With the arrival of Lord of Hatred, Diablo 4 Season 13 introduces a completely reworked gem system that changes how players build damage, resistances, and defensive layers. Gems are no longer minor additive stats, they now scale with the rest of your build through multiplicative damage bonuses on weapons, turning them into one of the biggest character power sources of the season. This guide walks you through everything you need to know about gem tiers, farming the new Royal and Grand gems, and crafting the new Horadric and Flawless Horadric gems.

Diablo 4 Season 13 Gem Guide - How To Get Royal, Grand & Horadric Gems in Lord of Hatred

In Season 13, gems come in multiple tiers: Crude, Chipped, Gem, Flawless, Royal, Grand, Horadric, and Flawless Horadric. The two new tiers: Horadric and Flawless Horadric, can only be obtained through the Horadric Cube by combining five gems of the previous tier. Gems drop from enemies, world content, and reward caches, but the higher tiers require dungeon farming and crafting. With gem stats now scaling up to a x32% damage multiplier on weapons, they have become one of the strongest upgrades in the expansion.

Before jumping into the farming methods and recipes, let's take a quick look at what gems are and why they matter so much this season.

How the Gems Work in Diablo 4 Season 13 & Lord of Hatred?

The biggest change in Lord of Hatred is that gems socketed into weapons now provide multiplicative damage bonuses instead of additive ones. This means weapon gems scale alongside the rest of your build, rather than acting as small flat stats.

Socket Rules by Slot

Gems can only be inserted into items with sockets. Some gear drops with sockets already; others can have them added at the Jeweler. Non-Ancestral items use Veiled Crystals and a matching legendary salvage material, while Ancestral items require a Scattered Prism.

Removing and Replacing Gems

Gems can be removed at the Jeweler, but direct replacement is usually enough when upgrading. Salvaging an item also returns socketed gems. If a gem is inserted into an item with a Rune or Runeword, the Runes are removed (and vice versa). On two-socket items, inserting a new gem into a filled item removes the bottom gem and places the new one on top.

Best Use in Lord of Hatred

Match your weapon gem to your main damage type:

• Shadow builds → Amethyst

• Poison builds → Emerald

• Fire / Holy builds → Ruby

• Cold builds → Sapphire

• Physical builds → Skull

• Lightning builds → Topaz

• Flexible / All Damage → Diamond

Armor gems are used for their attribute or defensive bonus, while jewelry gems are mostly used to cover resistance gaps.

With the mechanics covered, here's the full list of the top-tier gems you'll be chasing.

List of Royal, Grand, Horadric, and Flawless Horadic Gems

Grand Gems (Bonus)

Horadric & Flawless Horadric Gems

• Horadric Gems — crafted from 5 Grand Gems → boost weapon multiplier to x28%

• Flawless Horadric Gems — crafted from 5 Horadric Gems (25 Grand Gems total) → boost weapon multiplier to x32%

So how do you get those Royal and Grand gems in the first place? There's one farm in particular that everyone is running right now.

Where & How To Farm Royal/Grand Gems in Diablo 4 Season 13 & Lord of Hatred?

Royal and Grand gems are the building blocks for the new Horadric-tier gems added in the Lord of Hatred expansion. There are several ways to get them, but one method is far faster and more reliable than the rest. This guide covers every known farming method, starting with the best one.

Before You Start: What You Need To Know

Gem Fragment Values

Each gem tier has a specific fragment cost. A Royal gem is worth 100,000 gem fragments. A Grand gem costs 1 million gem fragments to craft. That means you need 10 Royal gems of the same type to produce one Grand gem through crafting.

The Upgrade Ratio Is 5 to 1

Unlike older Diablo games where the ratio was 3 to 1, Diablo 4 uses a 5-to-1 ratio at the Horadric Cube. Five Grand gems become one Horadric gem. Five Horadric gems become one Flawless Horadric gem. That means a single Flawless Horadric gem requires 250 Royal gems in total.

You Need the Expansion

The best farming dungeon is located in the new Sco zone, which requires the Lord of Hatred expansion to access.

Method 1: Seer's Reach Dungeon Farm (Best Method)

This is by far the fastest and most reliable way to farm Royal gems. The dungeon is called Seer's Reach, and it is located just north of the city of Temenos in the Sco zone. Multiple content creators and players have confirmed this method works consistently.

Why This Dungeon?

Seer's Reach has no side objectives. There are no levers to pull, no prisoners to free, and no enemy waves to clear. The only thing you need to do is reach the scorpion boss at the end and kill it. The boss drops Royal gems every single time — this is a guaranteed reward, not a random chance.

On Torment 10 and above, the boss drops three Royal gems per kill. On Torment 1, it drops at least one. There is also roughly a 1-in-20 chance of the boss dropping a Grand gem directly, which saves a huge amount of farming time.

On top of the gems, the boss also drops Neath Iron, Cube Muds, Tuning Prisms, Forgotten Souls, gold, and occasionally other gear. Each Royal gem is also worth about 30 Forgotten Souls when salvaged, so this farm feeds multiple resource needs at once.

