Over the Mountain: A Beginner’s Guide to Starting Celeste (Switch Edition)
Celeste is one of those rare games that transcends its genre. On the surface, it is a tight, challenging 2D platformer about a girl climbing a mountain. But beneath that surface is a story about anxiety, self-doubt, and the exhausting work of believing in yourself. The good news for beginners is that Celeste is also one of the most welcoming hard games ever made. It respects your time, it never punishes you for dying, and it gives you every tool you need to succeed—including the option to make things easier if you need it.
This guide will walk you through the fundamentals, explain why the Switch is a perfect home for this game, and help you avoid the most common beginner frustrations.
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Why Play on Switch?
Celeste runs beautifully on the Switch, and it has a few advantages over other platforms. The most obvious is portability. The game is built around short, intense bursts of platforming, and being able to play in handheld mode means you can practice a difficult room on the bus, in bed, or during a lunch break. The Switch version is also completely identical to other console versions in terms of content and performance. Unlike PC, there are no mods or debug tools, but for a first playthrough, you won’t miss them.
The game supports TV, tabletop, and handheld modes, and the file size is a modest 1.5 GB, so it won’t eat your storage. If you have a Switch Lite, the game is fully playable, though the smaller screen can make the precision platforming slightly more demanding.
The Core Mechanics: Jump, Dash, Climb
Celeste’s controls are simple: you jump, you dash, and you climb. That’s it. But the game layers these three actions into an incredible variety of challenges.
The Dash is your most important tool. When you press the dash button, Madeline shoots forward in the direction you’re holding for a split second. You only get one dash in the air, and it resets when you land on the ground, grab a crystal, or pass through a screen transition. Your hair color tells you whether you have a dash available: when it’s red, you can dash; when it’s blue, you can’t.
The Climb is how you grab walls. You can hold onto a wall and climb up or down, but you have a stamina meter. If you stay on a wall too long, you’ll run out of stamina and fall. The trick is to climb in short bursts, let go, and re-grab, rather than clinging to the wall until you drop. A good habit is to jump off the wall before your stamina runs out, because a wall jump gives you distance and resets your position.
The Golden Rule: You Are Supposed to Die
Celeste is a hard game. You will die hundreds of times. This is not a sign that you’re bad at it. It’s the design. The game respawns you instantly in the same room, with no load times and no penalty. Every death is a lesson, a chance to understand the room’s rhythm a little better.
The game’s difficulty curve is remarkably smooth. It introduces one new mechanic at a time, lets you practice it in a safe environment, and then combines it with what you already know. You will never feel like the game is throwing something at you that you haven’t been prepared for. As one player put it, Celeste is “the hardest game that anyone can beat”.
Assist Mode: There Is No Shame
If you find yourself stuck on a room for an hour and the frustration is outweighing the fun, turn on Assist Mode. It’s in the options menu, and it allows you to adjust the game to your needs. You can slow down the game speed, give yourself infinite dashes, make yourself invincible, or extend your wall-climb stamina. The game does not judge you for using it. The story is worth experiencing, and Assist Mode lets you do that at your own pace.
Strawberries and Cassettes: What to Collect
You’ll see strawberries floating in each level. These are completely optional. Collecting them does not unlock anything or make you stronger. They are simply a record of how thoroughly you’ve explored each chapter. If a strawberry looks frustrating to reach, skip it. You can always come back later. The game even tracks how many you’ve collected, but there is no penalty for missing them.
Cassette Tapes are different. These unlock the B-Sides—remixed, much harder versions of each chapter. If you find a cassette, you can try the B-Side, but you absolutely do not need to play them to finish the main story. Save them for after you’ve seen the credits, if you want more challenge.
Common Beginner Mistakes
Trying to rush. Celeste has no time limit. Take a moment to look at a room before you move. Plan your route. The game is as much a puzzle as it is a platformer.
Hoarding your dash. Beginners often save their dash “for later” and then fall into a pit without using it. If a dash will get you to safety, use it. You’ll get it back when you land.
Skipping the story. Celeste’s narrative is one of its greatest strengths. The dialogue between Madeline and the other characters she meets on the mountain is thoughtful, funny, and genuinely moving. Don’t skip the cutscenes.
Comparing yourself to others. You will see videos of players beating rooms in seconds that took you an hour. That’s fine. They’ve been playing for years. Your only competition is the room in front of you.
Other Tips
Here are 25 tips for Celeste on Switch – from beginner fundamentals to the stuff that will save you in Chapter 7 and beyond:
Core Movement – You Need This First
1. Always dash diagonally, not straight. On Switch, hold your direction with the left stick or D-pad before you press ZR. A diagonal up-dash gives you more height AND distance than a straight up dash. It’s the most important habit in the game.
2. You can aim your dash after you jump. You don’t have to commit instantly. Jump, then in mid-air you have a split second to aim your dash. Use that time to read the spikes.
