The sheer strength of will it took to explain that whole "hold Z the entire game" bit and not reference "half a button press" is impressive. My friend TJ will rest easy today.

"So how's your therapy sessions going?" "I'm scaling the mountain that is my anxiety but with my hands behind my back so it's canon." "Wha-"

What I love the most about this is that all the tactics he used was intentionally implemented by the developers. The wall jumping, wave dashing, jumping away from a spiked wall, wall jumping after a dash. All of these were intentional mechanics and it's amazing

(whispers)guys he's asleep, don't tell him there's a chapter 9

17:15 "a Z press is a Z press, you can't say it's only a half"

Madeline: *Wavedashes* *Jumps infinitely off of walls* *Wall jumps off of spikes* "I'm not much of a climber" :P

For anyone interested, the way that the trick at 8:13 works is that in Celeste, if you are moving in the same direction as a spike is pointing, it won't hurt you. You can see examples of this in some rooms where you go through platforms that have spikes on them. For this trick, because Madeline is moving the same way as the spikes, the player is able to perform a wallkick on the corner of the wall without being damaged

this video was extremely well made - funny commentary, insane gameplay, great pacing and BANGER music. well done!!!

13:00 This room is technically possible grabless, but it's really REALLY dumb. Checking Euni's "Celeste 100% in 29 grabs" run around 31 mins will give you the solution if you so desire because it is way too dumb to explain in a yt comment. Always impressive to complete this game grabless, good job and entertaining vid!

8:14 There’s actually a hard-coded reason for this working as it should: spikes only interact with you if you are moving in their direction. That’s how the one-way spikes in dream blocks in Ch 2 work, because you’re going the opposite direction. It’s also what makes Chapter 1’s dashless golden possible. EDIT: Another comment says that it’s if you’re *facing* their direction, which *might* be the case? I don’t know, all my knowledge is from watching speedrunners and not playing myself, so either could be true.

Oh my gosh chapter 2 was so beautifully in depth LOVED the beautiful flourishes of your voice as you discussed the complex maneuvering required to get around.

I love the fucking *REVERSE EXTENDED HYPERJUMP* jumpscares scattered across the video lol

Carrying Theo definitely isn't climbing. That'd be like saying someone used a gun in Half-Life 2 just because they pulled a trigger on their controller even though they were using the crowbar at the time. Besides, wall jumping & wall sliding are a lot more similar to climbing than carrying Theo is & those are obviously allowed.

Honestly really loved how you pointed out how silly rules lawyering in these challenges is. It’s all for fun! If the rules make a challenge MORE boring, they’re not doing their job!

6:44 idk why but the "and 3 to the side" made me laugh WAY harder than i should have

I love that when talking about wave dashing he put melees music in the background. It is a small detail but as someone who has played the game for years it warms my heart.

Still happy your TAS commented run got recommended to me. Your playlist rules!

Hey! I've kinda become the master of playing Celeste without the grab button over the last few years, and it's super cool to see a really well made video on the challenge! Congrats on completing the challenge, getting through the hard rooms in Ridge and the last room of 2500M is no small feat. If anyone's interested in seeing more of the game without climbing, I suggest searching "No Category Left Behind Celeste GDQ", which has a run of the B-Sides without climbing! (Spoiler: 4 of them are actually possible!) (Alternatively if you're reading this in the future I'm working on a 100% breakdown on my channel.) im gonna watch more of your vids now lol

