Gem Smashers Achievement Guide & Road Map

Gem Smashers
Gem Smashers Achievement Guide

Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 2/10 [Achievement Difficulty Rating]
- Offline: 17 [1000]
- Online: 0
- Approximate amount of time to 1000: ~2 hours [Estimated Time to 100%]
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1 full and 2 very short partials
- Missable achievements: None [level select]
- Does difficulty affect achievements: No difficulty option
- Unobtainable/glitched achievements: None
- Extra equipment needed: None

Introduction:
Welcome to Gem Smashers, a different take on the brick-breaker style of game. If you're expecting something like Arkanoid, you'll be disappointed. How this game works is your ball moves up and down endlessly and you move the ball left and right with . The goal is to hit all of the gems to smash them, while avoiding the death blocks that kill you. You will have to hit color changing blocks to make yourself the same color as the gems to smash them. There is virtually no penalty for dying though, making this an incredibly easy and fast completion. Let's get started.

Step 1: Beat the Game
Your first order of business is just to complete the story mode. There are three characters to choose from. Choose whichever you want, there is no difference between them from a practical standpoint. It won't really affect your playthrough. Each section in the game has 3-4 areas, and each area has 2-5 levels to play within it. Levels take a minute each, at most, so you can really fly through them. On top of that, score, time, etc., all don't matter. All that matters is that you get at least 2 stars out of 4 on each area. I had some really bad levels where I died a lot but I've never gotten less than 2 stars. You need 2 stars in order to unlock more sections.

So cruise through and complete all of the areas, working your way around and up the globe to the final area up top and eventually beating the game. Along the way, keep an eye out for the following items/achievement opportunities to save yourself time with mopping up later:

Carrots. Smashing a gem always results in some item dropping in its place. You'll collect a ton of stuff inadvertently, but there is an achievement for collecting a cumulative total of 25 carrots, so keep an eye out for them to grab them as you progress. You should easily get this many before finishing the game.
Treasure chests. You need to get a crown item inside a treasure chest. Treasure chests appear randomly in levels, and what's inside is also random. So make opening treasure chests a priority to ensure you find a crown inside one at some point during your playthrough.

Your completion percent doesn't matter, so don't bother trying to perfect every level to get a 100% rating. Once you beat the game, you can move on to the next step.

Step 2: Partial Playthroughs
You need to complete the first section of the game (first four areas and then the boss fight) with all three characters. After beating the game with one character, you'll need to play with the other two. Use your other two empty save files and choose the other two characters, and quickly run through the first four areas and beat the boss. After doing this with the other two characters from your first save file, you'll unlock "The same but different" and will be done with this step.

Mop-Up:
There are quite a few miscellaneous achievements, so after beating the game and doing your two partial playthroughs you're still missing anything, now is the time to go back to your first save file with your full playthrough and mop up whatever achievements you're missing. Refer to their solutions in the guide for where best to get them.

Conclusion:
Gem Smashers is a decently fun little game but it's very simple and easy, with virtually no penalty for dying. The achievements also don't really require much work or investment either, which is a bit disappointing. As it stands now, this game is great for a fast and easy completion with a moderate fun factor, but there isn't really any replay value.

[XBA would like to thank Necrophage33 for this Roadmap]

Gem Smasher Extraordinaire

150
Complete the single player story mode and save the world.
The single player story mode consists of around 10 sections, each with 3-4 areas, and each area consists of 2-5 levels. While it may sound like a lot, each level takes a minute or two at most, meaning it'll take under 2 hours to complete the story.

As you play levels, you'll notice lots of drops that give you points. These don't matter at all in the game, neither for progressing nor achievements. So don't worry about collecting items. When you complete all levels in an area you'll get a star rating. You need at least 2 stars out of 4 possible in order to open up new areas. This is incredibly easy to achieve. I would typically have 3 stars, but even during levels where I played horrible and died many times I still ended up with 2 stars, so there's virtually nothing to worry about when completing levels.

Completing levels involves destroying all gems, and you must be the same color as the gem in order to destroy it. This results in the need to move about the level to change to the appropriate color at the appropriate time. There are some other powerups that affect gameplay but not in any way that affects how you play.