Step-by-Step: How To Run the Farm

• Step 1 — Set your difficulty. This farm works on any Torment level. If you want maximum gems per run, play on T10 or higher for three guaranteed Royals. If you want the fastest possible clear speed, Torment 1 still gives at least one Royal per kill. Pick whatever you can clear comfortably in under a minute.

• Step 2 — Travel to Seer's Reach. Open your map, locate Temenos in the Sco zone, and head slightly north. The dungeon entrance is a short distance from town.

• Step 3 — Enter the dungeon and rush to the boss. Ignore every enemy along the way. Run straight through the dungeon toward its furthest point. The scorpion boss waits at the end. With a speed-focused build, you should reach it in 30 to 60 seconds.

• Step 4 — Kill the boss. Burn it down as quickly as you can. The boss sometimes walks away briefly during the fight, but it dies fast to any decent endgame build. Hardcore players, be careful — the scorpion can deal serious damage.

• Step 5 — Pick up your loot. Grab the Royal gems and any Grand gems that may have dropped. You will also see crafting materials, gold, and possibly gear on the ground.

• Step 6 — Leave the dungeon using a hotkey. Press your Leave Dungeon hotkey to exit instantly. Do not teleport back to town — that adds unnecessary time to each run. Many players bind this to the H key for convenience.

• Step 7 — Reset the dungeon. Once outside, open your map and select the reset option for the dungeon.

• Step 8 — Repeat. Walk back in and do it all over again. Each full cycle takes roughly one minute.

Expected Farming Rates

At three Royals per run and one minute per cycle, you can farm approximately 160 Royal gems per hour. That puts you at roughly 1.5 to 2 hours to collect the 250 Royals needed for a single Flawless Horadric gem. In about 20 to 30 minutes, you can gather enough Royals to craft one Grand gem of each type.

Recommended Builds for Speed

Since you are skipping all enemies and only fighting the boss, raw movement speed matters most. Sorcerers with teleport-heavy builds can complete runs in about 30 seconds. Barbarians using the Buck Jar combination also clear the dungeon very quickly. Multiple players recommend Buck Jar specifically because it lets you skip past enemies smoothly. Whatever class you play, prioritize movement abilities and burst damage for the boss.

Method 2: Refuge of the Lost (Alternative Dungeon)

Refuge of the Lost is another dungeon in the Sco region that drops Royal gems from its boss. Some players actually prefer it over Seer's Reach.

Why Some Players Prefer It

The layout of Refuge of the Lost is more predictable and consistent. One content creator specifically mentioned choosing it because he tends to get lost in other dungeons. If you find yourself struggling with Seer's Reach navigation, this is a solid alternative.

The Trade-Off

This dungeon has extra steps before you can reach the boss. You need to slay all enemies in certain rooms and then free five prisoners. This adds time to every run compared to the pure boss-rush format of Seer's Reach.

What the Boss Drops

The boss still drops Royal gems, players have reported seeing Royal emeralds, amethysts, topazes, and other types. The gem rewards appear to work the same way across different Sco dungeons, and the dungeon can be accessed on any Torment level with the same gem rewards.

Method 3: Nightmare Dungeon Gem Reserves

Some Nightmare Dungeons contain special chests called gem reserves. These are labeled by type — Ruby Reserve, Diamond Reserve, and so on. Each chest directly awards gem fragments when opened.

How It Works

On T12, each gem reserve chest gives roughly 30,000 fragments. A single Nightmare Dungeon may contain around five chests, giving you about 150,000 fragments per run. That is roughly 1.5 Royal gems worth of fragments.

When To Use This Method

This method is not as fast or repeatable as the Seer's Reach farm. Nightmare Dungeon keys are a limited resource, so you cannot run them infinitely. However, if you are already running Nightmare Dungeons for other rewards like gear and experience, grabbing gem reserve chests along the way is a nice bonus.

Method 4: Random Mob Drops in the Open World

Royal gems can also drop from regular enemies throughout the game world. Vladimir specifically tested multiple dungeons and confirmed that Royals do appear as mob drops outside of Seer's Reach.

Why This Is Not a Primary Method

These drops are rare and not guaranteed. Unlike the Seer's Reach boss, which hands you Royals every single kill, open-world mob drops are completely random. You might get one after clearing a large group of enemies, or you might go a long stretch without seeing any.

This is not something you would actively farm for. Instead, treat any Royal gems you pick up from regular gameplay as a welcome bonus on top of your dedicated farming runs.

How To Convert Royal Gems Into Grand Gems

Once you have stacked up enough Royal gems from the methods above, turning them into Grand gems is straightforward.

Step 1 - Salvage Your Royals

Go to the Blacksmith and salvage your Royal gems. Each one converts into 100,000 gem fragments. Make sure you are salvaging gems of the type you actually want to upgrade — fragments are type-specific.

Step 2 - Craft Grand Gems at the Jeweler

Open the crafting menu and use your fragments to create Grand gems. Each Grand gem costs 1 million fragments, so you need 10 Royals of the same type per Grand gem.

Step 3 (Optional) - Upgrade Grand Gems at the Horadric Cube

If you want to go further, take your Grand gems to the Horadric Cube and select the Amalgamation recipe. Place five Grand gems of the same type into the recipe and transmute them. This produces one Horadric gem. Five Horadric gems can then be combined into one Flawless Horadric gem using the same recipe.

