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Sometimes what's almost as interesting as a crazy accomplishment is what drove someone to go for it. It's 2019 and the year's most popular speedrunning game, Celeste, has just received an unexpected update. The platforming game, already known for its simple controls, yet supreme difficulty, has received a new DLC chapter, which blew the difficulty of the rest of the game out of the water. Regularly requiring extreme precision and easily being the longest chapter in the game, the level was a challenging new addition for most players. But the community's most skilled members were about to enter the 
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race for an unfathomable goal. In the original eight chapters of Celeste, there were a variety of collectibles. However, the hardest is easily the golden strawberry, requiring the player to beat the entire level without dying once. And although it seemed impossible, a small dedicated group of players were determined to be the first to get the game's final collectible. Former Speedrun World Record holders and challenge runners joined the race. But in the days after the chapter's release, four players had risen to be the leading contenders for the accomplishment, getting runs further and further 
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throughout the nine subchapters. The favorite for the first completion was Enox, a legend who had beaten other games entirely deathless and had been putting in 10 hours a day into practice and attempts. However, unexpectedly, one of the other players got on a run. Making it through the increasingly difficult screens of the level, Lenny Gold surpassed his previous personal best and kept going, meaning this run was an outlier and perhaps his best chance at being the one to make history. Finally, he had made it to the last screen of the level, a 2-minute long 
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onslaught of everything the level contained so far. But dash after dash, Lenny looked like he could shock everyone and reached the end. It's not over yet, though. >> To many people's surprise, the developers of the game added one final screen to the level that would only appear if you had the golden strawberry. After 20 minutes of perfect gameplay and 
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dozens of hours of attempts, Lenny was now in unprecedented territory. Having not even seen the room before, let alone be able to practice it, he had one chance, and if he would fail at it, it was possible that all of his work would go to waste. He would analyze the screen for over 6 minutes. All the while, tons of new viewers flooded into his chat, hoping to witness history. Finally, still shaking from nerves, he started taking on the final screen, trying not to grasp the full reality of the situation. He was right on the verge of 
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making it happen. And although more people may come to do it, perhaps history would only remember the first 202. >> Lenny Gold would become the first player to get the Chapter 9 Golden Strawberry with his fellow competitors getting the achievement shortly after. However, rumors of another accomplishment in the game began to spread of not just beating 
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the hardest chapter without dying, but rather the entire game, including getting every collectible. This one-of-a-kind multi-hour run seemed impossible compared to even the final golden. But if there's one thing about speedrunning is that no challenge is too insane for someone to try. This is the story of all the trials and heartbreak that it took for the impossible Celeste run and the player crazy enough to get run and the player crazy enough to get it. 
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The player who would take on this challenge surprisingly wasn't one of the first four Golden Berry victors, rather one of the viewers. Rick Fernel started playing Celeste around a year after the game released. And to say the least, he didn't possess much natural talent for the game. He had never done any speedruns or challenge runs of any other video game. And initially, he wasn't even aware that he could dash in different directions. As well, he was far from being able to complete any of the steps for the perfect run. There's plenty to say about Rick, but one of his biggest character traits is that he 
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didn't have a high self-esteem, which is maybe why the story of Celeste resonated with him so much. Being about a woman who climbs a mountain to discover more about herself with the help of others on his own, Rick was able to improve and beat the game. A couple months after the original Golden Strawberry Race Oh my Oh my god. Oh my. And that's when he saw the video of Enoch getting the second ever Chapter 9 
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Golden Strawberry. And seeing this reaction, he wanted to accomplish something that would make him feel the same way. His whole life, he felt like he had never stood out. And with this team he had formed a connection with, maybe he could finally find a way to. Rick would join the Brazilian Celeste Discord where he would make some friends who would help him slowly work his way through all the golden strawberries in the game except for one. As his first step to making a name for himself, he decided he would try to join the game's most exclusive club. Nearly 2 months since Chapter 9 was released, only about 
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12 players had been able to get the final golden strawberry. To say that the chapter 9 golden is the hardest in the game doesn't do it justice. Here's the amount of time that it took for Rick to get the normal A, B, and C-side goldens for each of the games eight normal chapters, averaging around 15 hours, with some of the longer chapters taking some more time, but around 2 months into attempting the farewell golden. This was his time on the level. Going for deathless runs required a unique skill set as Rick had to be able to pull off strategies with a near 100% consistency 
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rate or else the run was doomed to fail and sometimes these strategies were harder than what the average player could even imagine doing. There were many reasons so few people had gotten the achievement as each of the nine subchapters were as difficult as some of the previous B-side goldens. as well. The sub chapters in the middle were considered the hardest, meaning most of the runs that got there would end and the nerves in a run that would get past them would be unbearable. However, on January 29th, 2020, Rick would get a run to checkpoint 7. 