16:00 awe that little happy dance

time for my celeste nerdyness to come into play 3:40 - this isn't exactly the first room where wavedashing or any speed tech is required since you can do a very late jump basically in mid air (called cayote jump) to wrap around and wall jump from the right side of the block, this gives enough distance to make it with an up right dash; the room right after however does need speed tech. 8:00 - small nitpick but thought i'd mention it anyway, with a reverse hyper (very similar to the tech you do for the skip in the temple) into an up dash you can avoid doing the spike wall jump altogether. 8:50 - this section actually has a few ways to be beaten unintentionally, one though requires a tech called "ceiling pop" which requires holding grab for basically a frame so that's out of the question; the other one would be to do a bunny hop, basically a hyperdash (which is a wavedash but executed from the ground) followed up by a tiny jump so you can land on the ground again and jump at the very edge so you get your dash back but maintain hyper/wavedash speed (make sure to hold down so Madeline crouches and doesn't bonk her head on this second jump) and after that an up right crouch dash into wall jump to end the room. 13:00 - although perhaps doable with some crazy movement including slowfalling (yes holding jump makes you fall ever so slightly slower), the closest i've gotten is the bottom right wall, using a bunny hop and up right crouch dash into wall jump to get around the coin block. 15:00 - you can use the little steps at the bottom of the screen to wall jump under the dash block, dash up right and quickly jump along with it, getting launched but you're high enough to hit the wall and not the tentacles; you can line this step wall jump up if you do a full neutral against the left side of the dash block. 18:25 - if you get really good at feather movement you can get the feather all the way across and up dash against the wall to get through; in case the other split path wasn't as friendly. 24:10 - although i never tried doing 5b grabless i decided to give it a shot myself, because the room you ended up getting stuck on isn't actually required, with certain skips it's possible to beat the key hub without collecting neither of the keys but for grabless you'd need at least one, and to my suprise it was a very unique challenge in a lot of places i didn't expect it to be, including the room where Theo says "uuh, yeah, this one's impossible" but was challenging for different reasons, the b-side of temple is doable grabless but will definitely get you thinking in plenty of spots. 26:10 - same as 5b, never tried and now working on it, first few screens proved to be quite the interesting challenge so far, i'll see how far i can go before i truly get stuck.

17:22 I feel like Sample's about to talk about parallel universes any time now.

i love that celeste literally has keybinds for complex movement tech

I mean… yeah… why would you consider holding a crystal above your head “climbing”? Ask someone who has never played Celeste and they’ll look at you like this: •-•?

i cant believe how painful this must be. Just doing Chapter 9 alone has tested my patience and made be about to go mad

The mere thought of doing this challenge in Farewell has me sweating profusely.

Pannenkoek has prepared me for this. You could say that grabbing Theo is only a 0.5x Z press. Because when counted in isolation, you have to count the entire action, but when considered in a full game run, it adds no additional Z presses since you can simply leech off the previous one :)

15:36 In this room, you can get into the bubble, go up-right, then as soon as you hit the ceiling, hold down to fast fall. By doing that, you can wall jump off the wall on the ground, then dash onto the RIGHT side of the dash block.

Anyone who expects a consistent upload schedule when constantly doing challenges this insane has brain damage. Love the work and effort put into these videos

8:12 its called "corner kick" and the explanation is that spikes are only dangerous when you face in the opposite direction from where they are pointing towards, so in this case they are completely safe. At 16:43 , there is a glich that if you complete 5B instead of 5A you can still progress to 6A(I haven't checked if 5B is possible grabless but there is a good chance it is) Edit: no I'm dumb I forgot about the Theo section(5B)

Finally The return of Sample with his challenges!

I actually attempted this challenge about a year ago and couldn’t figure out how to get past chapter four, so it’s cool to see that it was possible after all! Great video!

I loved the melee music during the wavedash explanation

This is a really interesting and unique challenge I hadn't thought of! Also, sometimes things get bound to the same button, this challenge was about not climbing, not "don't use the Z button ever"

"I could just hold down grab from before the game even starts and win with one grab" reminds me of the "half an A press" thing A Z press is a Z press, you can't say it's only a half

26:14 that level? oh no. We don't talk about that.

Surprisingly, doing Chapter 1 Dashless gives me a lot of knowledge about how the mechanics for this challenge work. ALSO, great job.

These challenges are great! And not only that, but your commentary is top-notch. I've watched each of them (except for this one, yet) at least twice. Thanks for the entertainment!

