Gems of War: A Puzzle-RPG Veteran's Guide to Getting Good

By Nham Vu · Updated July 2026

Gems of War is a free-to-play match-3 RPG originally released in 2014 by Infinity Plus Two and Infinite Interactive, with 505 Games handling publishing duties. I have logged more hours into this board than I care to admit, and what keeps pulling me back is how it disguises a genuinely deep RPG under a Bejeweled-style skin.

You are matching colored gems to fill mana for a team of four troops, then unloading their abilities on an enemy lineup. It sounds simple until you realize the game has hundreds of troops, dozens of factions, and a PvP ladder that punishes lazy team building. This guide is aimed at players who searched for a beginner path in 2026 and want the shortcuts I wish someone had handed me years ago.

How Do You Play Gems of War for Beginners?

Gems of War is played by swapping adjacent gems on a board to create matches of three or more, which fills mana color-coded to your troops. Each troop needs a specific amount of mana in its own color before its skill becomes usable, so a team full of mismatched colors will feel sluggish in your early battles.

The trick new players miss is that skull matches (the gray gems) deal direct damage but do not feed any troop's mana, so a board full of skulls is not always the best play. In practice, the best players I've seen prioritize matching their team's core colors first and only cash in skulls when they need to finish off a weakened enemy.

• Match 3+ gems of one color to charge mana for troops sharing that color
• Match 4 or 5 in a line for bonus gems and extra turns
• Match skulls to deal direct damage without charging any mana
• Trigger a troop's spell once its mana is full to attack, heal, or debuff

What Are the Best Gems of War Beginner Teams?

A solid beginner team in Gems of War pairs troops that share two or three mana colors so a single board state charges multiple abilities at once. Early on, troops like Sunbird, Giant Spider, or any cheap troop that generates extra turns are worth prioritizing because tempo matters more than raw damage in the first dozen hours.

Color synergy beats individual troop power almost every time at low levels. I have watched newer players stack four strong troops from four different colors and wonder why nothing ever fires, when a weaker team built around two shared colors would have felt twice as fast.

• Pick troops that overlap in at least two mana colors
• Include one troop that generates extra turns or bonus gems
• Keep a cheap mana cost troop in the first slot so it fires early
• Save rare and legendary troops for once your color base is solid

Where Can You Download Gems of War?

Gems of War is available on PC through Steam, on consoles including PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, and on mobile through the Google Play Store and the App Store. The 505 Games Android build listed on Google Play has been updated into recent versions well past 6.7, with the developer continuing to push content updates.

Progress carries across platforms if you link an account, which matters if you start on mobile during a commute and want to switch to a PC session at a proper keyboard and monitor later. Steam and the official Gems of War site both stay current with patch notes, so checking there before a big session is a habit worth building.

How Does Gems of War Compare to Its Own Sequel Talk and Gems of War 2 Searches?

There is no separate title called Gems of War 2. The searches for it almost always point back to the same live-service game, which has been running continuously since 2014 and receives weekly content drops rather than numbered sequels.

That single-title, ever-updating model is actually a strength here. Instead of losing your collection to a sequel reset, every troop, gem, and glory you have earned stays relevant as the developer folds new campaigns and factions into the existing game.

What Makes Gems of War Different from Other Match-3 RPGs?

Gems of War comes from the same original creators behind Puzzle Quest, and it shows in how tightly the puzzle mechanics are tied to actual RPG stat systems rather than being a reskinned casual match-3 app. Troops have attack, armor, life, and magic stats, plus traits and spells that interact with the board in ways that reward planning ahead.

What trips up new players coming from lighter puzzle games is that board state matters as much as team composition. A well-built team can still lose if you feed the enemy's colors turn after turn, so reading the board before every swap becomes second nature after enough matches.

What Modes and Content Does Gems of War Offer?

Gems of War includes a story campaign, PvP ladder battles, guild wars, weekly events, and dungeon-style challenges that rotate on a schedule. Guilds add a layer of shared progression through guild tasks and seasonal wars, which gives the PvP grind a reason beyond personal rank.

The campaign alone runs through hundreds of quests across many kingdoms, each with its own troop pool to unlock and level up. New content keeps arriving in the form of fresh campaigns and mythic troops, which is why the game still shows active update logs years after its original console launch.

• Single-player campaign across dozens of kingdoms
• Ranked PvP ladder with seasonal rewards
• Guild Wars for weekly competitive team battles
• Rotating events and limited-time troops