Dark Gems

From Spyropedia

Dark Gems are Dark purple stones of Red's evil power. Dark Gems were scattered across the Dragon Realms by the help of Gnasty's Gnorcs. Red used it to drain the Dragon Realms of their natural beauty and environments. Spyro got taught by Dragon Elder Tomas (A Hero's Tail) to destroy the Dark Gems. He told Spyro that he could use his horn dive, the maneuver were Spyro could jump up in the air and smash them. There are 40 Dark Gems in total and Spyro needs to break 10 to access a Boss's lair such as Gnasty's cave. The Dark forcefield in each realm can be destroyed by crashing all the dark gems in a Realm.

Dark Shards are the tiny fractions of Dark Gems that Spyro can smash and give out gems. Dark shards are used in Blink's mini-games. You need to destroy 5 or 10 to complete it.

In The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon

There are Dark Gems on this game as well but they don't do the same as Red's Dark Gems. In one level on The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon with The Destoryer you have to destory them all to kill it. They are also known as Dark Crystals.