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Christ, that was tight, dude. This got to be it. There's no way. >> About 4 months after the initial race to be the first, Rick had an opportunity to join the exclusive club. >> I do not know the strats. Let's go. >> I do not know the strats. Let's go. Whatever. >> With nearly no hesitation, Rick took on the golden room and became the 28th person in the world and the first person in Brazil to get the golden strawberry. He was transforming from a fan to a 
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potential master. And that idea of what he could become led him to close in on the impossible goal. However, after getting the final golden strawberry, Rick initially took a step back from the game as he had achieved everything that the base game had to offer. For the next year, he would supposedly move on, starting a Twitch channel and streaming some other challenging modded maps. But that feeling within him to want to be the first to accomplish something one of a kind kept surfacing. In a game whose core message is about climbing the mountain, setting your own personal 
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goals, accomplishing them, and moving on to the next, Rick wanted to be the one who would climb the mountain so great that he would finally get the recognition he needed. He wanted to stand on the shoulders of every player and finally have his moment. However, the idea of going right into a 100% deathless run was not even a consideration. But what was more approachable was an any% deathless run. instead of every single level in the game, any% would just be all of the a sides in a row. This run was comparable in difficulty to the chapter 9 golden in 
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that it was nearly twice as long but had less hard screens during it. But despite his experience with the run, the achievement was taking longer than he achievement was taking longer than he thought. >> A key concept with challenge runs is how difficulty scales with time. The chapter 1 and two a-side goldens are all right on their own, but requiring both of them back to back makes the difficulty grow exponentially rather than linearly. And this relationship carries on with the more chapters added on to the run. Even though the chapter 9 golden was considered the base game's hardest 
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accomplishment, this self-imposed challenge perhaps had it beat. It took a while for Rick to get back into the groove of deathless runs, but after over 2 months of attempts, Rick got his first deathless run to chapter 7. I am very nervous if you cannot tell. >> With the weight of two months on his back, he kept to relatively safe strategies which would prove to be worth it as he would pull off his first deathless any% run in 45 minutes. 
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>> I did it. >> However, Rick was far from being the first person to complete this challenge. But his company was getting more and more sparse. But regardless, this didn't satisfy him as he was on to his next challenge. Being all of the seides deathless, the seides contain some of the hardest screens in the game, but they were also some of the shortest levels, meaning that beating all of them deathless wasn't too difficult compared to the a sides. Perhaps the biggest difference between Rick's current runs and 100% deathless runs were the red strawberries. The red strawberries were 
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optional collectibles found in eight of the games chapters, often requiring some slightly more risky strategies in order to acquire them. As his next step towards his ultimate goal, Rick decided to try doing an all red berries run deathless, which added over 40 minutes of gameplay and an additional chapter to his any% deathless run. Wait, how do you do this one again? Just No. No. Building off of all of these previous 
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challenges, Rick's skill was continuously growing. But this challenge was proving to take much longer than expected. However, his tight-knit community would help him come up with some more consistent strategies, and as a result, he got a run to reach the summit. But this time, he still had one more level to tackle. Chapter 8 was originally intended to be the last chapter of the game, meaning the difficulty is somewhere between chapter 7 and 9. The hardest aspect of the chapter was that the player's dash wouldn't refresh upon touching the ground as it would in every other 
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chapter, meaning that any small error was much more likely to be deadly. This death was a reminder that just one minor error could make months of progress fall apart. Even though 99% of the run went smoothly, all it took was one mistake to end it. This close miss was a lesson to Rick that no matter how close he was to his goal, he couldn't get complacent. And shortly after, he 
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had an opportunity to prove what he had had an opportunity to prove what he had learned. I forgot my strat here. I forgot my strat here. Is it a super dash from the other swing? I don't remember. Does anyone remember? Is it a super? I forgot. Help. Finally, half a year since his all seasides run, Rick finished his all clears deathless run and joined a club 
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of only two other players. The final prerequisite for a full 100% run deathless was perhaps the hardest being all the B sides. Contrasted from all the A sides and full clears, there were many moments throughout the B sides where it was hard to play it safe. The bides were originally the hardest golden strawberries to get besides chapter 9. But Rick's experience with the other long deathless runs would pay dividends, as in chapter 5b, he even implemented multiple speedrun strats instead of taking the intended route. Given how much he had been improving, it seemed 
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like only a matter of time until he would get it. But still, he had to be patient. His any% deathless run took him about 2 months to achieve, and his all full clears took about 6 months. And since this was arguably harder, it was wise to expect this to take a similar amount of time. 
