How to play Gempop

Every level shows a square or near-square board of colored gems, usually 7×7 or 8×8 in the early zones and growing up to 9×10 by zone 4. Tap or drag one gem onto an adjacent gem to swap their positions. If the swap creates a line of three or more matching gems in a row or column, the match pops, the matched gems disappear, and the gems above them fall into the empty cells. If the falling gems land in a new match, that match pops too. That's a cascade, and cascades are how big scores happen. If a swap doesn't create a match, the gems snap back and the move is not consumed.

You play with the mouse, with touch, or with the keyboard. The arrow keys move the cursor; Enter or Space selects a gem, then a direction key swaps it. The current objective is always shown in the badge above the board.

Different levels ask for different things. Five objective types repeat across the 100 levels and the daily challenges:

• Score — hit a target number of points before moves run out. The simplest objective, used in roughly half of all levels.
• Collect — match the listed gem colors in the amounts shown. Useful for forcing specific match patterns; the board may tilt to favor certain colors.
• Clear — break every breakable blocker on the board (ice, chain, vine, dark cells). Match next to a blocker to chip away at it.
• Drop — special objects sit on the board and need to be matched downward to the bottom. Stones or vines in the column will block the drop, so clear those out of the path first.
• Timed — hit the target score before the clock runs out instead of before moves run out. Faster matches mean fewer cascade pauses.

Every level ends with a Gem Rush: leftover moves or seconds rain down as bonus points. Score and timed levels keep accepting points after you hit the target, so keep playing through your move budget to push for two and three stars. One star is the target score, two stars is 2× the target, three stars is 2.5×.

Bigger matches leave a special gem behind in place of one of the matched cells. Special gems detonate when they are matched in a normal swap, or when they are caught up in a cascade.

• Striped row — left behind by a match of four vertically. Pops the entire row it sits on.
• Striped column — left behind by a match of four horizontally. Pops the entire column it sits on.
• Bomb — left behind by an L-shape, T-shape, or plus-shape match. Blasts a 3×3 area centered on the bomb.
• Rainbow — left behind by a five-gem line, horizontal or vertical. Swap a rainbow gem with any colored gem, and every gem of that color across the entire board disappears at once.

A common beginner mistake is to set a special up and then waste it on a small match. The big payoff comes from combining two specials — see below.

When you swap two special gems together, the result is much bigger than either special alone. The seven combos are:

Combo	Effect
Striped + Striped	Pops one full row and one full column.
Striped + Bomb	Sweeps three rows and three columns through the swap point.
Bomb + Bomb	Clears a 5×5 blast.
Rainbow + Plain gem	Wipes every gem of that color from the board.
Rainbow + Striped	Turns every gem of that color into a striped, then sets them all off.
Rainbow + Bomb	Turns every gem of that color into a bomb, then sets them all off.
Rainbow + Rainbow	Clears the entire board.

On hard levels, setting up a rainbow + striped or rainbow + bomb is often the only realistic way to a three-star score. Look for opportunities to create the two specials in adjacent cells, then swap them.

Once you leave the tutorial zone, levels start adding obstacles that sit on or around the board. Each blocker has its own clearing rule:

• Ice — matches next to an ice cell crack a layer. Thick ice may take two or three hits.
• Stone — never breaks. Cells below a stone do not refill once cleared, because new gems can't fall past it. Don't waste matches there.
• Chain — locks the gem it sits on, so chained gems can't be swapped. Match next to the chain to snap it; the gem inside is freed.
• Vine — clears with a single adjacent match, but spreads into empty cells every three moves. If you let vines run, they'll eat half the board. Drops and falling gems also block their growth path.
• Dark cell — a dead cell. Clear it by matching a gem that is sitting on top of it.

Boosters are single-use items you can play during a level to bend the rules. You earn them from level rewards, the battle pass, daily spins, and the shop. Each booster button on the in-game tray shows how many you have.

• Extra Moves — adds five moves to the current level. Best used when you are one swap away from winning.
• Hammer — tap any single gem or blocker to destroy it. Cuts through ice, chain, or vine in one hit.
• Shuffle — reshuffles the board into a layout with a guaranteed valid swap. Handy on busy boards where you can't find a move.
• Color Bomb — plants a rainbow gem on whichever cell you tap.
• Row Blaster — tap a row to clear it instantly.
• Extend Level — appears on the win and loss dialogs. For 150 gems it adds five moves on standard levels or 30 seconds on timed levels, so you can keep playing for a bigger score or recover a near miss. Once per attempt.

Every 24 hours, a single shared puzzle drops at UTC midnight. Every player in the world sees the same board, the same objective, and the same starting state, so scores are directly comparable. The objective rotates by day of the week — Sunday is time-attack, Friday is a cascade chase, Saturday is half-moves, and so on — and a top banner labels which twist is in play.

Finishing the daily builds a streak. Daily completions in a row multiply your reward up to seven times. Miss a day and your streak resets to one. To soften the bad-week problem, the game auto-banks one streak freeze per week (two with Gempop Pass), up to a maximum of four. If you miss exactly one day, a freeze is spent silently to keep your streak alive.

Milestones at 7, 14, 30, 60, 100, and 365 consecutive days pay one-time bonuses — gems, booster bundles, and at the highest tiers, exclusive avatar frames. A friends-only leaderboard on the daily card shows where you rank against people you know. A share button at the end produces a Wordle-style result card you can copy or download.

• Cascades multiply your score. A match that triggers a four-deep cascade is worth far more than four separate matches. Set up moves that drop into other matches.
• Don't waste specials on small matches. A striped or bomb gem is at its best when paired with another special. Hold a special in a corner if you can.
• Cells below a stone never refill. Match around them, not into them.
• Out of moves to make? The board reshuffles automatically — no need to use a shuffle booster unless you want a specific layout.
• Three stars need 2.5× the target. Plan from the start of a level whether you are going for a quick clear or a full grind.

For everything else, the FAQ covers the most common rules questions, and the release notes list every mechanic change as it ships.