Climbjumps Variations
Climbjumps are pillars of covering vertical distances in Celeste, and they consist of pressing jump and grab while Madeline is close to a wall or grabbing said wall.
Madeline's maximum stamina (without overclocking) is 110, and climbjumps consume 27.5 stamina, so max stamina allows for 4 climbjumps. Since jumping lasts for 12 frames before losing speed, the fastest way of climbing is:
12,J,G
12,K,G
12,J,G
12,K,G
At maximum speed, starting from 110 stamina, this can gain 84 pixels of height at an average speed of -105, consuming about 1.31 stamina per pixel. Up to 8 frames can be added at the end of each climbjump to gain up to 22 pixels more height at increasingly lower average speed.
To cover medium distances or conserve some stamina, the most effective way of climbing (called a half-stamina climb) is to do a wallboost, which regains stamina, and then do a climbjump towards the wall. Assuming the wall is to Madeline's right, the inputs are:
1,J,G
3,R,J
# collide here -- the previous and next lines will often need frame counts adjusted
3,J
1,R,J
1,J
1,R,J
1,L,J
1,R,J
13,R,K,G
At maximum speed, starting from 110 stamina, this can gain 174 pixels of height at an average speed of about -103.85, consuming about 0.63 stamina per pixel. It's possible to add one frame before turning around in the wallboost, and up to 7 more frames after the climbjump, to gain up to 22 pixels more height at increasingly lower average speed.
A variant of the half stamina climb (known as the double half stamina climb) consists of doing two climbjumps towards the wall instead of just one. This maintains the same average speed as repeating 12,J,G while consuming about 8% less stamina per pixel. Inputs are:
9,J,G
1,R,J
1,L,J
1,R,J
2,R,K,G
12,R,J,G
At maximum speed, starting from 110 stamina, this can gain 91 pixels of height at an average speed of -105, consuming about 1.21 stamina per pixel. It's possible to add one frame before turning around in the wallboost, and up to 8 more frames after the climbjump, to gain up to 28 pixels more height at increasingly lower average speed.
There are two main ways to climb while conserving all stamina.
The fastest way to climb alternates wallboosts and neutrals, repeatedly consuming 27.5 stamina but always getting it refunded. Inputs are:
11,J,G
1,L,J
1,K
24,R,K
This gains 46.5 pixels of height per repetition at an average speed of about -75.405.
To climb truly staminaless can only be done with repeated neutrals:
1,J
24,R,J
This gains 25.5 pixels of height per repetition at an average speed of -61.2.
The method Player.WallJumpCheck determines whether Madeline can climbjump (or wallbounce or wallkick) on any given frame. If it returns true, then Wall-L or Wall-R will be shown next to the Stamina counter in Studio's Info HUD. The specific checks are:
- There is a wall at most 3 pixels to Madeline's side, or at most 5 pixels if Madeline is
DashAttacking,DashDiris straight up, and there are not spikes between her and the wall - Madeline is able to uncrouch (not checked by StHitSquash)
- Madeline is at least 3 pixels away from the room's left edge if the wall is to her left, and 4 pixels away from the room's right edge if the wall is to her right
- There is not an edge-blocking
ClimbBlockerinside the wall at Madeline's height -- Invisible Barriers are the only vanilla entity that has this type ofClimbBlocker
Additionally, Madeline must be in StNormal, StDash, StClimb, StRedDash, or StHitSquash to climbjump, as those states' update methods are the only places from which Player.WallJumpCheck and Player.ClimbJump are called.
If Madeline can either climbjump or ground jump (including from coyote time), she will prioritize ground jumping. The only way to climbjump while on the ground or in coyote time is to enter StClimb first.
If Madeline can either climbjump or grab a wall, she will prioritize grabbing. There are many ways to avoid grabbing in order to climbjump instead:
- Madeline must have 0 or positive (downwards) vertical speed and be within 2 pixels of the wall to grab. If she is moving upwards or is exactly 3 pixels away from the wall (i.e. there's a 2 pixel gap between her and the wall), she will climbjump instead.
- Being crouched, having horizontal speed away from the wall, having less than 20 stamina, and being in StDash also make it impossible for Madeline to grab the wall. If any of those conditions are true, Madeline will climbjump even if she is moving down and less than 3 pixels away from the wall.
