Diablo IV - How to Use Gems

In most games, you’d probably want to sell any rubies, emeralds, or other precious gems you find lying around. In Diablo IV, however, currency is easy to come by and Gems serve a great purpose: making your character even stronger. If you thought that all you would need to kick demon butt was some high level gear, you would be half right. To really maximize your survivability and damage output, you’ll want to find, craft, and upgrade Gems that work with your character build.

Finding Gems is the easy part, luckily. As you go about your adventure through Sanctuary, Gems will fall at random from defeated enemies and interactable chunks of ore found throughout the world. The Gems you can find are Amethysts, Diamonds, Emeralds, Rubies, Sapphires, Topazes, and Skulls. No, a Skull isn’t a Gem, but they work the exact same way.

Using a Gem is simple. If you have a weapon or piece of armor with a socket on it, indicated by a large, empty circle in the center of the image representing your gear, you can pop any Gem you’ve found into that socket. All you do is select the desired Gem in your inventory, and then the desired, empty socket. All done! The effect you’ll receive is dependent on the type of Gem used, and you’ll likely notice that the bonus isn’t too amazing. That’s because until you hit at least level 20, you’ll most likely only have a collection of Crude Gems.

When you do hit level 20, you’ll receive a Priority Quest informing you that you now have access to Jewelers that are marked on your map by a large Gem. If you head to a Jeweler with three Crude Gems (or Crude Skulls) of the same type, you’ll be able to exchange them for a more powerful Chipped Gem. Similarly, when you hit level 40 you’ll be able to exchange three Chipped Gems of the same type for an even more powerful completed Gem. Neat!

Perhaps you’ve already socketed some Gems into your gear before reading this guide, and perhaps you’ve noticed that you cannot unsocket it. Don’t worry, because a Jeweler has the proper training and can unsocket any Gems from your gear, thankfully. This means that you can throw Gems wherever you want without fear of losing them. Unless, of course, you sell a piece of gear with a Gem filling one of its sockets — that would definitely be a costly mistake.

It’s also important to note that Jewelers can do more than help you craft and unsocket Gems. They can also add sockets to your socketless gear and upgrade amulets and rings in exchange for gold and crafting materials. This may prove more useful as you get into the endgame for Diablo IV and find that your gear isn’t changing as quickly as it was during the beginning of the game, but it’s just another way that you can further customize your demon-slaying arsenal.