An introduction to gem collecting in CK

Now that the Trait Codex has come to the end of the clock, we can finally take a look at the full gem codex and where a gem collector in CK may want to focus their interests, different strategies for collecting etc.

This article aims to covers all aspects of gem collecting in Cryptokitties:

• How many gems? How to find them? What to look for?
• Which gems are likely to be more valuable?
• Different collecting strategies

Okay, let’s get started….

The basic trait codex in CK has 278 expressed traits, of which 245 have mewtation jewels. The earliest 31 base traits like jaguar, chestnut and orangesoda does not have jewels. The 2 Totes traits, although expressed, also don’t have gems — leaving us with 245. Base genes in the wild, environment or secret trait categories are not expressed and don’t have gems either.

Each trait has 1 diamond, 9 gilded, 90 Ame’s and 400 Lapis. In total:

• 245 Diamonds
• 2232 Gilded’s
• 22320 Amethysts
• 99200 Lapis

Now, that is a lot of jewels, sure. But some are not as straight forward to obtain as others — and collecting all of them is certainly not an easy task. Only one player have done that so far (although a few others are close).

At the time of writing the floor market price for a full trait set of lapis gems are 23 ETH, and a full amethyst set is currently priced at 127 ETH on floor.

You can search for gems on the main CK site by using the search;

• mewtation:diamond, gilded, amethyst or lapis (respectively)
• You may also need to search for trait and add filters like id: or sort by oldest to find the right gems.

Also, do not confuse mewtation jewels with family jewels!

Okay, so now we know how many gems there are and how to find them. In the next section we discuss what you might want to look out for.

Why are the price of all jewels not the same?

While the floor for an amethyst at the moment of writing is around 0.07 ETH and a random lapis can be acquired for 0.015, some gems and gemmed cats have much higher floors and values. Diamond cats have sold for +10ETH already, so gem collecting can get very high-end too.

Here’s some things that makes a gemmed cat more valuable:

• Gem Type. Diamonds are naturally worth more than Gilded, Ame’s etc. There is only diamond in each trait. Just one, not two or three. ONE..!
• Gen0. Some traits have +80% of their gems in gen:0s, with only 20–30 gems that are not. That usually means a very high floor for that trait.
• Trait scarcity. Some are also more expensive due to their scarcity in game. Googly/Cymric gen:0 has a floor of 2–3 ETH due to their favoured position as breeder cats. That makes the gems from those cats very scarce due to a lack of natural supply. Around Id:400–600k the gen0 cats also had many new traits, so many of these cats have multiple gems, leading to less overall gemmed cats for those traits and more expensive multi-gem cats. Gems like Chronic, Bananacream, Azaleablush and others from that period are very hard to come by. Get them when/while you can!
• Multi gems. The more gems a single cat has, the higher its value will be. The highest number of different gems in a single cat is 6. Most of these cats are minted in the period discussed above.

• The # matters. The #12 amethyst is clearly not the same as #94. Like Fancies the # matters. This can easily be seen for all cats if you use CKbox.
• Age. Cats where much more expensive in the early days. The gems are too!
• Desirability. Some traits are more desirable than others (Wyrm vs Lilac)
• Generation. Lower gen is considered finer, as it was harder to breed it.
• Virginity. Virgins are rated higher than non-virgin’s when it comes to gems, just like any other collectible cats in the game.
• OGs. Some traits where changed just after release and can be considered “mis-prints”. That makes the early gems much more expensive due to overall scarcity. This includes Onyx, Henna, Ganado and Prism.
• Monopoly. In some traits a few players also hold a larger % of the total gems for this trait. We’ve seen with fancies that this leads to higher prices. More than 75% of all diamonds and 65% of all gilded gems are already held by just 25 accounts. And some might have been lost forever.

Gem collecting strategies:

The natural aim for most gem collectors is to one day gather a full set and then try to achieve the lowest avg. # score, while ticking as many of the other aspects above as possible — and without burning all the budget. A few multigems can quickly cost many ETH and may stop you from being able to afford a full collection. However, gem collecting can be enjoyable and profitable from other perspectives too.

Many players want to own a gem from their favourite trait, knowing they are limited to a certain number. Others want a certain series like eye shapes or environments. Trading gems with other players is one of the most enjoyable parts of the game for me personally.

Many more consider these gemmed cats a part of the rewards for the wild ride that was the first year of CK, and as the game continues to consolidate and expand from now on, gemmed cats will only ever become rarer for every breed. At the moment about 10% of cats have a gem, 0.02% has a diamond. But what about when we have 10m cats, 50m or 1bn — not 1.2m? In the last few months we have already seen the floors of gems go up 3x-4x and with finite supply gems are rightly considered a safe bet for the long term if CK does well.

Gems do not currently have a practical value in the game, but CK has announced badges, which presumably will include gems at some stage.

Other types of in-game functionality could also in the future be accessed via gemmed cats (certain breeding opportunities, special exclusive cats etc.). Only the future will tell, also what 3rd party app developers might do with gemmed cats. My personal favourite is that gemmed cats one day might be essential support characters in a cat multiplayer where fancies are the heroes!

Last but not least — gems might be a profitable investment category if you spot the right deals or buy in early. Collectors in the future are likely to pay a premium for a cat they are missing or really want. Patience might be needed though, as gems are a slower and more elaborate collecting process than fancies and it is still very early days with only a few tools developed for this community. However, they are finite — compared to the fancy, exclusive or purrstige categories that are ongoing categories.

Finally. Remember that e.g max. 90 amethyst sets or 256 lapis sets (Rorschach as the only trait has less gems due to a bug) can ever be completed. Much much fewer ever will as many gems are already sitting in strong hands unwilling to sell cheap. Will you one day own one of these and complete the sparkliest bling achievement in CK?

And… will someone ever gather all the diamonds in one account?

Happy gem hunting, everyone!

*PS: of course the gene 31 can still come in, but for the purpose of this article we consider the basic trait codex finalized.