Take the ball to Kurt in Azalea Town, wait 24 hours, then place it in the Ilex Forest shrine to encounter a Level 30 Celebi. This is the only legitimate way to shiny hunt Celebi through soft-resetting.

The first game where Pokémon have short animations when entering battle.

For the first time in North America and Europe, the GS Ball event is legitimately accessible without external hardware.

As the "definitive" version of Generation II, Crystal introduced several firsts: