Gem Guide
Gems are the game’s premium currency and can be spent at the merchant to buy buildings, specialists and other useful stuff. The game finances itself by selling Gems for real money, but also offers various possibilities to obtain them for free while playing.
How To Get Gems
Apart from buying, certain game features reward Gems while playing: the daily login bonus, level ups, achievements, Excelsior quests and the merchant in exchange for 
Star Coins.
Daily Login Bonus
Playing the game for seven days in a row rewards 100 Gems on the seventh day.
Level Ups
Starting at level 17, level ups reward Gems:
- 7800 Gems from level 1 to 50
- 4500 Gems from level 51 to 75
- 5000 Gems from level 76 to 80
- 17300 Gems in total
In addition to level ups, reaching PvP-level 30 also rewards 500 Gems.
Achievements
Completing some achievements – e.g. for playing a certain amount of days, reaching certain levels and completing various adventures – rewards Gems:
- 3050 Gems from the General category
- 200 Gems from the Military category
- 1601 Gems from the Mission category
- 550 Gems from the Scenario category
- 5401 Gems in total
Excelsior Quests
The 
Excelsior offers a chance to receive quests and ventures in exchange for 
Crystals: the quests reward 50 Gems upon completion. Getting the quests from 
Short Letters requires the smallest amount of Crystals and therefore these quests reward the most Gems per Crystal spent.
Star Coins
The merchant offers 100 Gems in exchange for 600 Star Coins in the Epic Items category: the offer can be bought once a week (7 days cooldown). There are various ways to acquire Star Coins: from level ups starting at level 51, from generals with the skill 
Bounty Hunter, from the 
Laboratory, and at level 80 from experience (1 Star Coin per 1000 
Experience Points).
Specialists
Some specialists have a chance to find Gems when completing tasks:
Ghost Lantern & Ghost Ship
The Ghost Ship will visit your island every 7 days if you build at least one 
Ghost Lantern (available during the Halloween Event). On every visit, you receive a 
Ghost Box, which contains one reward per built Ghost Lantern, and one quest randomly chosen from all available Ghost Lantern quests, some of which reward Gems upon completion.
Money
If you decide to buy Gems for money, you should buy them only during Happy Hours, which usually offer 25%, 75% or 100% more Gems.
How To Spend Gems
In the beginning, focus on getting better generals and more explorers or save up for a 
Gem Pit.
Gem Pit
A Gem Pit costs 20000 Gems and its deposit contains 40000 Gems. It produces about 108 Gems per day and it takes approximately 6 months (186 days) to get the initial investment back.
Building Licences
Buildings from the Building Menu require Building Licences for construction. If all licences are used up, the merchant offers 
10 Building Licences for 650 Gems in the Architect category and 
5 Building Licences for 1300 
Magic Beans in the Epic Items category. Buildings available at the merchant and during events do not require licences.
Events
Among other things, events offer specialists and bundles for event resources as well as Gems. Since explorers find event resources on treasure searches, getting more explorers is always a good investment for future events. Another high priority should be getting a few better generals like the 
Younger Gemini General (drastically reduces losses in adventures with a lower difficulty), the 
Ghost General (good all-rounder), or the 
General Sylvana (excellent for Arabian Nights adventures & for getting Star Coins). Bundles offer a combination of specialists and/or buildings for a reduced price; their usefulness strongly depends on what you already own.
Additional Stuff
The 
Older Gemini General is an excellent general: he commands the highest amount of units and recovers 20% of lost units after every battle. Endless mines lighten the daily routine, but are rather expensive.