Doing a forward climbjump (L/R,J,G) before colliding with the wall (i.e. while not having retained speed) will give Madeline a horizontal speed boost of 40, which is called cornerboost. This will result in colliding with the wall and getting retained speed, which will be restored if Madeline clears the wall before the Retained timer runs out (within 4 frames). Climbjumps also cancel dashes, preventing them from resetting Madeline's speed by ending naturally. CBs are one of the main ways of gaining speed past the limits most dash techs impose, such as hyper dashes; and they are a staple of dashless maps, such as Prologue, since in most cases Madeline can't get more than 130 speed (90 from walking + 40 from a forwards jump).
10,R,Z
# hyper
1,R,J
9,R
# cornerboost
1,R,J,G
10,R
1,R,J
If Madeline's speed is below 144.33349609375 (speed - friction + 40 < 180), there's the possibility that after doing a cornerboost, she won't collide with the wall, so she can cornerboost again to get a total 80-speed boost. This tech gets harder the higher Madeline's speed is because she needs to be far enough left in the pixel that she don't collide with the wall after the first cornerboost, so it will require manipulating her subpixel position. This tech is mostly used for dashless movement.
1,R,J,G
1,R,K,G
10,R
1,R,K
Doing a cornerboost while moving away from the wall will still give Madeline 40 speed towards the wall. This is useful to cancel high-speed dashes or gain more height when a forwards cornerboost is impossible or sub-optimal. Another option is to turn around and then do a neutral climbjump. This won't lose any speed, but holding forward during the next 11 frames will result in a wallboost, which sets Madeline's speed to 130 away from the wall. Not holding forwards for 11 frames results in more than 40 speed being lost to increased air friction, so a reverse cornerboost is preferable to maintain high speeds unless the neutral cornerboost can collide with an opposite ledge and wallboost while having retained speed.
14,R,U,Z
1,L,K,G
40,R
Wallboosts (often called "woost", occasionally WB) consist of doing a climbjump without holding any direction (1,J,G), then turning around within 11 frames (the same length as the jump timer, though not tied to it). Madeline will get her X speed set to ±130 (specifically the direction away from the wall she climbjumped on) and gain 27.5 stamina. Wallboosts are handled early in the Player.Update code before the horizontal input direction is determined, and thus the speed gain is delayed by a frame. This tech allows for a lot of different movement options, including half-stamina climbs and staminaless climbs, as well as:
Wallboosts can keep Madeline crouched while moving away from a wall, mainly used for clearing ceilings without dashes (5 and 6 tile Overhangs).
Wallboosts can slow Madeline down from high speeds in an instant, often done to use the speed for some distance and then canceling it. Some players call this a "cobwob".
Doing a neutral climbjump, landing on a ledge, then turning around and jumping forward. This gives Madeline around 165 X speed (130 + 40 - ground friction). This is mostly used for clearing big gaps in dashless maps (and can be further combined with a delayed ultra for even more dashless speed).
Wallboosts always give 27.5 stamina, even if the climbjump didn't use any stamina, which will put Madeline's stamina to 137.5. This can be achieved by being grounded while climbjumping or by refilling stamina in the middle of the jump before turning around. All of that extra stamina goes away as soon as Madeline is "refill"ed again, by being grounded again for example, since refills set her stamina to 110.
Doing a neutral climbjump and getting close to a wall facing the opposite direction, either by doing a neutral one frame before the climbjump or having speed before the climbjump, then turning around as Madeline reach the wall allows her to do a CB that will have 130 - friction + 40 X speed; or a DCB with good subpixels that will have 130 - (friction + 40)*2. Moreover, one way to ensure the right subpixels for a dcb is to collide with the wall and then move 4 frames away. This tech is only practical/doable in dashless maps with walls close to each other.
Doing a wallboost and then doing another one after facing the wall again is a good way of clearing a gap. It gets 0.48px less horizontal distance than doing a wallkick into a 2f wallboost, but it lets Madeline stay crouched, which is useful when there are solids or hazards above. The optimal way of doing one is:
1,J,G
1,R,J
1,L,J
1,K,G
100,R,K
Celeste TAS