Gems of War: Complete Guide

A practical guide to Gems of War's match-3 combat, team building, currencies, and the systems added in the 9.x updates (the Library, the Astral Spire, Kingdom Prestige, and the expanded Explore mode). It is aimed at new and returning players who want to progress efficiently without wasting Gems.

Researched September 2026 — current as of Update 9.3 (July 2026) plus the weekly events running in late September 2026. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• Match 4 or 5 gems to take another turn. Extra turns are the single most important resource in the game. Board control beats raw damage almost every time.
• Skulls are direct damage. Matching skulls makes your first troop attack the enemy's first troop. Leave skulls on the board only if you can't use them and your opponent can't either.
• Mana colors decide your team. Each troop fills from one or two gem colors. Build teams where the colors don't all compete for the same gems, or where one troop feeds mana to the others.
• Follow the Library. Since Update 9.1, the Library replaces the old Adventurer's Path for Hero Levels 1–50. It lists every feature as it unlocks and pays rewards for finishing its tutorials. It's the best early roadmap you'll get.
• Do your dailies. Daily Plunder / Daily Adventures, Kingdom Tasks, the weekly event, and your guild tasks are where most free resources come from.
• Join an active guild early. Guild chests, guild tasks, guild events, and the weekly guild rewards add up to far more than solo play.
• Don't spend Gems on random chests early. Save them for event keys during the events you actually care about, VIP progress, or the Library Pass or other one-time value purchases if you plan to spend money.
• Level kingdoms for account-wide bonuses. Since 9.2, Kingdom Prestige (fed by Kingdom XP and Crystals) is the single upgrade track for every kingdom, and its bonuses apply across the game.

How Combat Works

The board

Battles are 4v4 (or fewer) on an 8x8 gem board. On your turn you swap two adjacent gems to form a line of three or more.

Match | Result

3 gems | Mana to troops of that color; your turn ends (unless a cascade creates a 4+ match)

4 gems in a row | Mana plus an extra turn

5 gems (line, L, or T shape) | Mana plus an extra turn

3+ skulls | Your first troop attacks the enemy's first troop

4+ skulls | Attack plus an extra turn

Cascades (gems falling into new matches) are free. They can hand you extra turns or hand them to nothing at all. Before any match, check what the fall will set up for the enemy. The classic beginner mistake is making a 3-match that drops a 4-skull line straight into the opponent's hands.

Mana and spells

• Each troop shows its mana colors and cost. When it's full, you can cast its spell. Casting usually ends your turn unless the spell says otherwise.
• Mana goes to the first troop (from the top) that can take that color and still has room. Put the troop you want to fill first higher in the lineup, or pair it with teammates that use different colors.
• Some troops and weapons generate or convert gems, which can hand you extra matches. "Converter" and "generator" spells are the backbone of most fast teams.

Troop order

Position 1 takes skull hits and attacks with skulls. Put a sturdy troop (high Armor/Life) or a troop with defensive traits in slot 1. Put glass-cannon spellcasters further back.

Traits and Traitstones

Every troop has three traits that unlock with Traitstones. Minor stones come from Explore, Arcane stones from specific kingdoms, and the rarest ones from high-level sources. Traits often matter more than the troop's base stats, so trait your core team first instead of spreading stones thin.

Your Hero, Classes, and Weapons

• Hero: your own troop. You can equip one weapon, and your class adds a passive talent tree.
• Classes: each class is tied to a kingdom and unlocks as you progress there; you level a class by winning battles with it. Each class has talent choices that change how your hero or team plays. Pick a class that matches your team's colors.
• Weapons: come from kingdom quests, events, the Soulforge, and shops. Weekly events often put a featured weapon in the Journey shop and the Soulforge. In the week of September 20, 2026, that was the Molten Tome.
• Upgrading weapons: weapons have their own upgrades that improve spell power and add affixes. A fully upgraded weapon on your hero can carry a team that has no Legendaries yet.

Troop Rarity and Collection

Troops come in rarities from Common up through Legendary and Mythic. Higher rarity usually means stronger spells and more traits, but a well-traited Epic in the right team beats an untraited Mythic.

Way to get troops | What to know

Glory chests | Common source; Glory also buys the weekly featured Epic troop from the shop

Gem chests | Better odds of high-rarity troops

Event chests | Target that week's featured troops; costs event keys

Guild chests | Opened from guild rewards

Soulforge | Craft specific troops and weapons with forge resources

Journey shop | Weekly Guide troops and weapons appear here

Duplicate troops aren't wasted. Extra copies are what you spend to ascend a troop to a higher rarity (levels come from Souls), and any surplus can be disenchanted.

Weekly rhythm example (Sept 20, 2026 "Higher on the Pyre" week): the Guide troop Scorchfly was in the Journey Shop, and the Epic Pyre Troll was in the shop for 400 Glory. Featured troops usually move into Glory, Gem, Guild, and VIP chests 3–4 weeks later. Grab them early only if they fit a team you'll use.