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Jesus Christ. Rick would show just how much he had improved and become the second person to ever beat all the bides in a row deathless. And in the description of the video, he said that given everything else he had done, there was only one more challenge left to take on. and all it would require would be his it would require would be his everything. 
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Practicing for the 100% deathless run meant putting together his experience of everything he had worked towards up to this point, as at this point he was in uncharted territory. The idea of someone getting a 100% deathless run was nothing more than the subject of some online rumors or jokes, as no other top players had even expressed serious interest in putting the time in that it would take to get the run. And for Rick, that was good news, as for the first time, he had the chance to be the first at something. The route that Rick chose for the run was as follows. Each of the chapters a 
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sides followed by their bides, all of the seides, then finally chapter 9, ending with the secret moonberry route to finish out the run at 176 berries since the golden strawberries were only available on the second playthrough of each level. In an ideal world, he would be able to start the run with chapter 9. But since the level didn't unlock until beating chapter 8, he decided to save it for the end. Rick's excitement for the goal was apparent as he started doing 100% attempts every day after he got all the B sides deathless, having some 
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initial runs around 20 deaths. And on January 8th, 2022, he had a massive PB, a run with only six deaths, not including the one mandatory death in chapter 9 for the special Moonberry. Surprisingly, his deaths were relatively spread out with some happening on every different difficulty. However, chapter 5 specifically seemed to be a struggle this time around. The majority of his deaths were a product of him forgetting the strategies that he had for specific screens, and to be fair, they were over 800 to memorize. Having all of them 
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memorized by heart and an over 3-hour long run wasn't feasible. Rather, he had to grow his skill of adjusting on the fly when things wouldn't go to plan. However, this run was already a big milestone as it set the record for the least amount of deaths in a 100% run. >> This is what I'm feeling right now. Not enough people try this. Surely somebody is going to beat me like tomorrow. And just about a week later, he was on the path to shatter it as going into chapter 9, he had only one death. 
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Unfortunately, his record would still stand. Choosing to save the hardest chapter for last was proving to be a questionable choice. But since he had already made it so far, he decided not to question it. Another week later, Rick had a deathless run over 70% the way through. And if he could make it through the last B-side, the only true hurdle in the run left would be chapter 9. I I thought it could. 
