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Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goals: my strength lies solely in my tenacity. — Louis Pasteur
Introduction
Yesterday, I beat my new hardest: Nine Circles by Zobros, after months of pouring in attempts into it. When I finally reached that ever-rewarding 100%, I had already amassed 6565 attempts. Though my journey with this level was not limited to those few months, absolutely not. This is a level that I first started playing 4-5 years ago, got really far into, and then quit after I died one click before conquest.
The Journey Begins
I expect you to have already heard of Geometry Dash if you are reading this post. It started out as a five-dollar mobile game where you click/tap to make your character jump or go up and down. The cube jumps, the ship floats, the UFO is like Flappy Bird, and so on. I recommend learning a bit about GD before reading this post if you don’t know what it is to understand some of the terminology but it shouldn’t take away a lot from the experience of reading the story if you don’t.
Though it is a mystery how and when I got introduced to the game, I still remember the feeling of beating Stereo Madness for the first time after throwing hundreds of attempts at it when my friends at the time had already given up. And this wouldn’t be the last time I’d get this feeling. After getting through the first level, I kept going; beating Back on Track, then Polargeist, then Bass after Bass, and especially Can’t Let Go. I specifically remember Can’t Let Go because I beat it when our neighbor had come to visit and I had started celebrating in front of them when I got to the end (xD).
I had also subsequently started getting into watching Geometry Dash videos on YouTube, and as my knowledge of user-created levels grew, I started finding out about many of the popular easy demons like The Nightmare, The Lightning Road, etc., many of which I’d go on to beat as my first ever easy demons. Out of these, some of the names stood out to me from the rest because of their difficulty and popularity: Nine Circles by Zobros (a hard demon), and Bloodbath by Riot (an extreme demon).
While Bloodbath was something I enjoyed watching people beat more than playing because of obvious reasons, I eventually felt confident enough in my abilities to go for the former after beating my 6th easy demon. Moreover, I had also started to pick up how to learn levels using start positions and stuff so I booted up GD on my Samsung Galaxy J7, downloaded the level, and pressed that big and scary play button.
I expect you to have already heard of Geometry Dash if you are reading this post. It started out as a five-dollar mobile game where you click/tap to make your character jump or go up and down. The cube jumps, the ship floats, the UFO is like Flappy Bird, and so on. I recommend learning a bit about GD before reading this post if you don’t know what it is to understand some of the terminology but it shouldn’t take away a lot from the experience of reading the story if you don’t.
Though it is a mystery how and when I got introduced to the game, I still remember the feeling of beating Stereo Madness for the first time after throwing hundreds of attempts at it when my friends at the time had already given up. And this wouldn’t be the last time I’d get this feeling. After getting through the first level, I kept going; beating Back on Track, then Polargeist, then Bass after Bass, and especially Can’t Let Go. I specifically remember Can’t Let Go because I beat it when our neighbor had come to visit and I had started celebrating in front of them when I got to the end (xD).
I had also subsequently started getting into watching Geometry Dash videos on YouTube, and as my knowledge of user-created levels grew, I started finding out about many of the popular easy demons like The Nightmare, The Lightning Road, etc., many of which I’d go on to beat as my first ever easy demons. Out of these, some of the names stood out to me from the rest because of their difficulty and popularity: Nine Circles by Zobros (a hard demon), and Bloodbath by Riot (an extreme demon).
While Bloodbath was something I enjoyed watching people beat more than playing because of obvious reasons, I eventually felt confident enough in my abilities to go for the former after beating my 6th easy demon. Moreover, I had also started to pick up how to learn levels using start positions and stuff so I booted up GD on my Samsung Galaxy J7, downloaded the level, and pressed that big and scary play button.
The Struggle
I don’t remember how these sessions went, but I do remember sitting at the back door of my house, just throwing in attempts and trying to learn the level. I initially started out by learning the last 15% of the level, which is just a simple cube section with a few timings that I got really consistent at because of just how much I had practiced it alone, and then started working backwards, opening up the level every time I got consistent at a section to manually move the start position back a few percentage points. Of course, Geode (a mod loader for GD) didn’t exist yet and I did not even know about the concept of modding yet so this was my version of a start position switcher (:D).
