# \[Not a bug\] Deathmark gems not selectable by row/column targetting skills
**URL:** https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/not-a-bug-deathmark-gems-not-selectable-by-row-column-targetting-skills/79832
**Category:** Bug Reports
**Created:** [May 5, 2023, 8:30pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/not-a-bug-deathmark-gems-not-selectable-by-row-column-targetting-skills/79832 "2023-05-05T20:30:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@redmist](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/redmist)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2023, 8:30pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/not-a-bug-deathmark-gems-not-selectable-by-row-column-targetting-skills/79832/1 "2023-05-05T20:30:40Z")
**Platform, device version and operating system:**
Steam/Windows 11
**Screenshot or image:**
Imagine any board with 1 or more Deathmark Gems.
**What you were expecting to happen, and what actually happened:**
I expected to be able to select the grid space containing the Deathmark Heroic gem when choosing which row to ‘explode’ with the Eye of Arges skill.
Further testing with other troops that ‘destroy’ a row or column had identical behaviour.
In each case, the Deathmark gem is ‘greyed out’ and may not be selected.
As Deathmark gems do not ‘match’ with eachother, it could be that the entire row/column is composed only of Deathmark gems and in which case could not be targetted at all.
**How often does this happen? When did it begin happening?**
Consistently under the conditions described.
**Steps to make it happen again**
Charge up a skill that targets a row/column and attempt to choose the cell containing a Deathmark gem.
---
### Author:  [@Stratelier](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Stratelier)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2023, 10:40pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/not-a-bug-deathmark-gems-not-selectable-by-row-column-targetting-skills/79832/2 "2023-05-05T22:40:13Z")
This is deliberate – non-matching gem types (Stone Blocks, Wish, Bomb, Gargoyle, and Death Mark Gems) can _only_ be selected by spells that explicitly select for them. When casting a spell that targets a row or column, you must select a “matchable” gem first, but after that any non-matching gems will be included in that row/column all the same.
However, this does create weird edge cases where if a row/column consists ENTIRELY of non-matching Gems, you cannot select that row or column at all (easiest example - Duergaroth’s starting board has the bottom row completely full of Stone Blocks, making it impossible to select the bottom row with spells). I have mixed feeling whether this “should” be the case or not, but currently it is.
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### Author:  [@redmist](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/redmist)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2023, 10:48pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/not-a-bug-deathmark-gems-not-selectable-by-row-column-targetting-skills/79832/3 "2023-05-05T22:48:36Z")
That all makes sense, thanks.
Given that Thrall/Marilith/etc can destroy them (i.e. it’s not that they _must_ be exploded from an adjacent space) it does not seem logical to prevent explicit targetting, particularly _because_ of such edge cases.
‘They’ must have their reasons 🤷 .
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### Author:  [@Stratelier](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Stratelier)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2023, 10:36pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/not-a-bug-deathmark-gems-not-selectable-by-row-column-targetting-skills/79832/4 "2023-05-06T22:36:13Z")
Probably because those spells affect gems _at random_. (Like how Stealthy only blocks manual-target spells, random-target spells can still hit the troop).
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### Author:  [@Bramble](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Bramble)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2023, 3:09am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/not-a-bug-deathmark-gems-not-selectable-by-row-column-targetting-skills/79832/5 "2023-05-08T03:09:51Z")
Hello 🙂
Just wanted to confirm that this is not a bug.
If it’s a select a gem spell the Deathmark gem shouldn’t be able to be targeted. And if it’s a select a row or column then it can as the spell is then targeting the board instead, and not a specific gem.
I hope this clarifies things!
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### Author:  [@redmist](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/redmist)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2023, 3:51am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/not-a-bug-deathmark-gems-not-selectable-by-row-column-targetting-skills/79832/6 "2023-05-08T03:51:42Z")
> [@Bramble](#):
>
> And if it’s a select a row or column then it can as the spell is then targeting the board instead, and not a specific gem
Hi @Bramble.
Thanks for contributing to this but your answer is not worded accurately, in my humble opinion.
To select a row or column when using a skill that targets either a row or a column, the player must select a gem on the board, not the board position itself. Gems such as Blocks and Deathmark prevent this from happening thus, when a row or column is completely populated with untargettable gems, the ability to target that row/column is removed entirely but I think you are suggesting that the row or column may be targetted nonetheless.
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### Author:  [@Fourdottwoone](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Fourdottwoone)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2023, 7:07am UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/not-a-bug-deathmark-gems-not-selectable-by-row-column-targetting-skills/79832/7 "2023-05-08T07:07:30Z")
This is the reported issue:
> [@redmist](#):
>
> I expected to be able to select the grid space containing the Deathmark Heroic gem when choosing which row to ‘explode’ with the Eye of Arges skill.
This is how the game is supposed to work:
> [@Bramble](#):
>
> If it’s a select a gem spell the Deathmark gem shouldn’t be able to be targeted. And if it’s a select a row or column then it can as the spell is then targeting the board instead, and not a specific gem.
Which makes this statement highly confusing:
> [@Bramble](#):
>
> Just wanted to confirm that this is not a bug.
The player is trying to select a row, by clicking on a tile in the row that contains a Deathmark gem. So this should actually be targetable, right?
---
### Author:  [@Stratelier](https://community.gemsofwar.com/u/Stratelier)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://community.gemsofwar.com/t/not-a-bug-deathmark-gems-not-selectable-by-row-column-targetting-skills/79832/8 "2023-05-08T17:24:49Z")
> [@Bramble](#):
>
> If it’s a select a gem spell the Deathmark gem shouldn’t be able to be targeted. And if it’s a select a row or column then it can as the spell is then targeting the board instead, and not a specific gem.
That is the correct answer … to the _wrong question._
This is what you are saying:
- Spells like “Explode a Gem” can only select “matchable” Gem types
- Spells that select a “row” or “column” SHOULD be exempt from whether any specific Gem is matchable
But to the game’s UI, “they’re the same picture”.
Spells that affect “the board itself” (e.g. select a row/column) are currently incapable of selecting rows/columns that contain exclusively non-matching Gem types, because the UI highlights _only_ normal/matching Gem types for you to tap/select (which the game uses to identify the desired row and/or column).
Let me break it down into these three cases:
A - Select a Row/Column at random
- Video example: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQOmINNntM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQOmINNntM)
- Expected result: A non-matching row/column can be randomly selected
- Actual result: _works as expected!_
(It was quite lucky for this to occur on my first cast, I was expecting to take much longer getting the desired result)
That’s our “control” case. Next up is…
B - Select a Row/Column manually
- Video example: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrfaWAbM1Lc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrfaWAbM1Lc)
- Expected result: Able to select literally any row on the board
- Actual result: _Prohibited from selecting a row with no matchable Gem types_
C - Select a Row And Column
- Video example: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVNofIULUM0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVNofIULUM0)
- Expected result: Able to select literally any tile on the board to identify the desired row/column
- Actual result: _Prohibited from selecting a non-matching Gem type_
That last example is probably the most relevant (as there is simply no “workaround”, unlike when affecting only a row _or_ column), but _all_ examples apply regardless of whether the effect is Remove, Destroy, or Explode Gems.
> [@Fourdottwoone](#):
>
> The player is trying to select a row, by clicking on a tile in the row that contains a Deathmark gem. So this should actually be targetable, right?
If the row or column contains at least one matchable gem you can still select the same row or column as a whole – BUT “row and column” spells are something else entirely. Maybe I have a spell that boosts by Green Gems and the optimal tile is currently a Wish Gem, the game prohibits me from selecting it even though that is the ROW AND COLUMN I want the spell to affect.