Currencies and What to Spend Them On

Currency | Main use | Spending advice

Gold | Hero upgrades, kingdom-related purchases, troop leveling, some shops | Earned everywhere. Explore is the best gold farm, and 9.3 raised the multipliers.

Souls | Level troops | Farm them in Explore and spend them on your core team, not every new pull

Glory | Weekly Epic troop, Glory chests/keys | Buy the weekly Epic when it's useful and bank the rest

Gems | Premium currency: chests, keys, event entries | Don't spend them on random Gem chests early

Traitstones (Minor, Major, Runic, Arcane, etc.) | Unlocking traits | Trait your main team first

Mythstones | Explore progression (spent to reach bosses in a run) | Earned per battle in Explore

Kingdom Crystals (Colored, Rainbow) | Kingdom Prestige XP (9.2+) | Spend them on the kingdoms whose bonuses you want most

Star Stones | Astral Spire nodes (9.1+) | Put them into boards that buff your main team's colors first

Kingdoms and Kingdom Prestige (Update 9.2+)

Update 9.2 "Crystal Kingdom" (May 2026) rebuilt kingdom progression.

• Removed: Kingdom Levels, Kingdom Power, Deeds, and Writs. Old stock was converted automatically: Colored Deeds at 3 per Colored Crystal of the same color, Imperial Deeds at 4 per Rainbow Crystal, and Writs at 1,800 per Rainbow Crystal.
• Added: a single Kingdom Prestige level per kingdom with no hard cap. You raise it with Kingdom XP.
• Where Kingdom XP comes from:
• Kingdom Tasks, found on each kingdom's map, and weekly events award kingdom-specific XP/Crystals.
• Colored Kingdom Crystals (worth 100 XP each, one per mana color) come from Campaigns, Daily Plunder Adventures, weekly events, and Daily Deals. They can be spent in a kingdom of the matching color.
• Rainbow Kingdom Crystals (600 XP each) work in any kingdom. They come from the Campaign Elite Pass and purchases.
• Crystal Exchange: the new screen inside each kingdom's menu where you spend Colored and Rainbow crystals.
• Population gate: raising global kingdom population is required to keep increasing a kingdom's Prestige. Spread some progress across kingdoms instead of rushing one to the moon.
• Bonuses: each Prestige level unlocks or upgrades bonuses that apply across the game, replacing what the old level/power tracks gave.

The kingdom map is also where you find Explore, Trials, Kingdom Info, and Kingdom Tasks.

The Astral Spire (Update 9.1+)

• Unlocks at Hero Level 50. You reach it from the top of the World Map, where the Path button used to be.
• It's made of Constellation Boards, which are skill trees with Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Capstone nodes. Unlocking a node costs 100, 200, 300, and 400 Star Stones respectively, and each node then levels up starting at 50 Star Stones per level. Capstones can go from level 1 to level 50.
• Bronze and Silver nodes mostly buff specific ally types. Gold nodes give small unique powers. Capstones give a major buff or enemy debuff.
• The launch boards covered Hero skills (a board called The Crown) plus one board per mana color. Update 9.3 added the Jester board, whose capstone is Prankster.
• Star Stone sources: one Daily Plunder task per day, a monthly Weekly Goal, and two shop bundles that can be bought twice a week.

Tip: put your early Star Stones into the board that matches your main PvP or Explore team's colors. Spreading them across all boards gives you nothing noticeable.

Game Modes

Mode | What it is | Why play it

Quests | Each kingdom's storyline | Unlocks kingdoms, troops, and early rewards

Explore | Repeatable runs through a kingdom's map | Best farm for Gold, Souls, Traitstones, and Mythstones

PvP (Ranked/Casual) | Fight other players' defense teams | Glory, the PvP rank ladder, and weekly rewards

Guild Wars | Guild-vs-guild bracket battles | Big guild rewards; needs your best teams

Guild events | Rotating events such as Raid Boss, Invasion, Faction Assault | Large reward tracks; stack guild tasks here

Pet Rescue | Timed pet hunts shared with your guild | Pets give small team bonuses or are cosmetic

Underworld / Underspire | Deeper faction and dungeon content | Late-game loot. Update 9.0 added Treasure Rooms and Trap Rooms to the Underspire.

Trials | Kingdom challenge battles | Rewards and account progress

Campaigns | Season-length reward tracks with a free and an Elite Pass | Kingdom Crystals, featured troops, weapons, pets

Explore after Update 9.3

Update 9.3 (July 2026) reworked Explore:

• Explore now uses the Kingdom Map. Encounters appear as nodes, just like Quests.
• The Wandering Merchant now appears at most once per run.
• New difficulties 13–16. Enemies are level 175, 200, 250, and 300, with gold multipliers of 9x to 12x. Gold multipliers were also raised on difficulties 1–12.
• Eternal Dragon Boss replaces the Mythic Boss on difficulties 13–16. Each kingdom has its own (for example, Eternal Rubirath in Adana). Reaching it costs 250 Mythstones, beating it awards a Boss Chest, and it pays Badges instead of Medal Tokens.
• Side Quests are optional single battles that can show up 0–3 times per run, depending on difficulty. They pay Mythstones plus one of: Gold, Souls, Glory, Traitstones, or Pet Food. Once you advance past a Side Quest on the map it's gone, so take it when you see it.

