Formatted a lil differently from beginner lobby! They're listed in journal order but numbered in the order I completed the levels, and rather than review the heartside level standalone, I added a ‘HS’ comment on each level. Also, sorry, this post got a lot longer than my beginner lobby one! I have a few questions for the community at the end as well, feel free to skip lol.

Sleeping Under Stars: My experience of this level was… bookended. Everything in the middle was amazing and lots of fun. The first room I did (Nonlinear, I picked the worst one- the one where you cannot under any circumstances dash into the jelly or you die, my first ever jelly gameplay after doing the gym where they teach you to dash into the jelly) and the last room were awful for me. Actually, the final room of this level is the first room I’ve actually *disliked* in this collab. The weird offset regrabs alone were frustrating, but fine, that’s the mechanic, I’ll get there. But WHY does the last pufferfish blast send you FURTHER than where the jellyfish throw lands, and WHY. IS THERE ANOTHER DIFFICULT SPIKE TUNNEL AFTERWARDS. I DID THE RIDICULOUS HARD THING JUST LET ME LEAVE. I don’t want to see pufferfish again right now. Don’t look at the names of the red levels.  7  
HS- This wasn’t hard and I even figured out a skip but it took me a while anyway because I was just being bad at it. It was fine?

Frosted Fragments: This one was a lot of fun! It reminded me of Soap, and of the Golden Ridge B-Side for a portion at the end there- which was challenging, but not maddening. Though it didn’t really feel like a green level compared to the yellows I’d done so far when I played it? I would absolutely put this on par with Construction Conundrum, not just because both use the  ch1 tileset, but the movement tech felt pretty similar and both had several points where I thought ‘this room is so long surely it’s the final room’ and then it wasn’t. 5  
HS- I NEED TO STOP HOLDING GRAB WHEN I NEED TO DASH AT THINGS. Otherwise, really fun!

Fifth Dimension: YEASSSS YES this one was a blast it was so fun. I really should have played it BEFORE vertigo, so that I could have had this experience of reacquainting myself with wall bounces, but nonetheless- It’s another along the lines of soap, where you just gotta keep going once you start, and I’m really a fan of that. None of these rooms frustrated me, they were all just fun. I didn’t even realize the final room was the final room until I got to the crystal heart! 8  
HS- Awesome  just like the level. I like the bonus just-for-fun screen too.

Low-G Botany: YOU CAN WAVEDASH OFF OF CLOUDS????? Anyway after I was done being stuck on the part where not knowing that is a problem, this level was great. I really enjoyed my time in it and I can see myself going back for strawberries with a guide to keep from getting too lost. A nice level that felt like it was designed with the intermediate gym tech in mind- I probably should have taken the advice here to play it sooner in the lineup.   6  
HS - so this was the last screen and for as much as I kept complaining about the difficulty earlier I wish this one was harder, wavedashing in low gravity is FUN and I only got to do one of them here. Glad the level’s over though!

Sea of Soup: A fun level! I did it dashless as the game challenged me to do. I actually can’t help but feel like it would have been… hilariously easy with dashes. The biggest challenge was timing the bubble-supers, which became much easier when I realized the sound cues could be used for when to hit the jump button. But it was a great time! This was my first level in this lobby.  1  
HS- SOOO FUN I was well prepared for it by doing the original dashless too!

Vertigo: I was advised I might not be a fan of this level based on what I said about ‘Potential For Anything’... But funny enough, I did like it! Actually, it’s because it was more difficult that the upside-down portions didn’t mess with me as much- I didn’t really have to process how I was moving, I just had to do the inputs at the right times. Some screens were… More intense than others. One in particular required the quickest inputs I’ve done yet, I’m pretty sure. But for the most part, this was fine, and I liked the flow when things went right- the biggest issue for me was lining up wall bounces correctly, more than anything with the level. 4  
HS- They put all the wallbounce levels in a row heheh. Anyway the upside down horizontal-dash-then-wallbounce was evil but other than that a fun screen.

EAT GIRL: The concept of pacmadeline is cute and all but it includes fully nothing that I like about Celeste. I gave it a fair shot and I even enjoyed a few of the rooms around the middle- but there’s no flow, and everything takes so long to redo when you die, it just did not feel like I was actually playing Celeste. At the point I realized I just straight up was not having fun playing this video game that I play for fun, I decided to make myself invincible to the badelines and solve the remaining puzzles at my own pace (ETA: I wrote this partway through the level, turns out the point that I got annoyed/bored enough to do this was the final room anyway). I’m determined not to use assist mode to get through anything difficult, but this one just wasn’t worth banging my head against the wall. Supernautica was frustrating, but at least it was a frustrating level of Celeste, not one of a pacman who’s able to get stuck on the corners. 11  
HS- Actually I did this in only 3 tries and it was fine I think I just really could not figure out the swap block nonsense in the OG final room.

Honeyzip Inc: This is exactly what I needed after Supernautica. Which might be surprising, since this level’s gimmick actually ALSO uses the grab button… but you only sometimes need to actually let go! You can do the momentum jumps with the button still held! Anyway, every death in Honeyzip felt like I made an actual mistake, and every success felt good. It was a really fun level. Zoom! 10  
HS- ZOOM PART 2 actually I wish there was more of it, pretty small heartside?

