How to play Gems

What a match 3 game is

A match 3 game is a grid full of coloured pieces. You swap two pieces that sit side by side, and if the swap puts three or more of one colour in a straight line, they vanish. The pieces above drop into the gap and new ones fall in from the top. With a goal and a limited number of moves, the puzzle is not finding a match but finding the one that does the most.

Two ideas make it deeper than it looks: the cascade, when falling pieces line up and clear again by themselves, and the special piece, made by a longer or wider match, which clears far more when it goes off.

Playing Gems on AllFun

AllFun Gems uses an 8×8 grid of jewels in six colours. Each colour is cut in its own shape, so the hearts are always rose and the diamonds always violet. Some grids have gaps cut out of them and some hide ice under the jewels. To swap, drag one gem onto its neighbour, or tap the two in turn.

There are 40 levels. Each one sets a move limit, from 10 moves on the first level to 31 on the last, and a single goal: a target score, a count of gems in certain colours, or a board with no ice left. Levels 1 to 9 leave one colour out, which makes matches easier; level 10 adds the sixth. Find more puzzles like it on our puzzle games page.

The rules

• Swaps: only two neighbours, never diagonally, and only when the swap makes a line of three or more. A swap that matches nothing slides back.
• Four in a line leaves a Blaster that clears its whole row or column.
• An L or a T leaves a Bomb that clears the three-by-three square around it.
• Five in a line leaves a Prism. Swapped with a gem, it removes every gem of that colour from the board.
• Ice: each clear on a frozen cell breaks one layer, and thick ice takes two.
• No moves left: the board shuffles itself, free.

Combos

Swap two specials into each other and they go off together. Two Blasters clear a whole row and a whole column at once. A Blaster with a Bomb clears three rows and three columns. Two Bombs clear a five-by-five square. A Prism with a Blaster or a Bomb turns every gem of that colour into one and sets them all off, and two Prisms clear the whole board.

Scoring and stars

Every gem cleared is worth 20 points, times the cascade level: the first wave of a move counts once, the first cascade twice, and so on up to six times. Making a Blaster adds 60, a Bomb 90 and a Prism 150, and each layer of ice cracked adds 40. Win with moves to spare and each one turns a gem into a Blaster for the finale. Your final score decides two or three stars; reaching the goal is the first.

Six tips for higher scores

1. Look for shapes before lines. Scan for four in a row, an L or a T before taking a plain match.
2. Play low on the board. A match near the bottom moves every gem above it, and that is where free cascades come from.
3. Fire specials where they count. A Blaster set off along a row of ice does more than one fired into an empty row.
4. Spend Prisms on the goal colour. On a collect level, swap the Prism with the colour you still need, not with the colour that covers the most cells.
5. Combine when you can. Two specials swapped together beat both fired apart.
6. Count your moves. Near the end, take the swap that serves the goal even if it scores less.

Match 3 FAQ