I didn't realize so many level four armor upgrades required so many gems and I'm kind of mad.
This is one of those situations where I wish people had been more direct with me. After weeks of cryptic comments and vague suggestions that "you'll need them later," I reached a point where I thought I understood what they were for and didn't keep many dozens of gems I had accumulated.
I thought they were only for Gerudo jewelry. For many days I have been advocating selling gems because the Gerudo jewelry isn't really worth upgrading. People would agree with me. Sell your gems, they'd say. The jewelry isn't worth it, they'd agree. Conversations about what to do with gems have revolved around the crafting of Gerudo jewelry. In all these conversations, there were always a few people who would say something like "you'll need them later" or "you'll regret selling those." But they never elaborated. They never explained what they were getting at. I've been in this OT since launch day and have seen the question come up over and over and over and I've never seen somebody who
knew be upfront about why gems were worth keeping.
So I finally just looked up what it was for and I'm feeling pretty burned. It takes 45 opal to fully upgrade the
. 30 topaz for the
. 15 rubies for the
I understand being cautious of spoilers in an OT, but OTs exist to improve our collective experience. Maybe lots of people here were like me and didn't realize gems had such an important function. Maybe lots of people here were like me and thought their use ended at jewelry. But for all the times it has come up and people have asked, I've never seen anybody make a clear point that you DO, definitively, want to keep a number of your gems. Not just for optional cosmetics, but for things you might use every single day.
I would advise, moving forward, to be more specific when people ask what gems are for and whether they should hold onto them. It won't take me that long to reaccumulate everything I sold, but I know I'm going to unlock the fourth upgrade option soon as I could have upgraded everything as soon as I found it. Instead, I sold everything as soon as I got to Gerudo.