How To Enable Cheat Mode Celeste
Melchior Dow
Cheat Mode is a hidden feature in Celeste that can unlock every chapter in the game, and other features such as Golden Strawberries, B-Sides and C-Sides, as well as opening the Heart Gates without the need of any Crystal Hearts. Saves with this mode enabled will have a small green stamp with the "cheat mode" text on it. This mode also doesn't change the player's berry or heart counts. It also unlocks variant mode for all saves.
Cheat Mode can be enabled in two ways, with or without Debug Mode. The first way is to unlock it from the Prologue chapter. In order to make it work, the player has to go to the left in Prologue chapter, where the intro car can be found and perform a combination of inputs shown below:
Cheat Mode unlocks every chapter and their alternate sides, as well as giving the player access to everything without the need to unlock anything. This mode is very useful for speedrunners or players who need to practice a specific chapter on a separate save file. Cheat Mode also allows players to run miscellaneous categories such as All B/C-Sides, All Hearts, etc. without the need of unlocking everything beforehand.
Cheat Mode is a hidden feature in Celeste. Activating Cheat Mode unlocks all chapters with B- and C-Sides included, all Crystal Heart Gates without the need of collecting the Crystal Hearts, as well as Variant Mode, Golden Strawberries and PICO-8. However, Strawberries, Cassettes and Crystal Hearts still need to be collected. Cheat Mode is useful to practice a specific chapter or a checkpoint on a separate save. Unlocking Cheat Mode on a given save file adds a permanent "Cheat Mode" banner on the file select menu. It can be removed only by deleting the save file, yet Variant Mode and PICO-8 will remain unlocked.
In Prologue, go left to the screen with the intro car, and perform the following specific inputs. Cheat mode will become enabled, a sound effect similar to the feather's will play, and you will be taken back to the map. There is no time limit to do the inputs.
Cheat Mode is required for some speedrun categories such as all B-Sides, all C-Sides, or specific individual levels. Since getting there typically requires beating multiple chapters, and since Assist Mode, Variant Mode, or even Debug Mode are not allowed for most categories, Cheat Mode provides an easy way to skip ahead.
Modders also use Cheat Mode frequently, allowing them to skip to a specific chapter without completing every level. Using Assist Mode can achieve the same, but it takes longer. Golden Strawberry hunters tend to use it in modded maps to have them unlocked without having to recomplete the map on a separate save file.
There is no good reason that anyone can say that justifies the use of Assist mode on B or C-Sides. There's no story in those modes, it just purely designed for the challenge. It was a terrible oversight by Matt and co which has actively hurt the games reputation.
It may have "hurt the games reputation" amongst trophy hunters but I don't see anything beyond that. The game did extremely well critically, and many gaming outlets and consumers actually praised it FOR having assist mode. I would imagine that most players that want to 100% Celeste will use assists, and I don't see what's wrong with that.
For as much as we love trophies you guys seem to be forgetting that the game is still the most important thing, certainly in the eyes of the developers. Many developers don't care or see the audience's love for achievements, which is why many don't fight to have platinums or better trophy lists. Developers that do care about trophies gave us My Name Is Mayo. At least Celeste has a platinum, and you are free to achieve it with or without assists, does it really matter which you choose?
If you say "they don't care about trophies/achievements" then there is basically no point to doing B/C Sides if you're just doing it with assist on. They're intended to be an extra challenge, so if you negate the challenge then why are you doing them? The justification doesn't make sense to me in that regard.
I get the inclusion of it and think it's fine for usage in story so people can see the whole thing if they're not that great at the platforming, but allowing it in the part of the game that is there to be challenging just seems like a weird decision to me.
I do because outside of the main story, there is no reason to complete the other content other than the satisfaction of beating the challenges painstakingly designed by Matt. The Assist Mode adds nothing to B/C-Sides and not only diminishes his work but also actively hurts the game by adding a further psychologically negative element to those who are trying to 100% the game legitimately but constantly have this reminder that they could make any given challenge "juuust that much easier, all you need to do is click that assist button."
Fine. Take away the trophies. I've played Matt's previous games, like MoneySieze, Give Up, Robot and An Untitled Story. 100%'d them all with no "achievements" to show for it. I did it for the challenge, why else would anyone go out of their way to complete specifically non-canon challenge content. Which reinforces my point - there is no justifiable reason to allow the use of Assist Mode for the End-game challenge content. There's no narrative benefit to finishing it - it's just challenges. With assist mode it's literally nothing.
g-bake, I assume your response is going to be something about me caring way too much. Yeah, I do - I like Matt's games. I also like trophies and challenging games and I like that, for the most part, there is an accurate representation in the rarity of trophies relative to how many people played the game. It's satisfying to have some sub 1% trophies in my milestone trophy list and I feel a bit cheated out of the effort I've put into Celeste clearly not matching the rarity of the trophies themselves. You don't really have much of a platform on which to argue when you're talking to me on a website that showcases earned trophies in these ways.
It opens up the opportunity for anyone to play through the extra stages. Someone who wants to experience the entirety of the content they paid for can now explore it to their hearts content with assist mode. Maybe someone likes the game and wants to take on the challenge but gets stuck on a level or two, no use putting the game down for that one if you still want a challenge and to experience the other levels that were put into the game that you spent your money on.
The accuracy of the rarity definitely depends on the game and how many people have played it. LBP 2 has a pretty rare plat but thats probably because there are a lot of people who have played it and as you know, trophy hunters are the minority.
As for your own trophies and showcasing them accordingly, next to no one really cares or judges your profile (unless you're one of those numb nuts that plays easy plats over and over on various platforms and regions). For example, I played through Bioshock on survival difficulty, no vita chambers recently. It was very very challenging for me and I'm very proud of the trophy. Come to find out about 3/4 through my play through that there's a glitch that allows you to bypass survivor mode and play on easy all the way through. I still finished my playthrough and got the trophy but didn't make a big deal about why the glitch exists, etc. You know you got the trophy and you know you did it without assist, so stop caring about some silly number next to your plat because it "literally means nothing"
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