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>> The nerves of having his first run realistically close was simply too much for him to handle, as he would die another time afterwards to finish off the run with two deaths. Ironically, for the first time in one of his PBs, he wouldn't have any deaths in chapter 9. For about 3 hours of gameplay, only two lapses in judgment were what was separating him from it. It was clear with his previous accomplishments that he had all the puzzle pieces for the successful run. And at this point, his main adversaries were nerves and fatigue. The pressure of seeing people's 
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reactions in real time often would distract him enough to forget all the specifics of his route, but also maintaining his focus for the relatively repetitive run was its own battle. He could try to play as if there were no stakes, but if he didn't focus enough, he would perform worse. The Rome was finally starting to take its toll on him as he would have over a month and a half of daily attempts without any PBS, including six more runs with two deaths, bringing up somewhat of a two death curse. The journey of improving from a nobody to someone on the verge of 
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history in the game was fulfilling, but exhausting. And a part of him just desperately wanted to be the first and get it over with. And as if the pressure wasn't taking enough of a toll on him already, he received some haunting news. Enoch, arguably the game's most prestigious challenge runner and the player who was the inspiration for him to start attempting goldens, announced that he was going to start attempting 100% deathless runs. This made his stomach sink. Even though he had such a large head start in terms of progress towards the goal, he wasn't confident in 
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his ability to stay ahead of Enoch. Worst of all, he could lose his chance to be the first to get the run. The news made his following runs less enjoyable and caused him to get less past the halfway point. And it would stay that way until >> Okay. All focus plus all B sides. Nice. >> Rick would get his first run through the B sides in a long time, but he knew he couldn't afford to let up during the couldn't afford to let up during the seides. >> Starting to get nervous. 
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For the first time ever, there was only one level standing between him and his one level standing between him and his goal. >> I've done this so many times. I need to stop shaking. I'm really I seriously need to stop shaking. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't do that. 3 hours into the run, Rick would forget his strategy for the screen and 
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miss a wave dash, causing what would come to be his first and only death in the run. When his runs weren't as close or had early deaths, there was never a feeling that he blew it. But this run was perhaps the first time that feeling crept in. As well, what made this hit even harder was that it felt like his time to become the first was close to running out. A missed wave dash is what took me. One death. One death 100%. >> Perhaps two deaths were better than only 
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one. The pressure had taken its toll on him and kept him up at night. And for the first time in a while, Rick would stop doing daily attempts. Those supporting him were disappointed that he had stopped his progress when he was so close to getting a successful run, but were unsure of how to go to convince him to keep going. A friend of Rick's, who also happened to be a moderator of the Brazilian Celeste Discord, decided to host a week-long event where, in homage to his progress over the past 2 years, everyone would do their own 100% run of Celeste. In the midst of a step back 
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from the game, Rick noticed the event going on and firstly was flattered. He noticed other players doing runs in voice calls and posting their times. Recently, he had been worried about the pressure of performing at other people's expectations. But what this event helped him realize was that he had already become an inspiration for others prior to even being the first to get 100% deathless. His persistence to his goal and continuously improving had made him a symbol of pride for the Brazilian community that he had found a home in. On March 19th, the last day of the 100% 
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event, Rick decided he would do one run in order to participate. His run started out casually. He was still attempting deathless strategies, but said he wouldn't reset the run if he had any death. As well, 15 minutes into the run, he exited the level he was on to fix some audio issues, which would technically prevent the run from being verified due to current speedrun rules. Regardless, he kept the casual attempt going. For most of the A and B sides, he was mostly holding conversations with his friends entering chat. He was having 
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a good amount of close calls, but was making good last second adjustments to keep the run deathless going into the seasides. Rick knew the reality of the situation that just one death would end the perfect run. But perhaps for the first time he was comfortable playing on the edge and the seasides were perfect example of that. 
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For the second time ever, Rick had a perfect run going into the game's final chapter. Although he was in a much better mental state this time around, it was impossible to not feel some kind of pressure. But perhaps since this run was just meant for his friend's event, it was just an exciting opportunity. >> I can do this again. >> Making it to the fifth subchapter, the screen that ended his previous best run was coming up. >> Let's do this. 
