Through the Gates 100%

After 2.5 years, I finally have a new hardest completion! I’ve been playing this level on and off since 2018, and it’s a very special accomplishment to me. Let me walk you through an attempt of this level. The beginning starts out really rough and inconsistent, but eventually gets quite a bit easier over time. Up until around 27%, I kind of just autopilot and don’t need to focus much, sometimes I will go stretches of insane consistency at it, while other times I can get caught up and die to it more often than I pass it. Zoink found the beginning really hard, but I think once you play it enough it gets a lot better. Now at 27%, however, I can’t say the same thing about. This is the first major chokepoint of the level, and it just doesn’t get very consistent, even up until beating the level I struggled with this part. It may only look like simple memory on video, but actually playing it is a whole different story. Once you pass this, though, I start to focus as the run could get somewhere decent, and typically you can expect to get to at least the 40s after passing 27. The 45-47% wave is pretty challenging, but nothing too hard, and gets consistent eventually. Unfortunately, this is followed up almost immediately with 51-53, which is two inconsistent chokepoints in a row. 51% gets a lot more consistent once you get used to timing it in a specific way to avoid the spider part clipping onto the slope incorrectly, but the 53% timing takes a lot longer to get decent at. Once you pass these, the rest of Kentakiman’s part is really chokable, but a bit easier. Then at 62% is a really bad transition I think I quickly mindblocked and died to a lot by just jumping way too early or way too late into the extended triples, but it isn’t actually hard gameplay if you are able to react to it quick enough. Maestro Illuminati’s part is quite hard, and definitely chokeable with nerves, so you will need to master nerve control if you want to go for this level, especially with what’s coming up next. Kawoq is nice enough to put a long title card and really easy straight fly section at the beginning of his part in order to really get your nerves up, and then throws the most brutal basically rng click pattern I’ve ever seen at you out of nowhere. As I got further into progressing on this level, I ended up calling 79% the coin toss, as my consistency at it from 0 was almost 50/50. This level is so brutal mentally in that you get far and then you just know half your attempts will just die here. Once you pass it, you’re really getting far, and the nerves will start to spike. This is where the most frustrating and infuriating part comes at you. If you manage to pass the figurative coin toss at 79%, have fun having several runs die to an ACTUAL random bug at 84%, which is technically controllable but literally just never gets consistent, as it ONLY happens a lot from 0, and almost never happens in startpos or practice mode. If you pass this, luckily the level gives you a short break in terms of difficulty to let you know dying in between here and 93 is entirely your fault! It really is just a punch in the ego every death there. Now we have arrived at Tan1c’s part. The most infamous part in the level for good reason, as the last 10% of this level are the hardest gameplay in the level by far and it’s not even close. This part would still be a major difficulty spike even if the rest of the level had top 1 gameplay. I got incredibly mindblocked and unlucky at this part, dying 25 times to it, most of which were at the dual ball part. This part requires controlled 12cps timings through tight unevenly spaced spikes, and then an incredibly hard to get decent at ufo part with a downright insane triple click leading immediately into the most clickbaited part, the ABSURD miniwave made up of hrr frame perfects at the very end of everything. Despite everything, I actually do really like this level, its gameplay is super satisfying to pull off once you are actually able to string chokepoints together in runs, and the decoration remains charming with a nostalgic style that people never really try anymore. This level really is like a modern repeat of Thinking Space, and I love it for that. I never would’ve thought I’d be writing this description, and I want to thank everyone who’s supported me along the way and motivated me to keep pushing my limits, especially special thanks to hipo, you’ve given me so much motivation to finish this. Attempts: 112,652 Progress before completion: 74x2, 75x2, 77, 78x3, 79x68, 80x21, 82x4, 84x9, 85x6, 86, 88x3, 89x4, 93x21, 94x2, 96x2 16-96, 17-93x3, 24-95, 27-93, 36-95, 41-100, 46-96, 47-100, 49-97, 51-93, 53-100, 57-96, 60-100x5, 74-100x22, 78-100x41, 79-100x3 Songs used in the video: Dimrain47 - Through The Gates Zame - GATE Remastered Theme Thumbnail by Aetehs, thank you! Raw footage: