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Gem Queens
The game originated from a king who once hired a quiet clerk to decide where each of his daughters should live. Not because he was cruel - because they couldn't stand each other, and the palace had run out of corridors long enough to keep them separated.
The clerk laid coloured districts across a map, one home apiece, and insisted no two crowns share a street, a lane, or even a garden fence. Rumour says he billed by the hour. He retired a rich man.
Place the gems. Keep the peace. Pretend it's architecture.
Controls
Computer
- Click a cell to place a gem
- Click the same cell again to remove it
Mobile
- Tap a cell to place a gem
- Tap the same cell again to remove it
Game overview
Gem Queens is a coloured-region logic puzzle with a short fuse. You're given a grid split into districts, and your job is to seat one gem in each colour so the whole board settles into a single clean arrangement.
You've got 60 seconds. Clear a board and you score for the finish, with leftover time sweetening the total before the next, larger puzzle rolls in. Keep solving until the clock runs out.
The loop is pure deduction. Each placement rules out more and more squares until the final placement is inevitable.
If you like puzzles that reward reading the map more than guessing, this should tickle your brain.
How to play
Each run of Gem Queens drops you onto a coloured grid with 60 seconds on the clock. Place one gem per region, keep rows and columns unique, and make sure no two gems touch - even on a corner.
- Tap to place a single gem in each coloured region.
- No two gems can share a row, column, or coloured region. Gems also cannot touch (be in any tile beside an existing gem).
- Every puzzle has one correct solution. Don't be afraid to tap a gem again to remove it.
- Pro tip: start with the smallest regions.
Why players like it
Gem Queens scratches that itch where it looks hard, but a single deductive leap is all that it takes to get you moving.
There's a lovely rhythm to it. Small regions fall first, skinny strips wipe out whole rows or columns for everything else, and suddenly the "hard" district in the corner has only one legal home left. That little jig when a map is completed is the good stuff.
Because each puzzle has a proper answer waiting, wrong gems don't feel like bad luck - it just feels like you haven't taken a piece of info into account.
And with only a minute on the clock, every clear matters. Trying to clear the final board while the clock runs down is where intuition takes over.
Tips and strategy
Good boards aren't filled left to right - they're squeezed from the awkward shapes inward.
- Start with the smallest regions. They're the most restricted in movement, so they're the easiest to place.
- Watch for regions that are only a single row or only a single column. Once that gem is down, that entire line is finished business for every other colour.
- When a colour still has a few candidate cells, ask which of those would break a row, column, or neighbour rule if filled. Eliminating bad squares is often faster than hunting the "right" one cold.
- If a placement is flagged as an error, take a beat to think if the other gem is the wrong one.
FAQ
How does placement work?
Tap or click an empty cell to seat a gem there. Every coloured region needs exactly one. No two gems may share a row, a column, or the same region. Tap the same cell again if you want that gem gone.
What counts as touching?
Gems can't sit on neighbouring tiles at all - not side by side, not above or below, and not on a diagonal corner. If two gems share any edge or corner of their cells, that pair is illegal even when their rows, columns, and regions look fine.
How does scoring work?
Clearing a board earns points for the solve. Whatever time you still have left adds a bonus on top, then a larger puzzle arrives. Faster clears leave more of the clock for the next board.
Is there always a solution?
Yes. Every board is built so a valid arrangement exists. If you're stuck, something on the grid is in the wrong seat - peel back the doubtful gems and work from the smallest regions again.
