The Dark World brought about a whole new set of Gems and Crystal Cores, with a variety of creative new names. Some of these are event-specific, and as of now can only be obtained when those events are available. Each new release of Gems and Crystal Cores trumps the last, so this is a comprehensive overview of all Gems and Crystal Cores released to date in the Dark World, and where to get them. This is an add-on to the pre-Dark World lists of Gems and Crystal Cores.
Aeon Gems
Aeon Gems are the only Gems from before the Dark World reset that provide a boost to Dark Troops. In addition to the original astral attack boost, Aeon Gems also add up to 1% Dark city assault attack and HP boost.
Dark and Elite Dark Gems and Crystal Cores
Dark and Elite Dark Gems and Crystal Cores were the first Gems and Crystal Cores released for the Dark World. They can be bought directly from the Moogle Market using credits obtained from various events. Elite Dark Gems and Crystal Cores have slightly better stats than their regular Dark counterparts.
Dark and Elite Dark Gems boost the expected WMC (Warrior, Mage, and Cavalry) attack and armor, and also include Gems that boost overall troop health and troop armor. Both types of Gems also have a rally Gem, which boosts both attack and health when assaulting or defending at the Crystal.
Similar to their Gems counterparts, Dark and Elite Crystal Cores also boost WMC (Warrior, Mage, and Cavalry) attack and armor, with the Elite Crystal Cores adding health boosts also. The overall troop health core also has a rally capacity boost, and the overall troop attack core has an added march size boost that is unexpected. The troop armor cores add only troop armor without any surprise additional boosts. The city assault cores provide boosts in cripple HP, rally attack and armor-piercing, and the rally cores provide boosts to health and attack when assaulting and defending the Crystal.
Surprise Blitz Gems and Surprise Blitz Crystal Cores
These Gems and Crystal Cores can only be obtained from the Surprise Blitz Dungeon. There are complete sets (three regular Gems, one paragon Gem, and one Crystal Core) for each of the three categories — attack, defense, and crystal play.
Corrupt Gems and Crystal Cores
The corrupt Gems and Crystal Cores have slightly amped-up versions of the Dark and Elite Dark variants, boosting Mage, Cavalry, and Warrior stats as well as city assault, rally, troop health, troop armor, and troop attack stats. These can be obtained through events.
Lost Paragon Gem and Sinister Crystal Core
The Lost Paragon Gem and Sinister Crystal Core can only be obtained through the Dark Loyalty Streak Rewards tab of the Moogle Market. Together, this section boosts base Dark Troop attack, Dark rally attack, Dark crystal holding attack, Dark cripple HP, Dark armor-piercing and Dark crystal assault rally and defense health. The Sinister Crystal Core is the first time that the Levels have new names, which are: Champion (1), Elite (2), Legendary (3), Exalted (4), Divine (5), and Pinnacle (6). Dark Loyalty Streak Rewards can be obtained through pack purchases.
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Cactuar Gems and Tonberry Crystal Cores
The Cactuar Gems are obtainable only from the events that take place during the Cactuars Adventures and the Tonberry Crystal Cores are obtainable only from the events that take place during the Tonberry Wars. Both of these are week-long events with a variety of daily events, which include guild adventure hall runs, realm bosses, and neutral realm events with empires to attack at each corner of the scar. The Gems boost Warrior, Mage and Cavalry stats, and the Crystal Cores boost a variety of stats for troops overall. Collect all of the Gems and Crystal Cores for a fully balanced empire!
Repentance Gem and Repentance Crystal Core
Similar to the Lost Paragon Gem and Sinister Crystal Core, the Repentance Gem and Repentance Crystal Core are obtained from the Moogle Market on the Prestige tab. These were released shortly after Dark mercenaries, so both are primarily focused on boosting various stats that specifically help Dark mercenaries to succeed (mercenary attack, mercenary health, mercenary armor, armor-piercing, cripple HP, and troop, rally, and crystal holding attack). Prestige Moogle credits can be obtained through pack purchases.
Secret Stash Crystal Cores
The Secret Stash Crystal Cores can be obtained from the Cactuar Secret Stash Guild Adventure Hall. This dungeon requires ten special event contracts to participate and repeats a few times. Using King Noctis’s Dark hall boosts and working together as a guild helps to ensure completion of this dungeon during its limited-time release. This dungeon is released shortly after Dark elementals, so the Cactuar and Slactuar Crystal Cores boost elemental health, elemental attack, elemental armor, as well as a few additional boosts for crystal and city assault and defense.
Multiplier Aeon Gems
Warped, Prismatic, Chaotic and Infused Aeon Gems uniquely start at Level 11 — as of July 14, 2019, these still do not exist from Levels 1 through 10. These Gems provide multiplier boosts for Warriors (Chaotic Aeon), Mages (Warped Aeon), Cavalry (Prismatic Aeon) and overall troop boost when the hero is present (Infused Aeon). The Infused Aeon Gem is a Paragon Gem, which allows for all four Gems to be used at the same time on your gear.
Galvanade Crystal Cores
Galvanade Crystal Cores are obtainable only through the Galvanade Dungeon in the Guild Adventure Hall. This exciting dungeon requires ten contracts per run but provides great boosts in march size, rally capacity, attack, health, and armor. The Ghostly Galvanade Crystal Core boosts elemental troops and the Grand Galvanade Crystal Core boosts mercenary troops.
Dark Protection and Onslaught Crystal Cores
These Crystal Cores are obtainable only through pack purchases, but provide boosts up into the millions for your troops. The Dark Protection Crystal Core boosts city defense attack, city defense armor, troop enemy attack resistance, mercenary attack resistance, elemental attack resistance, troop health, elemental health, and mercenary health. The Dark Onslaught Crystal Core boosts troop attack, city assault attack, rally attack, troop cripple HP, mercenary cripple HP, elemental cripple HP, mercenary attack, and elemental attack.
Picking Your Best Mix
When determining how many Level 1 Gems or Crystal Cores you need to target you can use the table below, or use the simple formula “y = 4 ^ (x – 1)”, where “x” is your target Level and “y” is the number of Level 1 items you need to purchase to combine to your target Level.
| Core/Gem Target Level | Quantity of Lvl 1 Needed |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 4 |
| 3 | 16 |
| 4 | 64 |
| 5 | 256 |
| 6 | 1024 |
Depending on how far into the Dark World your server is, you may not have all of the above Gems available. With each new release, even the lowest level of the new content far surpasses the highest level of any old content. Therefore, it’s a good idea to do the events when available and try to collect as many new Gems and Crystal Cores to stay at the top of your game. I like using Gem presets Do you have any other tips or tricks for using Gems and Crystal Cores? Feel free to share them in the comments below, or join me in the discussions on LINE or Discord!
