Gems - 2 Rules: Save, and Spend Wisely!

     Gems are the premium currency in Clash of Clans, they can be used to buy resources, speed up building times, boost resource collection and troop/spell creation times, and buy up to 4 extra builders so that you can build a total of up to 5 things at once. When you begin the tutorial at the start of the game, you will be given a substantial number of gems (500).  While going through the tutorial, the game will suggest you use gems to speed things up multiple times, don't use them! One time you will have to use your gems is when the game asks you to buy a second builder, but this is something you will want to do eventually anyway so go ahead and do it (it won't let you proceed until you do anyway).  This should be the only time it actually forces you to use your gems, so any other time you can just wait for the building to finish and the suggestion will go away.
     Gems are very valuable and difficult to get, so you definitely want to save them while you can. Besides the gems you are given upon starting the game, the only other ways to get them are from removing obstructions (the rocks and trees that are scattered around your village, which can only yield a maximum of 6 gems per obstruction), or being lucky enough to find a gem box (which appear as a box of gems somewhere around the edges of your village and net you 25 gems each), or simply by purchasing them with real money. The best thing you can use gems for is to purchase additional builders. I suggest having 3-4 total builders, and there is nothing wrong with having 5 if you can afford it. The price increases by a large amount each time you purchase a new builder, so it will take quite a while to save up enough gems to purchase all 5. The sooner you can get 3-4 builders, the better, because it will allow you to work on multiple upgrades at the same time which will allow your village to grow at a much faster pace.


Purchasing Gems

If you have some spare cash and want to buy some gems, here is the breakdown of how they charge for the various deals and packages:

500 gems       = $4.99
1,200 gems    = $9.99
2,500 gems    = $19.99
6,500 gems    = $49.99
14,000 gems  = $99.99


Gem Package Deals and Savings

As you can see, the deals get better the more money you are willing to spend.  I have also calculated your savings for buying at these different levels based on the amount of gems you get for the $4.99 package:

$9.99 package saves you   ~ $2.00 and you get 200 extra gems
$19.99 package saves you ~ $5.00 and you get 500 extra gems
$49.99 package saves you ~ $15.00 and you get 1,500 extra gems
$99.99 package saves you ~ $40.00 and you get 4,000 extra gems

* These savings are based on comparison to the price and number of gems you would get if you only bought the $4.99 package enough times to add up to the amount of the other packages.


Purchasing Extra Builders

Here is the cost of each builder:

1st builder    - FREE
2nd builder   - 250 gems
3rd builder    - 500 gems
4th builder    - 1,000 gems
5th builder    - 2,000 gems

One last quick tip:  always be on the look-out for special events on boosts.  They regularly have events where they make boosting either resource collectors, spells, or troops cost only 1 gem.  Normally, these boosts would cost several gems or more each, so this is a great opportunity to use a few gems and get the benefit of added resources or faster troop and spell training to allow you to attack multiple times in a very short period.  This is a great way to build up a ton of resources and trophies in no time.