The Summit

The Summit 

The Summit
Chapter	7
Strawberries	47  • 3
Sides	7A  •  7B  •  7C
Characters	• Madeline  • Badeline (7A  •  7B)  • Bird (7B)  • Granny (7C)
Level navigation Reflection ← The Summit → Epilogue

The Summit is the seventh chapter of Celeste. Preceded by Reflection and succeeded by Core, it's a throwback to the previous chapters, reusing most things from them, paired with the newly obtained second dash. Unlike the previous chapter, The Summit is a bit of a step up in difficulty, featuring a lot of platforming with no safe ground underneath. The last checkpoint features flags that count down until the player reaches the top. It effectively serves as the end of Celeste's main storyline; the Epilogue occurs after the events of The Summit.

The Summit introduces these new entities: upwards wind (also known as "upwind"), downwards wind (also known as "downwind"), and sideways springs. At the end of every subchapter from Start to 2500M, there is a gauntlet of Badeline boosters. 3000M also has triggerable checkpoints in the form of flags. This is the first full level where Madeline has two dashes instead of one.

Plot

Summit A-Side

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Following the events of Reflection, Madeline heads for the summit again alongside Badeline. They help each other along the way. Initially, Badeline remains somewhat distrustful and scared of Maddy; she states that she was "waiting for something to go wrong". They also talk about Mr. Oshiro after passing the 1500M checkpoint. Badeline eventually flips around: as Madeline starts doubting herself once again, Badeline encourages her, stating that she can do this. “I believe in you.” ~ Badeline As they finally reach the peak, Badeline remembers that she cannot continue to exist outside of Celeste Mountain simply because she is still a part of Madeline. Maddy then comments about how they can still work together, even if she no longer has a physical body. They then sit on the summit, enjoying the view for some time before climbing down.

Summit B-Side

Spoiler (Summit B-Side)
Badeline's facial expression. Following another successful climb of (a much harder) Celeste Mountain, featuring wallbounces (the first time tech is required to beat a level), Badeline is left impressed. In her "insane" face, she states that "that was amazing". “Nothing can stop us!” ~ Badeline This ends up scaring Madeline.

Summit C-Side

Spoiler (Summit C-Side)
After Madeline completes what is arguably the hardest single room before Farewell, Granny will be on a grassy platform. She then comments about how "it's hard to believe that it's over", subsequently remarking that it's funny how determined Madeline is. She then asks Maddy to take care of herself before telling her to go collect the Crystal Heart.

Gameplay

A-Side

The Summit A-Side
Level	7A
Strawberries	47  • 1
Soundtrack	Celeste OST: 18  •   Reach for the Summit

The Summit A-side  • B-side  • C-side

The Summit's A-Side is one of the longest levels in the game, only being surpassed by Farewell. It takes place over multiple sections, each styled after and having mechanics of a prior chapter.

Each subchapter features a gem. A secret in 3000M unlocks the crystal heart if and only if all gems have been collected (not necessarily in a single playthrough, if the heart was not unlocked before). Because of that, the Summit's Crystal Heart is considered among the hardest to claim in the entirety of Celeste.

Start to 2500M

The start of 7A, unofficially known as "0M", features a still of Madeline seeing the mountain in the distance, getting ready to climb up. It then transitions to a cutscene of Madeline heading upwards in spin mode before landing at the beginning of the chapter. It is loosely themed after Reflection but does not feature any of its entities. Instead, it focuses primarily on platforming and utilizing Madeline's newly acquired second dash. It has the usual springs, smashable walls, spinners, and spikes. In the final room, the Badeline orb is presented again: it moves to another place after being triggered, and Madeline must reach Badeline at different locations to advance to the next subchapter.

The 500M subchapter is closely themed after Forsaken City. It features many mechanics specific to that chapter, such as Zippers, while still using Madeline's second dash extensively. Unlike Forsaken City's A-Side, binoculars and touch switches also appear. The final room again features Badeline orbs, and reaching the top will result in Madeline being boosted again.

The 1000M subchapter brings back Dream Blocks, despite Madeline not dreaming as of that moment. It closely resembles Old Site. The subchapter's rooms are often quite longer than their 2A counterparts but do not feature Badeline Chasers. Making it through and launching through another set of Badeline orbs will allow proceeding towards the next subchapter.

The 1500M subchapter is loosely modeled after Mr. Oshiro's Celestial Resort Hotel. It marks the return of Dust Bunnies. The rooms are somewhat trickier than in the original resort, but the difficulty curve is less steep. Oshiro is notably absent from this chapter. Another set of Badeline boosters brings Madeline up again.

The 2000M subchapter heavily borrows design cues from Golden Ridge. Horizontal wind, green bubbles, and snowballs make their triumphant return.

The 2500M subchapter steals elements from Mirror Temple, but it is much more linear than the original chapter. Red bubbles, Temple Gates, Dash Blocks, and many other elements are present here. Making it through this recreation of a temple will allow Madeline to make it back to where she was before falling off the mountain in Reflection.

