5th Gen Gem of a Thread

[JollyRoger25]

This is just a general idea thread about how you feel about the Gems in the game. In case you don't know, the gems I'm talking about are the one time use gems that power up {insert type} attacks of whatever kind of gem it is, the gem powers up the attack by 50%. Here is the bulbapedia page about them. https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Gem
Your ideas and comments on them....

I personally think that they are not needed in most if any respects. It would be better if they had more than one use in them, like five or something, but as they are, I think they are just "filler items". Not only that, but when you first get one, with a name like Dark Gem, or Dragon Gem, you think that its a pretty cool item, but when you find out what it really is, your just dissapointed, at least I was.

 

[Xander Olivieri]

Compared to normal Type Enhancing Hold Items that only boost by 20%, the Plates which also boost by 20%, Incenses give 20% as well I think, though I don't see them used as often.

Only Items I know that does more than that is Life Orb which is 30% and the Choice Items which give a 50% boost but you lose the ability to use other attacks.

Expert Belt only gives a 20% bonus to Super Effective attacks and while Metronome has the potential to be the strongest of the Damage Enhancing Items, you have to use the same attack 6+ times and hit for it to be of any relative power. It adds 10% for every consecutive attack used and landed.

So all of them with 50% bonus have a huge set back to balance them out. While Choice aren't as horrible as Gems, the one time use of a Gem can come in handy if used well.

Say you are battling a Multiscale Dragonite, you can pretty much nullify the defence bonus it gets from the very first hit.

They are like using Type weakening berries, you gamble on their use and success. Pokemon with Unburden also get an additional bonus when they use an item so a Loppuny with Normal/Fighting/Flying Gem could come in handy for that specific Pokemon.

Game Freak is looking for more ways to enhance the Metagame, that's where our one shot saviors the Gems are from.

 

[PlatinumDude]

The only useful Gem out of the 17 is the Flying Gem. It combos beautifully with Acrobatics (and Unburden to an extent):

55 (Acrobatics' base power) x 1.5 (Flying Gem boost) x 2 (Acrobatics after Flying Gem is used) x 1.5 (if STAB is taken into account) = 247.5 (with STAB) or 165 (without STAB)

As for the other Gems in general, they're okay filler items if you're playing under item clause (VGCs in particular).

 

[Ho-Oh]

Yeah I kind of forget the gems exist. Flying gem = best, as said. :x

Either way I don't really have any use for them, why use them if you have Expert Belt/Life Orb/Choice Items, etc, which last more than once. ;;

 

[SnowpointQuincy]

Compared to normal Type Enhancing Hold Items that only boost by 20%, the Plates which also boost by 20%, Incenses give 20% as well I think, though I don't see them used as often.

Only Items I know that does more than that is Life Orb which is 30% and the Choice Items which give a 50% boost but you lose the ability to use other attacks.

Expert Belt only gives a 20% bonus to Super Effective attacks and while Metronome has the potential to be the strongest of the Damage Enhancing Items, you have to use the same attack 6+ times and hit for it to be of any relative power. It adds 10% for every consecutive attack used and landed.

So all of them with 50% bonus have a huge set back to balance them out. While Choice aren't as horrible as Gems, the one time use of a Gem can come in handy if used well.

Say you are battling a Multiscale Dragonite, you can pretty much nullify the defence bonus it gets from the very first hit.

They are like using Type weakening berries, you gamble on their use and success. Pokemon with Unburden also get an additional bonus when they use an item so a Loppuny with Normal/Fighting/Flying Gem could come in handy for that specific Pokemon.

Game Freak is looking for more ways to enhance the Metagame, that's where our one shot saviors the Gems are from.

:13:
Good Job! You clearly understand game design. Game Freak saw room for battle items to grow and filled that space with gems. There power is ballance by their drawback. I often carry a grass/electic move just for bulky waters, so gems can make thiose encounters easier for me. Keep in mind that you get you gems back at battle tower and the like.
:15:

 

[porkcrapper]

they can make the battles a bit too easy, in my opinion. i like keeping the battles more of a challege, item-free. that's just me though.

