Earning Gems

Gems are the primary resource/currency of storm wars. This makes knowing the best ways to earn gems very important.

Gem Sources
Gems can be earned in many different ways, some more consistent or more time efficient than others.

Colosseum
The Colosseum is (eventually) your single most consistent source of gems, as well as being the second largest and second most efficient single source of gems in the game. Newer players should make one of their priorities improving themselves until they can consistently get to 25 gems a day.

At it's peak, you earn 1.25 gems/battle (25 gems/20 battles), or 25 gems per day.

Tournaments
Tournaments are much, much riskier, but hold the title for the potentially largest and most efficient single source of gems. Getting good at tournaments requires a great deal of skill and practise, but can be very highly rewarding.

At their peak, gem tournaments return 2 gems per fight (30 gems/15 fights). However much more likely is 0.67 or 1.33 gems per fight (10 or 20 gems/15 fights).

Random Drops
Random item drops can be sold for gems or varying amounts. (In brackets is the amount of gems they sell for) These drops can come from three main types of chest: Arena Chests, Crew Chests and Tiered Chests
 * Crystals: Shard(1/3), sapphire(1), emerald(3), ruby(5) and diamond(9) all have no other use but to be sold for gems
 * Potion of Vision(1): Some people find these useful, so maybe keep some on hand. But don't be afraid to sell them. Especially early on when they are much less useful.
 * Hordeling's Box(1): It's is almost never worth the gem to use one of these. Feel free to sell them.
 * Glowstone(3): Whether these are to be sold or used depends on you and your crew.

Arena Chests
These are available to be earned 8 hours after the last one, meaning in theory you can obtain just below 3 of these a day. Each is earned by winning 5 fights while it is available. These fights do not have to be consecutive. nor within a time limit, meaning that as long as you keep trying you are guaranteed to eventually earn one. However the cooldown to the next one does start till the end of the 5th fight, so the faster you do your fights, the more of these you can earn per day.

In theory these are able to earn up to 9 gems each, and therefore 1.8 gems/fight or ~27 gems/day. However much more likely is ~1-3 gems worth of drops per chest, giving ~3-6 gems per day.

Crew Chests
These are earned by visiting the crew screen after your crew has won a battle that you participated in (either on offense or defense). This means that how many you earn is dependent on your crew, as well as your own participation. Note that if you wait for several wins before collecting your chests, you will only get the chest reward from each of the most recent battles on offense and defense.

In theory, since crew battles last 11 hours, you can earn 4.36 chests per day, 9 gems per chest, giving ~39 gems per day. However in reality offense fights are usually won and defense fights are often lost. Also, lower chests drops are more likely. This gives closer to 2 chests per day, 1-3 gems per chest, giving 2-6 gems per day.

Tiered Chests
Campaign rewards, Endless Dungeon wins and Arena wins can all give you Wooden/Steel/Silver/Steel/Gold/Epic Chests. In order to make the most of this method, make sure you buy out the number of chest slots that you can fill. Most players very quickly max out their chests slots.

Campaign Rewards
Because these are guaranteed rewards, do not let these go to waste. Wooden and Steel chests open immediately and do not require chest slots, but the rest take time before they can be opened. A common approach is to do the gold/epic chest missions just before going to sleep to make the most of your chest slots.

Random Rewards
Endless dungeon wins are usually easier to get, but Arena wins give you a chance to get Epic chests, as well as potentially counting towards arena chests and achievements.

Daily Rewards
By logging in each consecutive day you receive various rewards. On the 2nd, 4th and 6th consecutive days, you receive 5, 10 and 15 gems respectively. The rewards reset back to the 1st day after the 8th day, so this means you get a total of 30 gems every 8 days.

Weekly rewards

 * Every week, depending on the rank of the crew you are in, you receive a gem reward from 0-70 gems
 * Every week, depending on your rank in the Arena, you receive a gem reward from 0-150 gems

Achievements/Challenges
By completing certain milestones, you are able to earn extra gem rewards. e.g. complete a certain number of fights in arena with only rare cards in your deck, or with only cards from a certain faction.

Hero Leveling
Every time a hero levels up you get 2 gems.

Time Spending Priorities
If you have unlimited time, the most efficient way to spend your time is as follows: (start from the top every time you finish a step)
 * 1) Start the Colosseum timer if it is ready.
 * 2) Check if you have Colosseum fights to do. Make sure these are completed before the timer runs out, but if you have plenty of time, go on to the next steps, as nothing is waiting on these. Just make sure to come back to this later and complete these before the deadline.
 * 3) Check if you have crew fights to do. Same as Colosseum fights, these do not have anything waiting on them, so go on to other steps but make sure these get done before the deadline.
 * 4) Check if there is a tournament you can benefit from. If so, join it now. Based on whether the tournament starts straight away, and the composition of the opponents, either do the fights now, or delay them similarly to Colosseum fights and crew fights.
 * 5) If you have Arena fights to do (for the Arena Chest), do them now.
 * 6) If you have not filled up your chest slots, do this now.
 * 7) Complete all your delayed fights if you still have any
 * 8) If you have not yet gotten the challenge for revenge fights, and have some waiting, do these now.
 * 9) Arena fights or Endless Dungeon fights, depending on personal preference and ability

Limited Time
If you have only a limited amount of time to play, the above priorities can still be used, with one major difference: The deadlines for everything become based on the time you have to play. This will often mean that you have to do your Colosseum/etc. fights straight away instead of delaying them to when things like your Arena chest and chest slots are not waiting on you.