Climbing

Gameplay with old, rougher background

**Climbing** is one of the 7 minigames that Lucky can compete in. It is located in the Northern Mountains where you compete against Fukuro, the champion of climbing.

In this game, Lucky has to reach Fukuro, who is perched atop a torii gate. However, Fukuro, using his silver ladle, tries to stop Lucky from doing so. The mechanics of the game resemble that of platformer games.

There are two maps/mountains to climb. The second one is taller than the first.

## Gameplay

Lucky's sole goal is to reach the top of a mountain ornamented with different climbing holds. Lucky has 90 seconds to do so. After time is up, or Lucky reached the top, the height climbed will reveal the dangos Lucky has achieved. There are also numerous checkpoints in the form of lanterns, which will activate if Lucky is in the same platform as them. If she falls, she will warp back beside the lantern.

Fukuro also uses his silver ladle to unleash an infinite amount of snowballs, powerful enough to make Lucky entirely lose her grip to a climbing hold. However, the snowballs will not affect Lucky if standing atop a platform. The snowballs spawn seemingly randomly. Lucky can avoid these snowballs by avoiding the visible snow particles below the snowballs.

### Maps

There are two maps to be unlocked. The first one is directly north to the entrance of the Northern Mountains, while the second is to be unlocked by completing the Hot Spring Savior trophy. The first map has a 86 meter tall mountain to climb, while the second one is 139 meters.

### Platforms

In each map, Lucky starts on a platform. Platforms have either green grass or white snow on them, and also contain a checkpoint sometimes. These are the only places where the player can use

and

arrow keys.

### Holds

There are three types of different climbing holds, resembling real life holds used for making climbing walls. Each have a different color, and behave in a special way.

 **Blue** | Blue holds act like pink ones, but the only difference is that they can move, either in a linear path or in a circular motion.

## Speedrunning Strategies

### World Record Route

The World Record Route is the route most commonly used by top speedrunners to achieve a time of less than twelve seconds on the 86-meters climbing level. The route largely forces the player to remain toward the middle of the mountain throughout the level, only occasionally straying to the left to grab certain crucial blue holds. The earliest rotational cycle of the blue, moving holds must be reached quickly in order to achieve a time of under twelve seconds. These cycles can be manipulated and sped up with the Pause Strategy. An example of the World Record Route can be found here.

### Pause Strategy

The Pause Strategy (largely referred to as the "Pause Strat") is a usage of the pause screen during the initial Fukuro movement before the screen pans down to Lucky at the bottom of the mountain so the blue hold cycles are tightened. The Pause Strat is the only known way for a player to achieve a time of less than eleven seconds on the 86-meters climbing level. In order to perform the Pause Strat, the player must pause after Fukuro completes a full rotational motion with his head and begins standing up straight, then unpause the level on the second prominent note that plays in the music. A tutorial to this strategy can be found here.[1]

## Trivia

* Fukuro never uses his golden ladle.
* In the background, houses similar to the ones in the Bamboo Forest can be found.
* In speedrunning, the 86-meters climbing level is the fastest level to complete.

### Cutscenes

Doodle Champion Island Games- Fukuro Champion IntroDoodle Champion Island Games- Fukuro Champion Outro