3. Learn to wall bounce, not just wall climb. You don’t need to hold toward the wall to climb. Tap toward the wall, then press jump to kick off. On Switch Joy-Cons, it’s much easier with the D-pad for this than the stick.
4. Your stamina bar is everything. Madeline’s red hair means she can only cling to a wall for a short time. If you keep holding, you’ll flash and fall. Climb in short bursts: jump, grab, jump, grab. Don’t just hold up.
5. Use coyote time and jump buffering. Celeste is very forgiving. You can jump a few frames after you leave a platform, and if you press jump just before you land, it will still count. If a jump feels impossible, it probably isn’t – you’re just pressing too early.
6. Don’t mash dash. You only get one dash until you touch ground. If you waste it in the air for no reason, you’re dead. A good rule: feet on ground = you have dash. Hair blue = you already used it.
Advanced Tech That The Game Never Tells You
7. The hyperdash. This is how speedrunners get insane distance. Dash forward on the ground, then immediately jump while still holding diagonally down-forward, then dash again diagonally. You’ll fly across screens. Practice it in Chapter 1.
8. The super / extended super. Dash forward along the ground, jump at the very end of your dash. You’ll keep your dash momentum. Extended version: jump right after the dash ends, not during. Essential for Chapter 3’s moving blocks.
9. Wave dash / wall bounce chain. After a super, if you land and immediately jump, you keep all your speed. You can chain these. This is how you clear the big gaps in Chapter 4’s wind section.
10. You can grab corners. You don’t need to be perfectly aligned to grab a wall. If your hand is even slightly near the edge, Madeline will grab. Use this to save yourself when you think you missed.
11. Neutral wall jumps. If you’re stuck between two close walls with spikes, don’t hold any direction and press jump. You’ll jump straight up the same wall. Very useful in Chapter 5.
12. Dash into crystals to recover. Dream blocks, crystals, feathers – they all refill your dash. You can touch the side of a green crystal to refill without collecting it if you need to time it better.
Switch-Specific and Setup Tips
13. Use the D-pad, not the stick, on Joy-Cons. The Switch stick has a lot of accidental diagonal input. The separate D-pad buttons on the left Joy-Con or a Pro Controller D-pad gives you much more precise 8-way dash aiming.
14. Remap your buttons. Go to Options > Controls. Most Switch players put Dash on R and Climb/Grab on ZR or L. Having jump and dash on separate hands prevents finger cramps in 500-death rooms.
15. Play handheld with reduced screen shake. On Switch, screen shake in docked mode can be intense. Turn Screen Shake to 60% in options if you’re getting motion sick, especially in Chapter 6 boss fights.
16. Turn on Assist Mode without shame. The developers put it there. You can slow game speed to 80%, give yourself extra dashes, or make yourself invincible. It doesn’t lock you out of anything and it marks your file with a small flag only. Use it to practice a room, then turn it off.
Mental Game and Collectibles
17. Stop rushing. Your death counter is a badge of honor. The game wants you to die 200 times per chapter. If you’re dying on the same screen for 10 minutes, take a 30-second break, look away, then come back.
18. Breathe in the feathers. When you get the white feather power-up in Chapter 2 and 4, don’t mash directions. Small, smooth movements. On Switch stick, pretend you’re stirring soup slowly. The feather goes where you point, not how fast you flick.
19. Strawberries are optional and they know it. The game tells you this, but really internalize it. If a strawberry is stressing you out, skip it. You can always come back with Chapter Select later. They don’t unlock the true ending.
20. But grab the cassette tapes. The B-Sides are where you actually learn to play. Chapter 1 B-Side teaches you hyper control better than the whole main game.
21. For golden strawberries, do full clears first. If you want to go for a golden, play the chapter without dying from start to finish without the berry first. Learn the consistent safe route, not the fast one.
22. Listen to the music cues. The soundtrack changes slightly when you’ve been in a room for a long time. The wind in Chapter 4 has an audio tell before it starts. Turn your Switch volume up.
23. Use the mirror at the start of Chapter 7 as a training room. That long vertical shaft with no spikes is perfect for practicing hypers and supers for 5 minutes before a session.
24. Don’t hold climb when you don’t need to. New players hold ZR the whole time. You only need it to cling to walls and carry Theo in Chapter 5. If you hold it while jumping, you’ll climb slower and waste stamina.
25. Watch your shadow. In dark rooms like Chapter 5, Madeline’s shadow on the ground shows you exactly where you’ll land. It’s more accurate than guessing your arc.
A Final Word
Celeste is a game about climbing a mountain, but it’s also a game about the voice in your head that says you can’t. The mountain is hard. The voice is hard. But the game gives you everything you need to keep going: tight controls, instant respawns, and a story that reminds you that you’re not alone in the struggle.
Take your time. Die a lot. Breathe. The summit is waiting.