Eventually, I reached a point where moving the start position back would be the same as just playing the level from 0%, and thus began the runs. I remember making rapid progress as I had already figured out how to chain the muscle memory from a lot of the different sections together during the practice runs, but nerve control was still a problem. I can confidently say that I had spent over 8k attempts already as I had played the level for months, trying to get the run.
But this grind wouldn’t last long.
I don’t remember how these sessions went, but I do remember sitting at the back door of my house, just throwing in attempts and trying to learn the level. I initially started out by learning the last 15% of the level, which is just a simple cube section with a few timings that I got really consistent at because of just how much I had practiced it alone, and then started working backwards, opening up the level every time I got consistent at a section to manually move the start position back a few percentage points. Of course, Geode (a mod loader for GD) didn’t exist yet and I did not even know about the concept of modding yet so this was my version of a start position switcher (:D).
Eventually, I reached a point where moving the start position back would be the same as just playing the level from 0%, and thus began the runs. I remember making rapid progress as I had already figured out how to chain the muscle memory from a lot of the different sections together during the practice runs, but nerve control was still a problem. I can confidently say that I had spent over 8k attempts already as I had played the level for months, trying to get the run.
But this grind wouldn’t last long.
The Run
After those thousands of attempts, I got what seemed like the run that’d finally put an end to this cycle of dying and restarting, that’d finally have Sisyphus reach the top. I got past the first cube section, 10%. I got through the ship section after that, carefully squeezing between the gears, trying to control the floaty movement, 22%. I got past the memory-intensive ball section, grabbing the coin because the coin route was easier than the normal route for some reason, 34%. The music dropped as the predrop ended, and the iconic genre-defining drop was next. I paused the game to calm myself down, reset my muscle memory, and got ready for the wave section. A few deep breaths, and it was time to hit play again.
I made it through the first half of the drop, through the gravity and speed changes, tapping and holding to get through what were still rather precise timings for me, 61%. And this is where I started getting nervous because here began the mini wave section. If you have played or watched GD before, you know that the mini wave, especially at high speeds can be quite hard to control, and the timings weren’t the only things that stood between me and the end of the level.
To get through this section, I didn’t have to avoid the obstacles by just tapping and holding, I also had to avoid them by spamming in a controlled manner to stay in the middle of the screen, which if you are not used to, is the same as rolling a dice. So roll the dice I did, and it landed in my favor as I reached the final part of the section, 80%. 5 clicks. 5 clicks and then would come the final cube section which I was confident that if I made it there, I'd beat the level. I got through the first 3 clicks, all I had to do was not mess up the last two and I’d be-
After those thousands of attempts, I got what seemed like the run that’d finally put an end to this cycle of dying and restarting, that’d finally have Sisyphus reach the top. I got past the first cube section, 10%. I got through the ship section after that, carefully squeezing between the gears, trying to control the floaty movement, 22%. I got past the memory-intensive ball section, grabbing the coin because the coin route was easier than the normal route for some reason, 34%. The music dropped as the predrop ended, and the iconic genre-defining drop was next. I paused the game to calm myself down, reset my muscle memory, and got ready for the wave section. A few deep breaths, and it was time to hit play again.
I made it through the first half of the drop, through the gravity and speed changes, tapping and holding to get through what were still rather precise timings for me, 61%. And this is where I started getting nervous because here began the mini wave section. If you have played or watched GD before, you know that the mini wave, especially at high speeds can be quite hard to control, and the timings weren’t the only things that stood between me and the end of the level.
To get through this section, I didn’t have to avoid the obstacles by just tapping and holding, I also had to avoid them by spamming in a controlled manner to stay in the middle of the screen, which if you are not used to, is the same as rolling a dice. So roll the dice I did, and it landed in my favor as I reached the final part of the section, 80%. 5 clicks. 5 clicks and then would come the final cube section which I was confident that if I made it there, I'd beat the level. I got through the first 3 clicks, all I had to do was not mess up the last two and I’d be-
Failure and Defeat
The music went silent, as it was cut short by a sound which every Geometry Dash player has heard hundreds, if not thousands or hundreds of thousands of times. The jingling of the orbs and the demon keys soon followed, and up came the message that’d be the last message that I’d see in GD for years:
To say it was heartbreaking, would be an understatement. I was completely silent in disbelief, with my jaw unable to be held up by my fatigued body and mind. I was 2 clicks away from victory, or that’s what it felt like. All of this could’ve been over, I’d have beaten a Hard Demon, I’d have beaten a new hardest for myself, after months of what felt like an endless cycle of clicking and dying, but alas, this was not it, and I’d quit GD for 4 years.