MY FAVOURITE CHALLENGE RUNNER IS BACK! I'm one of your 18.3% female subscribers lmao, I found your Kirby TAS like everyone else and have been absolutely desperately waiting for the next vid to drop. Goddamn I hope you do another HK or Celeste run, but it'd be interesting to see a Mario Odyssey run or something. Platforming is such a haven for challenge runs and I love your narrative styles! Good on you mate, hope to see more from you!

I love your video man! Really entertaining, it’s fun to see you play the game in a way I never thought possible. Keep it up!

We gonna talk about how every time he does a reverse extended hyper jump he put that on screen and you can here a vine boom effect 12:20 😂

I haven't seen the video yet but because it's Celeste i know it's going to be cool

1:23 Very weirdly gender validating to be subscribed lmfao- thanks for the tiny burst of euphoria, and great video!

16:19 more respect to Theo, He is more than just "a dude".

12:33 reverse extended hyper jump

Your commentary still eclipses mine when feeling at my best. Godspeed, Sample. Your challenges are superior on this website.

Dude, your blend of engaging commentary, humor, and interesting challenges is excellent. You're doing cool stuff here, and someone should tell you that 👍

5:46 for the first section here at the hotel i always just dashed back and forth between screens to get height and grab the key. It's easier than dealing with the spikes hahah! Ive... never done it the legitemate way

Oh my god I'm so happy I got this video recommended ! Although far from being a pro at the game, I became obsessed with grabless in celeste, and tried to see what I can do with such rules. I did some little things such as listing all the strawberries in the game and seeing which were possible grabless, tried the B-Sides (from another comment apparently a lot more are possible than what I thought !) and I had a blast doing that. I also tried completing a run like this but unfortunately I did not master all the techs (at the time!), which led me to skip 4 screens. This video definitely motivated me to try again and to finally complete this ! This video brought back many memories and reminded me how fun this game was. Thank you ! ❤

I love this channel! I was in dire need of some more video game challenge run content, and I absolutely adore Celeste! Good shit dude

tbh you have quickly become one of my fave youtubers. I first stumbled upon the commentated Kirby SSU TAS and absolutely loved it. Went on to go watch other videos that you've made. (Some a couple times now lol) Your editing, presentation, and explanation work so well & I get super excited whenever I see a notification that you uploaded. Also helps that you're covering all of my favorite games lmao but anyways keep up the great stuff! You're an amazing creator & I'll always be happy to watch the stuff you put out!

This was a super engaging video! Love your narration and dedication to the challenge.

Wow, man. Absolutely amazing in your dedication and skill. Not to mention your presentation of this! Great video.

That was an amazing video!!! It was so much fun to watch!!! It's so exciting seeing you go from my favourite game from my childhood (Kirby Superstar Ultra) to my current favourite game! 😍

It's funny watching a challenge run for a game you actually know well and know most of the tricks for, but you still showed me a couple new things. Loved the video! I'm amazed at the restraint it must have taken to not make a 0.5 Z presses joke during the rant about holding it.

17:00 "In this video, I'll be explaining exactly what I do to complete Mirror Temple in 0.5 grab presses. But first, we need to clear something up, because every time I post a half grab press video, I get the same comments over and over asking what it means, even though I always have a whole paragraph in the description explaining it, which even starts with 'If you're wondering what a half grab press is, read this before commenting to ask.' But maybe what you guys need isn't a paragraph. Maybe you guys need an example."

This was SUPER entertaining, Props to u for going to all that trouble and spending so many hours on this challenge.

You may have spent hours on some of these rooms, but you also got to listen to the Celeste soundtrack for hours so it was totally worth it.

He's back babyy Real happy to see you playing Celeste the game has been a huge hyperfixation of mine recently

I can't believe I never thought of this. The dashless 1A was one of my favorite parts of Celeste, I'm totally using this as an excuse to play the whole game again with an added challenge. Thank you!!! Great video too :)

Honestly this video made me want to buy and play Celeste and I'm glad I did so thanks dude and I hope to see some more entertaining content from you.

