[Guide] Gold and Goblins Gems or Diamonds, Coins - How to get Free

The Premium Power: Best Uses for Gems (Diamonds)
Gems are the premium currency, purchasable with real money or found rarely in rocks . While it's tempting to use them to immediately finish a task, this is usually inefficient. Gems should be saved for when they provide the most value.1. The Best Investment: Elixir and Card Packs
In the mid-to-late game, the biggest bottleneck is Elixirs. If you are going to spend Gems, the most impactful use is purchasing packs of Elixirs or Chests that guarantee rare cards . This bypasses the "grind" of waiting for random drops and gives you direct power to upgrade your permanent collection.2. The "Almost There" Rule
There is only one scenario where spending Gems to skip time is "worth it": when you are within a few minutes of completing a huge milestone, specifically the final gate of a mine . If the gate is about to break and you just don't want to wait, a small Gem spend is acceptable. Never use Gems to skip early rocks—that is a waste of the rarest resource.3. Critical Role in Events
The game features weekly special events where you compete to dig through unique mines . These events offer exclusive cards and huge piles of Gems and Elixirs as rewards. In these high-stakes environments, spending Gems to speed up production is often a necessary strategy to reach the top-tier rewards . Treat Gems as an investment to win better rewards from events.4. Avoiding the "Speedy" Trap
The game will frequently offer to speed up timers for 10, 20, or 50 Gems. Usually, this is poor value. Unless you are actively playing and need to finish a specific node to get to a new Mineshaft, let the game run idle . Your goblins work even when you are offline, so spending Gems to rush a timer is often just throwing currency away.Advanced Tactics: Maximizing Your Mining Efficiency
Beyond the currencies, how you use your assets is key.Idle Management: Before closing the app, assign your goblins to the hardest rocks you have access to. They will chip away at it while you're gone, ensuring you maximize offline gains .Spread or Stack? If you are stepping away for a long time (like sleeping), spread your goblins out to clear multiple small rocks . If you are actively playing, stack them on a single high-level node or gate .Watch the Ads: The voluntary ads in the game offer significant boosts (extra gold, free goblins, production multipliers). They are a small time investment for a huge resource gain and should be utilized .Dynamite Usage: Save dynamite for the gates and high-level nodes blocking access to new sections, not the easy rocks .Mastering Gold and Goblins is about discipline. Coins fuel your short-term growth, so invest them in production first. Elixirs are your permanent legacy, so guard them jealously and spend them only on top-tier cards like the Forge and High-Speed Trolley. Gems are your nuclear option; hoard them for events and the final push through a mine gate.By following these strategies, you'll avoid the common pitfalls that trap casual players. You won't be the one staring at a gate for a day; you'll be the one breaking through to the next cave, rich with resources and ready for the next challenge. Happy miningGold & Goblins: Idle Merger rewards players who treat Gems (often called Diamonds in some guides), Coins, and related premium currencies as scarce, strategic resources rather than tap-and-spend filler. In practice, the best use cases center on accelerating event progress, protecting elixir discipline, and maximizing gold-per-hour efficiency across mines.How currencies work in Gold & Goblins
Gold & Goblins uses several currency layers that feed into one another: Coins (gold) for buying goblins, upgrading mineshafts, and expanding; Gems/Diamonds as premium currency for time skips, extra goblin spawns, and special offers; and elixirs as the scarce upgrade currency for cards that permanently boost mining speed, goblin spawn rate, and other core stats. Coins are abundant but reset or lose value between mines if not spent wisely, while Gems/Diamonds and elixirs are the true bottlenecks that determine how fast you clear event mines and reach high milestones.Understanding this hierarchy matters because many “obvious” spends—like rushing a gate with a time skip or upgrading every mineshaft to the next multiple of 10—can quietly waste Gems or elixir that would have compounded into far more Coins and progress later.Best use cases for Gems (Diamonds)
Gems (or Diamonds) are the premium currency you typically earn slowly, buy with real money, or collect via special rewards. Their highest-value uses are in situations where time, event windows, or compounding multipliers create outsized returns.1) Time skips during events, not in the main mine
The single strongest Gem use case is buying time skips (or equivalent instant-complete options) during limited-time event mines where rewards scale with progress. In events, every minute saved on a gate or high-level rock can translate into extra chests, elixirs, and event-specific currencies that you cannot earn later. By contrast, using Gems to skip time in the main, non-event mine is usually inefficient because there’s no deadline and the same progress can be earned passively.Practically, this means holding your Gems until an event starts, then using them to:Finish a gate that’s 80–90% complete so your top goblins can move to the next high-value section immediately.Skip the last stretch of a long, high-level rock that’s blocking access to a new cluster of high-yield nodes.Extend an active production boost or event timer when you’re in a strong position and can clearly convert extra minutes into additional mine completions or reward tiers.The key is to treat Gems as “event acceleration tokens” rather than general convenience currency.2) Unlocking or extending high-ROI offers and bundles
Some shops or special offers in Gold & Goblins (and similar idle mergers) only accept Gems or give dramatically better value when paid with Gems, such as limited-time bundles with rare cards, extra goblin spawns, or large elixir packs. While not every Gem offer is worth it, the best use cases are:Bundles that include rare or epic cards tied to core multipliers (goblin spawn speed, gold output, rock-clear speed), especially if you’re mid-progression and those cards will compound across many future mines.Offers that effectively “unlock” an event track or reward tier you can realistically complete with your current playtime, turning a small Gem spend into a large Coin and elixir windfall.If an offer is purely cosmetic or gives common resources you can farm easily with time, it’s usually a low-value Gem sink.3) Emergency goblin spawns when you’re goblin-starved
Goblins are your workforce; if you’re stuck because you have no free goblins to assign to newly unlocked high-value nodes, a small Gem spend to spawn extra goblins can be worth it—again, primarily during events. This is most effective when:You’ve just opened a new section with multiple high-yield rocks and gates, and your current goblins are all tied up on long tasks.You’re close to an event milestone or reward threshold and need a short burst of additional mining power to cross it before the timer ends.Outside of events or tight milestones, it’s usually better to wait for natural goblin spawns from the Forge or merge existing goblins rather than spend Gems.4) Avoiding “convenience” traps
A common mistake is using Gems for small conveniences: speeding up a single rock by a few minutes, refreshing a shop with mediocre items, or buying extra continues in non-event modes. These uses feel satisfying in the moment but rarely change your long-term progression curve. The best practice is to set a personal rule: no Gem spends in the main mine unless it clearly unlocks a new multiplier or saves time on a hard bottleneck that’s stalling multiple high-value nodes.