From the creators of Puzzle Quest, play the new Puzzle/RPG/Strategy mash-up, GEMS OF WAR! Battle against epic bosses or other players. In Gems of War, you battle your foes not just with swords and sorcery, but with a puzzle board! Match gems to power your spells, and match skulls to smite your enemies!

The creators of Puzzle Quest recently teamed up with 505 Games to bring a new puzzle-RPG to Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Gems of War is a deep and addictive puzzle game featuring endless hours of single-player content as well as online guilds and asynchronous player-versus-player battles. Some of the game's Achievements can be very time-consuming, but our in-depth Achievement Guide will help you get them all – and become a better player!

The total completion time for Gems of War's Achievements should be about 150 hours, but that's a very rough estimate.

The order the Achievements can be earned in is fairly linear, but it breaks down like this:

• Quick and Easy Achievements
• Troop Achievements
• Kingdoms Achievements
• Level Achievements

This guide applies to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Steam. However, the Steam version has five Achievements not currently found in the console games. We won't cover those in this guide unless they get added to the console versions down the line.

Quick and easy Achievements

Student (5): Finish the Tutorial.

This one is a gimme. Just complete the first two battles and you'll get it.

Fashionista (10): Change your hero's costume.

To change your hero's costume:

• On the map screen, press the Y button to bring up the menu
• Select Hero
• Choose Costume
• Switch to another costume.

You start with two costumes so that you can get this one at any time. Neither of the starting costumes provides any bonuses, but premium costumes do. See 'In-App Purchases' section below for more details.

Team Player (30): Join or create a guild.

Guilds are the big social component of Gems of War. Members of a guild are expected to donate Gold to research tasks. Completing these tasks will get everyone items like keys to unlock Troops, Treasure Maps, Souls, and free premium currency. It also helps unlock elemental mastery bonuses for everyone in the guild.

Joining a guild filled with active members and then actively donating Gold yourself is a huge part of long-term success in Gems. If you'd like to join the Windows Central Guild (Xbox One only) and you're willing to donate daily, send a message with your character name and level to EastX on Xbox Live. We'll get you in!

Alternately, you could just form a new Guild for this Achievement. But starting a new guild offers far fewer benefits than joining an established one.

Brawler (30): Successfully invade an enemy.

Invasions are asynchronous player-versus-player (PvP) battles and the most reliable and important source of Gold in Gems of War. Do lots of them every day!

To invade an enemy kingdom:

• On the map screen, open up the menu (Y button on Xbox One)
• Select Invade
• The game will match you against another player. This costs ten Gold.

Consider the opponent's level and multiplayer rank before going through with the fight. If you lose the fight, you will lose a Trophy and will not receive the Gold that you'd get for winning. I recommend against invading enemies who are more than 3-4 levels above you until you have a strong and well-leveled deck.

If you'd rather look for another opponent, press right and select Try Another. This costs ten Gold as well.

When you find an opponent that you like, select Fight! and begin the battle. The reward for winning the battle will be 200 percent of the Gold the enemy cost to fight.

Challenger (10): Defeat a Challenge and gain a star.

See 'Champion' below.

Champion (40): Master any Challenge by gaining 5 stars

Challenges are the most reliable and important source of Souls in the game. You need Souls to level up your troops, so be sure to complete as many of these as you can.

Each Kingdom starts with one Challenge unlocked, which is technically enough for you to get both Challenge Achievements. But you can unlock a total of 7 Challenges per Kingdom simply by completing Quests (story content) in that Kingdom.

Every individual Challenge has five stars for you to unlock. To do so, you must complete that Challenge five times. Each star is harder to earn than the last, as the enemies become more powerful.

A skilled Gems of War player will be able to 5-star the first Challenge fairly early on. You just need an effective deck with sufficiently leveled troops. If you're not sure of your abilities, wait until the first Kingdom's Quests start to become too tough for you and then start working on Challenge in order to beef up your troops.

Troop Achievements

Rabble Rouser (25): Unlock 10 different Troops.

See 'General' below.

Raid Leader (60): Unlock 25 different Troops.

See 'General' below.

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General (100): Unlock 50 different Troops.

Troops are the cards/units that you take into battle. There are four ways to earn troops. Two involve opening chests with keys. You can find Chests on the main menu.

Iron Keys: These cost 1,000 Gold each and can easily be acquired without spending real money. Early on, you might want to buy a Iron Key or two, just to get your troop lineup started.

Long-term, you shouldn't spend Gold on keys. Instead, join a guild and you'll get free keys as the guild completes tasks. You'll also win these from Arena victories and Treasure Maps. You get three troops per Iron Key, one of which will be at least a Rare.

Magic Keys: These cost 15 gems (premium currency), so you generally have to spend real money on them. You can also win these (occasionally) from Treasure Maps.

You get three troops per Magic Key, all Rare or above, and one of which will be at least an Ultra Rare. Rather than buying gems for Magic Keys, you might consider the premium Bundles available in the Shop. The Bundles that contain armor are great values and will speed your progression through the game.

In addition to chests, you can pick up a few troops through other means:

Quests: Each Kingdom has a series of Quests that tell a story. The reward for completing the final Quest in any kingdom is a unique Epic Troop. You'll want to knock out the starting area, Broken Spire's Quests as soon as possible. The Troop you get there, Luther, is one of the best in the game.

Glory: The primary source of Glory is winning Invasions, though you can also receive it from Defense battles and as tributes from your Kingdoms. This PvP currency can be spent in the Rewards section of the Shop. The Rewards Shop offers a single Troop to purchase, with different Troops available over time.

