A Short (kappa) Guide to Gem TD

So a lot of people seem to go into gem TD with no knowledge. It's quite a difficult to get into TD game. So I'll just throw out a few pointers and tips to allow you to get the hang of the game.

**Gem tips and facts**:

* Raw Gems have 5 different levels
* Each round you can place 5 gems
* Different gems combine into upgrades, you can see the formulas in a tab at the left side
* Your chances of getting a certain level of gem is determined by your level, chances are shown in the bottom right
* 2 gems of the same type and level can combine to make a gem of the same type one level up
* 4 gems of the same type and level can combine to make a gem of the same type two levels up
* Out of your 5 gems you can build only one gem, but if out of your 5 you have a combination for an upgrade you can build that upgrade straight up
* Your 4 non used gems will turn into a stone block to form part of your maze
* If you build the 3rd part of an upgrade, you can only upgrade it once the round starts, you will have to check the formula to see which this works for as it won't show the upgrade when you select the gem
* Attack speed, Damage, minus armor and slow debuffs all stack, as long as they're different levels. For example, sapphire 1 and 2 stack. Sapphire 2 and 2 do not stack. It's best to try and get at least one of each level of sapphire and opal at each part of your main maze. Silver counts as a level 2 slow while Silver Knight counts as a level 4 slow (I think, I'll confirm that later today).

**Creep facts and tips**:

* Ground units will travel from arrow to arrow, the drawn path does not matter
* Ground units will take the shortest path, they don't care about going past towers or not
* Flying units always take the direct route
* Creeps/unit cannot travel through diagonally linked blocks

**Maze facts and tips**:

* Since there are 5 arrows (but 7 points including exit and start) that creeps need to reach, you can make creeps travel through the same area 5 times. You cannot do this 6 times since there are always 2 points which you cannot redirect to your main maze
* The theory behind making creeps go through one point 5 times is simple, in essense, you build a wall that forces creeps to go through the central hole to reach each point. Here is an [example](http://imgur.com/5SbrbIa) of how you could do it. Here is a [video](https://www.www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVY1HB5B1c8) of someone I found on youtube doing it.
* There are alternate ways to build the wall, for example. My favorite way looks like [this](http://imgur.com/oHVYDdI). Instead of building a gap in the middle and building a maze off of that I prefer to build a zig zag path as you see in the middle. Creeps travel from S >1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 5 > F.
* [Another popular build](http://imgur.com/r/GemTD/FZnyvmz). This requires more blocks than normal but is highly efficient as it forces creeps to walk around the outside of your maze. Wouldn't recommend for single player but very good for 3-4 player
* In many non party td games, where people don't know what they're doing and won't listen, sometimes it's best to start out with a spiral on an arrow, so the creeps have to travel both into and out of the spiral. No where near as good as making them go through it 5 times (compared to twice) but you can still have some fun and learn the game with this method. [An example of an overly large spiral on an arrow point](http://imgur.com/P3GBhj7).
* An important thing to note is, often you will not need corners. This is because as previously mentioned creeps cannot travel through diagonally linked blocks. Examples: [Do this](http://imgur.com/drtGl52), [do not do this](http://imgur.com/9VDurph)

**Final Note**

If you have any tips for me to add or improved diagrams drop a comment and I'll add them to the guide. Also note I'm not an expert on gem TD, I just saw a lack of a guide and figured I would share what I know.