Overview
Guide on some custom maps on gamebanana, including recommendations, difficulty ratings, personal opinions
What’s New
- Replaced Path of Hope with Shade World
- Replaced Anubi with Mount Kimitany Saga
- Changed the difficulty of Resting Grounds to Intermediate
- Swapped Lunar Ruins and The D-sides Pack
- Removed Midnight Aquarium and Haunting Temple
- Moved Flavors of Pi out of the similar map section
First of all
This guide assumes that you have Everest installed and have experience using gamebanana.
I made this guide because I personally have run into several low-quality maps, ruining my gameplay experience. There are a lot of maps out there, yet there’s no one to rate all those maps one by one. I want to recommend some good maps I’ve played and list out some bad ones. This guide will be constantly updated, as long as I’m still playing Celeste.
Recommended Maps
The following maps are ordered roughly according to their difficulty.
Shade World by coffe789
Easy map that requires no tech knowledge. The map combines several simple mechanics together to make for engaging and creative gameplay. Overall a great introduction to Celeste mods for beginner players and a relaxing experience for more advanced players.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Playthrough
Gamebanana link[gamebanana.com]
Similar map[gamebanana.com]: Mount Kimitany Saga by Flagpole1up (Beginner ~ Advanced, amazing aesthetics)
Enchanted Canyon by Exudias
A ridge-temple themed map that has amazing cutscenes, nice short puzzles and easy platforming. The custom entities made by Exudias are as well made and intuitive as always.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Playthrough
Gamebanana link[gamebanana.com]
Similar map[gamebanana.com]: Celestial Garden by LethargicDoggo (Advanced, shares some concepts, dream blocks and portals)
Flavors of Pi by Evermar314159
A city map with custom zip movers. Excellent gameplay flow.
Difficulty: Advanced
Playthrough
Gamebanana link[gamebanana.com]
Glyph by beefyuncle
This map has stunning graphics, music and ambience. Featuring four “seasons”, each focusing on different gimmicks, some of which are code modding mechanics, with a final section that serves as a conclusion to this journey through memories. The title refers to a puzzle in the map whose puzzle pieces are scattered throughout the whole map.
Difficulty: Advanced / Advanced
Playthrough:
Gamebanana link[gamebanana.com]
Similar map[gamebanana.com]: Resting Grounds by LIER0 (Intermediate, similar concepts, clever use of vanilla assets)
Shrouded Thoughts by KaydenFox
This map introduces tons of new entities, all centered around the factory theme, including crates (works like Theo crystals) which is its main mechanic. The decal, music etc. are also fully custom.
Difficulty: Advanced
Playthrough
Gamebanana link[gamebanana.com]
Similar map[gamebanana.com]: Crystalized by IsaGoodFriend (Advanced, also has custom mechanics)
Cavern of the Ancients by Exudias and Meowsmith
This map has decorations, creativity, custom entities and challenging gameplay, featuring a new bomb entity that works like Theo Crystals. Starting from the B-side there’s some intense bomb juggling. C-side is really cool although there’s a big difficulty spike towards the end.
Difficulty: Intermediate / Expert / Expert
Playthrough: A-side / B-side / C-side
Gamebanana link[gamebanana.com]
The Secret of Celeste Mountain by Xaphan67
WIP campaign that adds Metroidvania elements into celeste gameplay, featuring warp points, ingame map, obtainable abilities, and more. Not much movement tech is required, but the difficulty is quite high. Currently contains prologue, 1A, 2A, and 1B.
Difficulty: Advanced / Expert
Playthrough: Prologue / 1A
Gamebanana link[gamebanana.com]
Ezel’s CC-Sides by Ezel142
A pack of good hard maps that bridge the gap between the vanilla C-sides and Monika’s D-sides. Unlike the D-sides which are typically about B-side length, every CC-side has only 7 rooms, except 7CC and 9CC which are longer.
Difficulty: Expert
Playthrough:
Gamebanana link[gamebanana.com]
Lunar Ruins by Tomonn
Contains three chapters. The first chapter explores different movement tech, the second is a city map, the third is a temple map. While the concept and the entities used are quite simple, the gameplay design is beyond amazing. Ch2 and Ch3 are legendary maps. Ch1 may not be as good but is still above average.
Difficulty: Grandmaster
Playthrough: Ch1 Ch2(old) Ch3
Gamebanana link[gamebanana.com]
Similar map[gamebanana.com]: The D-Sides Pack by Monika523 (Expert ~ Grandmaster, a classic, 7d is the best one)
Other recommended maps
These maps are in this “other” category as they’re somewhat different from the maps above. They may not be fun for everyone.
t by RadleyMcTuneston
A beautiful map that focuses on the climb button. Although it’s a climbing focused map, you still get your dash and refills. Dashing, core block jumps as well as the stunning graphics add variation and a sense of progress into the climb.
Difficulty: Advanced
Playthrough
Gamebanana link[gamebanana.com]
Similar map[gamebanana.com]: Sunset Rise by Ezel142 (Advanced, no dash, summit map, has custom mechanics)
The Dadsides by iamdadbod
Made by and named after the epic video maker iamdadbod, this is an ongoing map pack that puts heavy emphasis on pure platforming, with quality custom music and decal to enrich the experience.
Difficulty: Expert / Expert
Playthrough: Chapter 1 / Chapter 2
Gamebanana link[gamebanana.com]
Lastly
I hope by posting a guide on custom maps, truly good maps can be encouraged and low-quality maps can be hindered. Let me know if you have any feedback, from hidden gems not yet discovered to the adjustment of difficulty ranking. I’ll be keen to hear about them. The current Celeste modding scene is strong precisely because of everyone’s efforts and I feel propelled to contribute my own share.