Gems gems

Gems are valuable stones found through mining that have several uses throughout the game. There are ten types of gems, and each level of gem can be crafted by combining a certain number of the previous level of gem together. In the beginning of the game, gems are a good way to make some quick cash to get started by selling them if you happen to get lucky enough to mine a gem early on (though it's not possible to mine gems in the first ten minutes of the game). Later in the game, gems become a requirement for various pick and upgrade purchases and are used to purchase alchemists and used by alchemists to convert into other resources.

Pricing Data

See the Pickaxes#Setting gems page for a chart showing the value of each gem when placed into a pickax. See the Alchemists#Alchemy recipes page for a chart showing alchemist conversion rates using gems.

Conversion Chart

The following table shows the conversion rates for turning the gem listed in each row to the gem listed in each column. The values above the diagonal show how many are required to up-convert to the column gem, while the values below the diagonal show the yield when breaking down gems into lower quality gems. Note that these are not the same values because breaking down gems costs one of the lower-leveled gem. For example, breaking down one Great gem as far as it will go yields only two Dreary gems, while it takes 48 Dreary gems to create one Great gem.

Obtaining Gems

There are several methods to acquire gems that become available throughout the game. The first method available is through clicking on the mine on the main game screen, which becomes available after 10 minutes played and purchasing the first pick upgrade. High-tier pickaxes have an additional opportunity to mine gems as well. For more information on the rate and amount of gems found using the pickaxe, see the mining gems section of the Pickaxes page.

After purchasing the gem find mage upgrades that first become available after hiring five mages, mages set to delving will start to randomly find gems. The gem find upgrades include upgrades to the percent chance for your mages to find gems and upgrades to the quantity of gems found. There is also a series of upgrades that increase the quality of gems found by delving mages. Additionally, after sacrificing 100K goblins at the smelting pit and purchasing the Learn from the Fallen upgrade, the amount of gems found by delving mages greatly increases--the original rate after any other upgrades is multiplied by the number of goblins sacrificed divided by 777 raised to the power of 1.09. This very quickly becomes the chief source of gems.

Upon hiring five alchemists, you unlock the ability to transform large ant hirelings into normal gems. This recipe is upgradeable to produce great gems instead of normal gems by purchasing the Crystallizing Influence mage upgrade after reaching 30K mage wisdom. Production may be further increased by upgrading your alchemists and unlocking the alchemists' speed.

It is also possible to gain gems through industry. Rock golems digging in the quarry have a small chance each second to find a cache of gems; for more information on the amount and chance, check the quarry's entry in the industry chart. The auto-smithy may be used to automatically upgrade gems when sufficient quantities are available, though it does not generate additional gems itself. After constructing regal statues throughout your land, your subjects will begin to pay taxes in the form of gems, which are collected by tax collectors and added to your coffers every ten minutes. Through shrewd trading at the exchange market, it is possible to trade great gems for majestic gems at a rate more attractive than combining them up to majestic gems yourself. Keep checking the trade rates at the market until you find a ratio better than 360 great gems per majestic gem in order to increase your stock of gems. If you need perfect gems instead of majestic, due to the loss in value by breaking down gems through crafting, in order to get more perfect gems through the market than by upgrading great gems using crafting, your trade ratio would need to be better than 315 great gems per majestic gem at the market.

Update Info

• Version 0.991 - 27/09/2014
  • The quarry now finds far more gems, and can find adamantium
  • Added an upgrade that increases the goblin cost of the smelting pit (it will make sense, don't worry)
  • Prying out gems now gives the cost of the gem being pried minus 1
• Version 0.99 - 20/09/2014
  • Neurochyrsalises can now be alchemized
  • Added a way to increase the gem find from mages (and you can now see how many they find at once)
• Version 0.97 - 06/09/2014
  • Created an upgrade for setting a minimum number of gems before the auto-smith activates
• Version 0.96 - 30/08/2014
  • Sell gems tab now permanently shows all gems after a certain point
• Version 0.951 - 23/08/2014
  • Sell gem tab now shows how many gems you have
• Version 0.95 - 16/08/2014
  • Regal statues return slightly fewer gems
  • Statue results now remain until the next group returns
• Version 0.94 - 09/08/2014
  • Added two new buildings (Regal Statue produces gems)
  • Added many new mage upgrades (Crystal Underground, Penticity, Crystallizing Influence affect gem production)
  • Auto-smith upgrades now require coal after a certain point
  • The quarry now has a chance of finding buried treasure (96% chance of finding gems)
• Version 0.93 - 02/08/2014
  • The auto-smith combines 10 gems at once by default, instead of 1
  • Added another mage upgrade for increasing gem quality
  • Improved auto-smith and goblin art, courtesy of clockworktwelve!
  • Slight increase in Hive Queen gem cost
  • Auto-smith can be upgraded to move more gems, making it more useful for idling
  • Combine gems button now has a dropdown letting you stop combining at a certain level
• Version 0.92 - 25/07/2014
  • Fixed a bug caused by gem rounding if the number of gems is greater than 0 but less than 1
  • Transmutation now also occurs if you have 100% of the amount, instead of the current efficiency (i.e. 330%)
  • Reduced world eater and hive queen alchemy prices
  • Alt click now works the same way as ctrl click
  • Added upgrades increasing alchemical yield (without increasing cost)
  • Added 3 new mage upgrades that increase the chance of high level gems
• Version 0.91 - 19/07/2014
  • Combining and breaking gems now both default to 1 at a time, but you can combine/break them all by holding ctrl
  • Fixed alignment bugs in the gems section
  • Rounded gem and hireling values, because people were getting annoyed at seeing 103.4 ants and so on
  • Added alchemist upgrades that increase potential (and therefore speed up transmutation)
  • Added 2 new high level picks that provide far more gems than previous picks
• Version 0.90 - 12/07/2014
  • Added alchemists lairs
  • Gems can be combined one level at a time
  • Gems can be broken into previous levels
  • Prying out gems gives a warning message
• Version 0.87 - 27/06/2014
  • Fixed a bug with mages giving gems
• Version 0.85 - 21/06/2014
  • Gems now have tooltips showing their function
  • Mages can now find higher level gems
• Version 0.82 - 14/06/2014
  • A warning is displayed if you buy a new pick while you have gems socketed
• Version 0.80 - 07/06/2014
  • Gems now only increase by one level at a time (previously gem prying was impossible sometimes)
• Version 0.78 - 31/05/2014
  • Fixed bug with socket dropdowns refreshing too quickly
  • Gems can be pried from picks
• Version 0.75 - 24/05/2014
  • Gems are more powerful
  • Goblins drop gems more often
• Version 0.68 - 10/05/2014
  • Added pickaxe enhancement via gems (4 gems to unlock)