What to Spend Gems On
Gems come in slowly, so the order you spend them in matters. A player who pays nothing earns about 720 gems a week from the daily claim and a full Weekly Quest Board, or 825 with the free Discord tier. This page ranks every gem price in the game. Where gems come from is on the Gems page.
The short answer
- Buy the upgrades that only gems can buy. Gold cannot replace gems there. Follow the order in the first table.
- Where gold is accepted, pay gold for the cheap things and gems for the expensive ones. One gem replaces 2 gold on Basic Rod and 166,667 gold on Offline Time tier 12.
- Keep one pair of skill gloves charged for the skill you train most.
- Leave Instant Grow and Pet Boxes for last. They are used up, and a permanent upgrade is not.
1. Upgrades only gems can buy
These have no gold price. The order is the Shop's own "Recommended for you" priority, highest first. The Shop only shows an upgrade once you meet its requirement, so skip a row you cannot buy yet and take the next one.
| # | Upgrade | What it does | Gems |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2nd Prayer Slot | Run 2 prayers at once | 2,000 |
| 2 | 3rd Prayer Slot | Run 3 prayers at once | 3,000 |
| 3 | Cow Skinner | +1 Cowhide per drop | 1,000 |
| 4 | Dragonskinner | 2× Dragonhide per drop | 2,000 |
| 5 | Loadout Mastery | Auto-picks style vs enemy weakness | 5,000 |
| 6 | All Quests Active | All your quests progress at the same time | 1,000 |
| 7 | Weekly Quester | Does your daily quests one after another | 1,000 |
| 8 | Auto-Equip Best | Always equips your best gear | 2,000 |
| 9 | Pet Auto-Collect | Pets collect on every offline return | 1,000 |
| 10 | Auto-Buy Bait | Restocks bait when you run out | 1,000 |
| 11 | Auto Composter | Restocks compost when you run out | 1,000 |
Auto-Eat is free: take it first.
More gem-only purchases that the recommended row does not list:
| Purchase | What it does | Gems |
|---|---|---|
| Axe upgrades | 7 axes, each one cuts 5% off the Woodcutting interval | 50, 100, 200, 300, 500, 1,000, 2,000 (4,150 in all) |
| Farming fields | Field 4, Field 8, Field 11, Field 14, Field 16. Every field grows on its own | 500, 1,000, 2,500, 3,000, 4,000 (11,000 in all) |
| Pet slots | A second and a third pet out at the same time | 2,000, 4,000 |
| Runecraft Scholar | Every rune you craft pays the XP of the best rune you have unlocked. From Runecrafting 40 | 2,000 |
Everything in this section adds up to 43,150 gems, which is about 60 weeks of free income. Quest, guild and event gems shorten that a lot.
2. Gold or gems?
64 prices in the game take either currency. The number that matters is how much gold one gem replaces: the gold price divided by the gem price. The higher it is, the more your gems are worth there. It is only a reason to pick gems over gold for something you were going to buy anyway.
Best value for gems
| # | Purchase | Gold | or Gems | Gold per gem |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Offline Time tier 12 | 2,000,000,000 | 12,000 | 166,667 |
| 2 | Offline Time tier 11 | 1,000,000,000 | 10,000 | 100,000 |
| 3 | Offline Time tier 10 | 500,000,000 | 9,000 | 55,556 |
| 4 | Offline Time tier 9 | 200,000,000 | 8,000 | 25,000 |
| 5 | Offline Time tier 8 | 100,000,000 | 7,000 | 14,286 |
| 6 | Offline Time tier 7 | 50,000,000 | 6,000 | 8,333 |
| 7 | Alchemist's Cache tier 10 | 25,000,000 | 3,300 | 7,576 |
| 8 | Runecraft Altar tier 5 | 25,000,000 | 4,000 | 6,250 |
| 9 | Greenhouse tier 5 | 25,000,000 | 4,000 | 6,250 |
| 10 | Alchemist's Cache tier 9 | 16,000,000 | 2,600 | 6,154 |
| 11 | Clue Booster tier 9 | 20,000,000 | 3,500 | 5,714 |
| 12 | Offline Time tier 6 | 25,000,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
| 13 | Alchemist's Cache tier 8 | 10,000,000 | 2,000 | 5,000 |
| 14 | Clue Booster tier 8 | 12,000,000 | 2,400 | 5,000 |
| 15 | Runecraft Altar tier 4 | 8,000,000 | 2,000 | 4,000 |
Pay gold for these
A gem buys almost nothing here. The gold price is small, so keep the gems.
