The Ultimate Gem Guide

Gems are an easily overlooked article of gear for your Hero. Gems can bolster your strengths and temper your weaknesses. A good set of gems might just mean the difference between glorious victory and massive defeat. In this article, we discuss where you can find the most gems, and go over basic gem configurations for different uses. For a basic outline of what gear and gems do, see our article here.

The Best Ways to Get Gems

Gems are not easy to come by, even with all of the gold, loyalty, and cash in the world. Fortunately, we took the time to list out every single possible way for you to earn gems. This list is in order from the highest-level gems that are easily obtainable first, to the rarest chances of obtaining gems last.

Proving Grounds

Once you unlock the level 2 Proving Grounds, Attack of the Garulas, you have the ability to obtain countless gems – as long as you have enough ether. This dungeon costs 150 Ether per hit and is usually left out of the events which give you points from hitting monsters in the Proving Grounds. Whether you’re at Citadel 20 or 50, the drops in this dungeon are always in demand. Although gems drop randomly every 5 or so attacks, they will always be level 2 gems. It will take about 10,000 Ether before you can get enough gems to create a level 5 gem, although your mileage may vary.  Any time you stumble upon extra ether laying around, don’t forget about the level 2 Proving Grounds to help you increase your overall gem quality and quantity.

Hero Quests

Along with the occasional crafting material, Hero Quests will randomly dispense gems. The level of gem you get from quests depends on the quality of the quest. Just as there are 6 types of equipment quality, the quality of a quest is indicated by both its color and the time required to complete it. Those qualities are level 1 (Black), level 2 (White), level 3 (Green), level 4 (Blue), level 5 (Purple) and level 6 (Gold). So, the highest-quality gem you can possibly get from completing quests is level 6, despite the fact that gems can be combined to reach even higher levels.

Hoping you get a gem or specific crafting material randomly in your quests is like hoping you win the lotto. Thankfully, you can get more “lotto tickets” by using a Hero’s Chance item to refresh all of your quests after completing them. You can get Hero’s Chance from the Guild Store for 80,000 loyalty, randomly from Guild Gifts, and from the level 2 Proving Grounds dungeon mentioned above. Make sure your VIP is active when using a Hero’s Chance item to refresh the maximum amount of quests and maximize your odds of getting more gems in them.

If you’re used to seeing all black and white quests every time they refresh, try this simple trick to increase your quest quality, get more hero EXP, and obtain better gems or items. All you need to do is complete your quests in order from the lowest timers first to the highest timers last. If you have the VIP Auto-Complete feature active for both Hero and VIP quests, then simply auto-complete the lowest quality quests first and the high quality quests last. Do this enough, and you will start to see Epic and Legendary quests crop up from time to time. It doesn’t matter which order you collect your completed quests in, the only thing that matters is which quests get completed first.

War Spoils

Occasionally, you’ll get gems and other items when attacking other empires. You can see if you obtained any gems under the War Spoils section of a Battle Report. You only receive War Spoils when attacking, so you will not receive anything if you are the one being attacked. Increasing your War Spoils will increase the chance of getting more and better items after each attack.

Here are a few ways to increase the amount of War Spoils you receive and increase your chances of getting better gems to equip to your gear.

• Aranea Gear Set: 131% (Gear) 30% (Mythic Forge Bonus)
• Adventurer Research: 40%
• Economics Research: 30%
• Order of Thieves: 50%

Loot Tile Gathering

You can also randomly get gems when gathering on Loot Tiles such as monster lairs. To increase your chances of getting gems, better crafting materials, and more Hero EXP items, try gathering on a lair until it is depleted. Sometimes, you will receive a few additional items as a reward for “cleaning up” the realm. Higher level Loot Tiles yield higher level gems, crafting materials, and more Hero EXP items, as does increasing your Loot Tile Luck.

You can increase your Loot Tile Gathering Luck and get better gems as well as crafting materials by unlocking the following:

• Order of Thieves: 10%
• Economics Research: 1%
• Crafting Research: 20%

Paragon Gems

The 4th gem slot on any piece of equipment is called a Paragon gem. You can only unlock the 4th gem slot through Crafting Research. Unlocking the Paragon gem for the Helmet, Footwear and Body Armor gear is relatively easy and can be completed halfway through Stat Multiplier II on the Crafting Research tree.

To unlock the Paragon gem slot for your Weapon Gear, you must first master Weapon Stat Multiplier II, then upgrade Weapon Stat Multiplier III to level 7.

Unlocking the Paragon gem slot for (gear) accessories is even more difficult and requires all of Crafting Research to be complete before they can be researched.