How To Get the Gem Types You Actually Need

Not every class needs the same gems. A lightning Sorcerer wants Topazes, while a Barbarian might need Rubies or Skulls. The Seer's Reach boss drops random gem types each run, so you will inevitably end up with extras you do not need.

Exchange at the Jeweler

You can swap gem types at the Jeweler. If you are sitting on a pile of Sapphires but need Rubies, the Jeweler lets you convert them.

Trade With Other Players

You can also trade gems directly with other players. For example, if you have 40 Topazes you do not need, you could swap them with another player for 40 Rubies. This is especially useful if you have friends or clanmates playing different classes.

Sell Extras for Gold

Surplus gems sell for enormous amounts of gold. A single Grand gem goes for roughly 650 million gold. In about 20 to 30 minutes of Seer's Reach farming, you can accumulate enough gems to sell for several billion gold, which makes this one of the fastest gold-farming methods available right now.

Extra Tips Worth Knowing

Bind Leave Dungeon to a Hotkey

You will be exiting the dungeon dozens or hundreds of times. Having Leave Dungeon bound to a single key press saves noticeable time over the course of a long farming session.

Do Not Forget Forgotten Souls

Crafting higher-tier gems requires Forgotten Souls in addition to fragments. The Seer's Reach farm provides some of these naturally, but make sure you have a healthy stockpile before you start a big crafting session.

Completing a Season Journey Step

Crafting one of the new Horadric-tier gems counts toward a Season Journey objective. Since you are already farming the materials, this is an easy step to check off along the way.

The Butcher Can Spawn Inside

The Butcher has a chance of appearing inside Seer's Reach during your runs. If he shows up, he can drop additional loot including rare charms. A nice surprise during an otherwise routine grind.

This Farm Does Not Progress the World Tree

One creator noted that running Seer's Reach repeatedly does not count toward World Tree progression. If you need World Tree progress, you will have to do that through other content.

This May Get Patched - Farm While You Can

Multiple players and content creators have flagged the Seer's Reach gem drops as potentially unintended, especially since they work at every Torment level including T1. One player directly called it a bug. There is a real chance this gets hotfixed in an upcoming patch. If you want to build up a large reserve of Royal and Grand gems, running this farm sooner rather than later is a smart move.

Royal/Grand Gems Drop Rate

• Royal Gems: 3 guaranteed per boss kill across all Torment levels.

• Grand Gems: roughly 1 in 17–20 boss kills (approximately 4 Grand Gems per hour of dedicated farming).

• Hourly rate: about 160 Royal Gems per hour assuming ~1-minute runs.

How To Craft the Horadric Gems & Flawless Horadric Gems in Diablo 4 Season 13 & Lord of Hatred?

The Horadric and Flawless Horadric tiers can only be produced at the Horadric Cube using the Amalgamation recipe, not at the Jeweler.

Crafting Costs Reference

Horadric Gem Recipe (5 Grand → 1 Horadric)

1. Open your Horadric Cube.

2. Select the Amalgamation recipe.

3. Place 5 Grand Gems of the same type (e.g., 5 Grand Sapphires).

4. Click Transmute.

5. Receive one Horadric Gem (x28% weapon multiplier, or +120 to the matching attribute on armor, or +3,500 resistance on jewelry).

Flawless Horadric Recipe (5 Horadric → 1 Flawless Horadric)

1. Go back to the Horadric Cube.

2. Use the Amalgamation recipe again.

3. Place 5 Horadric Gems of the same type.

4. Click Transmute.

5. Receive a Flawless Horadric Gem, the highest tier in the game, delivering a x32% damage multiplier on your weapon.

Crafting Tips

• Salvage unwanted Royal gems at the Blacksmith or Jeweler to get 100,000 fragments each, then craft the correct color at the Jeweler.

• Trade Royals with other players - sword users often need Rubies, while sorcerers want Topaz, and so on. Trading 40-for-40 saves huge amounts of time.

• Stockpile Forgotten Souls - each Grand Gem craft costs 300, so a full set of Flawless Horadric Gems for a Barbarian (with six weapon hands) could consume over 50,000 Souls if you rely purely on crafting.

• For All-Stat flexibility on builds lacking specific paragon thresholds (such as Immortal Barb without Grandfather), use a Diamond in one slot to cover missing Dex, Willpower, or Intelligence.

How Long To Craft One Flawless Horadric Gem

Because 1 Horadric Gem = 5 Grand Gems, and 1 Flawless Horadric = 25 Grand Gems, the math plays out like this:

• 1 Grand Gem requires 10 Royal Gems worth of fragments (via salvage and crafting).

• 1 Flawless Horadric needs 250 Royal Gems of the correct color.

• At 160 Royals/hour (mixed colors), expect roughly 1.5 to 2 hours per Flawless Horadric Gem, assuming you trade or exchange unwanted colors at the Jeweler.

With a steady supply of Royal and Grand Gems in your stash, the next step is turning them into Horadric and Flawless Horadric Gems.