| Purchase | Gold | or Gems | Gold per gem |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Rod | 100 | 50 | 2 |
| Dishes Unlock | 10,000 | 1,000 | 10 |
| Oak Rod | 5,000 | 200 | 25 |
| Double Feathers | 50,000 | 500 | 100 |
| Precision Rod | 500,000 | 2,000 | 250 |
| Heavy Harpoon | 300,000 | 1,000 | 300 |
| Brewmaster's Journal | 300,000 | 1,000 | 300 |
| Legendary Harpoon | 2,000,000 | 5,000 | 400 |
| Reinforced Net | 200,000 | 500 | 400 |
| Harpoon | 100,000 | 250 | 400 |
The tiered upgrades
Each tier costs more than the last, and the gold price climbs faster than the gem price. So the first tiers are a gold purchase and the last tiers are where gems pay off.
| Upgrade | What it does | Tiers | All tiers in gold | All tiers in gems | Gold per gem, first to last tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offline Time | +1 hour of offline progress per tier | 12 | 3,894,200,000 | 67,500 | 400 to 166,667 |
| Alchemist's Cache | +1 charge on every potion per tier | 10 | 63,800,000 | 12,500 | 500 to 7,576 |
| Runecraft Altar | +1 rune per craft per tier | 5 | 35,600,000 | 7,700 | 500 to 6,250 |
| Greenhouse | +1 crop per harvest per tier | 5 | 35,600,000 | 7,700 | 500 to 6,250 |
| Clue Booster | More clue scrolls from surveys | 9 | 44,800,000 | 10,600 | 500 to 5,714 |
| Arrow Recycler | Chance to keep the arrow you shoot | 5 | 9,100,000 | 4,650 | 500 to 2,500 |
| Bone Burier | +1 bone buried per action per tier | 4 | 4,100,000 | 2,650 | 500 to 2,083 |
The price of every tier is on the Permanent Upgrades page.
3. Things you buy again
These are used up. Buy them once the permanent upgrades you want are paid for.
| Purchase | Gems | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Skill gloves | 500 | +5% XP in one skill while worn, and a bonus drop on each charge. 5,000, 1,000, 500 charges a purchase, by glove. |
| Pet Box | 500 | One pet roll and 2 to 8 shards. The Pet Pass is free to activate right now and gives one box a day, so claim that before you pay gems for boxes. |
| Instant Grow | 100, 200, 400 | Finishes every growing crop at once. 3 uses a day, each dearer than the last. |
 Polished Feather Pack (100) | 10 | 100 polished feathers |
 Golden Feather Pack (100) | 30 | 100 golden feathers |
 Fat Worm Pack (100) | 25 | 100 fat worms |
 Royal Worm Pack (100) | 50 | 100 royal worms |
 Oiled Minnow Pack (100) | 50 | 100 oiled minnows |
 Arcane Minnow Pack (100) | 500 | 100 arcane minnows |
 Luminous Chum Pack (100) | 100 | 100 luminous chum |
 Abyssal Chum Pack (100) | 1,000 | 100 abyssal chum |
 Super Compost (100) | 300 | 100 super compost: 100% success + 20% faster growth |
 Superior Whetstone | 20 | +30 Melee Damage per attack, 100 per purchase |
 Master Whetstone | 50 | +45 Melee Damage per attack, 100 per purchase |
 Dragon Whetstone | 100 | +60 Melee Damage per attack, 100 per purchase |
- Gloves are the best of these: the XP bonus is always on while you wear them, charged or not. The Gloves Discount upgrade costs gold and takes every pair down to 400 gems, so buy it before your second pair.
- Gem bait and Super Compost only make sense while you train Fishing or Farming hard. Plain bait and compost cost gold.
- Gems cannot be sold or turned into gold. Nothing gives them back, so a gem spent on something used up is gone.
See also
- Gems: every source of gems.
- Permanent Upgrades: the full price list.
- Money Making: how to earn the gold for the gold prices.
- Getting Started: the first hours of the game.