Paragon gems are extremely rare and cannot be obtained through any of the aforementioned methods of collecting gems. Currently, there are only the following known ways to obtain more Paragon gems:

• Dropped from Behemoths and Weakened Behemoths (During special events only!)
• Completing certain events.
• In Paragon Chests, commonly seen while in the Realm of Champions.

Gem Configurations

This section will go over the three basic gem configurations: Attack, Defense, and Monster Hunting. Each situation you find yourself in calls for a different arrangement of gems. Remember that you can only embed one type of gem into each piece of gear, so diversifying which gems you embed in your most powerful equipment is key.

The problem with gems is that once a gem is embedded in a piece of equipment, it can only be removed with the help of Gem Removal items found in the Guild Store. Embedding the wrong gem or a low level gem could end up costing you a lot of valuable loaylty. Luckily, once you hit VIP 30, you gain the ability to remove any level gems from any piece of equipment without the assistance of any items. The Free Gem Removal is a game-changer, as it allows you to experiment with different gems, remove or add gems based on your opponent’s abilities during combat, and remove lower level gems in order to combine them into higher level gems. For these reasons, we strongly advise everyone get their VIP level up to at least level 30.

Attacking an Empire

When you’re going head-to-head with another player, your go-to gems should be for Armor Piercing, City Assault Attack, Troop Armor, and Troop HP. These take first priority on all of your equipment. You will also want to embed the highest-level gems for the type of troops that you usually use when attacking with your hero. For Luna, that’s the blue Sapphire gems, which increase Mage Attack. For Aranea, use yellow Topaz gems to increase your Cavalry Attack. When using Gladiolus, be sure to embed all of your red Garnet gems to increase Warrior Attack. Noctis and Prompto allow you to select the type of troops whose attack you want to increase, while Ignis’ Master Tactician gives an attack bonus for all Training Grounds troops, especially Siege Engines. When using a level 100 Ignis with the hero skill Siege Mastery unlocked, black Opal gems that increase Siege Attack are your best friend.

Unless you’re attacking with your hero and a march consisting of mixed Warrior, Mage and Cavalry, only use one type of attack gem throughout your entire gear set. Always be mindful of gems you might have embedded that aren’t doing anything for you. For example, a level 8 Garnet gem that increases your Warrior Attack is useless if you’re only attacking with Mage.

If it’s multiple targets you’re attacking, such as a guild’s hive, having high level Quartz gems to increase your overall March Speed is important, as they will allow you to hit your targets and return home faster, thus allowing you to get in more attacks over a long period of time.

Defending your Empire

Defending your empire from incoming attacks is not all that different from attacking an opponent. You’ll want to use as many Troop HP and Troop Armor gems as possible, but also your highest-level Warrior, Mage and Cavalry Attack gems on each piece of equipment. Armor Piercing gems can still be used on incoming attacks and will allow you to get more enemy kills.

Remove any gems that affect March Speed, City Assault Attack, and other non-essential gems. Intimidation gems decrease the time it takes for an incoming attack to hit your empire, but do nothing for your attack or defense. These gems should only be used when defending against incoming attacks, and none of the other gems mentioned above are available.

It should go without saying that your highest-level gems should be embedded first, but if all of your best gems level 4 and up are already in use and only level 1-3 gems remain, then it’s best to use a different type of gem at a higher level. The 3.5% Cavalry Attack that a level 3 Topaz gem gives you, for example, will not have any noticeable effects when defending or attacking.

Monster Hunting

When hunting Monsters, you use entirely different equipment than when attacking or defending. As such, the gems you use will also be specific to hunting monsters. Naturally, you’ll want to build up your streaks first using equipment such as Beastmaster’s Claw, Hunter’s Carapace and Dreadmist Plunderers before you switch to equipment that offer the most Hero Attack, like Giant Slayer.

Those first couple of attacks where you are building up streaks are the most important, so be sure to embed gems that increase your Hero Attack, Critical Hit, Monster March Speed and Hero MP. By the time you max out your Attack Streaks on a monster, most gems won’t even make a difference.

Conclusion

Gems are a critical yet often overlooked part of gameplay in Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire. Knowing the best ways to collect gems early on in the game can make a substantial difference in your gameplay later on. Use different gems for different situations, but remember to get your VIP to level 30 or above and keep it on whenever playing. Lastly, collecting and combining gems is a long-term strategy. No one starts off with all the best gems in the game. It takes time to build up a collection of high-level gems, but doing so will allow you to take your gear to the next level and get a jump on the competition.

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