Heart of the Mountain is the fourth and final subchapter of Chapter 8: Core in Celeste. The subchapter is composed of two main sections which involve the new and unique rising ice/magma and ice/magma corridors. The first section of the subchapter has rising ice/magma in all of its rooms and the second section has shifting ice/magma corridors which rise up when the Core is hot and descend when the Core is cold. In the final room, Madeline will discover the center of the mountain, filled with new anti-gravity platforms and a vertically wrapping screen, and undo Core's change in dashing. The Crystal Heart of Chapter 8 and the Cassette to unlock Chapter 8's B-Side can both be obtained in this subchapter. The Cassette must be collected to advance forward, and the Crystal Heart must be collected to complete the chapter.
Gameplay[]
Rising magma will chase the player constantly throughout the first half of this subchapter as they advance upward through the vertically oriented rooms. When a hot/cold switch is flipped, the rising magma will turn into rising ice and function just the same. Some sections here involve parkour by bouncing on ice balls, so knowing that holding down the jump button while landing on them to get a bigger bounce is crucial. In the sixth room of the subchapter, the first set of ice balls above spikes is perfectly lined up such that holding left will bounce Madeline on them consistently. The second set of these ice balls above spikes can be perfectly bounced on by holding right and holding down the jump button for big bounces. At the top of the eighth room of the subchapter, there's a purple orb which will send the player to the second section of the subchapter (though it is possible to make it up without using the purple orb).
In the second section of the subchapter, the rooms will be back to horizontal challenges and magma will surround the top and bottom of the screen, continuing to rise like before. This time, however, setting the Core to cold will cause the ice corridor created to move downward, both from the bottom and from the ceiling. This shifting floor and ceiling section is a bit shorter than the rising magma section, but it requires a bit more creative thinking.
The Cassette room is located directly after the thirteenth room of the subchapter and is forced in your path. This room will also have the shifting ice/magma corridors and plenty of hot/cold switches to be used when needed. There aren't any dash crystals in this room, but no dashes will be required to get to the Cassette. After collecting the Cassette, the bubble that you're put in will take you all the way to the right of the room. Collecting it is required to get over to this side of the room and move onward.
The Crystal Heart of this chapter is found at the very end of the final room. In this final room, your dashes will return to how they were before entering the Core and the gravity will be lighter. The top and bottom of this screen will wrap around to each other and there's nothing in the room to kill you. As you make your way to the end, five different messages will pop up from Madeline's inner thoughts about the room. After collecting the Crystal Heart, the chapter will be completed.
Strawberries[]
There is 1 Strawberry found in this subchapter.
Berry 1
Found in the seventh room of the subchapter, you can find this final Strawberry hovering to the right of the last launching block of the room. This berry seems very tough to approach as normally you'd either run out of time or stamina and fall into the magma below. There's one key thing you need to do to get this berry easily, though. After being flung from the launching block on the left, use your other dash to get to where the Strawberry floats, and then wall jump up. DON'T hold the climb button when doing this, or else you'll activate the launching block. Instead, just wall jump back and forth and jump above the top of the launching block so you can grab the left side and finish the room, claiming the Strawberry.
Gallery[]