 

[Ho-Oh]

they can make the battles a bit too easy, in my opinion. i like keeping the battles more of a challege, item-free. that's just me though.

Well tbh unless it's a flying type Pokemon @ Acrobatics, honestly it doesn't do that much imo. Every other gem doesn't really improve much and it makes battles harder since they're a one-time use. XD

 

[vaporeon7]

The only useful Gem out of the 17 is the Flying Gem. It combos beautifully with Acrobatics (and Unburden to an extent):

55 (Acrobatics' base power) x 1.5 (Flying Gem boost) x 2 (Acrobatics after Flying Gem is used) x 1.5 (if STAB is taken into account) = 247.5 (with STAB) or 165 (without STAB)

As for the other Gems in general, they're okay filler items if you're playing under item clause (VGCs in particular).

Gems are pretty good in VGC. A Water Gem boosted Water Spout can be deadly. Because of how double battles are so quick that they're normally over in a few turns, gems have a lot more of an impact. It would've been cool if they had more uses though, like maybe a person in game who crafts your gems into props for the musicals or something.

 

[Shadowfire]

In-game, Gems are pretty useless, you're better off with permanent boost items like Expert Belt and whatnot.
In the Battle Subway and Random Wi-Fi Battles, they're some of the best items to use. They come back at the end of every battle, and it's super useful for quick KO's. The Flying Gem especially, when used with Acrobatics.
IMO, I think Gems were intended best for those types of battles. I should know, I'm usually on the receiving end of those types of attacks boosted by Gems on Wi-Fi Random Battles. And man, it ticks me off... xD

 

[Turn-it]

I've never tried the gems but after looking at this thread I may reconsider. Do they really turn the tide of a battle that much?

 

[A Sadistic Bastard]

I don't know, man. Gems seem pretty useful in triple battles. This is a strategy I'm working on with Heatran:
150 eruption * 0.75 * 1.5 gem boost * 1.5 STAB * 1.5 Helping Hand boost * 1.5 Flashfire boost (I would attack my Heatran with my Ninetails) * 1.5 Sun Boost = ~854 BP move. That gem gives it a big boost. I'm pretty sure that this strategy will kill almost everything in 1 hit.

 

[GoombaGeek]

They seem kinda like ChestoResting to me. One-off item, you get a handy boost, and then you can possibly go on to sweep the rest of the team. They're both fun strategies, but you need good prediction skills to use them. I'm not very good at that so I stick to spamming a boosting move, using Rest to fully heal and get rid of status, and then sweeping. Maybe one day I'll be enough of a pro thinker to use the Gems.

 

[Mr Cat Dog]

Oh that's what the Gems were for? Oops. I just ended up selling them as soon as I could because I thought they were of ornamental value! After reading about them, though, I probably would have still sold them anyway. They don't seem to be the most useful hold items in the Poke-franchise, given that they're used up after only one move.

 

[Jellicent♀]

They're only usage seems to be Flying Gem + Acrobatics = Major Damage.
Which is a very nice usage, but I don't find them super helpful beyond that. They're pretty, though. So that's good, right?

 

[blue]

They can be helpful when coming to taking on the Elite Four and such but I never really used them but rather collected them. On a different note they look pretty!

 

[Zephele]

While I can see how they would be useful (e.g. with the aforementioned Flying Gem + Acrobatics, or using one in tandem with Unburden), the "don't use any item you can't buy" mentality I tend to have while playing any Pokemon game prevented me from actually using any of them, so they just ended up gathering dust in my bag.

 

[Killjoy]

Ya, I never used em. Partly because I kinda forgot about them, but mostly because I was constantly passing around the lucky egg

 

[XtinaIsMeLuvinWWE]

I like the fact that they're gems in the first place haha loving all things that glitter but in all seriousness the amount they boost by is great :) Shame they can only be used once but it means at the same time you don't become too heavily reliant on them :)

 

[Obix]

I dont mind the gems but what do i know haha