(Celeste Strawberry Jam) Pinball Purgatory- Clear
Channel: Iosun
Date: 2023-12-05

this is one of the craziest experiences ive ever had playing something in celeste. I have probably more to say about this level than any other. not because i like it, just because of how crazy it was.

Ready. Was I ready? I was not. I attempted Ready way back several months ago, because everyone told me that it was an expert room. It's not an expert room. It took 3 hours. That was my first taste of trying to play this map and it's really unlike anything else in the lobby. you really cant see how hard it is until you try ready and go 'oh. uh oh.

Helix. I went back to helix in the middle of my least favorite room of World Abyss, and then decided I'd just play the entire rest of the map too. why not? This room is really fucking hard and most of the difficulty is towards the end. this is where i got thrown into pumber mania. i can't stop. i have to see if i can push myself through the rest.

Pursuit. The hardest of the first six rooms. this one was extremely frustrating and everyone saw how much i disliked the various fails i had. so much so that i had to stop at the end and just take a rest. the next day comes, and I fluke past the moonboost entirely, beating the room in an hour. This is where I learn the main lesson of pumber- practice. practice. practice. keep doing it until you cannot blink. get the timings in your head as soon as possible because if you get one even slightly wrong you're sent back 20 seconds. practice.

Phase. when I played phase, disaster struck. A sharp bit of the edge of my headphones got pushed hard against my laptop screen, creating a crack in it. The screen had bars over the entire bottom part and one big bar in the middle. No way I was beating pumber like this....? no! it still worked! i persisted through the visual bugs and in the end, pushed through to beat the room in a pretty decent time. this is also where i decided i cared more about my sanity than getting the hard list spot. so no berries have been gotten

Delta. oh no. the laptop issues are getting worse. now the screen automaticlaly shuts itself off after a period of time. hope to god that doesnt happen when i'm playing the room. i got pretty unlucky with this room, spending a lot of time on it relative to the difficulty. every time, anxious that the screen would shut off this time. every time praying nothing would happen. i eventually got the clear sitting on a plane, flying home from Thanksgiving. 

Symbiosis. The laptop now would only turn on for *seconds* at a time. there was no way i was going to clear it like this, I would have to leave the game in stasis on the second easiest room in the level, right before the Big 3 Hard Rooms. i got through enough to get consistent and practice on the plane, b ut never enough to play. My screen got repaired, and then i got it in 30 minutes. we're finally through the pain!

Haste. my favorite room in the level. one that i thought was impossible at first but quickly became consistent at. the one with such an amazing flow of gameplay that really just doesnt compare to anything else in the level. it was cleared in a relatively short time and the whole time i was completely exhilirated. i love Haste.

Recoil. A room that bored me to fucking tears. Every death to recoil is to the start. If you pass the start of recoil, you can do the next 15 seconds pretty much automatically. I needed a stream for that. i couldn't go without that, i would go insane and get extremely angry dying to white bumper mountain over and over. I practiced the hell out of the middle until i could get it basically every time, joined up with some of my friends, and then an absurdly unlikely event happened as i cleared the room the moment i got back online! so quick that you can't even see the start. what a fluke for what i was expecting to be the hardest room ever.

but no. you know what was? Pumber. This room took 7 hours to clear, with about 9 deaths past the second moonboost (the 'far point' of the room). I grinded this for 4 hours straight last night. I sat there, angrily typing messages in Celeste discord. making memes about how i lived in the room now. my controller's battery died permanently during it, and I had to get a replacement while i switched to the other, shittier one. but i didn't give up. i stood there for those 4 hours. i started getting to the second moonboost consistently, and then started to pass it. my eyes could barely focus enough to line myself up. and then... i just fluked the entire ending section. Only one single death to the ending, on the first bumper. this is wehy you practice. this is why you practice!!! i'm so elated typing this. i fucking beat pinball purgatory. i fucking BEAT PINBALL PURGATORY. THE FUNNY BUMPER MAP IS DEFEATED. I OVERCAME MY OWN MOUNTAIN AND DESTROYED THE HARDEST MAP A MOD I DOWNLOADED WITHOUT THINKING OF THE GAME IN FOREVER BEFORE THEN. FUCKING TAKE THAT

anyway this map is ok its like an A tier probably