Dark Gems



The Dark Gems are evil jewels radiating with dark magical energy and they play a major plot element in Spyro: A Hero's Tail. These dangerous minerals represent part of the dark side by negatively affecting the game. Potent little orbs of condensed malice, the Dark Gems are capable of sucking out all of the light and goodness of the world, contorting the Dragon Realms into a putrid, scary den just fit for the future reign of the former Dragon Elder known as Red, who also placed such evil gemstones on top of his Sceptre to harness his powers.

Once planted, the Dark Gems drain the life of the surrounding area, simply removing some environmental hazards or blockages caused by the life-draining power of the gems, and help you move on to previously unreachable areas.

The only way that the Dark Gems can be destroyed is by doing a Horn Dive, which you learn by talking to the first Dragon Elder, Tomas, in the Dragon Village. The Dark Gems are very important to the game, since it is necessary to destroy all 10 dark gems in each world to fight the boss for that world and advance to the next one. In this process, you can destroy a total of 40 Dark Gems in the game.

Appearance
The Dark Gems resemble purple gems that sprout from the ground, with small bolts of electricity spurting from them. They are always surrounded by a dark patch of ground with some Dark Vines coming out of it, purple goo substance, and a sinister atmosphere around it. These features are also the result of the environment's life being sucked out by the Dark Gems. They are larger versions of Dark Shards, but unlike Dark Shards, Dark Gems don't give any collectable gems (which are used to buy items at Moneybags' store) when they are destroyed.