Gem Tower Defense Strategy

Play Here: Gem TD
With the ability to build anywhere on the map except on one of the six waypoints there are virtually an unlimited number of strategy options.
In this screenshot I tried a simple maze that covers the 2nd and 4th waypoints. In this system the creeps travel through your entire maze 4 times. You could make the maze much larger but with this system I never run into trouble against the ground units so I don’t bother.
Key Towers:
Dark Emerald Tower:

This tower is absolutely vital to any strategy. Other towers with slow effects (ice/poison) become ineffective at higher levels as creeps get a higher and higher min speed. This tower fully upgraded stops monsters for 2 seconds in about 1/6 shots. I suggest building 4-5 Dark Emeralds.
Silver Knight Tower:

I strongly suggest building a centralized silver tower as your first. These aren’t very deadly late in the game but they are key in getting you to that stage.
Blood Stone Tower:

These are very deadly mid level towers if you do not upgrade them. After you get 4-5 Dark Emeralds set up I would upgrade these the Blood Stones with the Emeralds. This makes for an effective late round combo.
Hidden Towers:
Great Opal:
I’m pretty sure you can build ‘great’ gems for each color but the Opal has been the only one I’ve managed so far and probably the most valuable. The has a huge aura that gives all towers in it’s range +50% attack speed!
Note:
I would like to see a new tower defense game that gives you the option to turn off missiles. It seems that this causes quite a bit of lag in almost every TD.

(126 votes, average: 8.25 out of 9)

October 21st, 2007 at 10:01 am
Will this be on Xbox Live or PSN?
October 21st, 2007 at 11:17 am
It is a web based tower defense game developed in Flash. I don’t think there are any plans on expanding this to a console but you will have to ask the developers.
http://www.gemtowerdefense.com/comments/
October 26th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
I managed to do a Great Opal.
Range: 100, Dmg 250-250
December 1st, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Egyptian Gold is vital too, in survival, EVERY EVERY EVERY round is weak to it after 40(?), it does criticals, -8 armor to targets, good damage, good range, and the ingredients are easy enough to get (P. Am., Flawless Am., Flawed Dia.).
December 9th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Egyptian gold is vital. It seems that your armor modifier towers are able to stack. That is a big deal when you have a high tower density. You still need damage boosters and ice/stopper towers but don’t overlook armor modifiers.
December 25th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Hi Love the game , may I seek your permission in adding this to my site?
December 27th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
i got a great opal yay!
January 7th, 2008 at 10:59 am
I can’t seem to stop the flyers after lvl 40..
any tips?
January 26th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
@Dierckx - buy lives…that seems to be the best way to get past those damn flyers.
January 27th, 2008 at 6:59 am
I just made a malachite tower not entirely sure on the combo. btw what does the cooldown period mean?
January 30th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
The malachite tower is really weak at around level 25.
February 1st, 2008 at 7:04 am
how do u get “great” towers?
February 3rd, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Cooldown is the space of time between shots. And a great tower is what you get when you combine two perfect gems of the same type when you’re placing gems.
February 5th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
how do you get a graet tower
February 5th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Seriously, Gmaners? Did you seriously just ask that RIGHT AFTER it was answered? C’mon! RTFA!
February 8th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
will there be a second map at all
February 12th, 2008 at 4:07 am
Just some information for people who might not know, gem TD is not exactly a new game. It was originally a user created map for warcraft 3 and then copied here cos it was so popular. Not sure if the original creator made a flash version or if someone else copied it, but highly doubt it will appear in a console as a game.
February 12th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
there is also a tower that i found called star ruby but i forgot the combination!
February 12th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
if you know the combination plz tell me!!!
February 12th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
isnt star ruby part of blood stone???
February 18th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
eek its something like chipped ruby flawed ruby and the chipped purple idk i havent played that long yet
February 19th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
i got the great emerald and its 250-250 dmg with deals 50 dmg poison every second and slows movement by 50% for 30 seconds
February 23rd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
their is a suposed “uber crystal” too but you need 4 perfect gems of the same type in one placing(which is a one in a very very VERY lot) you can see it in you tube but i will find out the hard facts when i can because i have no idea how to do probibility.
February 23rd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
and you can find out all the ’special’ towers recipies at www.gemtowerdefense.com (the original site)
February 27th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
the greatest combo i can think of is the unranium tower and a perfect emerald/blue, they combine to reduce the speed of the creep to 0.05, it basically keeps them stopped
March 19th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Um…. this is not a web game, nor is it developed in flash… its a custom map for the warcraft III frozen throne expansion game.
March 20th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Gem TD is a web based game as well as a WC3 game.
April 20th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I dont know the combo but a mystic black opal was the key to my success, it gives 40% damage to surrounding towers!
May 1st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
im confused ive bout new lives but how are you inabeld to buy them is there a hotkey or is it a bounes
May 10th, 2008 at 4:43 am
ive had a great diamond with 500-600 with 50% to do x10 damage
May 19th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I got a great amethist, which managed to stop any flyers even getting to the second checkpoint. Really is a good tower.
May 19th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I have a massive list of combos, not much info on them:
Chiped Opal-Chiped Emerald-Chiped Aqua=Malachite
Chiped Saphire- Chiped Dimond-Chiped Topaz=Silver
Flawed Ruby-Chiped Ruby-Chiped Amethyst=Star Ruby
Normal Emerald-Normal Opal-Flawed Saphire=Jade
Flawless Emerald-Normal Ruby-Flawed Amethyst=Red Crystal
Perfect Topaz-Normal Saphire-Flawed Opal=Uranium
Perfect Diamond-Normal Dimond-Normal Topaz=Pink Dimond
Perfect Emerald-Flawless Saphire-Flawed Topaz=Dark Emerald
Perfect Amethyst-Flawless Amethyst-Flawed Dimond=Gold
Perfect Ruby-Flawless Aqua-Normal Amethyst=Blood Stone
Perfect Opal-Flawless Diamond-Normal Aqua=Black Opal
Perfect Saphire-Flawless Ruby-Flawless Topaz=YellowStarSaph.
Perfect Aqua-?-?=Paraiba Tormaline
May 26th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
check the main site for combos, ive had a great topaz, never had another great
May 27th, 2008 at 2:04 am
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May 29th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Yes, You can make great towers of all the main gems, you do so by combineing two perfect gems.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:54 am
how do you get the chance to “buy lives?”
June 7th, 2008 at 12:47 am
try using red crystal along with your other armor reductions and you should find air quite easyer
June 7th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
i got a great amethyst u have to put 2 perfect ones together
June 13th, 2008 at 3:12 am
I just calculated the probability of being able to create an uber stone when placing, assuming 10% of your gems are perfects. Assuming I didn’t screw up it’s 0.046%. Good luck!
June 17th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
All the combinations are on their website. http://www.gemtowerdefense.com/ scroll down to view
June 19th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Haha! I managed to make Paraiba Tourmaline = PerfectAqua + FlawlessOpal + ??…I love the Upgraded uranium lol its so Sticky!
June 24th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Lol really nice.. I’ve tried great opal and great sapphire
August 5th, 2008 at 2:21 am
i have had 5 great,s in one game XD OHH IN MY SANDBOX!