How Combat Works in Gemstone Legends on PC
Throughout your heroic journey in Gemstone Legends, you’ll be fighting plenty of the dark forces that are ravaging the vast Chrono Realm. What is interesting is that you combat enemies not through direct swordfights but through solving tile-matching puzzles. Solving said puzzles essentially translate into damage.
The combat system of Gemstone Legends is quite intricate and can be overwhelming for first-time players. However, do not worry because this game guide summarizes and explains all of the basic mechanics that you need to know.
Hero and Potion Selection
Before entering battle against several waves of enemies, you first have to choose the heroes that will fight. Additionally, you also have to select other items that can help you in winning the battle.
You can deploy a maximum of five heroes to a battle. Note that you are only allowed to use three heroes if you want to attain three stars upon completing the level. Moreover, you have to ensure that one of those three will not die.
In case you have not noticed, heroes are assigned with their own colors. Their color actually plays an important role in combat effectiveness. With this, it is strategically wise to equip at least one hero of a different color.
Color aside, the particular role of your hero is also important; however, that is subject to a separate guide.
Potions are special consumable that can instantly benefit your heroes. For instance, some potions can refill a hero’s health bar while some can refill their mana, which is used for special skills (more on this later).
Three Moves Only
Gemstone Legends utilizes a turn-based system. Whoever takes the first turn is entirely contingent on the speed rating of the hero. Generally speaking, heroes who have the highest level will usually take the first turn – assuming that the enemy does not.
You are only restricted to three moves per hero’s turn. Moves are basically any sort of movement of the gems that you do on the puzzle board. The general rule is that you must match at least three gems of the same color vertically, horizontally, or even diagonally. Note the gems can only move one space at a time.
The first out of three moves must always result in at least three matching gems. After that, you are allowed to move gems without necessarily matching them. But as much as possible, you must always try to match at least three gems per move in order to maximize damage.
There are some instances where you can no longer match anything. In that case, just move a gem to an area where a match is likely to occur. For example, if a yellow gem is two spaces apart from two vertically aligned yellow gems, then move the lone yellow gem one space closer. This is to ensure that a match will be possible in the next move.
Power Gemstones
Matching at least three gems is good but what is better is matching four or more of those. Doing so will result in a power gemstone.
These special gems are marked with Roman numerals which indicated its strength
- I for matching four gems
- II for matching five gems
- III for matching six gems
- IV for matching seven gems
Power gemstones are crucial in unleashing lethal combos against enemies.
Attack Combos
You can strike enemies with combos, which are essentially your hero’s base damage multiplied by a certain percentage.
Combos are made possible by:
- Automatches – after finishing three moves, the matched gems will be eliminated and new gems will be randomly generated. If those new gems manage to match without ever having to manually do so, then that is called an automatch. Automatches will grant you one combo point. Note that automatches are very reliant on luck so we advise that you do not rely too much on this.
- Matching Power Gemstones – matching gemstones with gems of the same color will grant you combo points. The number of points depends on the Roman numeral of the power gemstone. For instance, matching power gemstone II will give two combo points.
One combo point adds a 5% buff to your hero’s attack. If you are really lucky, you can have up to a 25% attack buff.
Color Advantages
As mentioned, the color of your hero matters. This is because Gemstone Legends has a system in which certain colors can deal or receive more damage from a hero of another color.
The details of this system are as follows:
| Color | DEALS MORE DAMAGE TO | RECEIVES MORE DAMAGE FROM |
| Red | Green | Blue |
| Green | Blue | Red |
| Blue | Red | Green |
| Yellow | Purple | Yellow |
| Purple | Yellow | Purple |
You will fight against a variety of enemies in the game and each of the enemies have their own color. With that said, ensure that you have at least one hero from each color to anticipate any situation.
Hero Special Abilities
Heroes have special abilities which can provide benefits to the entire team. What is good about them is that they can be activated any time during the battle, even if it is not the hero’s turn.
Special abilities depend on the role of your heroes. For example, support heroes can heal other heroes or give them passive buffs as their special abilities.
Mana is used to activate a hero’s special ability and it is gained by matching gems. Matching gems of a certain color will give Mana to heroes of the same color. This means that matching blue gems will give mana to a blue hero.
With enough Mana, special abilities can be activated anytime. A common mistake is not activating the abilities on time. For instance, the special ability of a red hero can already be executed but you are still matching red gems. This will just put the Mana to waste so make sure you avoid doing this mistake.
Awakening the Dragon
The dragon is a special form of backup that can strike with a special move that can help your team in defeating enemies. You can select your dragon alongside heroes and potions before starting a battle.
Matching gemstones of any color will refill the dragon’s bar. Keep in mind that merely moving a gem without matching it will not contribute to the activation of the dragon.
There are several dragons that you can use in the game and you unlock more of these as you progress through the campaign.
These are all of the mechanics that you need to know about combat in Gemstone Legends. Truth be told, winning in this game requires plenty of strategical thinking and that is what makes the game fun.
