Crystal Heart

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Crystal Heart

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List of entities

Crystal Hearts are high-importance collectibles in Celeste. Their primary purpose is to unlock different chapters locked by Crystal Heart Gates; thus, they are also a prerequisite to unlocking all C-Sides, Variant Mode, and Golden Strawberries. They also serve as chapter completion objectives for all B-Sides, all C-Sides, and Core A-Side. Blue Crystal Hearts appear in every A-Side, Red Crystal Hearts in every B-Side, Gold Crystal Hearts in every C-Side, and a Gray Crystal Heart in Farewell, which is revealed to be fake and has cracks. Each Crystal Heart, except the C-Side ones, also has a name specific to itself and an associated achievement with said name.

A Crystal Heart can be collected by dashing into it. In 5B, a crystal heart can also be gathered by throwing a Theo crystal into it.

After a heart is collected, Madeline slows down, and the game continues to run for 135 frames (~2.25 seconds) before she completely stops. It is possible to die during these 135 frames if, for instance, Madeline dashes into spikes. After the collection cutscene depicting the heart in the middle of the screen, the heart is saved and will remain in the save file indefinitely.

A-Side Crystal Hearts[edit | edit source]

Crystal Hearts in various A-Sides serve as well-guarded secrets, often hiding at quite a significant distance from the main path or requiring otherwise tedious tasks to be performed. These Crystal Hearts are blue; each one has a unique name and achievement associated with it.

An exception to this rule is Core A-Side: there, it acts the same way as a B-Side or a C-Side heart, being located at the end of the level, and collecting it ends the level. Such hearts also exist within various Celeste custom maps.

A guide is available for anyone struggling with locating the Crystal Hearts. It contains a lot of hints and pointers before giving out the solution, so try it out!

B-Side and C-Side Crystal Hearts[edit | edit source]

Crystal Hearts appear at the end of a Cassette Block room in every B-Side in Celeste. These Crystal Hearts are red, and each of them also has a unique name and achievement associated with it.

Every C-Side also contains a Crystal Heart at its end. Unlike the B-Side crystal hearts, these often aren't located at safe locations, and Madeline can die while collecting them. These Crystal Hearts are gold in color, and unlike A and B-Side Crystal hearts, they do not have an associated name or achievement. They also do not appear in the journal.

All B-Side and C-Side Crystal Hearts double as golden strawberry collection triggers. The "1,000" that appears when a strawberry is collected appears when the heart cutscene plays and remains on screen until the "spinning heart" animation is skipped.

Trivia[edit | edit source]

  • In early development, only one large heart was meant to exist in the game, and the collectibles in each chapter would have been heart shards that would potentially unlock Core. It was changed to what it is now in the release version.[1]
  • Every heart color plays a slightly different pitch of the collection sound.
  • Golden strawberries are saved immediately after dashing into a Crystal Heart in chapters that end with them. Dying after collecting a heart will save the golden strawberry and will respawn the player at the nearest checkpoint instead of at the beginning of the level.
  • The heart names were initially meant to be an experiment with a poem that could have possibly been reassembled in the journal, but the idea was never fulfilled, and realigning the hearts is purely cosmetic.[2]
  1. Maddy Thorson, Celeste Developer Commentary Livestream on YouTube
  2. Maddy Thorson, Celeste Developer Commentary Livestream on YouTube