GuideToGems

Gems are required to buy extra dragon homes, new production slots in the buildings, and many decorations. They can also be used to speed up the time to produce materials and the refresh time for board and helicopter orders, and to wake up dragons before they finish their sleeping.

Gems are earned while doing different actions and activities. You can also earn them by:

* Completing quests
* Fulfilling special orders in the Order Board
* Opening treasures, bags and groups of gems while exploring the islands
* Completing certain collections
* Gaining achievements
* Completing Trader Rahul's requests in every island
* Leveling up
* Watching ads on the offers panel or by tapping pop up balloons, backpacks and drones
* Collecting Pet Dragon Gifts
* Playing the Pet Dragon Slots
* Purchasing with real money
* Participating in Facebook and Twitter activities gives 5 gems randomly
* Gift Codes: at least once a week the game developers give a code with free gifts (originally posted on facebook)
* Selecting gems and collecting them in the Future Rewards Ship

Gems are usually rarer than gold, so be careful how you use them.

In the following pictures you can see the images of the treasures from which you can get extra gems.

Balloon (eventually with ads)Backpack (eventually with ads)Blue BagViolet BagBottleBottle in sandBottle in waterBrown ChestGreen ChestPink BoxPile of gemsTreasuresBasement

## Tips on using gems

The best way to use gems is to buy additional production slots for your factories and food buildings. This will allow you to produce more goods while not playing. The exact amount is up to you, but a good goal to aim for is 4 total per factory. Past this amount they get a bit pricey. For factories that have products that take a long time to produce, such as the Juice Factory or Soup Factory, you may want less, and for factories that have products that take a short time to produce, such as the Bakery or Sugar Mill, you may want more. You can find the prices here. Sometimes you can buy additional slots for factories even in the other islands, but once the island become inaccessible, the gems won't return so you will loose the benefit forever.

Gems are necessary to buy eggs for Special, Event and Random Dragons, and those bought with special packages. This makes them valuable to save for this purpose if you desire to have higher level dragons of these types. Random Dragons are easier to find because you will encounter at least a Random Dragon Nest in every timed island, so you may want to save them to purchase only Special and Event Dragons Eggs.

Gems can also be used to buy energy, gold, and petals. The one worth considering the most is energy since it is key to playing the game. Gold and petals should not be an issue if you are careful with your spending and properly manage your gold income. If using gems to buy these things, then note that the larger exchanges give more of the resource per gem spent. Take into consideration how much of the resource you may want and how many gems you are willing to spend and buy accordingly.

Tips reproduced with grateful thanks from *Chase Apollo* at the Facebook group Dragonscapes Adventure Friends.