Each level has a time limit, and it's in the lower right corner. As time elapses, slices of the circle in the corner are removed, revealing a monster face. When all pieces of the circle are removed, the monster will chase you to kill you, ending the area and making you start over. Dying also automatically removes a piece of the circle. You die when touching a death block, or when you touch a boss while it's attacking. Even so, you can die quite a few times before there's any sense of urgency, and if you do have game over, just try the area again now that you know the layout better.

All boss battles play the same way: the boss moves around the area with a specifically colored gem on it somewhere. After a set amount of time of the boss wandering around the screen, it will become invincible and go into attack mode where it moves around the screen quicker, and you'll need to dodge it. Touching the boss during this phase kills you. When it's not attacking, you need to change to the same color as the gem (which also changes in color periodically) and hit the gem. Do this 5 times to defeat each boss. In general, the bosses are very easy, and you can die many times without worrying about having to start over.

Once you make your way to the top of the globe you'll have to play a single area and then fight the final boss who plays the same as every boss. Once you beat him, this achievement will unlock. You total completion percent doesn't matter for this achievement.
That was quick

30
Clear a level in 20 seconds or less.
The level here is any single level within an area. Many levels are extremely simple with very few gems. Once you know what you're doing, any of the first levels of the game can be completed this quickly. However, Poseidonia, Area 3, Level 5 is by far the shortest level in the game. Bounce left to break the rocks, turn green, then bounce right to break the only green gems and head into the door. It took me around 7-8 seconds my first try, so if you don't get this achievement naturally during your playthrough, try it here.
Flawless Victory!

50
Defeat a boss without losing a single life!
As the description says, you need to defeat a boss without dying, which means without touching it during its attack phase. There are many bosses that are easy to do this on. The first boss of the game, the bird in Egg Island, is very easy to avoid because the battlefield is wide open, so when it starts spinning you can easily bounce over or under it to avoid it. This is where I got the achievement. Additionally, there is the ghost boss in a later section, and the door to eventually leave is under a wall across the bottom of the level. You can actually hide under that wall when the boss goes into attack mode, and it'll never go down low enough to hit you down there. You just need to tuck yourself in before the boss starts moving.
Gold digger

100
Find the crown bonus in the treasure chest.
Treasure chests are random drops from inside rocks or after smashing gems. If you see a treasure chest, you then have to hit it open it, which reveals a random item. You can then collect that item by touching it. For this achievement, you need to open a treasure chest to reveal a crown bonus item, and then collect it. Since it's completely random, there's no sure way to get a crown. As you play through and beat the game, keep an eye out for treasure chests. Whenever you see one, prioritize opening it. Eventually you should get the crown item. I got mine a little over halfway through the game, but it's all down to luck. Keep playing and you should see a treasure chest every so often, especially in later sections, and hopefully you'll get lucky and find a crown in one.
The same but different

100
Clear the respective starting zone using each character.
As the description says, you need to complete the first zone with each of the three available characters. You can't switch characters on a save file, so you'll have to use all three save files. Each character starts a new game in the starting zone. Simply complete the areas with at least two stars to open up the boss level, then beat the boss. Do this with all three characters to unlock this achievement. The starting area should take around 5-10 minutes to complete with each character.
5x Combo Master

50
Smash 5 gems in a row.
Refer to the "10x Combo Master" achievement solution for more information.
10x Combo Master

50
Smash 10 or more gems in a row.
This achievement requires you to smash 10 gems without touching anything else in between. So no rocks, color changers, and you obviously can't die.

