Oops...3 ways!

Cross shapes are made 2 ways, when you have an intersection; when you have 3 of a kind going one way and 3 going the other so you create a corner; the same color gem has to be moved to the corner of that intersection. The other way is when you have two lines of the same color gems and one in the middle above them like a sword. Drop the one in the middle to create the star gem. Another tip I entered earlier, level 263 has all 3 rare gems and is a fairly easy level. One stone to bust. Just get the numbers down as fast as possible. If you play over and over you'll collect green, yellow & orange gems.

Get green, yellow & orange hard to get gems on level 263. Ignore the temptation to crest 4 gems and just concentrate on getting the numbers down to blow up the 1 stone.

I'm stuck on 514 and the only way I see around it is to use multiple hyper swappers with star swappers. Any tips?

Level 182 is easy and where you'll get yellow crescents & green drops often. Go back and play multiple times if you need these and more jewels. Get the top middle boxes and the bottom center box sooner rather than later.