Mentor (70): Train any Troop to level 10.

Just as important as assembling a good deck of Troops is building up those Troops. To increase the level of your Troops, you'll need Souls. You earn Souls from completing Challenges, as well Arena victories and defeating enemies in general. And Disenchanting unwanted Troops will convert those Troops into Souls.

To level up a Troop, visit Troops from the main menu. Select the Troop and pick Train. Each new level costs more Souls than the one before it. Troop rarity also affects leveling cost. See this page at the Gems of War site for a full leveling price list.

It costs a total of 875 Souls to train a Common Troop to Level 10 for the Achievement. The actual maximum Troop level is 15.

Capture Kingdom Achievements

Robber Baron (50): Capture 2 Kingdoms.

See 'King of Kings' below.

Arch Duke (100): Capture 5 Kingdoms.

See 'King of Kings' below.

Prince Regent (100): Capture 10 Kingdoms.

See 'King of Kings' below.

King of Kings (100): Capture 15 Kingdoms.

Each location on the game map is a Kingdom. Players start with access to Broken Spire and will need to purchase additional Kingdoms with Gold. Only Kingdoms adjacent to Kingdoms you already own can be purchased. Although Gems of War has more than 15 Kingdoms, you only need 15 to get this Achievement.

Each new Kingdom costs more Gold than the previous one. Their Gold costs are:

1. 250
2. 500
3. 750
4. 1,000
5. 1,250
6. 1,500
7. 1,750
8. 2,000
9. 2,250
10. 2,500
11. 2,750
12. 3,000
13. 3,500
14. 4,000
15. 4,000

Total cost of 15 Kingdoms: 30,750 Gold

You really need to balance your purchasing of new Kingdoms with donating to your Guild. This particular Achievement would be faster if you skipped joining a Guild, but your long-term progress would be hampered. If you have any serious aspirations of earning 'Centurion,' don't try to go it solo.

Level-based Achievements

Double Digits (20): Reach level 10.

See 'Centurion' below.

Silver Platter (50): Reach level 25.

See 'Centurion' below.

Golden Jubilee (100): Reach level 50.

See 'Centurion' below.

Centurion (100): Reach level 100.

Your main character gains experience for every single-player and PvP battle you win, eventually leveling up. This leveling up is separate from Troop leveling.

Every time your hero levels up, you get to select between two elemental mastery bonuses. Some elemental mastery bonus thresholds will reward you with a new weapon. Your character gains stat bonuses from reaching certain milestone levels, but not every level.

The max hero level is 1,000, but you only need to reach 100 for this Achievement.

There is no one superior grinding strategy – your best bet is to complete as many Quests and Challenges as you can between Invasions, spicing things up with visits to the Arena now and then. With so many Kingdoms to conquer, you won't run out of campaign content before hitting level 100. (I also recommend listening to podcasts, TV, or movies while playing to reduce the drudgery of longer playing sessions.)

That said, you can speed up the leveling process considerably by purchasing a premium armor that boosts XP gain. See 'In-App Purchases' section below for more details.

More tips

Gold and Treasure maps

Most of your progress in Gems of War depends on Gold, the game's soft currency. You need Gold to participate in battles, unlock new Kingdoms, and contribute to your Guild. And if you play right, you'll never run out of it – Gold is always there for the taking.

As mentioned earlier, Invading other players is the most reliable way to earn Gold. Compared to single-player content, Invasions have much higher payouts. Provided you have a good deck and play well enough, you should win at least 70% of your PvP battles.

You should also work towards completing daily Tasks (displayed at the top-left corner of the map) as often as possible. These often pay out several thousand Gold each. They also tend to sweeten the pot for single-player content, which otherwise doesn't award a lot of Gold.

Two specific Troops also help increase Gold gain from individual matches: Alchemist (Rare) and Tyri (Epic). Each of these Troops' spells will add to the Gold pot you win at the end of fights, up to a certain limit. Neither is a great offensive unit, but a sufficiently strong deck can compensate for that. You'll win Tyri by completing the Zhul'Kari Kingdom's Quest line.

Buying the Zhul'Kari Kingdom as soon as possible is a good idea because it also unlocks the Treasure Map minigame. You'll acquire Treasure Maps from cascading gem combos and completing certain Guild tasks. Treasure Maps offer a fun diversion from standard battles, and they offer great potential rewards like Gold, Souls, and keys.

Finally, premium armor can boost your Gold gains as well. See 'In-App Purchases' section below for more details.

In-App Purchases

Gems of War is a free to play game with optional In-App Purchases (IAPs). While you never need to make an IAP to succeed, doing so can greatly speed up your progress through the game. It's also a fine way to show thanks to the developers for making a game that you enjoy.

Each premium armor boosts one or more of the following: Gold, Souls, and XP. The most important bonuses for Achievement hunters are Gold and especially XP. Individual armors start at approximately $5 worth of Gems. But rather than buying an armor by itself, you might want to choose a Bundle.

The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Gems of War each offer three Bundles with platform-specific armors. These bundles not only come with armor, but also Gold, Souls, and Magic Keys to help players get a leg up in the game.

The $5 Wild Bundle on Xbox One includes the Wild Armor, which boosts Soul gain by 25% and XP by 50%. That one purchase will shave hours off of the time to unlock the 'Centurion' Achievement. If you like the game anyway, definitely give this bundle some thought.

Let's match some gems!

If you've found this guide useful, please leave a comment to let us know. And be sure to read our comprehensive Gems of War review for more game insights!

• Gems of War – Xbox One – 1.8 GB – Free – Xbox Link
• Gems of War – Windows PC – Free – Steam Link

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