New Gems!

Three new gem types have been added to Final Fantasy XV: ANE. In this article, we’ll take a look at the gem abilities, as well as the method to get them and a discussion of their usefulness and application.

The New Gems

The three new gems types introduced to the game are:

• Assault Gem: This gem type adds a City Assault boost, which is additional attack that only applies when assaulting Empires (as opposed to the Crystal or on defense).

• Piercing Gem: The Piercing Gem adds Armor Piercing, which is a boost that lowers the target’s Armor boost by the percentage indicated. So if you have a gem that provides 86% armor piercing and the target has +300% Armor, the target will have an effective +214% armor when you attack.

• Intimidation Gem: The Intimidation gem grants a defense boost that slows incoming marches. It is a direct counter to March Speed increases that an attacker may be using.

All three of these mechanics have previously been seen on gear: the assault gem mechanic on Winged Assassin and Prompto, Armor Piercing on Aranea and Prompto, and Intimidation on the briefly available Undertaker gear.

Right now, the gems are only available as rewards in a special casino that gives them out as random rewards, along with a previously available monster gem.

This is an interesting introduction mechanic. While it is heavily luck-based, taking many spins to get a super-powerful gem due to the randomness, you can get a few decent gems of the type for a smaller number of casino spins.

Whether it is worth it to spin the wheel depends on your playstyle. The first two gem types are only useful on attack, while the third is only useful on defense. I’d argue that there are better options in all categories if you had to pick gem types: pure +Attack is better than City Assault or Armor Piercing point for point, and Intimidation is not great compared to HP or even Armor (especially at small percentages, since the effect will be very small).

But you cannot stack more than one of the same gem type in the same piece of gear. So if you already have attack-geared Winged Assassin, a +City Assault or +Armor Piercing gem will probably work better for you than a troop-typed damage gem for a troop you don’t specialize in.

For defenders, I’d argue that Intimidation gem just isn’t worth it. The Armor Piercing effect applies on defense as well as attack, which can result in more casualties to the incoming opponent, but I’m not sure this beats HP or Armor by any large margin. If you’re already surviving most attacks and are now looking to increase opponent casualties, the +Armor Piercing may be more effective than a typed troop damage gem.

Two final considerations on these: there is not a good way to reliably get the other existing gems right now outside of Hero and Guild Quests. So this is a relatively “quick” way to gain usable gems. However, it is likely they will be available in the future (as monster drops or in future gems events) as well.

And if you do go for the gems, make sure to pick up one of the special Casino packs with lots of tokens rather than the default one with only 5k:

Final verdict: if you are looking to tune your gems for maximum effect, these gems may be worth it to you. But if you aren’t in excellent gear yet or don’t have a leveled Prompto, you may want to concentrate your pack money there first.