Forums → Games → Gemcraft: CS Quick tips

I noticed a lot of people are having a hard time with the new installment in the Gemcraft series. The comment section is full of people saying that it is a lot harder than previous versions, personally I am blazing through most of the levels even with traits on so I decided to give some quick tips. These are no advanced strategy's or anything close, they are for people who are having a lot of trouble.

First of all, find a balance to the amount of skill points you spend. Unspend skill points give a mana boost at the start of a level wich is very important. I have curently spend 10% of my skill points to give an example.

For the beginning of each level, try to make 3 gems of about the same grade, the way I go about doing this is to create 3 grade 2 gems and then upgrade them one by one untill you run out of mana, I recommend gems with 2 components because of the damage boost for the earlier waves, If a field has more than 40 waves you should try to mix in a third gem from the start. I recomend to combine damage enchancing gems in your "main defence" (Chain hit, multiple damage, bloodbound, poulbound.) Try to start of with these kind of gems.

I don't think traps are very usefull in the early game, so stay away from them.

If you notice your gems are one hit killing all monsters you should not upgrade your gems but duplicate them and place them in extra towers. This helps out a lot for those swarm levels. In order to master the game, you will need to learn to understand when to upgrade your gems, and when to create more gems of the same grade.

It is a good idea to have one gem 1 or 2 grades higher then your other gems at all times, this gem should be placed around the middle of the path, with your lower grade gems in front of it. Always place this gem in a tower which has the most path covered within its range.

If there is room on the track, use your walls to build a maze! This is very important, train yourselve to do this in every level. A great defence begins with a great maze!

Keep an eye out for the waves to come, hover over them now and again to check the hp and armor levels of the monsters. If you notice a fast increase in HP, you should stay on your toes at all times. If you see high armor, you should consider placing poison or armor tearing gems in traps.

Keep empty towers behind your main defence, if a wave of giant monsters survives your main defence, you can quickly swap the place of your strongest gems to keep attacking! Try to only move 1 or 2 gems around to the back, otherwise you will lose fire power towards the front and be quickly overwhelmed.

Know when to upgrade your gems. In the middle of a swarm level for example is a very bad idea. Try to estimate the amount of fire power you lose in the time it is upgrading. Don't upgrade al your gems at the same time unless it is evident that they will recharge and kill the monsters in time. If you are having trouble killing giants, you can upgrade your gems, giants are slow enough to make it work. Combine this with the empty towers you have towards your back for less trouble with the giants.

Learn the target priority of your gems. Closest to orb is a great default, but when you get overhwelmed you have to change the target priority of your gems to survive.
-If swarmlings are tanking the damage for the reavers, you should put 1 or 2 gems on the strongest target.
-If giants are getting through, have your armor reduction, poison and highest grade gem set to giants. Clicking a giant can get rid of them fairly quick, but keep in mind that nothing else will be targeted!

Most importantly, have fun with the game, because it is great