Those well-versed in free-to-play games know you can get dozens of hours of entertainment without spending a buck with a little (or a lot of) time and effort. But in virtually every free-to-play game, another variety of currency can be purchased to give you an edge.
In Clash of Clans, you’ll be tempted to crack open your wallet to purchase gems, CoC’s hard-earned currency required if you want some of the most powerful items in the game.
Thankfully, there are various ways to earn gems without spending a dime, even if most of them aren’t the fastest. 14,000 gems will cost you $100 in real-world money, so buying gems can add up quickly, but with our methods, you’ll save that much and more.
A warning, however: your patience will be tested!
1: Don’t spend gems to speed up time!
It’s a waste of a precious commodity, considering time still passes either way. The tutorial makes it seem like gems should be spent frivolously to increase production and train troops, but if you want to purchase the most important buildings in the game, you’ll need to start saving immediately.
- During the tutorial, you’ll be forced to spend 250 gems on a Builder’s Hut, but you’ll have 250 leftovers by the end.
- In the early game, you can wait out production times fairly easily.
- As you progress, consider optimizing your time to build and remove as many items as possible, then set the game aside for a while. Watching the clock tick down is boring, and staring at the screen will only tempt you to buy gems!
2: Harvest plants, harvest gems
If you’re just starting in Clash of Clans, you may have noticed that your village plot is littered with rocks, trees, stumps, and plants. It may be tempting to clear everything quickly to have space for new buildings, but leaving some space is a useful strategy for earning more gems. Plants respawn when enough time has passed, and they can be farmed continuously for gems, so it’s worth trying to grow as many as you can.
Plants will regrow every eight hours. You’ll need space in your village; the plant will only grow if there’s space between it and any objects around it. Ensure at least eight empty tiles surround a plant’s space.
- Rocks do not respawn. Harvest rocks first to free up more land for your plants. Rocks require gold to be removed.
- Plants require elixir to be removed.
3: Collect Gem Boxes
There’s a slim chance that instead of another plant reappearing, a Gem Box will spawn in its place. Like any other obstacle, you’ll earn 25 gems for clearing the Gem Box. Gem Boxes take at least one week to spawn, and they won’t spawn if you already have one sitting on your land, so make sure to clear any Gem Boxes as soon as possible.
4: Complete achievements
Most games, mobile or otherwise, have an achievement system, and CoC is no exception. Various achievements can be earned while playing Clash of Clans, and sometimes you’ll be rewarded gems for your efforts. You can check how many gems you’ll receive for any achievement by looking at the achievement menu.
- Each achievement has three levels.
- The reward increases with each achievement level.
- Up to 8,600+ gems can be earned by completing all the achievements in Clash of Clans.
5: Go for easy achievements first…
If you’re expanding your plot of land to grow plants, you’ll likely plow through the “Nice and Tidy” achievement early on, which tasks you with removing 5, 50, and 500 obstacles to fetch a total of 35 gems.
Read: How To Get League Medals in Clash of Clans
Other achievements to shoot for early on: “Release the Beasts,” “Bigger Coffers,” and “Empire Builder.” Many of the achievements look daunting at first, but you’ll get most of them along the way if you keep playing.
6: Then aim for difficult achievements
Eventually, you’ll want to complete harder achievements. Not only are they more satisfying to work towards, but the gem payout is much better than the easier achievements.
- “Unbreakable” — Defend 1,000 attacks to earn 100 Gems.
- “Friend in Need” — You must repair the Clan Castle first, then donate 25,000 reinforcements to earn 250 Gems.
- “Sweet Victory!” — Win 1,250 trophies from competing in multiplayer battles to fetch 450 Gems.
- “War Hero” — Earn stars by competing in War Battles to complete this achievement. 1,000 stars are needed to earn 1,000 Gems.
- “Spoils of War” — Clan War bonuses reward gold. Collect 100,000,000 to complete this achievement and score 1,000 Gems.
- “League All-Star” — A true challenge, this achievement pits your clan against the world. Climb through the league and become Champion to win a whopping 2,000 Gems.
7: Spend your gems wisely
Throughout Clash of Clans, you’ll be tempted left and right to spend your gems on goodies. While you can buy time-saving in-game resources immediately, you should hold off. You’ll earn these resources gradually as you play the game.
You’ll also notice that Builder’s Huts require gems to purchase. It might seem logical to save your gems and use the two Builder’s Huts you start the game with, but you should buy them as quickly as possible. You can have a total of five Builder’s Huts. Each hut increases the number of builder units you have, speeding up other building production.
- It may seem like a waste of gems, but purchasing Builder’s Huts first will save you a lot of time in the long run
8: Keep an eye on seasonal events
It’s nothing unusual for multiplayer games to host events to keep the player base engaged and entice new players. Supercell hosts frequent in-game events for Clash of Clans that reward extra resources, XP multipliers, and sweet, sweet Gems. You can see what’s coming up by selecting the news center while playing.
9: Take surveys and buy Gems
If you’re craving Gems, you might be interested in light legwork to increase your haul. Android users can download the Google Opinion Rewards app, an official Google app that lets you partake in various marketing surveys.
You can earn up to $1 in Google Play Store credit by completing a survey. More surveys will appear and add up quickly, so you’ll be farming the surveys for credits in some ways. Once you have enough for a Gem package, open the Gem store in Clash of Clans and use your Google Play balance to buy Gems.
You’ll amass a hefty Gem fortune with patience and diligence without opening your wallet!
