Talk:Obstacles/@comment-25437080-20140919011545/@comment-24555662-20141031124709

Note that the 51 obstacles that are present when you start the game do not follow the above pattern. They have their own pattern, and none of them will yield more than 3 gems. They yield a total of 50 or 51 gems (I'd have to go back and check) among themselves, and if you mix them in with spawned obstacles when clearing, the overall pattern will change.

Also, the pattern stated in the wiki for spawned obstacles does not begin until you reach a certain level, although I haven't been able to determine where the cutoff is and whether it is TH or experience level-specific. Prior to that cutoff, each spawned obstacle will also yield a maximum of 3 gems each, apparently to limit the number of gems players can acquire early on. I haven't observed what the exact pattern is prior to the cutoff, but the pattern stated on the wiki seems to kick in by TH5.

For these reasons, it's a good idea to focus on clearing the starting obstacles early (since you have to get rid of at least 12 of them before new obstacles start to spawn) and save the spawned obstacle until after the cutoff so that they will yield more gems.