In Filtration: I got so scared when the start dialogue played. One thing about me is that I cannot stand and am horrible at stealth missions. I will get other people in the house with me (in the past my mom, currently my roommates) to come do stealth missions at my computer for me. I can’t do that when nobody else in my house has ever played Celeste. The sigh of relief I breathed when ‘tripping a laser’ was just a room death the same as any other. It ended up being fun! 2  
HS- Why would you give me a fun long room where I have to be specific with my inputs and then release the worlds fastest seeker at the end of it all. Rude and mean

Supernautica: Stop doing regrabs. Extended Supers were not meant to be timed to match jellyfish going through tubes. YEARS of celeste yet no real world use found for needing to think about whether you’re holding the grab button or not. Wanted to do that anyway for a laugh? we had a tool for that it was called THEO. ‘Yes please give me z key key on my keyboard please I want to aim jellyfish at a tube with wonky hitboxes’ statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged. Hello I would like to turn around 180 degrees to throw a fish before trying to do a super on a crumbling platform. They have played us for absolute fools.

Okay, memes aside, I actually had a similar experience with this one as Sleeping Under Stars. The final room was really painful, and one of the early rooms (not the first one) was really painful, but the stuff in between was mostly fine, though the tube hitbox thing was an issue throughout. I did have some fun, especially practicing those extended supers, but between these two levels I have definitely had my fill of jellyfish that need to be hit dead-on with an up-dash.  
 9  
HS- I thought this would be better because I’ve gotten more practice with jellyfish and supers since then. NOPE! Terrible again. Not having fun. Ended up turning on invincibility just to stop grazing the spinners (Can’t. See them.) and it still took over 30 more attempts just to get the jelly where it needed to be.

The Tower: I really really liked this level, and thought I might be able to beat it in under 30 minutes riiiight up until the final room, in which I actually did use assist mode again… But not without beating it normalstyle first. How is that possible you may ask? Well, I finally made it up the final two crumbling pillars, only to run out of stamina to climb the final few pixels out of the room. As far as I’m concerned, that’s beating the room legitimately… So I gave myself infinite stamina during my additional 10 minutes of attempts to make it there again, so that I could safely make it out of the room after clearing it and not actually cry. It’s not like infinite stamina really does \*anything\* for the entire rest of the room, considering the number of other time limits involved. Well, besides that, the level was really enjoyable! Vertical schmovement. This was my last yellow so… Time to see what’s next. 12  
HS- I got sooooo confused but the execution was fun!

Construction Conundrum: I enjoyed this a good bit! Most of it was fun and good flow- there were just two rooms that ended up frustrating me, so better than the last time I had to use the double jump crystals, but those two rooms frustrated me a LOT. The long one where you had to dash through a section preserving platforms to run along later, because I kept messing up the FINAL JUMP and needing to redo the ENTIRE THING. I know this couldn’t have had a checkpoint because, well, you’re responsible for the start state of the second run through the room, but that was maddening. The other was the second to last real room, because… as I mentioned in the beginner lobby… I’m bad with the dash attack phase. It would have been a good room with good energy for me if that traffic block I had to hit was just a few frames closer… Anyway, it was a good level! 3  
HS- Why are we here just to suffer (this screen was actually quite fun but dying in the jump portion to an accidental cornerkick stole the light from my eyes)

Square The Circle: My very first red in the lobby! It took me almost 2 hours and nearly a thousand deaths, sure, but it was SO MUCH FUN???? Unlike some of the yellows I did in this lobby which technically took fewer attempts and less time- it felt good the entire time I was playing. Going super fast is just a blast, for one. For another, it always felt fair- I died because I flubbed a bubble hyper, understandable, have a nice day. Unlike with certain other mechanics (cough regrabs cough) I always felt like I just needed to improve my inputs to make it to the end- and look at that, I did, and enjoyed myself the entire time! I’m looking forward to seeing this level’s heartside. Again, unlike some of the yellows and even one green, which I’m dreading.   13  
HS- Did you know you don’t get momentum from jumping out of a bubble that’s pressed against a kevin block if you’re holding grab. Just thought that was neat. Anyway, fun screen! 

Deep Blue: When it worked, it really worked. I think I would have loved this level if not for an issue that I think was on my end? For a good 15 minutes or so in one particular room, my inputs just… did not. My dream block down dash went from landing 19/20 attempts to 1/20 attempts, madeline would climb directly into spikes instead of jumping. idk if it was my computer lagging, or my keyboard, or if my fingers just temporarily forgot how to play, but, yeah. A fun level with good flow, I love dream blocks, maybe I’ll replay someday to experience it without whatever that was. This is the level that redeemed jellyfish for me.  16  
HS- I was looking forward to this one and then it just didn’t utilize dream blocks in the actual screen. Disappointing. Still better than supernautica.