I literally just started the game last week lol. Now i gotta watch the challenge run cause u did it, nice.

I think your rules for this challenge are perfect - you really captured the true goal of challenge runs like this, and the rules you chose reflect that brilliantly!

love your videos dude! its so fun watching you be an actual pro at this game lmao

Your videos makes me smile through the avg work day. Thank you!

Recently found your channel from the hollow knight video and just wanted to say, Love your challenge videos!

Beat Celeste a few days ago for the first time and I’ve spent just as many hours completing 4 b-sides for the core as I spent for the entire game

probably the best celeste video i've seen. awesome work 👍

very cool video, definitely gonna watch more stuff from you. Also, great music choices

For anyone wondering, the song at 10:38 is from Ace Attorney: Justice For All, and is called Search ~ Core 2002 Also one of my favourite game series

I feel that with the enormous amounts of patience, creativity, perseverance and skill you spend on these challenge runs for the sake of content, you’ve at least earned the right to be a little inconsistent with your upload schedule (especially considering you need to edit out all the recordings of you failing)

Always cool to see more Celeste content like this, awesome video

What a cool challenge that I have no intention of putting myself through😆 Very well done on your part!

the mantis lords boss music at 5:20. good taste

16:09 ummm akshually it’s a reverse extended super dash not hyper

I love all of the song you are using in your video, and this is a pretty difficult that you had done

Amazing music selections. Congrats for the Run

9:53 Technically I believe this is called a reversed wavedash, a hyper is performed from the ground instead.

1:17 babe new hrt just dropped

I love the wide variety of background tracks you use.

I love how every time there's a reverse extended hyperjump, you can hear a faint vine boom.

10:00 >"i'm a casual" >climb moutain climbing game without climbing *Press X to doubt*

This isn't a no z button challenge it's a no climbing challenge completely different challenges so this is acceptable. 16:50

Wow, great video! Commentary was super witty and funny. Subbed :)

Dude this video is incredible, you have a great sense of humor! Nothing beats watching someone find a crazy new way to make an already difficult game even harder.

I’m actually curious how far you could get into farewell with this challenge. There isn’t a lot of wall space. You don’t need to climb a whole lot. I can think of maybe one room that you have to hold onto a wall for any period of time. Completely fair not to even attempt it though 😅

9:53 This is actually just a reverse wavedash 11:29 This is also just a reverse wavedash 12:20 This is also just a reverse wavedash 12:34 This is also just a reverse wavedash 16:08 This is actually a reverse extended superdash A reverse extended hyperjump/hyperdash is when you crouch dash along the ground until you regain your dash, and then jump in the opposite direction of the dash.

This is my first video of yours that I watched. It caught my attention because, one, I'm a *HUGE* fan of Celeste, and two, it seemed very interesting. This video was VERY impressive, so great job! I also thought that the 'Reverse Extended Hyperjump' was hilarious. Great job! Edit: Nevermind, the first video of yours I watched was the Kirby and the Forgotten Land without jumping video. Still, love these challenges! Edit 2: Geez, I have to pay attention to my KZfaq recommendations. Apparently I also watched Kirby Super Star Ultra without jumping.

Great video and music choices

20:13 as a gd player, fp doesnt scare me

17:35 yeah pretty sure that counts as half a button press ;) lol

This is great! This makes me wanna go and finally finish chapter 9.

Switching to the melee theme song during the wave dash explanation was a very nice editing touch, well played

18:07 thanks Sam

0:03 HE SAID IT, HE SAID THE THING

love your challenges

I had a full giggle at the statistics, I literally subscribed after watching 1 of your videos then started binging your channel

17:40 one long press? why not just switch climbing to inverse at that point lol

18:00 how to beat celeste in half a grab

This was awesome. I've never played or watched this game before but I can tell this challenge was insanely difficult.

I loved this video. Excellent work