Guide:Gem Grinding Guide

Why You Should Grind Gems

With some players running out of gathering or crafting targets for the current content, it makes sense to take a look at potential future usage for currently non-used items, enter: gems! Floursifter has alluded more than once on discord, that gems will have a use soon, making them a prime target.

There are currently 8 different items in the game with the Gem Keyword, and 1 (Pearls) which should probably have it, judging by its flavour text.

2 of these (Opal and Star pearl) can be obtained by doing any kind of mining activity in Jarvonia (except for Stone Quarrying). The rest of the gems can only be obtained from either opening gem pouches, or activating the Rock-Star amulet ability.

Gem Pouch

Gem Pouches can currently be obtained from the following activities (W.E.A.R.), and contain 4 random gems (Drop Rates):

• Wine Grape Stomping - (16.25k)
• Ship Repair (Intermediate) - (20.5k)
• Spelunking - (37.5k)
• Underwater Basket Weaving - (41.75k)
• Wreck Diving - (139k)

Due to the high WEAR of Spelunking, UBW and Wreck Diving these aren't considered an option, you should rather see the gem pouches as a bonus when doing these activities for other reasons.

Wine Grape Stomping

Gathering gem pouches while doing Wine Grape Stomping has a lot of benefits. First of all there is the chance of getting the epic unique drop: Eberhart Corkscrew (1.33% drop rate), which is quite powerful, and will probably be worth some gold come trading. It also drops berries and wine, the latter which adds a 15% find collectible bonus.

It is also possible to daily stock up on the food the vendor sells, this includes tomatoes which is only sold at this location, and used for the very useful 100% increased fine find foraging consumable, Mushroom Curry.

The activity also has a chance of dropping cooking chests, which are the only current source for fine potatoes, used for the very powerful crafting consumable, Sweet Carrot Pie.

Last but not least is the activity done in a city, which mean you can sell all unwanted items, and reduce the need for travelling.

Gearsets

This late game gearset will bring you chest rate down to an impressive 5450 steps per chest.

Ship Repair

Ship repair has an overall higher steprate per chest, but like Wine Grape Stomping, it comes with a lot of benefits. It has a chance to drop the rare Sailor's Hat (0.111% drop rate), metal and wood scrap, and also gold.

Most importantly it rewards xp in two skills which are otherwise hard to come by, and at a decent rate as well. Smithing in particular will become useful down the line, since armors and weapons are crafted using the skill, and each level will attribute 1 crafting outcome points, similar to crafting.

Carpentry and Smithing chests are quite useful, since they contain strong late game materials such as Mangrove Planks (currently uncraftable) and the very powerful smithing consumable, Spicy Pumpkin Juice.

Gearsets

This late game gear set will bring your chest rate down to 8143 steps per chest, 1.736 xp per step (Carpentry), 0.926 xp per step (Smithing) and at the same time give you 111 gold per 1000 steps.

Rock-Star Amulet

Another option is to gather gems, using the ability on the Rock-Star Amulet, which is an achievement reward from mining 10k ores.

Unlike the gem pouches, using the ability generates 5 gems, it does however use the same loot table, which means it is significantly better in terms of output.

You can use the amulet as a passive way to gain gems, while working towards other goals, or use it in a setup specifically made for grinding gems.

If you do not already have a good supply of opals and star pearls, your best bet is to go copper mining wearing a good gear set, as this will give you more overall gems, but less of the more rare gems.

In terms of optimizing activation output from the amulet, there is only 1 real choice, which is Stone Quarrying.

Stone Quarrying

Stone quarrying has the lowest amount of steps required of any mining activity currently in the game, making it a prime activity for steps per action, in terms of reaching the 250 actions needed for the amulets cooldown.

The activity doesn't offer any useful loot, except for the fine stones and fine large stones. The fine stones can however be useful for achieving the And My Axe and Rock and Stone achievements, and the fine large stones are useful for crafting the Bag of Rocks.

The downside of using this method for grinding gems is that it require a lot of active playing, since you have to check the game each 2.5-3k steps, in order to activate the amulet and do some inventory management.

You will also receive mining chests at a very high rate, which can be useful for grinding miners magnets, which in turn can be made into Hydrilium Magnets.

I suggest that you also wear any Adventuring Rings you might have, as it a great activity for grinding Adventurers Guild Tokens.

Gearsets

This late game gear will bring your activation rate down to a measly 2750 steps and chest rate down to 1251. If you are looking to grind fine materials, the treasure hunter items should be swapped for conservationist counterparts.

This is the current lowest amount of steps you can bring the activity, resulting in a trigger each 2500 steps, the cost however, comes with chest rate being bumped up to 1938 steps per chest.

Conclusion

Gathering gems through activities comes with a lot of benefits in terms of chest and item hunting, while at the same time boasting some nice experience gains. But it comes nowhere close to being as effective as grinding gems through stone quarrying.