3000M

The final 3000M subchapter comprises 30 checkpoint flags, making it the longest, containing about a third of the chapter. The first two flags serve as an introduction to the subchapter. After flag 28, downwards-blowing wind is introduced. It makes it much more difficult for Madeline to climb and perform neutral jumps, as she will fall much easier than before. A passage near flag 28 leads to this side's Crystal Heart, but it is locked, requiring six gems (referencing TowerFall) to unlock. Madeline has to fight the wind until she reaches flag 20 and another Badeline orb, which somehow makes the wind flow up instead.

Flag 19 is where upwards wind is introduced; it makes Madeline jump higher and act much "floatier" mid-air. She then must make it through several more flags and spinner gauntlets through 12 more checkpoints before reaching another Badeline orb.

Flag 06 reintroduces feathers, which have been absent throughout this chapter until now. This leads towards Flag 05, where the wind finally stops blowing, and Flag 04, where a pair of special binoculars, which move along a set track, enable Madeline to glimpse the summit up close for the first time. Making it to the flag completes the chapter and makes the credits roll after.

B-Side

The Summit B-Side
Level	7B
Strawberries	1
Soundtrack	Celeste B-Sides: 07  •   Summit (No More Running Mix) Remixed by Kuraine

The Summit's B-Side takes the same concepts as the A-Side, but cranks the difficulty up quite significantly. Dream jumps are a must, and so are other quick-reaction-time moves involving both Madeline's dashes and momentum. It is also by far the longest B-Side in the game.

Unlike all other chapters in Celeste, the 7B's chapters are named identically to their A-Side counterparts. The only truly significant differences are the difficulty and the 3000M checkpoint. This chapter also marks the second time a character other than Madeline appears in a B-Side as a non-player character; the first appearance was Theo in 5B.

3000M

Unlike the A-Side, only 20 checkpoint flags are present for the 3000M sub-chapter. Flags 20 through 15 have downwards-blowing wind; flags 14 through 09 feature upwards-blowing wind.

Flag 08 introduces a new mechanic: wallbounces. This is one of the first advanced tech that Madeline is taught. The bird merely informs her how to perform it: by dashing upwards and jumping as she is adjacent to the wall. The final eight flags do not have any wind, feature wallbounce challenges, and lead up to the summit. However, one more room must be completed: a secret passage revealed by going right after the summit's flag contains a Badeline booster, triggering a conversation with her. Subsequently, Madeline will be sent to a Cassette Block room where the heart is located.

C-Side

The Summit C-Side
Level	7C
Strawberries	1
Soundtrack	Celeste B-Sides: 07  •   Summit (No More Running Mix) Remixed by Kuraine

The Summit A-side  • B-side  • C-side

The Summit's C-Side consists of merely three rooms, but the third is notorious for being extremely difficult, often compared to some of the hardest rooms in Farewell.

The first room is a wallbounce gauntlet; Madeline has to perform at least seven consecutively while being influenced by upwind. A Badeline orb allows her to proceed to the next room. The second room features a few springs, falling blocks, down-wind, and a touch switch that must be triggered to reach the Badeline orb again.

The third room features many springs, falling blocks, pink clouds, and at least one required wallbounce. Madeline has to dodge a lot of spinners, and she does not have any solid ground to stand on. A speedrun of this section alone would take around twenty seconds. At the end of this room is a solid grassy platform where Granny can be found, congratulating Maddy on making it this far. The Crystal Heart is located shortly after.

Strawberries & Collectables

Main article: Summit Collectables

The Summit has the most collectables out of any chapter in Celeste. This includes 47 unique red strawberries, accounting for about a quarter of all berries hidden within the game. These include three winged strawberries and one seeded berry. It also has one of the hardest-to-find Crystal Hearts, requiring the collection of six gems. Additionally, a Cassette Tape is hidden within.

Trivia

• The final room of 7C is often considered the hardest single room in the entire game due to its sheer length with no checkpoints and the required precision in the early parts of the room.
  • If you turn on the debug map, you'll notice unobtainable spawn points in the middle of the section. They were most likely used for testing purposes.
• The last bit of 7C is reused at the start of Farewell. One of the reasons is that Farewell was meant to be gated after finishing every C-Side, but that was changed before release.
• In earlier game versions, the wallbounce tutorial was merely a "DASH + JUMP" text. Later, an image was added to make the trick easier to understand.
• Even though the 0M portion looks very similar to Reflection aesthetics-wise, no Reflection-specific entities (Kevin Blocks, Bumpers, etc.) were used in it. The only Reflection-specific entity used, Feathers, only appears near the end of 3000M.
• The gems used to collect the Crystal Heart in 7A were originally used in each chapter as the method of unlocking the B-Sides (then-called Hard Mode). The player would have to collect multiple fragments without touching the ground.

Celeste base game chapters

• 

  Prologue

• 

  Forsaken City

• 

  Old Site

• 

  Celestial Resort

• 

  Golden Ridge

• 

  Mirror Temple

• 

  Reflection

• 

  The Summit

• 

  Epilogue

• 

  Core

• 

  Farewell