Central Chamber is the second subchapter of Chapter 5: Mirror Temple B-Side in Celeste. The subchapter has many paths that the player can go to with a slight puzzle element to unlock the way up the chamber. A large mirror at the end of this subchapter will suck the player in when approached and spawn them back in the next subchapter after waking up.
Gameplay[]
This is the only part of the B-Side levels to have splitting paths. Fitting of Mirror Temple's theme, the player must explore around these paths to make it to some keys and dash switches throughout the subchapter which allow for more progression. The primary goal is to be able to ride a red bubble in the second room of the subchapter straight up to reach an area in the room above which is normally unreachable due to the walls being covered by spikes. However, this red bubble's path is blocked by a lock which must be opened with one of the keys, and a temple gate at the top area must be opened. To the left of the first room of the subchapter is a lock which can be opened to then ride a red bubble across the rooms to the right and reach a new room on the far right which eventually leads to a temple gate being opened. Opening this temple gate (as well as the lock in the middle of the second room of the subchapter) allow the player to take a different red bubble to the right and reach the part of the upper room which has the dash switch capable of opening the last temple gate.
Strategies[]
Room 1
In this room you can either go up or to the right or, with a key, to the left. Going up will reach the main hub of the subchapter, going right will lead to a path which leads to the right key, and going left gives access to a red bubble which lets you reach the far right room and thus unlock the lower temple gate.
Room 2
This room will be a hub for most things in this subchapter. To the left is a room which gives access to the left key as well as a red bubble to eventually travel to the area which opens the upper temple gate. To the right is a room blocked by the first temple gate which can lead to the area with the upper temple gate. In this room is a lock in the center which blocks the path of both transportation red bubbles.
Left Key
By going to the left of the second room of the subchapter, this room is reached. At the top-left is a red bubble which can be ridden to the right (if the lock and temple gate in the way are opened) to gain access to the upper temple gate. Lower in the room are four key tokens which need to be collected to open a temple gate. As soon as you drop into this area, you need to do a diagonally up-left dash to reach a key token hidden behind the middle swap block. If you don't do this, this key token may become unreachable without dying. Fall down into the dash crystal and dash up-left, then grab the left side of the middle swap block and ride it up to its starting position. Jump to the left to reach another key token and grab the left side of the nearby swap block, then jump to the right side of it. Jump to the right and pass through the dash crystal to land on the lowest key token, then dash straight up to grab the right side of the middle swap block. Ride it up again, then jump to the right to grab the right side of the right swap block. Then, jump to the right into the last key token and you'll be able to go to the right to collect the left key.
With this key obtained, you can unlock either the lock in the center of the second room of the subchapter or the lock to the left of the first room of the subchapter. The former option doesn't unlock any more progression at that point, so it's recommended to do it second and unlock the left side room first.
Right Key
By unlocking the lock to the left of the first room of the subchapter, a room is unlocked with many crystals and red bubbles. Ride the first red bubble left, then dash straight up into the next one, then ride that one left as well and dash straight down into the next, then repeat this again for another red bubble which must be dashed up into. After this red bubble is entered, ride it to the left briefly before dashing down-left into another red bubble. Aim it up-left into another red bubble, then that red bubble down-right, then the third red bubble straight left. Dash up-left out of this red bubble into the last red bubble, then this red bubble can be ridden right to pass back through the whole room, the first room of the subchapter, and most of the room to the right until you see the opening in the ceiling.
At that point, dash straight up and climb the wall to continue on. However, if you don't have the key to unlock this red bubble route, there is another way to reach this area. By going to the right of the first room of the subchapter, this long room with a lot of swap blocks is encountered. Jump off the left ledge and dash to the right just before landing on the spikes below, then grab onto the swap block for a bit. Eventually, let go and grab the right side of the swap block below when you fall to it, then jump to the right when it reaches the right side and touch the dash crystal, allowing you to dash up-right and grab the next swap block. Quickly jump to the right side of this swap block and wall jump to the right into another dash crystal. Dash up-right into the last swap block and repeat the process but grab the right side of the swap block and jump off of it when you can reach the upper area and enter the next room like before.