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>> Yes. BB >> Rick would execute his strategy properly and continue to work through the hardest sub chapters made up of some of the hardest attributes of every previous chapter. He chose to not take any breaks so he could stay in the zone. The muscle memory that he had started building over 2 years ago had to continue to show itself now as the nerve surely had the chance to affect his gameplay. But now there was only one more part of the level where that could happen. The chapter's final screen was the longest 
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in the game, being over 2 minutes with no place to rest. And after that, instead of taking the normal route to end the chapter, he would have to do precise jumps in order to work his way back through the screen in order to take the secret route for the final collectible of the run, the Moonberry. No, 
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>> I'm sorry. I'm way too nervous to This is what I do when I'm nervous. Just talk a lot. >> On the back of his most unexpected run, >> he would face the last opportunity to choke the run head on and make history. After over 1,400 hours in the game, Rick would pull off the 100% deathless run and perhaps most importantly be the first to do it. The moments and days 
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afterwards were pure ecstasy as he finally was able to declare victory. But calling this the perfect Celeste run wasn't entirely truthful. Firstly, his one exit at the beginning of the run had technically disqualified it according to official speedrun rules, but also he hadn't gotten every collectible in the game, as he was still missing the golden strawberries from every chapter, which only appear on the second playthrough of every level as a celebration for hitting 100% deathless. 3 days later, Rick decided to do a stream where he would 
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attempt all the golden strawberries in order to finish off an actual full run of the game. >> Uh, I don't expect to get this, by the way. uh like it's it's okay if I die. >> The stream was mostly Rick continuing to banter with his chat, still feeling the high of a couple days prior, but in front of everyone's eyes, the most astonishing thing was happening. Incredibly, Rick beat every single level again in order to get all of the golden strawberries except one. For each level in the game, there's one golden strawberry with the exception of one, 
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the very first level of the game. The chapter 1A side has a secret golden strawberry which is achieved from beating the level without dashing. Dashing is the fundamental basis of Celeste gameplay, but beating chapter 1A without it was just barely possible with the utilization of some pretty niche the utilization of some pretty niche techniques. >> One a dashes. No, I'm never going to do one a dashes. >> Rick had never considered incorporating golden strawberries into the run in the first place. So now he had to learn and practice the strategies for the game's 
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final berry. Even though the berry was from the game's first chapter, getting a deathless was harder than most of the other golems in the game, as some of the tricks required precision down to the pixel, depending on the strategy used. In preparation for his attempt, Rick spent 2 days practicing the level with the help of his chat. Later, he got the berry 31 times in a row on another save file. And for attempt number 32, he moved to the deathless one. >> I'm suddenly so nervous. Holy [ __ ] This is it. 
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Why am I so nervous? I need to keep checking if everything's recording. I need to check if everything is right. No, no, no, no, no. I missed it. Rick would dash to prevent the death and then exit the level, adding another asterisk to the deathless run. But on his second attempt, this would happen. his second attempt, this would happen. >> Yes. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Nice. Not to dash. I want to lose this progress. Nice. 
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Yes. Holy [ __ ] dude. That was so 202 deathless. The accomplishment was supposedly the magnum opus of the game, but for some reason, the moment didn't feel the way he imagined it to. This is a real comment that appeared on Rick's upload of his split 202 Deathless Run, accusing him of faking the run. It was brash, ignorant, and many other things. But the worst thing was that maybe it had some truth to it. Not that Rick had 
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faked the run, but in how it brought to light many of the asterisks that the run had. The flaws of Rick's 202 run were as follows. His quit at the beginning of the run, the two multi-day breaks in between different segments of the run, his dash and exit during the wing berry, and lastly, his deaths in the Pico8 miniame. Depending on who you asked, this run qualified as perfect, and Rick considered asking for an exemption from the mid-run break rules in order to submit this run to speedrun.com, but ultimately decided against it. If 
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someone could consider the run flawed, it was flawed. But the alternative to leaving things as they were was scary. It meant hopping back into a journey with many unknowns. But what he had to gain was true peace with himself. He wasn't aiming to be an arbitrary first anymore. He was aiming to push himself to true perfection. Rick dedicated himself to a simple goal, a 202 berry run in one sitting, 
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including a perfect playthrough of the Pico8 miniame. This way, there was no possible asterisks left in the run. 202 runs in one sitting rarely happen, not even considering the deathless aspect. But deciding to do this run left him with some freedom to choose the route with the golden berries. And the route he landed on was essentially his previous 100% route, the dashless golden, and then doing the rest of the levels in reverse for the rest of the goldens, saving the chapter 7 seaside for last, potentially for sentimental reasons. It would take him another 2 
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months to get his next run close to 100% deathless. But on June 4th, he would get it. And going into the Golden Strawberries, there was nothing in the run that could disqualify him this time. He would take on the dashless and chapter 9 goldens as the first part of the second half of the run and managed to put them away without much trouble. In this run, he decided to do the chapter 8 Bside first. And in the beginning, he was able to stick to its cycles until >> I don't know. Maybe it's just 
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ah doing 202 berries in one session was harder than before. As this mistake happened nearly 4 hours into the run, the fatigue of aiming for a 5-hour perfect run made it much easier to forget one of the nearly 1,000 strategies he had to remember and made the lack of successful runs up to this point make sense. His next 100% run would display similar fatigue as he would die on the dashless golden right after getting 176 berries. However, his following run wouldn't end so quickly. 
