The short version
All {count} gemstones at a glance
There are 19 gemstones, and the sale price is fixed by rarity: Commons go for $50, Uncommons for $100 and Rares for $400 — except the Meteor, which sells for $3,000 and is the most valuable collectible in the game. Every gemstone except the Meteor can be donated to the museum.
Prices
Rarity is the price tag
Rarity here is not a spawn-rate hint you can act on — it is the price band. Every gem sharing a tier sells for the same amount.
- Common
$50
8 entries
- Uncommon
$100
5 entries
- Rare
$400 / $3,000
6 entries
All 19 gems, most valuable first
Sorted by sale price. Everything here can be donated to the museum apart from the one entry flagged in the notes column.
| Name | Rarity | Sells for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meteor | Rare | $3,000 | The museum will not take it |
| Diamond | Rare | $400 | |
| Emerald | Rare | $400 | |
| Gold | Rare | $400 | |
| Ruby | Rare | $400 | |
| Sapphire | Rare | $400 | |
| Amethyst | Uncommon | $100 | |
| Aquamarine | Uncommon | $100 | |
| Garnet | Uncommon | $100 | |
| Peridot | Uncommon | $100 | |
| Silver | Uncommon | $100 | |
| Amber | Common | $50 | |
| Bronze | Common | $50 | |
| Citrine | Common | $50 | |
| Iron | Common | $50 | |
| Jade | Common | $50 | |
| Malachite | Common | $50 | |
| Quartz | Common | $50 | |
| Tourmaline | Common | $50 |
The Meteor is not like the others
At $3,000 the Meteor is worth more than seven Diamonds, but the museum will not accept it. It also does not sit waiting to be found: it falls somewhere in town at random, the screen shakes for about a second, and a notification reads “Something happened in town…”. Go and look when you see that message, then sell what you find, because donating is not an option.
Strategy
Sell or donate?
The museum reward track counts how many pieces you have donated and ignores what they were worth. That one rule settles the whole question: a $50 Quartz advances the track exactly as far as a $3,000 Meteor would if the museum took it. Donate your commons, sell your rares, and you clear all 90 donations while keeping the money.
Donate these
18 of the 19 gems are donatable. Start with the $50 commons — Amber, Bronze, Citrine, Iron, Jade, Malachite, Quartz and Tourmaline — since each is worth one step of the reward track and very little in cash.
Sell these
Diamond, Emerald, Gold, Ruby and Sapphire all fetch $400, and the Meteor $3,000. Keep one of each for the museum if you want the exhibition filled out, then sell every duplicate.
Finding gemstones
Gemstones are one of the two sets that sit in plain sight, so no digging is involved.
- Gemstones appear on the ground around Melino rather than inside buried trunks, so a Para can pick one up as soon as they walk past it.
- They share this behaviour with mushrooms, which means a single walking route through town tends to turn up both sets at once.
- Headlines in The New Paper occasionally set a Life Goal that involves finding or donating a specific collectible, and townies can request one directly.
- The Meteor is the exception: it arrives by falling into the town at random rather than spawning on the ground.
We have not been able to verify a spawn schedule, a respawn timer or district-specific spawn tables for gemstones, so this page does not claim any. Several other guides state a daily refresh at midnight; we could not confirm that against an official source or the wiki.
Gems FAQ
- How many gems are in Paralives?
- Nineteen, and the list has been stable through the current Early Access build. They range from $50 commons up to the $3,000 Meteor.
- What is the most expensive gem in Paralives?
- The Meteor at $3,000. Behind it, five gems tie at $400: Diamond, Emerald, Gold, Ruby and Sapphire.
- Can you donate gems to the museum?
- Eighteen of the nineteen, yes. The Meteor is the only gemstone the museum refuses.
- Where do you find quartz in Paralives?
- Quartz is an ordinary Common worth $50 and appears in the open around Melino like the rest of the set. There is no special location or unlock for it.
- Do rare gems count for more at the museum?
- No. The reward track counts pieces donated, not their value, so a $50 Quartz and a $400 Diamond each move it by exactly one step.
Keep going
Related guides
All collectibles
The hub: how donating works and where the other four sets come from.
All 20 mushrooms
The other set you pick up in the open — and the four that are unsafe to eat.
All 31 artefacts
The buried-trunk set, and the cheapest donations in the game.
Money cheats
If selling duplicates is not moving the needle fast enough.
Melino town guide
The districts you will be walking while you look.
Prices verified against the current Early Access build.