Explore farming rule of thumb: play the highest difficulty your team clears reliably and quickly. A fast clear on a lower difficulty earns more per hour than losing one fight in three on a higher one.

Team Building Principles

• Pick a win condition. That might be skull damage, a big nuke spell, or an explode/convert chain for extra turns.
• Feed the win condition. Supporting troops should create or convert gems into its colors, or into skulls for skull teams.
• Avoid color overlap. If three troops all want the same color, two of them sit idle.
• Protect slot 1. Use a tank, a troop with a barrier or armor spell, or a troop whose traits reduce skull damage.
• Use kingdom and class synergy. Many troops and classes have bonuses tied to troop types (Dragons, Knights, Undead, and so on) or to specific kingdoms. The Astral Spire's color boards reward staying in a color identity too.
• Build separate teams for separate jobs. Keep one team for Explore farming (fast, reliable), one for PvP offense, one for your PvP defense, and specialist teams for guild events.

Guilds

• Guild tasks, guild chests, and weekly guild score tiers are a large share of free rewards.
• Guild members share Pet Rescues. When a rescue pops, tell the chat.
• In late 2025 (Update 8.9), a Guild Roster was added to the new Guild Wars so you can see every member's Guild Wars stats.
• Active guilds set a minimum weekly contribution. Meet it and you'll be carried into much better reward tiers than a solo player can reach.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Opening random Gem chests. Save Gems for events you're targeting, or for VIP/pass value if you pay.
• Leveling every troop you pull. Souls and Traitstones are limited. Invest in a small core team first.
• Making a match without checking the cascade. Always ask what the board will give your opponent after your move.
• Ignoring extra turns for damage. A 4-match that keeps your turn is usually worth more than a big 3-match.
• Stacking one color. Troops that share a color starve each other of mana.
• Skipping the Library. It hands out rewards and explains every system as it unlocks.
• Spreading Star Stones evenly. Focus one board at a time until its key nodes are done.
• Walking past Explore Side Quests (9.3). They disappear once you start the next battle.
• Letting guild requirements slide. Being kicked from a good guild costs far more than a few battles a week.

Advanced Tips

• Count mana before you match. If the enemy's big caster is one match from full, deny that color even if it costs you some damage.
• Hold spells for cascades. If casting would give the enemy a 4-match or a skull line, cast after rearranging the board, or make a safe match first.
• Trait before you ascend. A troop's traits often define it. Unlocking them is usually a better use of resources than raising rarity.
• Use Explore to test teams. It's the safest place to try new lineups against varied enemies. 9.3 changed how enemy teams are generated to increase variety.
• Plan around the weekly calendar. Featured troops and weapons rotate through the Journey shop, Soulforge, and Glory shop each week, then enter the regular chests 3–4 weeks later. If a troop isn't urgent, wait for it to hit the regular pools.
• Campaign rewards are time-limited. Campaign-exclusive troops, weapons, and pets come back later through other routes. For example, after The Ruby Heptagon campaign ended in September 2026, its troop Vulcanus was scheduled to enter regular chests about 3–4 weeks later. Don't panic-buy.
• Kingdom Prestige priority: raise the kingdoms whose Prestige bonuses help your main teams first, while keeping global population rising so you don't hit the population gate.

FAQ

Is Gems of War free to play? Yes. It's free on Steam, consoles, and mobile, with cross-platform progress when you link your account. Purchases speed things up (Campaign Elite Pass, Library Pass, VIP, bundles), but you can clear everything with time.

How do I get extra turns? Match four or five gems or skulls, either directly or through a cascade. Some spells and traits also grant extra turns.

What happened to Deeds and Writs? Update 9.2 (May 2026) removed them and converted existing stock into Kingdom Crystals. Kingdoms now level through Kingdom Prestige using Kingdom XP and Crystals.

When does the Astral Spire unlock? At Hero Level 50. You open it from the top of the World Map.

What's the Eternal Dragon Boss? The Explore boss on the new difficulties 13–16 (added in 9.3). Each kingdom has its own Eternal Dragon, and it costs 250 Mythstones to reach.

What's the best mode to farm Gold and Souls? Explore, at the highest difficulty your team clears quickly and consistently.

Where did the Adventurer's Path go? Update 9.1 replaced it with the Library for the early game (Hero Levels 1–50). The Astral Spire took its spot on the World Map.

Sources

• Gems of War official site and news
• Update 9.3 Patch Notes
• Update 9.2 Patch Notes
• Update 9.1 Patch Notes
• Higher on the Pyre (weekly event, Sept 2026)
• Campaign Ending: The Ruby Heptagon
• Gems of War Steam news