How to play & controls Jewel Legend
Jewel Legend is a real-time duel on two 8×8 match-3 boards with six gem colours. In online matches both players start from the same seed, so the opening board is identical. Whatever you clear becomes damage at 0.3 per point: a plain three is 30 points, 9 damage off a 1,000 HP bar. Cascade steps score ×1.3, ×1.6 and so on up to ×4.0, but no swap deals more than 200, so a K.O. takes at least five moves.
The twist is mana. The bar holds 100, a swap costs 25 and it refills at 12 a second: four moves in a burst, then about one every two seconds. Swaps that make no match slide back for free, and well-built moves pay mana back, so building specials and chains keeps you moving while spamming threes runs you dry.
Your board fills the bottom of a portrait screen; your rival's plays live in a small window above. Matches last three minutes; without a K.O., remaining HP decides, and the last 30 seconds are Rush Time.
Goal
A real-time 1:1 match-3 duel: every gem you clear deals damage to your opponent. Bring their HP to 0 first, or have more HP when the 3 minutes run out, to win.
How it works
- In the lobby, press 'Practice vs AI' to start a round against the AI; the tutorial comes with it the first time. Press 'Find opponent' to play a person.
- Each move costs mana, which refills over time. Chains and special gems give some of it back.
- Match 4 or more to make a special gem (line gem, bomb, colour bomb, potion gem); swapping two specials makes a much bigger blast.
- Low on HP? Drink a potion from the slots below. No good moves? Shuffle the board. Each can be used once per match.
Modes
Practice vs AI
Three minutes against an AI that tunes itself so you win about 55% of matches; your first round adds a five-step tutorial and no clock. The rival's rank, Novice I to Legend III, is on its name tag.
Find opponent
Ranked 1v1 for signed-in GameNow accounts. Rating starts at 1,200 (Silver) and moves Elo-style from Bronze to Master; the search widens one tier every 6 seconds and offers AI practice at 15.
Create room / Enter code
Play a friend with a 4-character code valid for five minutes; it never uses 0, O, 1, I or L. Open to guests, not rated.
Players online
Tap the online count to challenge one of up to 10 listed players, even someone mid-practice. Challenges expire after 30 seconds and aren't rated.
Daily challenge
One board per day (Korean time) and three minutes against a fixed-strength AI with no potions. Your daily best stays on the device, and a share link sets it as a friend's target.
Special gem practice
Four set-ups (Line + line, Bomb + line, Colour bomb combo, Use a healing potion) in two layouts each, with a step-by-step replay at 1× or 0.5×. Opens from How to play or the results.
Controls
| Action | Mouse & keyboard | Touch | Gamepad |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swap two gems | Drag onto a neighbour, or click both | Swipe toward a neighbour, or tap both | Left stick cursor, A on each gem |
| Pick, then swap by direction | Arrows move the cursor, Space or Enter picks, an arrow swaps; Esc cancels | Tap a gem (white ring), then a neighbour | D-pad cursor, Y picks, D-pad swaps; B cancels |
| Drink a potion | 1 (large) or 2 (small) | Tap its slot at the bottom | Cursor on the slot, A |
| Shuffle | 4 | Tap the shuffle slot | Cursor on the slot, A |
| Send an emote | Q 😏, W 😭, E 😠, R 😔, or 💬 for all | Tap 💬 and pick one | Cursor on 💬, A |
| Leave | Shift+Esc (surrender if mid-match) | ☰ on the right edge → Exit game | — |
Tips
- Playing well beats playing fast: chains and special gems refund mana so you can keep moving.
- 'Daily challenge' is a 3-minute round against the AI on the same board for everyone, played for score.
- Special gems and combos are listed under 'How to play' in the lobby. During AI practice the round pauses while this window is open.
Strategy tips
Count mana, not moves
A plain three nets −25 mana. A new special refunds 20, each cascade step after the first 8, and a special-on-special or colour-bomb swap 25 more. In my engine runs, a colour bomb swapped with a plain gem refunded a median 61 mana, more than twice its cost.
Respect the 200 ceiling
Over 1,000 engine runs on random boards, line + bomb, bomb + bomb and a colour bomb with a line, bomb or colour bomb always hit the 200 cap, and colour bomb + plain gem did 94% of the time; only line + line usually fell short (median 145). Fire a colour bomb with an ordinary gem and save the other special for its own move.
Aim where specials appear
A special forms where the gem you pushed came to rest, or where it left if the match formed on the other side, skipping squares already holding a special. Park specials side by side: two specials swapped together fire with no match needed.
Potions: timing over size
The large potion restores 200, exactly one capped hit; the small one 100. Healing stops at full HP, so the large one pays in full only at 800 HP or lower, and drinking costs no mana. Potion gems from 2×2, 2×3 or 3×2 blocks add 20 HP each when they go off, not when they're made.
Play the clock
At 0:00 more HP wins; equal HP is a draw. In the last 30 seconds mana refills at 24 a second, about a move a second, and the AI plays twice as fast. A full bar can't refill, so don't enter the rush at 100. In practice and the daily challenge, a cascade still running at 0:00 counts.
Read the AI
The AI pays no mana; its pace is its budget, 5.6 seconds a move at the lowest skill, 2.1 at the highest, ±18%. It drinks at 30–45% HP and skips that turn. Novice rivals carry no potion, Trainee a small one, Adept and up both, so against Adept or higher a lead under 300 HP isn't safe.
The hint isn't the best move
After four idle seconds the board flashes the first legal move found from the top-left, not the strongest. On 400 fresh boards in my engine runs, the median legal move dealt 9 damage; the median best move, 63.
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