We hear about them often during the events, and when people are talking about collector skins. They’re Gemstones. They were first released to the game in Season 6 and have been collected ever since. In this article we will discuss how to get gemstones in League, what are they used for and more.
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Hextech Crafting
Before Season 6, there was no loot and crafting and players were not able to earn free skins. Although, skins such as Riot Girl Tristana could have been obtained by following League of Legends’ social accounts. This all changed with the introduction of Hextech Crafting. Now, players were able to use new currency Orange Essence to get free skins.
Without going into too much detail, here is a summary of how the system works. You obtain keys and chests by playing. After opening them you will receive one of the following rewards: Orange Essence, Champion Shard, Skin Shard, Icon, Ward, Gemstone or a Masterwork chest and a key. It is important to understand that owning Champion and Skin shards does not mean that you now own them. You can activate them as a rental service for 7 days or unlock them permanently by spending extra. For champion shards, you will have to pay a certain amount of Blue Essence, and for skin shards you will have to play using Orange Essence.
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What are Gemstones?
Gemstones are one of the rarest rewards of the hextech crafting. They are a currency used to claim exclusive Hextech skins which are not purchasable through the shop, or wards.
How to get Gemstones?
Gemstones are extremely rare loot items and as such are very hard to get. One of the ways to get them is to get lucky while opening chests. They have a drop chance rate of 3,6%, meaning you should earn 36 gemstones per 1000 chest openings. In order to open a chest first you have to acquire one. This can be done over the shop where you can purchase varying number of chests and keys. Or, if you want to do it for free, you can get Chest by getting an S- and above on any champion. Note, you can earn only 1 chest per a champion in the same season. New chest is unlocked every 7 days and you can hold a maximum of 4 at the same time.
Other way to get gemstones is by buying them in the Blue Essence Emporium. Generally, Riot makes Blue Essence Emporium available 2 times a year where players can buy icons, wards, chromas and more using Blue Essence. One of those things are also gemstones. Three of them are purchasable, and each one has increased price compared to the previous one. In order to unlock all three gemstones, you would have to spend 225,000 Blue Essence (50,000, 75,000 and 100,000 per gem respectively).
The last but not least way to earn gemstones is by leveling up. Starting at level 150, players are given one gemstone every 50 levels. In the past they were also obtainable during 10th Anniversary event. They can often be seen as a part of a bigger crafting pack.
What can I use Gemstones for?
If you have a Gemstone, you are surely wondering what can you do with it. Sadly, there is not much at the moment. For 10 gemstones you can get one of the exclusive Hextech skins. What makes these things so exclusive is that they are not available for purchase with RP so not many players own them. They only appear as drops in chests (0,04%), or sometimes after a reroll next to being obtainable using gemstones.
For 5 gemstones you can get yourself a Hextech Ward, and for 1 gemstone you will get a Masterwork Chest and a key. Riot is slowly but consistently adding new ways to exchange your gemstones so it might be worth to keep them for a while if you do not see what you want right away.
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How to get Gemstones fast?
Sadly, free to play players are limited to 1 chest per a week. Thus, they are limited to about ~2 gemstones per a season. As you can already see it would take about 5 years of playing actively just to, mathematically speaking, have a chance at getting a Gemstone. The fastest way to get them is by purchasing many chests and keys and hoping for good drops. Also, try to time your purchases at the time of events as they sometimes have gemstones as a part of a larger crafting bundle.
Conclusion
Gemstones are extremely valuable. They are hard to get and can be used for exclusive content. Once you start trying to farm them actively, you will realize how hard they are to obtain. Hence, we recommend keeping them because you never know when Riot is going to release a skin that you like and you won’t have gemstones ready.