In the room above, there is a red bubble and three swap blocks lined up next to each other. Dash into the red bubble and ride it to the left, and before you hit the spikes on the right side of the swap block you should dash straight up and grab the dash crystal and the left side of the swap block above. Jump to the left, and dash straight to the right into the swap block and hit the jump button to get a huge boost to the left allowing you to land on a small floor over the spikes, then go to the left room from there to collect the right key.
Lower Temple Gate
After collecting both keys and unlocking both locks, you should next aim to unlock one of the temple gates and unlock more progression. By going to the left of the first room of the subchapter you can use the red bubble at the far left side to travel all the way to the right side of the long room to the right through a corridor of spikes to reach another room.
In this room, you'll need to keep in mind how swap block momentum works. Stand on the first swap block facing right, then dash right and jump right to plop right into the swap block on the right, which you should grab. Let go when this swap block reaches the top to get a boost up, then dash straight right to bump into the incoming swap block and hit the jump button to be launched to the left. Grab the swap block you arrive at, then let go and jump up when this swap block reaches the top to be boosted up to allow you to climb through the upper transition.
There will be blades and red bubble across this next room, and timing entering each red bubble is very important. Stand at the ledge and jump to the left when the first blade is at either edge to ride the red bubble to the left. Jump over the platform you reach and ride the next red bubble up, dashing straight to the left through the gap in the spikes when you fall next to it. Fall down into the next red bubble and take it to the left, dashing straight up shortly after and climb up the bit of the wall on the right. Jump to the left into the next red bubble when the blades to the left are both in the middle of their cycles. Before you hit the spikes, dash either up or down and fall into the red bubble below. Take this red bubble up, then fall down again and dash to the left through the gap in the spikes and fall into another red bubble. Ride this red bubble straight up, then there will be a blade to the left and to below to the left. With proper timing, you should dash in the lower section of the first blade's cycle and move to the left side of the second blade's cycle, but if your timing is off this can be adjusted to dash at different sides of the blades. To the left is a dash switch which can be pressed to open the lower temple gate. A skip can be done utilizing the game's strange momentum to boost yourself to the right with specific dashes on top of the dash switch and be launched over the spike floor above. This is only really needed in speedruns and shouldn't be done otherwise.
Go back to the second room of the subchapter and then to the room to the left again, then you'll be able to use the red bubble in this room to go to the right and over the spike gap to the right and reach another red bubble, which can be taken straight up into another room which opens the upper temple gate.
Room 9
A setup of crystals can be seen in this room which allows you to dash up-left and land right on the swap block which arrives with a spring on top. Grab the left side of this swap block and hold on as it moves back to the left. When you pass the area where the crystals above open up, jump up and dash straight down onto the spring to bounce up and dash again to the left to get to safety. Then dash switch seen to the left opens up the upper temple gate which means you can ride the red bubble from below up and go to the top transition of this room to move on.
Room 10
This room has some skull binoculars available to preview the room, if needed. There are five distinct sections of this room and it is very vertically large. Go to the right in the first red bubble past the first two blades and grab the right wall. Safely climb down past the blade below and jump into the red bubble when the blade is in the middle of its cycle, taking it straight up. There are three blades moving fast in the area above, with disappearing platforms usable inbetween. You can usually dash safely straight to the left underneath each blade whenever they start moving up, but if you're slow then you can also dash over the blade as it goes down. When you reach the red bubble on the level, take it up and fall down a bit before dashing up-right and grabbing the swap block as it arrives. You should naturally avoid the blades as you move to the right, you just need to hold yourself in a spot that doesn't take you into the crystals in the middle. Climb up a bit and then you can jump into the red bubble above, which should be ridden straight up to reach another red bubble. This next red bubble should be taken up-left, then you can fall a bit to the left before grabbing the right wall. Jump to the left and dash past the blade either above or below depending on your timing and you can reach another red bubble to go straight up. In the area above are two red bubbles on the same horizontal level and a small gap above in the middle. Carefully time dashing straight up into this gap and you'll arrive at a large mirror. Hit both dash switches to activate this mirror and stand close to it to be sucked into it and finish the subchapter.
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