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The remaining levels were some of the tougher ones, but one by one, Rick was knocking them out. All he had to do was be ready for any surprises. >> That was an accidental wall boost. Jesus Christ. No. I am a bod. >> He would close out the 202 run with a 
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total of one death. The idea that Rick had flooked his split 202 run was gaining more merit. For many, going for a 202 run in one sitting seemed like trying to win the lottery twice. But this time around, Rick didn't care what others thought. He had only cared about reaching his own personal standard. His next run would reach 182 berries. Dying on the chapter 6 seaside nearly a month after his previous, the hours that were going in between each successful run was not something to be ignored as the near daily streams, sometimes reaching 7 
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hours, were adding up. The decision to take on the 202 grind was adding in hundreds of hours to an already astonishingly long grind. But it was a decision that Rick was enjoying. Past 1:00 a.m. Rick was on a new personal best run. Only three berries away from a full run. Seven sees that you free, full run. Seven sees that you free, right? Even though there was only three levels left, Rick wouldn't have the energy to finish out the run. And besides a 180 
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berry run in August, he would start to enter a dry spell of more runs passing the 100% mark. Whether he was tired, thinking about the last berries of the run, or just plainly not playing as good, the runs weren't stacking up the way they used to. It would take all the way until November for him to get another run past 100%. And that run would die right afterwards on his chapter 9 golden attempt. Unexpectedly, he would happen to get another run a few days later, although it would die at 184 berries. It had now been 8 months since his split 202 berry run, where he could 
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have called it quits. Since then, he had put nearly 1,000 more hours into the game in an effort to have what he considered a truly perfect run. The opinions of others occasionally ran through his mind. Why was he even doing this? No one would even care at this point, or at worst, that he would never be enough. Compared to when he had first picked up Celeste, Rick had changed. In the past, he was less confident in who he was as a player, but also as a person. Slowly, through the help of his true friends and sheer willpower, he 
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turned himself into someone he thought he could never be. Someone who could stand out and be the first to achieve legendary accomplishments. But ultimately, he had done it for external validation. A true 202 deathless run was the first accomplishment he was going for. Not out of pressure, insecurity, or spite, but rather out of a wholehearted desire to give everything that he had to the game that changed his life and to stand on top of the final summit for everyone. This run was significantly harder than any of the previous accomplishments he had worked through. 
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But even though he had put over a thousand hours into this and had experienced things that should have convinced him that this run was impossible, he had only one thought racing through his mind. This time around, Rick would take on many of the hardest goldens right after getting 100%. And that would prove to be a good choice. Piece by piece, everything was falling together. First chapter 9, then the C sides, and lastly, the A and B sides. the A and B sides. Awesome. 
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Holy crap. Beating his last PB, the summit was officially within sight. 
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Oh my god. It's over. At last, Rick was free. Ultimately, his 
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story wasn't one of hatred or self-loathing. It was one of transformation. Step by step, he turned himself from someone who felt like he had no reason to feel good about himself to someone who was able to strengthen and inspire his local community through his own work that he had dedicated his whole self to nearly every day in his own way and with supportive individuals by his side, he was able to transform his life. And although Rick may have moved on to other avenues, his legend still lives for those who decide to take their own journey up the mountain. 
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I did it. Turtle necklace speed run.