Chapter 5: Mirror Temple

large seeker statue

**Chapter 5: Mirror Temple** is the fifth chapter of Celeste. It takes place in an ancient temple that contains a mysterious power coming from the mountain. It also introduces the player to a variety of new mechanics.

## **Gameplay**

### **Objects**

#### Start

* Swap Blocks
* Red Bubbles
* Blue Torches
* Dash Switches
* Temple Gates
* Crystals
* Springs
* Spikes
* Dash Crystals
* Blades
* Keys
* Locks

#### Depths

The B-Side Cassette Tape for the chapter is located here.

* Blue Torches
* Yellow Torches
* Red Bubbles
* Crystals
* Dash Switches
* Temple Gates
* Swap Blocks
* Springs
* Disappearing Platforms
* Skull Binoculars
* Cassette Blocks
* Keys
* Dash Crystals
* Blades
* Spikes
* Locks
* Smashable Walls

(Dream only)

* Seekers
* Red Walls
* Barriers

#### Unravelling

* Yellow Torches
* Corrupted Spikes
* Swap Blocks
* Dash Switches
* Temple Gates
* Red Bubbles
* Seekers
* Red Walls
* Springs
* Shields
* Barriers
* Shield-Activated Platforms

#### Search

* Crystals
* Red Bubbles
* Spikes
* Blue Torches
* Temple Gates
* Dash Switches
* Seekers
* Springs
* Locks
* Red Walls
* Barriers
* Keys
* Swap Blocks
* Yellow Torches
* Corrupted Spikes
* Shields
* Shield-Activated Platforms
* Disappearing Platforms
* Smashable Walls
* Dash Crystals

#### Rescue

* Crystals
* Temple Gates
* Dash Switches
* Barriers
* Seekers
* Springs
* Shields
* Swap Blocks
* Corrupted Spikes

### **Seeker Mini-game**

About halfway through the chapter, the player is temporarily put in control of a Seeker, allowing the player to move freely in two dimensions and dash to break Seeker Barriers. This continues until the player finds Madeline and touches her, ending the mini-game and allowing the player to resume control of Madeline as usual.

### **Alternative Sides**

The B-Side is split into four parts: Start, Central Chamber, Through the Mirror and Mix Master. It features the song *Mirror Magic Mix* by 2 Mello. The section order is very similar, however the search and puzzle parts are much shorter than in the original chapter. The C-Side features a large number of Swap Blocks and Red Bubbles. It lacks the puzzle sections, Seekers, and Theo rescuing entirely, instead choosing to focus solely on timings and techniques such as Wall Bounces. Both alternate sides lack the Seeker Mini-game.

#### Start

* Red Bubbles
* Spikes
* Dash Switches
* Temple Gates
* Swap Blocks

#### Central Chamber

* Locks
* Blue Torches
* Red Bubbles
* Keys
* Swap Blocks
* Shields
* Dash Crystals
* Spikes
* Crystals
* Blades
* Dash Switches
* Temple Gates
* Springs
* Disappearing Platforms
* Skull Binoculars

#### Through the Mirror

* Corrupted Spikes
* Dash Switches
* Dash Crystals
* Temple Gates
* Barriers
* Shields
* Seekers
* Crystals
* Red Bubbles
* Red Walls
* Disappearing Platforms

#### Mix Master

* Temple Gates
* Springs
* Seekers
* Crystals
* Dash Switches
* Barriers
* Shields
* Swap Blocks
* Dash Crystals
* Falling Platforms
* Cassette Blocks

#### Mirror Temple C-Side

* Swap Blocks
* Crystals
* Dash Crystals
* Skull Binoculars
* Red Bubbles
* Springs
* Dash Switches
* Temple Gates

## **Plot**

**I tried to warn you.**

This section contains spoilers for Chapter 5: Mirror Temple. Do not read the following section if you wish to avoid spoilers for Chapter 5: Mirror Temple.

Theo and Madeline encounter a mysterious temple. Theo, enamored with the temple, wishes to explore it; Madeline, still nervous from her ordeal in Chapter 4, advises against this, but Theo enters regardless, so Madeline follows. Shortly afterwards, Madeline finds Theo's discarded phone in front of a mirror with a mysterious eyeball symbol over it. Telling herself not to panic, Madeline retrieves Theo's phone and continues through the temple.
After some exploration, Madeline finds Theo, but he appears to be trapped inside a giant mirror. Theo explains that he had been trying to take a mirror selfie, but wound up unconscious, leading him to his current state. Theo then describes what things look like on the other side of the mirror, but is forced to leave before he can describe more than a few ominous details, leaving Madeline to continue her journey on her side of the mirror.