The music went silent, as it was cut short by a sound which every Geometry Dash player has heard hundreds, if not thousands or hundreds of thousands of times. The jingling of the orbs and the demon keys soon followed, and up came the message that’d be the last message that I’d see in GD for years:
New Best
83%
83%
To say it was heartbreaking, would be an understatement. I was completely silent in disbelief, with my jaw unable to be held up by my fatigued body and mind. I was 2 clicks away from victory, or that’s what it felt like. All of this could’ve been over, I’d have beaten a Hard Demon, I’d have beaten a new hardest for myself, after months of what felt like an endless cycle of clicking and dying, but alas, this was not it, and I’d quit GD for 4 years.
The Return
Of course, I wouldn’t be telling you all this if I didn’t return to the game in 2023, a few months before 2.2 came out. But I only played a few levels that I thought looked really cool like White Space. I did a few weeklies as well, continued to play some more cool looking demons like Dream Flower, Citadel, and Say It Back, but returning to Nine Circles was not on my to-do list. It was still very much just a level whose story I told to my friends whenever Geometry Dash was mentioned for the first time in our conversations.
Until it wasn’t.
Of course, I wouldn’t be telling you all this if I didn’t return to the game in 2023, a few months before 2.2 came out. But I only played a few levels that I thought looked really cool like White Space. I did a few weeklies as well, continued to play some more cool looking demons like Dream Flower, Citadel, and Say It Back, but returning to Nine Circles was not on my to-do list. It was still very much just a level whose story I told to my friends whenever Geometry Dash was mentioned for the first time in our conversations.
Until it wasn’t.
The Beginning of the End
I threw in a few attempts trying to learn the level a few months ago, and found that a decent chunk of my muscle memory was still there. Moreover, I didn’t hate the level and was actually completely fine with throwing hundreds of attempts at it so that’s what I did! After multiple new bests at 7%, 15%, 18%, 20%, 21%, 26%, 33%, 47%, and 48%, it was quite evident that I was making steady progress. That was until I jumped to 71% as I had been consistently practicing the wave every day. My method for learning the level was still pretty much the same, but I now used practice mode instead of start positions as it felt better to me.
Nerve control was still very much a problem because I couldn’t help but get nervous every time I got to the mini-wave section, and progress came to a halt for quite a long time after I died twice more at 75% and 80%, just 3% less than my record. I did not get a new best for weeks after that as I started playing the level less and less consistently, only playing it every now and then with rather long breaks in between and getting distracted by other easy demons. But I did feel myself getting more consistent at the level. I was getting better at the game in general as I was slowly starting to get used to the different game modes, especially the wave. I may not have been getting a new best, but I was still making progress.
Fast forward to 6 days ago, when I started consistently getting to, and dying at 70%-77%. Though it was progress, it was quite frustrating.
Then, on the 25th of March, just a few days later, I finally got another new best.
I threw in a few attempts trying to learn the level a few months ago, and found that a decent chunk of my muscle memory was still there. Moreover, I didn’t hate the level and was actually completely fine with throwing hundreds of attempts at it so that’s what I did! After multiple new bests at 7%, 15%, 18%, 20%, 21%, 26%, 33%, 47%, and 48%, it was quite evident that I was making steady progress. That was until I jumped to 71% as I had been consistently practicing the wave every day. My method for learning the level was still pretty much the same, but I now used practice mode instead of start positions as it felt better to me.
Nerve control was still very much a problem because I couldn’t help but get nervous every time I got to the mini-wave section, and progress came to a halt for quite a long time after I died twice more at 75% and 80%, just 3% less than my record. I did not get a new best for weeks after that as I started playing the level less and less consistently, only playing it every now and then with rather long breaks in between and getting distracted by other easy demons. But I did feel myself getting more consistent at the level. I was getting better at the game in general as I was slowly starting to get used to the different game modes, especially the wave. I may not have been getting a new best, but I was still making progress.
