Gemstones

[Taika]

I ran through a dungeon with the first character the first time and got quite a few gemstones, which I used to get the temporary buffs n such from the gemstone chests - now that I've run it a few times and gone back in I'm finding that there are chests I cannot open because of a lack of gemstones, and they no longer seem to drop? Is this supposed to happen? Am I missing something or am I just unlucky?

[alpasy]

Gemstones are just random drops. Later you'll be able to upgrade Book of Rea which gives you +%% to gemstones drop, also one of the later game characters has passive ability which gives all Bergsons gemstones on dungeon start.

In the beginning of the game i'd say it's not very efficient to use gemstones on chests, it's better to stack them to buy divine items from trader before the boss. Although, if you feel powerful enough already, gemstone chests give you considerable amount of gold for upgrades. Also, non-used gemstones are wasted upon the end of the run, so you should use them one way or another before going for boss floor.