Xenoblade Chronicle: Definitive Edition — Gem Guide

When going into battle in any RPG your characters' equipment can make all the difference, and Xenoblade Chronicles is no exception. Shulk and his allies will have a number of weapons, armor, and accessories to choose from throughout the course of the game, but some of these pieces of equipment can be customized with Gems to make your team even stronger. With just shy of 100 different types of Gems in varying strengths, figuring out which Gems to use when can be tricky. Fortunately, we here at iMore have everything you need to know about using Gems!

What are Gems?

Gems are condensed and refined Ether - the crystalized life force found in all living things. Each Gem provides some sort of stat boost or protection to the hero using it. Some Gems will provide a flat stat boost, like a Strength Up Gem, while others might enhance your attacks, like a Lightning Attack Gem. Gems can be acquired in a number of ways, including:

• Completing quests - there are nearly 500 quests given to the party by the named NPCs around Bionis and many reward you with Gems.
• Trade with NPCs - many of the nearly 200 named NPCs will trade gems.
• Completing sections of the Collectopaedia - by finding one of each type of item in the sections of the Collectopaedia, you will earn a weapon, a piece of armour, or a Gem.
• Crafting - once the Gem Man has fixed the Gem Forge, you can use Ether Crystals and Cylinders to craft your own Gems.

Gems are classified into six different categories, based on their effects, and ranked I-VI. Each Gem also has an element (Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Electric, or Ice) which determines the sort of Ether Crystals used to craft them. Although Gems can be sold, the amount they sell for is not worth the effort of farming them, so it's best just to put them to good use in your equipment and only sell low rank Gems you won't be using anymore to free up space in your inventory.

Attribute Gems increase a characters base stats and include:

• Strength Up increases base strength by 5-100 for a max of 150.
• Ether Up increases base ether by 5-100 for a max of 150.
• Agility Up increases base agility by 2-50 for a max of 50.
• Muscle Up increases base physical defense by 5-100 for a max of 100.
• Ether Defense Up increases base ether defense by 5-100 for a max of 100.
• HP Up increases max HP by 2-50% for a max of 50%
• Critical Up can only be equipped in weapons and increases critical hit rate by 2-25% for a max of 25%.
• Attack Stability can only be equipped in weapons and increases minimum attack by 4-50% for a max of 50%.
• Attack Plus can only be equipped in weapons and increases maximum attack by 4-50% for a max of 50%

Attack Gems modify a characters attacks in some way and include:

• Electric Plus can only be equpped in weapons and increases electric damage by 5-100% for a max of 100%.
• Double Attack can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance of performing a double auto-attack by 2-50% for a max of 50%
• Spike can only be equipped in armour and inflicts 20-250 damage to attacking enemies for a max of 250 damage.
• Bleed Attack can only be equpped in weapons and adds 40-250 extra Bleed Damage to auto-attacks for a max of 250.
• Blaze Attack can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance by 10-30% of adding 20-200 extra Blaze Damage to auto-attacks for a max of 400.
• Chill Attack can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance by 10-30% of adding 10-150 extra Chill Damage to auto-attacks for a max of 300.
• Poison Attack can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance by 10-30% of adding 40-250 extra Poison Damage to auto-attacks for a max of 500.
• Lightning Attack can only be equpped in weapons and adds 20-250 Electric Damage to auto-attacks for a max of 500.
• Daze Up can only be equpped in weapons and increases damage by 5-100% to Dazed enemies for a max of 100%.
• Topple Up can only be equpped in weapons and increases damage by 5-100% to Toppled enemies for a max of 100%.
• Bleed Plus can only be equpped in weapons and increases Bleed Damage by 5-100% for a max of 100%.
• Blaze Plus can only be equpped in weapons and increases Blaze Damage by 5-100% for a max of 100%.
• Chill Plus can only be equpped in weapons and increases Chill Damage by 5-100% for a max of 100%.
• Poison Plus can only be equpped in weapons and increases Poison Damage by 5-100% for a max of 100%.
• Strength Down can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance by 10-30% of reducing an enemies strength by 2-25% for a max of 25%.
• Agility Down can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance by 10-30% of reducing an enemies agility by 2-25% for a max of 25%.
• Ether Down can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance by 10-30% of reducing an enemies ether by 2-25% for a max of 25%.
• Slow can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance by 5-25% for a max of 25% that auto-attacks will inflict Slow.
• Bind can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance by 5-15% for a max of 25% that auto-attacks will inflict Bind.
• HP Steal can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance by 5-25% of auto-attacks recovering 10-200 HP for a max of 200.
• Paralysis can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance by 5-25% for a max of 25% that auto-attacks will inflict Paralysis.
• Break can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance by 5-25% for a max of 25% that auto-attacks will inflict Break.
• Physical Defense Down can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance by 10-30% that auto-attacks will also decrease Physical Defense by 2-25% for a max of 25%.
• Ether Defense Down can only be equpped in weapons and increases the chance by 10-30% that auto-attacks will also decrease Ether Defense by 2-25% for a max of 25%.
• First Attack Plus can only be equpped in weapons and increases the damage of the first attack by 10-150% for a max of 150%.
• Back Attack Plus can only be equpped in weapons and increases the damage of rear attacks by 5-100% for a max of 100%.

