Cresselia has a blue, swan-like body with a yellow underside, and two magenta tufts that form an arc across her chest. The yellow ornaments on the sides of her head give her head the appearance of a crescent moon. Cresselia also has glowing, pink, ring-like wings on her sides and back with paw like protrusions resting on Cresselia's chest.
Gender differences
Cresselia is a female-only species with no male counterpart, but rather a genderless counterpart.
Special abilities
Cresselia has the power to dispel nightmares, including ones induced by Darkrai, and in return induce pleasant dreams. She can also heal psychological scars if the sufferer looks at her. Some fans consider Cresselia to be the "Sandman" of the Pokémon world.
She appears to be gentle, worrying for the ill and giving peace to those tormented by Darkrai. However, as seen in the anime, she can be quite hostile towards her counterpart, Darkrai.
In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness, her opposition to Darkrai becomes clearly evident, with the story showing scenes of Cresselia chasing it.
Habitat
Cresselia lives at Fullmoon Island. She also travels around the Pokémon world, dispelling the terrible nightmares others suffer and chasing Darkrai.
Cresselia made her debut appearance in the anime in Sleepless In Pre-Battle!. Cresselia normally returns to her shrine on Fullmoon Island during a certain time of the year when a Darkrai also comes by to cause nightmares. She may also leave her feathers, which people find to help stop the nightmares caused by Darkrai. In the episode, Cresselia helps Ash and the residents of Canalave City get better sleep by stopping Darkrai.
Cresselia appears on the Spear Pillar stage as one of three Pokémon who appear in the center (the others being Dialga and Palkia). Cresselia acts completely different than the other two in terms of attacks she uses. She'll often shoot Psycho Cuts around the field, and sometimes shoot one large Psycho Cut as if it were a boomerang, hitting anyone that touches it.
Trophy Information
A Lunar Pokémon. Cresselia appears on Fullmoon Island and, once discovered, flies around different areas of Sinnoh. Its signature move, Lunar Dance, causes Cresselia to faint but recovers all the HP and cures the status conditions of the next Pokémon its Trainer sends out. Cresselia excels at recovery techniques and is unusual in that it appears only in female form.
Game data
NPC appearances
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness: Cresselia has made it her mission to foil Darkrai's plot of plunging everyone in the world into an endless nightmare. After healing Azurill of his nightmare, she joins the player's team as a guest in Dark Crater. After defeating Darkrai, Cresselia will offer to officially join the team back at Sharpedo Bluff.
Cresselia can be seen as an opposite of Darkrai, as Darkrai causes nightmares, whereas Cresselia prevents them. Also, their islands are shaped and named opposite of each other, and their types are frequently considered opposites.
Furthermore, in the TCG, one of the attacks on Darkrai 3/106 of Great Encounters, Darkness Pursuit, has a base damage of 100 if Cresselia is the opposing Pokémon. Otherwise, it deals 50 damage.
Cresselia is one of six legendary Pokémon that has a definite gender, the other five being Latias (a female-only species), Latios (a male-only species) and the Raijin trio (whose members are all male-only species).
All of these legendary Pokémon except Landorus appeared roaming around the region they debuted in.
Cresselia's three main colors (pink, yellow and blue) are the same as the main colors of the Lake guardians.
Cresselia is the second Pokémon with information about it relating it to an aurora, the first being Deoxys.
In Deoxys's case, it can project aurora-like light patterns, as shown in Destiny Deoxys, while in Cresselia's case, she can release aurora-like particles from her tail, and can learn Aurora Beam.
Cresselia is one of two non-water types that can learn Aurora Beam, with the other being Delibird.
Cresselia also learns Psychic at the highest level of any Pokémon (93).
Cresselia can be affected by Nightmare even though she has the power to drive away nightmares.
The Lunar Wing is said to be a feather of Cresselia even though the Lunar Wing has green colouring and Cressilia doesn't have any green colouring.
Origin
The general body shape of Cresselia seems to be based after a swan. Her head is covered in crescent moon shapes and she wears many aurora-coloredplanetary rings. These rings resemble Saturn's rings.
Cresselia shares characteristics with Sarimanok, a mythical being who is usually depicted as a fowl with colorful wings and feathered tail. Sarimanok's head is profusely decorated and is said to be a symbol of good fortune. It also may be based on the Alkonost, a female headed bird god who usually departs to society to warn it.
Name origin
Her name is derived from crescent, referring to a phase of the moon. The selia in her name may be derived from Selene, the Greek goddess of the Moon.
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.