Temple of a Thousand Skies: Dream blocks, traffic blocks, clouds, and bubbles? Yeah it’s a given that I was going to enjoy this one. The music was really nice too, if a little funny to have such a chill vibe while pulling off advanced movement tech. The tech was a lot of fun too! Except for a chunk of time in which it seems my ability to wavedash entirely broke and I just died on spikes under that one pink cloud for like 5 minutes straight. Once I broke through that slump I didn’t miss another wavedash though! Not to say I first-tried everything past the first checkpoint of that room, but I stopped making THAT particular mistake! Really great time. I was surprised when it was over at an hour fifteen minutes without an actual final room? But I guess each of the four key rooms was pretty long. I’m really liking how the red levels I’ve done so far combine wall bounces, wavedashes, supers, and hypers all together. 14

HS- This was about what I expected to come up against as the final-room-that-wasn’t. Feels awesome to get right, but so easy to get wrong ;\^; Especially since the hardest part of the room for me was right at the beginning, which meant flubbing any late attempt meant struggling through the start again. I don’t understand the first hyper in the room- It’s out of a bubble, so it should always have the same starting position, so it should always go the same distance, right? Why sometimes it doesn’t go far enough to clear the spinner and sometimes goes too far to line up the wallbounce properly before the platform crumbles? It’s the same hyper??? Embarrassingly, I think this one screen heartside took me longer than the entire original level, solidly 90% of my deaths were to either the first hyper or the second wavedash, and at least there I knew what I was doing wrong- aiming badly.

Midnight Monsoon: So, holdables. Funky things with holdables. Holdable hover. Bounce things off walls and grab them again. Get vertical momentum with crystal. Do it. <- My nightmare, right? Somehow, not so. Each time the level reminded me of a holdable mechanic that I should be doing, my heart sunk. I thought, this is it, I’ve hit my wall in strawberry jam without even making it to the advanced lobby. I won’t be able to do that mechanic. Holdable hover more like it’s so over. At least this is the last level I entered. But then I only had to pull it off like, one time, and everything else was actually fun? What? I’m so confused. The music is great. Let’s throw bombs at things. 18  
HS- I looked at it and decided to go to bed for the night. Intimidating enough to make me get some sleep, actually pretty fun once I woke up and actually tried it, though this screen did have me kind of crystallizing a thought I’d been having throughout the heartside- The gameplay pace is reaching a point where I can no longer understand what the difference is between the successful inputs and the inputs that result in death, because to me, it feels like I’m doing the same thing and just randomly succeeding or not succeeding.

Pufferfish Transportation Co: Despite what I said earlier, I actually liked this one a lot! I only needed to look up a guide for a couple of rooms, I was mostly able to figure out the puzzle factor on my own, and moving through the level still felt good and fun! Thousand skies did spoil me a little bit with a new set of binoculars on every death checkpoint, though.  I spent way too many attempts doing the wrong thing in the final (pre-heart) room because I couldn’t check the full picture. 15  
HS- Pufferfish go brrr. Nice and low-stakes after the input hell!

Pointless Machines: I had to use the accessibility feature to keep track of the directionals (mainly because I kept misreading what directions the cool stylized ones on the map were actually supposed to be) and I sweaaaar that final room’s down diagonal was a harsher needle-thread than anything I’ve seen thusfar, but otherwise, a pretty cool map and a fun concept! My favorite room was the one where you needed to NOT do a right horizontal dash until the end. 17  
HS- I started, got confused, looked up gameplay footage, said ‘what in the goddamn’ then proceeded to practice on 80% speed until I understood. Beat it on 100% speed though. My hands hurt real bad.

I am interested in advanced lobby, but I honestly don’t think I’ll be able to play it through :( In the advanced gym, I had a great time with things like midair supers and hyper bunnyhops, but I could barely manage neutral jumps in the ideal setup provided, and couldn’t even make it past the first stage of jellyvator practice- in fact I couldn’t manage a single regrab post-neutral-drop. “grab, jump, down, let go of grab, let go of down, up, dash, grab again” is just too many distinct inputs in a row. If there are some levels in the advanced lobby that use the tech I CAN do, I’d love to check them out…

And, well, I’m wondering what the etiquette is when it comes to modded levels that are sorted by difficulty? If I do want to keep exploring, is it acceptable to do so even if I’m not at that skill level? Does anybody have recommendations for assist/variant settings that wouldn’t be too intrusive to the intended play, if I do need it? Anything that could make jellyladdering possible for me?

And, I know this question is annoying, are my death counts/clear times generally… normal? for the intermediate lobby? I feel a bit discouraged as the numbers keep growing, but I also have seen that in the higher lobbies, 10+ hour clears for single levels aren’t unusual, so maybe I’m more on track than I think?

In the meantime, I’m probably going to go back and complete some more vanilla challenges. I never actually finished the C-Sides or even started Farewell, and I do think the intermediate lobby has prepared me pretty well to try again! I keep seeing 7C clears and thinking “oh, strawberry jam has given me harder screens than that, and I was able to beat them in less overall time than this youtuber beat 7C” so it’s probably pretty doable at this point\~

My Strawberry Jam Intermediate Lobby Thoughts!