Riot Games and League of Legends have been reaching new heights by stretching both the game and the professional scene ever outwards. With the growing needs of the game, Riot Games as a company has needed third-party companies such as Garena and Tencent in order to branch out. However, to maintain the structure of its free-to-play model while paying for thousands of staff worldwide, Riot Games introduced premium features like Gemstones. Keep reading to learn how to get gemstones in League Of Legends
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Table of Contents
What Is Hextech Crafting?
Hextech crafting is a feature that Riot Games introduced in patch 6.5 as an additional mechanic for players to earn exclusive rewards. This included skins, champion shards, and other premium items that could only be acquired here. In order to make Hextech crafting relevant, Riot Games created a currency that was only available by opening Hextech Chest called Hextech Skins. These skins could only be crafted using a specific type of currency – Gemstones.
What Are Gemstones?
Gemstones are a rare currency that gives players access to unlocking certain exclusive loot. Unlike Blue Essence or Riot Points, Gemstones aren’t acquired that easily.
How To Get Gemstones In League Of Legends
Gemstones can only be acquired through a handful of methods. Furthermore, while these methods exist, not all of them give a 100% chance of giving you gemstones. Here are the methods:
1. Hextech Chests
The most basic way to acquire Gemstones is from Hextech chests. These chests are acquired from getting an S- or above rating by you or a player from your team after playing a game. It is easy to get Hextech chests but the same can’t be said for acquiring Hextech keys which are required to open these chests. Again, Hextech chests don’t offer a guaranteed method to acquire Gemstones since the drop rate is only at 0.4%.
2. Masterwork Chests
Masterwork chests are the premium version of Hextech chests. They give more rewards than the average Hextech chest and give a higher chance for you to get premium drops. However, Masterwork chests can only be acquired by using Riot Points to purchase them from the store. Gemstones have a higher chance of dropping from these chests with a 3.6% drop chance or a 4% drop chance with bad luck protection, which is activated after opening 3 Hextech/Masterwork chests.
3. Leveling up
Leveling up is probably is one of the most common ways to get gemstones. Of course, Riot Games doesn’t make it easy to acquire them this way as they can only be acquired by reaching Summoner Level 150. From here, players get 1 Gemstone every time they reach a 50 level milestone. This means that you can essentially farm Gemstones by continuously playing the game and buying XP Boosts to quicken your progress.
4. Events
Events come every once in a while and you can be sure that there is at least 1 event coming every month. The mechanics of these events vary but they all use a specific currency called Event Tokens but are all named depending on the event’s title. Using event tokens, you can purchase event loot boxes that have different chances of dropping Gemstones. In some events, you can purchase Gemstones directly using these tokens.
5. Essence Emporium
The Essence Emporium is a yearly event that was introduced in 2018. It is an event where specific items were put on sale for purchase using Blue Essence. Some exclusive items such as Urfwick were only attainable by buying it on the Essence Emporium for 150,000 Blue Essence. Gemstones were also acquired as bonus items for buying icons for 50,000 BE, 75,000 BE, and 150,000 BE making it a total of 3 purchasable Gemstones per Essence Emporium.
What Can I Buy With Gemstones?
Being the rarest of currencies there is in League of Legends, Gemstones give access to some of the more exclusive rewards in the game.
1. Hextech Skins
Hextech skins are exclusive skins only acquired using the Hextech Crafting system. The only way to get these skins are by purchasing them using 10 Gemstones, randomly getting one from Hextech Chests, Masterwork Chests, Champion Capsules, or Honor Capsules. Currently there 14 exclusive Hextech champion skins and 1 Hextech Ward skin.
2. Event Skins
Some event skins and Legacy skins were purchasable using Gemstones. During the 2018 Lunar Revel event, there was a promo where you could purchase one of the Lunar Revel skins using 5 Gemstones or 1 Lunar Revel Token. Also, the Neo PAX Sivir skin, which could only be redeemed using a code after attending the special 2017 PAX West event, could be bought using 10 Gemstones from August 31, 2017 to January 8, 2018.
3. Masterwork Chests and Keys
While this isn’t one of the best things to throw your Gemstones into, it still gives you the option of purchasing a Masterwork Chest and Key for 1 Gemstone. This might be a good way to use your Gemstones if you’ve purchased all of the Hextech skins and you want to get some skin shards you haven’t unlocked yet. However, you might want to hold on to these for future events that require Gemstones to unlock rewards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you get Hextech skins using other means?
Hextech skins are only available from Hextech crafting methods such as Gemstone crafting, Hextech chests opening, or skin shard re-rolling. Unfortunately, the League of Legends shop doesn’t allow you to purchase these skins with Riot Points. However, using RP you can buy Masterwork Chests and Keys in order to get the chance of getting one randomly or getting Gemstones which will be used to unlock these.
Is it worth buying Masterwork chests to get Gemstones?
Relatively, if money is not a concern for you, then Masterwork chests are definitely worth their price. Aside from having the highest chance of getting Gemstones, especially with bad luck protection, you’ll also have the chance to roll some of the Hextech skins.
When will the next Essence Emporium appear?
There is no official announcement nor schedule on when Essence Emporiums usually appear. Sadly, there is no way to accurately predict when the Essence Emporiums usually come up since it can be during the first half or second half of the year. However, you can expect that it’s at least a few months away after an Essence Emporium has appeared.
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