After further exploration of the temple, Madeline eventually comes across a large mirror, covered in a curtain. After the curtain is removed, the mirror sucks in Madeline, at which point the Seeker minigame occurs. After this sequence is finished, Madeline wakes up in a new area filled with thorns and tendrils. She has an argument with Badeline, where she learns that the temple magnifies the mountain's power and that the strange environment comes from Madeline.

After entering a dark area, she meets Theo again, encased in a crystal, behind spikes, and unable to move. Theo tells her that the temple is also creating entities around him, and that he needs Madeline to free him.

Eventually, Madeline finds her way around to Theo, where she releases Theo from the structure he was in; however, she is unable to destroy the crystal, so she has to carry Theo out of the temple. On the journey towards the exit of the temple, there are many rooms with doors that need Theo to be entered. This is a pun on the fact that Theo's full name is Theo-dore, so the door is a Theo-Door. After carrying him for a short while, she finds the exit, blocked by a large eyeball. She throws Theo at the eyeball, killing it and freeing Theo from the crystal.
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## **Quotes**

**I tried to warn you.**

This section contains spoilers for Chapter 5: Mirror Temple. Do not read the following section if you wish to avoid spoilers for Chapter 5: Mirror Temple.

>
> Theo: My InstaPix followers are gonna eat this up.
>
> Madeline: There's no way this ends well.
>
> Part of Madeline: This temple only magnifies the Mountain's power.
>
> Madeline: If this is all in my head, why is it so hostile?
>
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>
>

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## **Speedrunning Record Progression**

Clear (5A):

*Note*: Revolucion had 4:20 as a world record at some point, but the video appears to have been taken down, so it is not known when the run happened and it is therefore not included in the table.

## **Major Strategies**

Temple A includes the Depths Cornerboost, a very visually impressive strat which involves hypering off a zip block to obtain a great rightwards velocity, bunnyhopping off a platform, then performing an upwards ultra into a diagonal cornerboost to maintain the momentum into the next room, allowing the zip block in that room to be skipped entirely. It also contains some skips such as searchskip and double bubble skip which are obsolete in any% and are now mainly used in All Red Berries, All Chapters and 5A IL runs.

The Mirror Temple is of particular interest because of its implications for the any% route. Firstly, completing a level's B-Side will unlock the following level, just as completing the level's A-side does. In 5A, the tape room is reasonably close to the beginning, and 5B is significantly shorter than 5A. The optimal route is, therefore, to obtain the tape in 5A to unlock 5B, quit out of the level, then complete 5B. Mirror Temple is not unique in this regards; this is also true of Reflection, but is generally not done there for a number of reasons.

5B also contains the zero-key skip, which avoids picking up either of the two keys in the level and which saves approximately 19 seconds over skipping only one key and which is required for the route to save time. This requires traversing a corridor of spikes. For a time, a pixel-perfect cornerboost was used to jump through it. This is extremely difficult and a failure causes 12 seconds to be lost, so, despite the possible gains, very few players attempted the route due to the incredibly high risk involved. However, DemoJameson eventually found an alternative version of zero-key skip which is slightly slower but far more consistent. In this new method, a bubsdrop -- previously believed to be useless -- is used to exit and re-enter the screen using an exit intended to be one-way, then a suicide is performed, which causes Madeline to respawn-warp past the spike corridor. Once this was discovered, the 5B route finally became widely used.

## **Trivia**

* A part of the *In The Mirror* song which plays during the rescue section, contains a hidden message which can be heard when the player uses a program to play the song reversed. If listening carefully, breathing noises and a short unsettling monologue can be heard which is confirmed to be Lena Raine talking about her fears and personal struggles, ending with quiet sobbing noises. It most likely also refers to Madeline's depression and anxiety that can be noticed during her journey.
	+ During the short monologue the following words can be heard:

*"Sometimes, I... don't really know... what's going on anymore.*

*I... I don't... know who I am.*

*I just... look in the mirror, and... don't know who I'm looking at.*

*Or... who's looking at me.*

*I... think a lot... about... where... my train of thought is going... and it's not always a good place.*

*And that scares me.*

*I don't... like... scaring myself.*

*I don't..."*

* In the chapter's B-side, a secret island resembling the Golden Ridge can be found by going left with the first red orb.

## Gallery

Typical Mirror Temple ScreenChapter 5 Completion ScreenB-side Secret Island