Core C-Side is the C-Side of Chapter 8: Core in Celeste. This C-Side introduces the player to hyperdashes and brings back the mechanics of many other chapters in its final room. Progression is locked until the player opens a gate by having all 23 other Crystal Hearts in the game.
Gameplay[]
To make it past the gate in the first room, the player must have every Crystal Heart, meaning that all other C-Sides must be completed before this one. The first room blocks the player's progress, but only serves as a check. The second room has the Bird show the player how to do hyperdashes, followed by the player doing multiple in a row. The third room requires some careful movement with launching blocks to get around crystals. The final room is a humongous horizontal stretch with ice/magma corridors persisting throughout, featuring objects from other chapters along the way as well as one last hyperdash test.
Strategies[]
Room 1
Get over the large gap in the room with some dashes and the heart gate will open for you as long as you have the necessary Crystal Hearts, then you can advance to the next room.
Room 2
Starting from here, Core's change in dashing will be in place. To the right is a thin corridor with crystals on the top and bottom with a few disappearing platforms scattered inbetween. The Bird above will tell the player the inputs for a hyperdash, which will be needed to make it across this area. Hold down the down and right button, then press jump and dash at the same time to hyperdash, then repeat this three more times across each disappearing platform and you'll make it to the end of the room.
Room 3
This room has some skull binoculars available to preview the room, if needed. Jump to the launching block and launch up and move right to fall down between the crystals on both sides. Eventually, dash up-right and then straight up and grab the next launching block to be shot to the right. Hold left if needed to avoid the crystals to the right, then you'll fall to another launching block which you can take up and hold right with. Move right until you need to go back left and grab the launching block's right side. Try to grab it at around the middle portion, then release and get launched to the right into a dash crystal which you should use to dash up-right once, then fall a bit, then up-right again. You'll flip the hot/cold switch and turn the hot bumper below into a safe normal bumper which you can bounce up on. Then, fall a bit to the right such that you can move left into the bumper's right side and be bounced far to the right. Then, dash up-left into the next bumper to be bounced right again, then dash up-left again into the last one to bounced into the hot/cold switch and the end of the room.
Room 4
This room has some skull binoculars available to preview the room, if needed. This final room will be a very long one with tons of sections to master. Begin by jumping onto the traffic light block and riding it to the right, then jump right as it reaches the right side to use its momentum to get launched right. Dash up-right and then straight right to hit a hot/cold switch and land on a falling platform. Jump right to another falling platform and once more to another one, then jump right again to then grab and climb up a falling platform on the right. Keep jumping right to flip the next hot/cold switch and land on a falling platform below. Jump right again to collect a dash crystal, then dash up-right and dash up-right again shortly after to dash through the space block directly into another dash crystal, then fall a bit and dash straight right twice through the next two space blocks to make it to another falling platform. Jump right onto another falling platform, then jump right off of this one to aim for the right side of a bumper below which can bounce you to the right. You'll reach another dash crystal after bouncing on a bumper, then you can dash onto the first pink cloud. Jump right off of all of the four pink clouds going to the right until you land on a swap block. Dash straight right and jump to get a lot of momentum and reach a hot/cold switch and another falling platform. Jump to the right and grab another falling platform, then hold on for a bit to let the magma corridor above you rise up. Jump to the left and grab that falling platform for a bit, then jump right again to climb and jump to the last falling platform when possible. Jump to the right to claim another dash crystal, then dash up-right and you'll be able to land on an angry platform. Quickly run right and dash straight left into the angry platform and hot/cold switch and grab the angry platform to be taken far to the right. When the angry platform crashes into the wall above, let go and hold right to be launched far to the right into another hot/cold switch and a falling platform you must grab and climb up. Quickly jump to the next falling platform, climb up it and jump to the third one, then quickly jump over it to the right to then fall into a spring on the falling platform to the right. After being bounced right, you'll flip a hot/cold switch and then need to bounce on another spring on the right side of another falling platform. Be careful, because the hot/cold switch will freeze the game state very briefly which can mess up your timing. After bouncing on this spring, there's one more spring to aim for, then after this bounce you'll reach a dash crystal. Dash straight up to flip the hot/cold switch, then fall a bit and dash straight right to reach another dash crystal. You'll then be in an area with crystals from the top and bottom of the scream with small gaps to get through and dash crystals to keep you airborne. To get forward safely, dash straight up after collecting the dash crystal, then dash straight right to collect another one. Dash straight up and straight right again into another dash crystal. Dash straight up to flip the hot/cold switch, then fall until you can dash straight right into another dash crystal. Dash straight up from here to flip another hot/cold switch, then fall and dash straight right again for one more dash crystal. After collecting this dash crystal, dash straight up and up-right, then aim for the right side of the nearby launching block and launch yourself to the right. You'll reach another dash crystal which you should use to dash straight right and then up-right to flip a hot/cold switch and proceed to land on the shattering block which appears. Jump to the right and grab the right side of the shattering block to the right, then jump right after climbing up and grab the right side of the next shattering block. Climb up and jump to the right to climb the falling platform to the right, wait a bit, and jump over it to flip the hot/cold switch. Fall down to the launching block below and use it to get to the ledge to the right. You'll be able to collect a dash crystal, then as you continue right you can flip the hot/cold switch one last time and meet the bird again. The final corridor will make you do two hyperdashes in a row, then you'll reach a dash crystal which you can dash up-right with twice to reach the Crystal Heart and complete the level.