Fast forward to 6 days ago, when I started consistently getting to, and dying at 70%-77%. Though it was progress, it was quite frustrating.
Then, on the 25th of March, just a few days later, I finally got another new best.
Conquest
I had now overtaken my old record, and was of course, overjoyed by this new achievement. I had expected this death because as it turns out, 87%, is quite a choke point. I could not remember it being a problem when I had played it years ago, but I guess I had just gotten so consistent at it that it wasn’t really a choke point for me, who knows.
Now, I was really happy with this run and how far I’d been able to get, but the struggle had not yet ended. I hadn’t beaten the level. I hadn’t reached the end. The next day saw me making more progress, but the second day was the one that was the most prominent when it came to achievements, with me getting another new best just a few clicks away from the end and a run from 9% to 100%. I had figured out that I am not as nervous when there is someone speaking in the background so I put up some of Doggie’s stream highlights in the background to keep the GD energy going and it definitely helped a lot because I got another ridiculous new best.
This was more than enough progress for the day, and I planned to put in more attempts the day after that, but because I was so close to beating it, I decided to throw in a few more attempts, and that’s when the moment that I’d been waiting for finally came.
The attempt saw me getting far into the level, reaching the end of the mini-wave, and I also made it past the choke point at 87% and 89%. But this still did not guarantee victory because from my experience in practice runs, I found that GD would always lag near 93% so I was ready to try and improvise as it slowly inched closer, ready to lose the run to the lag spike. As soon as I got to 90%, I started focusing really hard to try and time the click with the lag spike. The progress bar kept going, 91%, 92%, and… 93%. There was no lag spike.
I made it past the 93% jumps, and the realization suddenly hit me. It was over…
It was over…
No way — Placel realizing that he did it.
I had now overtaken my old record, and was of course, overjoyed by this new achievement. I had expected this death because as it turns out, 87%, is quite a choke point. I could not remember it being a problem when I had played it years ago, but I guess I had just gotten so consistent at it that it wasn’t really a choke point for me, who knows.
Now, I was really happy with this run and how far I’d been able to get, but the struggle had not yet ended. I hadn’t beaten the level. I hadn’t reached the end. The next day saw me making more progress, but the second day was the one that was the most prominent when it came to achievements, with me getting another new best just a few clicks away from the end and a run from 9% to 100%. I had figured out that I am not as nervous when there is someone speaking in the background so I put up some of Doggie’s stream highlights in the background to keep the GD energy going and it definitely helped a lot because I got another ridiculous new best.
This was more than enough progress for the day, and I planned to put in more attempts the day after that, but because I was so close to beating it, I decided to throw in a few more attempts, and that’s when the moment that I’d been waiting for finally came.
The attempt saw me getting far into the level, reaching the end of the mini-wave, and I also made it past the choke point at 87% and 89%. But this still did not guarantee victory because from my experience in practice runs, I found that GD would always lag near 93% so I was ready to try and improvise as it slowly inched closer, ready to lose the run to the lag spike. As soon as I got to 90%, I started focusing really hard to try and time the click with the lag spike. The progress bar kept going, 91%, 92%, and… 93%. There was no lag spike.
I made it past the 93% jumps, and the realization suddenly hit me. It was over…
It was over…
No way — Placel realizing that he did it.
The End
As you might have guessed, I was ecstatic, and also relieved. This journey that had started almost half a decade ago, had come to an end. And I definitely did not lose it at the end (xD).
All of this has taught me many things, many times. Whatever it is, the value of negative experiences, the value of being tenacious, persistent, or stubborn, all of it was taught to me by a video game.
As you might have guessed, I was ecstatic, and also relieved. This journey that had started almost half a decade ago, had come to an end. And I definitely did not lose it at the end (xD).
All of this has taught me many things, many times. Whatever it is, the value of negative experiences, the value of being tenacious, persistent, or stubborn, all of it was taught to me by a video game.
A five-dollar mobile game where you make a character go up and down.
A five-dollar mobile game that defined who I am.
Word Count: 2078
TL;DR: Skip to the last chapter.
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