly.

Lv B3: Rebound

This room is the second berry room in the map. It is accessed by going into the teleporter just over the watchtower in Lv 07: Haste It almost doesn't have any bumpers, but it uses a tech with momentum springs that makes you get a lot of height if you dash two times into it in quick succession.

Lv 07: Haste

This room is when the map starts to get into cracked Grandmaster territory. It uses a lot of very tight speed techs that often start with a moonboost and very tight two-frame dashes.

Lv B4: Extra Ball

This room is the third berry room in the map. To enter that room, you gotta go in the teleporter to the right of the spawn point in Lv 08: Recoil. This room is the only one that uses a Theo crystal. This is often considered the hardest berry of the map, or even the hardest room in the map, but that depends a lot on the skillset. This room mainly uses the bumper Theo retention tech, this tech consists in releasing grab during bumper freeze frames to be able to dash with Theo Crystal.

Lv 08: Recoil

This room is the second-hardest main room in the map. It doesn't use any moonboosts or other tech, but it is incredibly precise. Most of this room's inputs are three-frame timings or tighter. The second-last obstacle in this room is a very tight bumper phase that is probably the hardest input in the whole map.

Lv 09: Pumber

This room is the last in the map without berries. It is also by far the hardest. The room is around green Grandmaster+1 difficulty, combining everything seen in the map: tight timings, hard speed techs, bumper phases, moving bumpers, etc. To end the room, there is an extremely lethal vertical section that leads to an auto part where bumpers bounce you all over the place. After that, a switch gate lifts you to a small room with the Mini Heart.

Lv B5 : Malfunction

This room is the fourth berry room and the final room in the map. You can access it by breaking the fake ceiling in the Mini Heart room. There are no freeze frames, no dash cooldown, and stronger bumpers. The room consists of 8 dashes into bumpers that are all either two-frame or frame-perfect timings.

Hard List

Pinball Purgatory Full Clear is part of Celeste Hard List, a list of every map that is of Grandmaster+1 or higher difficulty. The only other Strawberry Jam maps in this list are The Solar Express Full Clear and Passionfruit Pantheon: The Grandmaster Heartside.

Inspiration and Other Appearances

Pinball Purgatory has inspired a lot of other maps like Solar Purgatory by ZKB and Momentum Purgatory by Aura, which are parts of the Gallery Collab. Pinball Purgatory also appears in Passionfruit Pantheon: The Grandmaster Heartside as Flag 7.