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Reviewed by Benjamin Barr
In many MMOs, you can get special items you socket into weapons and armor in order to buff them with extra damage, special abilities, etc. New World has the same system with gems. As you start getting tier 3 and higher gear in New World, you will start seeing gems slots on your gear. Gems will give you a big boost and are all but essential for endgame content, be it PVE or PVP. In this guide I will go over all the gem basics, such as were to find them, how to use them, and what they do.
Acquiring Gems in New World
The main way to acquire gems in New World without buying them from a trade post is through mining. Whenever you mine an ore vein there is a chance for gems to drop. This is very nice because it means you can double up on your ore farming and gem farming, which is very efficient. When doing this though, you will want to increase your mining luck perk as much as possible. Ideally you will want a full set of mining gear as well.
Now, if you are ore farming, this holds true anyway. But the higher your mining luck, the higher chance you get of dropping gems when mining. You can also get a temporary luck boost by eating Potatoes or Herb-Roasted Potatoes before you start farming. This buff should last for about half an hour, so time it right.
If you have some friends to play with, then expedition farming is a great way to gets lots of gems. The Armine Temple Expedition is a good for gem farming early on in the game, but late game Expeditions are great for this as well. The late game expeditions obviously require a higher-level party, but they drop higher tier gems, so it’s a tradeoff.
Supply Crates and Elite chests can also have gems. So while mining is the most consistent method for gem farming, look out for those as well.
Refining Gems in New World
You cannot equip gems to your weapons and armor without first refining them. So the raw gemstones you mine won’t do you any good on their own. In order to refine your gems, you need to go to a stonecutting crafting table at a settlement.
Gemstones come in four tiers in New World. Flawed Cut Gemstones require a stonecutting of 0. Cut Gemstones require a stonecutting skill of 50. Cut Brilliant Gemstones require a stonecutting skill of 100. And finally Cut Pristine Gemstones require a stonecutting skill of 150.
In addition to the requisite stonecutting skill, for each gemstone you will need the corresponding mote (fire, life, etc.) Motes are acquired from certain plants in the over world, rare mote animals (such as a life moth), or can be bought from a trade post.
Cheat Sheet: What does Each Gem Type Do in New World?
Now you know how to acquire gems, and how to refine gems. But why would you want to do either of those things? What do gems do exactly. Well, gems in the New World can be slotted into your weapons or armor to give you neat bonuses. Here is a list of each gem and what it does:
| Gem Type | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Amber | Makes your weapon deal some of its damage as nature damage, or makes your armor reduce incoming nature damage. It scales with Focus. |
| Amethyst | Makes your weapon deal some of its damage as void damage, or makes your armor reduce incoming void damage. It scales with Intelligence. |
| Aquarmarine | Adds ice damage to your weapon, or makes your armor reduce incoming ice damage. It scales with Intelligence. |
| Carnelian | These are either Taunt or calm Gems depending on where you equip them. Taunt gems can be equipped to your weapons to boost skills that taunt enemies (draw aggro). Calm gems get equipped to armor to apply Calm (a status that reduces aggro). |
| Diamond | Increases weapon damage and healing when at full health when equipped to a weapon. When equipped to armor they give physical damage absorption and elemental damage resistance. |
| Emerald | Gives your weapon bonus damage against enemies at 30% or less health. It gives your armor Thrust resistance. |
| Jasper | Gives your weapon bonus damage after you take three hits in a row. It gives your armor Strike resistance. |
| Malachite | Gives your weapon bonus damage against enemies with a CC effect. It gives your armor increased physical resistance and reduces incoming elemental damage. |
| Moonstone | Gives your weapon bonus damage when you are below 30%. It gives your armor Slash damage reduction. |
| Onyx | Gives your weapon bonus damage against enemies at full health. It gives your armor physical damage resistance. |
| Opal | Gives your weapon bonus damage when your stamina bar is low. It gives your armor increased elemental damage absorption. |
| Ruby | Makes your weapon deal some of its damage as fire damage. It gives your armor fire damage absorption. It scales with Intelligence. |
| Sapphire | Makes your weapon deal some of its damage as arcane damage. It gives your armor increased arcane damage resistance. It scales with Intelligence. |
| Topaz | Makes your weapon deal some of its damage as lightning damage. It gives your armor increased lightning resistance. It scales with Intelligence. |
It is worth noting that if your weapon has a specific elemental trait, then you can only equip gems that match that trait. So for instance, if your weapon naturally has the fire trait, then you can only equip rubies to it.
Best Gems in New World
We’ve gone over pretty much all aspects of gems, but we have yet to cover the most important question. That is, what are the best gems in New World?
When it comes to solo play, that really depends on your specific build and preferences. For example, if you are playing a sniper build using either the bow or rifle, you probably want Onyx gems to get bonus damage against full health enemies. But if you are playing a fire mage, you want ruby gems. You get the idea.
Now, where Gems really shine, as it were, is in expeditions. Expeditions are basically tough boss fights that you want a fully party to fight against. This is where your choice of gems can have a really huge impact. For the lower level expeditions the best gems to use are Cut Pristine Onyx Gems. We want them in our armor to increase our physical defense. This is really helpful as you want both physical and elemental defense stats high to help with these fights.
As we get into the higher level expeditions, that’s where you really need to specialize for the boss. What you will want to do is slot the gems into your armor that give you resistance to the elemental damage type the enemy uses. You want amber for nature based enemies, aquamarine for ice etc. It is also ideal to fight these higher level bosses with the element that is their weakness. So bring rubies for enemies weak to fire and so on. Just remember that you can’t slot a ruby into a weapon with the lightning attribute, etc. You will need to match your weapons, not just your gems, to the fight.
And of course, if you are the main tank, and you don’t have Carnelian gems slotted into your weapon, then what are you doing with your fictional life? You need that taunt to draw aggro. And if your in a healer/more support role, then the carnelian gems are great in your armor to make sure aggro isn’t drawn onto you.
New World Navigation
- New World: Sliver of Adderstone Farming Guide
- New World Orichalcum Farming Guide
- New World Void Essence Guide
- New World Hemp Farming Guide: Best Locations
- New World: How to Get Petrified Wood
- New World: Mote Farming Guide (2024)
- How to Make Money in New World: Gold Farming Guide
- New World Wyrdwood Farming Guide: Best Locations
- New World Starmetal Farming Guide: Best Routes
- New World: Best Way to Farm for Thick Hide
- New World: Iron and How to Farm It
- New World Rawhide Farming Guide: Best Rawhide Farm Methods
- New World: Gem System Guide and Best Gems (2024)
- New World Territory Standing Guide
- Do You Like New World? Try These Games
- New World: The Best Leveling Build and Tips for Leveling Up Fast
- New World Fast Travel Guide: Locations & How it Works
- New World: How to Catch a Snail
- New World Bags: What You Need to Know
- New World Housing Guide
- New World Camping Guide
- New World: Leveling Guide for Beginners
- New World: Flail Weapon Best Build Guide (2024)
- New World: Azoth Staff Guide (2024)
- New World Musket and Rapier Build
- New World: Greatsword Weapon Guide
- Best Sword & Shield Builds in New World
- New World Greataxe Build Guide
- New World Spear Build Guide
- Best Bow & Arrow Builds in New World
- New World Void Gauntlet Build Guide
- New World Fire Staff Build Guide
- New World: Best Life Staff Build Guide
- New World: Rapier Builds Guide
- New World: Blunderbuss Builds Guide
- New World: Hatchet Builds Guide
- New World: War Hammer Build Guide
- New World: Best Ice Gauntlet Builds
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