Gem crafting returns in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but don't worry, it's not as convoluted as it was in the original Xenoblade Chronicles. Early on in Chapter 2, you'll be introduced to this function in the required quest "Riku and Manana". For more on quests, see our complete Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Quests Guide!

There's no Affinity requirement, or heat gauge, or RNG in gem crafting this time around, unlike in the original Xenoblade title. Instead, all you need are some monster item drops, a gemstone, and some Ether Cylinders, and you can craft gems at any campsite in the game.

One of the best parts about gem crafting in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is that you do not need to make separate gems for each character. Once you craft a gem, any character in your party can equip it, and multiple characters can equip the gem at the same time. Once you craft a gem, you basically can equip as many as you need to whoever you want.

There are 20 total types of gems, with ten ranks in each. A higher-rank gem will always supersede a lower-rank one. For example, if you craft a Tailwind III gem, you do not need to craft Tailwind II, because there is no reason to. For this reason, sometimes it may be best to skip a few ranks when crafting. If you can craft a Tailwind X gem, there's no reason to waste components making a Tailwind VII, VIII, and IX gem, right? You'd just be wasting materials.

You might be wondering which gems are the best to make for your party. To be honest, there is no clear and obvious answer, as every gem has its benefits. You can only equip (up to) three gems at a time though, so you want to make sure you pick gems that are useful for the current class of the character you are placing them on.

When you look at the Gem chart in the game, you'll notice the gems are sorted into four columns, with each column exhibiting a different color. The blue gems in the first column are Defender-oriented gems, then red gems for Attackers, then green gems for Healers, then orange gems which are more general purpose and useful for the player-controlled character.

Whenever you change a character's class, it's best practice to change the gems they have equipped. If you want to do this the easy way, you can simply perform the Auto-Build option by pressing the Y button on the class screen. The game will automatically place appropriate gems on that character for their current class. Defenders will be mostly loaded with Defender gems, and so on. 

As for which gems are generally best, Steady Striker and Doublestrike are always good gems to consider, because they increase the rate of your auto-attacks, which in turn in speed up the rate at which your diamond-based arts will be available. Analyze Weakness is good for Attacker classes, especially the Incursor due to its high critical hit rate. Steel Protection is good for block-based Defenders like Guardian Commander, and Tailwind is good for dodge-based Defenders like Zephyr.

We list all gem types in the list below, so check out what they do and see for yourself which gems you think you'd like on your party.

If you are a completionist (like me), you may want to get every Rank X gem in the game. These require many rare monster drops, and the farming alone can take dozens of hours. Below is a list of all the monster drop items requires for each Rank X gem in Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

For a little bit of bookkeeping on the list below, each Rank X gem also requires 5 Ultra Pure Gemstones and 3 Ether Cylinders. Also note: the first three monster drops listed for each gem are of the Purple rarity, the 4th item is of Yellow rarity, and the 5th item is of Common rarity. Also, each monster drop requires 30 items each. These are simply excluded from the list below for readability.

Many items are best obtained by Unique Monsters, and guess what, we have a Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Unique Monsters guide for that!

Increases Block Rate by 30 percentage points.

Deals 280% of Attack damage when you take damage.

Boosts aggro generated when using Art by 45%.

Start each battle with aggro.

Increased critical hit damage bonus by 70 percentage points.

Boosts power of debuffs applied to enemies by 50%

Extends duration timers of debuffs applied to enemies by 50%,

When helping an incapacitated ally, revives them with 45% more HP; also raises Healing by 15.

Boosts speed of ally revival by 45% and raises Healing by 15.

Boosts power of buff effects issued by self by 50%.

Extends duration of buff effects issued by self by 50%,

Adds 40% chance to strike twice per auto-attack.

When canceling, boosts damage dealt by 75%.

Reduces aggro generated when using Art by 45%.