This isn't even possible in many levels. The best and possibly one of the only levels I found to get this in is Bone Desert, Area 1, Level 1. This level has 14 yellow gems, 7 on each side, that are next to each other and perfectly set up for this. When you start the level, break all the rocks between the gems so you don't have to worry about hitting them. Then go to the right side and turn yourself yellow, then cut back and bounce back and forth between at least 10 in a row. It might take a few tries to not accidentally miss or hit a rock, but this level is definitely the best spot to try for this achievement.
Stay away from Bonuses

50
Try not to collect bonuses in a level.
The description is phrased strangely here. You have to complete a single level without collecting any bonuses. This can theoretically be done on any level by avoiding the bonuses dropped by smashed gems until they disappear, but the easiest and essentially unmissable spot to get this is when fighting the bird boss at the end of Egg Island. There aren't any bonuses to my knowledge, so just beat the boss and this should unlock when you complete the level. This will also unlock "No speed up needed".
Survivor

50
Don't lose any life for 3 levels.
The three levels referred to in the description are the levels within each area, not three areas. It's very possible this will happen naturally, since the only way to die is to touch death blocks, but if not, simply replaying the first area's levels is easy enough to do this on, especially once you've played through and beat the story so you have a better idea of how to navigate levels without dying.
No speed up needed

50
Don't use the speed up against a boss.
A speed up is one of multiple potential powerups that can drop during a level when you destroy rocks and gems. So you have to beat a boss without using a speed up powerup. The first boss in Egg Island (the bird boss) doesn't even have any powerups available, so as far as I can tell you'll unavoidably unlock this achievement upon beating this boss.
Rocks destroyer

50
Destroy 100 rocks.
This is a cumulative achievement across all levels played, and this will unlock very early in your playthrough. Some rocks aren't smashable but many are, and you'll unavoidably break them. Not only that, but many gems are hidden behind rocks, meaning you must break a lot of rocks in order to complete levels. This achievement is therefore virtually unmissable as you progress and beat the game.
Your first gem

20
Smash the first gem.
Refer to the "Gem Smasher master" achievement solution for more information.
Gem Smasher master

50
Smash 200 gems.
This is a cumulative total across all levels and is essentially unmissable because you will have to smash way more than 200 gems in order to complete all levels and beat the game. This achievement will actually unlock pretty early in your playthrough.
Color changer

50
Change color 200 times.
This is a cumulative achievement across all levels played. Color is changed by bumping into one of the different color changing blocks, which you'll be shown during the tutorial. You'll be required to change colors many times throughout the game in order to smash gems to complete levels, so this achievement is virtually unmissable and will unavoidably unlock as you progress.

Carrot King

50
Pickup 25 carrots found underneath breakable blocks.
Whenever you destroy a rock, there will either be a gem or a random item left behind. A carrot is one of the different types of items that can be found under rocks that you break. For this achievement, you need to collect a cumulative total of 25 carrots across your entire save file. You'll likely collect many without even noticing, but if you ever do see carrots on the field, make sure to grab them to work towards this achievement. I unlocked this well before finishing the story mode, and I only purposely grabbed maybe 5-8 carrots. So you can expect to inadvertently collect many of them, but you should still keep an eye out just to be safe, because if you don't collect 25 carrots by the time you finish the game, all you can really do is just replay areas and hope for carrots to drop to collect more.
Bonus Master

50
Collect 10 or more bonuses in a single level.
As the description says, you need to collect 10 or more bonuses in a single level (not an area). Bonuses are all of the drops from smashing gems and from breaking rocks. Every single rock you break and gem you smash results in a bonus being dropped, so this achievement will assuredly come naturally as you progress since bonuses are all over in most levels. Simply manouver around the level to collect all the bonuses you see and you should easily be able to get 10 in many different levels throughout the story.
Inverse champion

50
Destroy 5 gems with inverted controls.
The description is mostly self explanatory except for the fact that the 5 gems must be destroyed in a single instance of inverted controls. Inverted controls aren't something you change in the settings. As you progress through the story you'll be introduced to blocks that, when touched, invert your controls. This only really applies to reversing left and right on though, since those are your only controls. When you touch a block, you'll get inverted controls for around 6-8 seconds or so. During this time, you need to smash at least 5 gems. There are many levels with inversion blocks, you just need to purposely make sure you're the right color to smash 5 gems in a single instance of being inverted. You can touch the inversion block again to keep your inverted controls going, but once you go back to normal controls you'll have to start over. Once you manage 5 gems in a single instance of being inverted, this achievement will unlock. For reference, I unlocked this in the final level of the third area of Poseidonia.