Puzzle · Match Three
Gem Swap
Swap neighbouring gems to line up three or more, forge Blast Gems from fours and Prisms from fives, and crack five score vaults in 30 moves or race a 90-second clock.
The game's own interface may still be in English.
Overview
Gem Swap is a match-three puzzle played on an eight by eight board of faceted gems. You trade the positions of two gems that touch side by side, and if the trade lines up three or more of the same colour in a row or column, those gems shatter, everything above them drops, and fresh gems fall in from the top. Falling gems can complete new lines on their own, and each of those follow-up clears raises the cascade multiplier, so a single good swap can be worth many times its face value. Lines of four leave behind a Blast Gem that explodes in a 3x3 square the next time it is matched, and lines of five create a Prism that erases an entire colour. Every colour also has its own outline - diamond, hexagon, star, octagon, triangle and circle - so the board stays readable without relying on colour alone. If the board ever runs out of legal swaps, it reshuffles itself instead of stranding you.
How to Play
Choose Moves mode or the 90 second Timed mode from the start screen. With a keyboard, move the dashed cursor with the arrow keys and press Space to pick up the gem underneath; it gets a gold frame and small dots on each side it can move toward. Press an arrow to swap it that way, or Space again to put it down. With a mouse or touchscreen, tap one gem and then a neighbour, or simply drag or swipe a gem one cell toward its partner. The bar under the score shows how close you are to the current target. In Moves mode, reach the vault target before your 30 swaps run out to open the next vault; clear all five to win. P pauses and R restarts.
Tips & Strategy
Work from the bottom of the board whenever you have a choice. A match low down drops the whole column above it, which shuffles far more gems and gives cascades room to happen, while a match on the top row only refills the top row. Before taking an obvious three, scan for a swap that makes four instead: the Blast Gem it leaves is effectively a free extra clear later. Two lines meeting at the moved gem count as one big clear, and anything over five gems earns bonus points on top of the chain multiplier. Save Prisms for the colour that dominates the board rather than firing them immediately; wiping twelve gems at once also tends to trigger long cascades. In Moves mode, the later vaults ask for roughly 170 to 230 points per swap, so plain threes will not keep pace - plan for specials. In Timed mode, speed matters more than perfection, because the clock keeps running while cascades play out.
What Makes It Distinct
Instead of an endless score chase, Moves mode is structured as five vaults with a fresh board and a fresh 30-swap budget each, so every vault is a small, winnable puzzle with a clear fail state. Shape-coded gems and a visible pick-up state make it comfortable to play entirely from the keyboard.
Controls
- Keyboard
- Arrow keys - move the cursor around the 8x8 boardSpace - pick up or drop the gem under the cursorArrow key while a gem is picked - swap it in that directionP - pause or resumeR - restart the current mode
- Mouse
- Click a gem, then click a neighbour to swap, or drag a gem one cell in any direction.
- Touch
- Tap a gem and then a neighbour, or swipe a gem toward the cell you want it to trade with.
Features
- Moves mode with five score vaults, 30 swaps each, targets rising from 1500 to 6800
- 90-second timed mode with a 4000 point goal
- Four in a row forges a Blast Gem that clears a 3x3 area when matched
- Five in a row forges a Prism that wipes every gem of the colour it is swapped with
- Cascade multiplier that grows with every chain reaction
- Each gem colour has its own shape, and dead boards reshuffle automatically
Frequently asked questions
What happens when I match four gems in Gem Swap?
Four in a straight line clears the run and leaves a Blast Gem of that colour on the cell you moved. When the Blast Gem is later part of a match, it detonates and clears the full 3x3 square around it.
How does the Prism gem work?
A Prism appears when you line up five of a kind. It never matches on its own; swap it with any neighbour and every gem of that neighbour's colour vanishes. Swapping two Prisms together clears the whole board.
Why did my swap bounce back?
A swap only counts when it creates at least one line of three. If neither gem lands in a match, the pair slides back, the board shakes, and in Moves mode no swap is spent.
How are cascade points calculated?
Each cleared gem is worth 10 points times the current chain number. The first clear of a swap is chain 1, gems that fall into a new match make chain 2, and so on, plus a bonus for any clear larger than five gems.
What is the difference between the two modes?
Moves mode gives you 30 swaps per vault and five vaults with rising targets; missing a target ends the run. Timed mode gives you 90 seconds with unlimited swaps and asks for 4000 points before the clock hits zero.