Defense Gems modify a character's defenses and resistances and include:

• Slow Resist can only be equipped in armour and increases the chance of resisting Slow by 4-100% for a max of 100%.
• Bind Resist can only be equipped in armour and increases the chance of resisting Bind by 4-100% for a max of 100%.
• Paralysis Resist can only be equipped in armour and increases the chance of resisting Paralysis by 4-100% for a max of 100%.
• Sleep Resist can only be equipped in armour and increases the chance of resisting Sleep by 4-100% for a max of 100%.
• Confuse Resist can only be equipped in armour and increases the chance of resisting Confuse by 4-100% for a max of 100%.
• Arts Seal Resist can only be equipped in armour and increases the chance of resisting Arts Seal by 4-100% for a max of 100%.
• Daze Resist can only be equipped in armour and increases the chance of resisting Daze by 4-100% for a max of 100%.
• Topple Resist can only be equipped in armour and increases the chance of resisting Topple by 4-100% for a max of 100%.
• Lock-on Resist can only be equipped in armour and increases the chance of resisting Lock-on by 4-100% for a max of 100%.
• Pierce Resist can only be equipped in armour and increases the chance of resisting Pierce by 4-100% for a max of 100%.
• Divine Resist can only be equipped in armour and increases the chance of resisting Instant Death by 4-100% for a max of 100%.
• Debuff Resist can only be equipped in armour and increases the chance of resisting all debuffs except Topple and Daze by 4-100% for a max of 100%.
• Good Footing can only be equipped in armour and increases the chance of resisting Blow Down by 4-100% for a max of 100%.
• Bleed Defense can only be equipped in armour and decreases Bleed Damage by 2-75% for a max of 100%.
• Blaze Defense can only be equipped in armour and decreases Blaze Damage by 2-75% for a max of 100%.
• Chill Defense can only be equipped in armour and decreases Chill Damage by 2-75% for a max of 100%.
• Poison Defense can only be equipped in armour and decreases Poison Damage by 2-75% for a max of 100%.
• Spike Defense can only be equipped in armour and decreases Spike Damage by 2-75% for a max of 100%.
• Physical Protect can only be equipped in armour and reduces Physical Damage by 4-50% for 30 seconds.
• Ether Protect can only be equipped in armour and reduces Ether Damage by 4-50% for 30 seconds.
• Auto-Attack Stealth can only be equipped in weapons and reduces the Aggro from auto-attacks by 4-50% for a max of 50%.
• Arts Stealth can only be equipped in weapons and reduces the Aggro from Arts by 4-50% for a max of 50%.

Support Gems boost characters with various buffs and include:

• Haste can only be equipped to weapons and increases the speed of auto-attacks by 4-50% for a max of 50%.
• Damage Heal can only be equipped to armour and increases the chance by 10-30% of healing 10-200 HP for a max of 200 HP when attacked.
• Recovery Up can only be equipped to armour and increases the amount of HP recovered when healing by 2-50% for a max of 50%.
• Aura Heal can only be equipped to armour and restores 10-150 HP every 2 seconds when an Aura is active.
• Arts Heal can only be equipped to weapons and restores 5-100 HP for a max of 150 HP when Arts are used.
• Unbeatable can only be equipped to armour and increases the chance of surviving a fatal blow with 1 HP by 4-50% for a max of 50%.
• Daze Plus can only be equipped to weapons and increases the length of Daze by 5-100% for a max of 100%.
• Topple Plus can only be equipped to weapons and increases the length of Topple by 5-100% for a max of 100%
• Buff Time Plus can only be equipped to armour and increases the length of Physical Protect and Ether Protect Gem buffs by 10-150% for a max of 150%.
• Debuff Plus can only be equipped to weapons and increases the length of Debuffs by 10-150% for a max of 150%.
• Weapon Power can only be equipped to weapons and increases the activation rate for Gems in weapons by 2-50% for a max of 50%.
• Night Vision can only be equipped to weapons and increases attack accuracy at night by 4-50% for a max of 50%.
• Initial Tension *
• Aggro Up can only be equipped to weapons and increases Aggro by 2-25% for a max of 50%.
• Aggro Down can only be equipped to weapons and decreases Aggro by 2-25% for a max of 50%.
• Tension Swing can only be equipped to armour and reduces the Tension Range by 4-50% for a max of 50%
• Daze Tension can only be equipped to weapons and increases Tension when attacking a Dazed enemy by 2-25 for a max of 25.
• Revival HP Up increases the amount of HP recovered when a character is revived by 4-30% for a max of 30%
• Talent Boost can only be equipped to weapons and increases the amount of the Talent gauge filled by auto-attacks by 1-12 for a max of 12, but halves the amount of damage done by auto-attacks.
• Heat Sink can only be equipped to weapons and reduces Sharla's Ether Rifles overheating by 4-50% for a max of 75%.

Field Gems provide support outside of combat or help to avoid detection. These include:

• Quick Step can only be equipped to armour and increases movement speed by 2-25% for a max of 25%.
• Earth Cloak decreases detection range of land-based enemies by 2-60% for a max of 60%.
• Aquatic Cloak decreases detection range of water-based enemies by 2-60% for a max of 60%.
• Aerial Cloak decreases detection range of flying enemies by 2-60% for a max of 60%.
• Auto-Heal Up can only be equipped to armour and increases HP recovery outside of combat by 2-25% for a max of 25%.
• Fall Defense can only be equipped to armour and reduces Fall Damage by 2-75% for a max of 75%.
• Terrain Defense can only be equipped to armour and reduces the damage from hazardous terrain (such as poison bogs, lava, ether pools...) by 2-75% for a max of 75%.

Special Gems help your characters to grow faster and include:

• EXP Up increases the Experience Points gained after combat by 5-100% for a max of 200%.
• AP Up increases the Arts Points gained after combat by 5-100% for a max of 200%.

Questions?

Do you have any questions about equipping Gems to Shulk and his friends' armour and weapons? Got any tips for fellow Monado wielders on how to best utilize Gems? Drop us a comment below, and be sure to check out our other Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition guides so you can unlock the secrets of the Monado!