How Long to Beat Gears of War: E-Day

Campaign length at a glance

Different outlets measured different things, so it helps to group the numbers by play style. The table below combines the official figure with times reported by GameSpot, IGN, gameranx, Skill Up and The PC Enthusiast. All of them are single-run campaign times, not multiplayer.

Your own time depends heavily on difficulty and how much you explore. Reviewers consistently described Normal as genuinely challenging. That pushes most first runs toward the middle of the range rather than the low end.

What the developer says

Creative director Matt Searcy told press before launch that the campaign is more than 14 hours long. That makes it the longest campaign The Coalition has ever made and the longest in the series. For comparison, Gears 5 ran about 15 hours including its open areas, while most other entries landed around 10 hours.

The Coalition says the extra length comes from narrative density and cinematics, not open-world filler. E-Day returns to a focused, linear structure. There are no large open zones to pad out the playtime.

What reviewers actually clocked

The spread is narrower than it looks. Everyone who played normally landed between 13 and 18 hours. The 10-hour figure only applies if you ignore side objectives and collectibles entirely.

How the campaign is split up

The campaign has five Acts with 26 numbered chapters, plus a Prologue and an Epilogue — 28 segments in all. Acts 3 and 4 are the biggest, with six chapters each. A typical chapter takes about 30 to 40 minutes.

That structure makes it easy to plan sessions. Two or three chapters fit comfortably into an evening. The full chapter list is on our walkthrough page.

How long 100% completion takes

GameSpot estimated that 100% campaign completion takes another 4 to 5 hours on Normal after the credits. That covers 140 collectibles, 125 Hard Cases and 17 secondary objectives. Chapter select lets you clean up without replaying the whole story.

Several completion achievements accept any difficulty, so you can drop the setting for cleanup. Our collectibles guide has the per-chapter counts that make this much faster.

• Remember Kalona: finish every Act on any difficulty.
• You're My Brother: finish every Act in co-op.
• Memories From E-Day: find all 140 collectibles.
• Relax. I'm the Map.: find every Hard Case.
• Side Piece: complete all secondary objectives.
• Quartermaster: unlock all Supply Cache items.

Full achievements take far longer

There are 55 achievements in total, and many of them have nothing to do with the campaign. Today We Are Canceling the Apocalypse requires finishing every Act on Insane, which alone means a second, much harder run. The final achievement also needs a lot of Horde Siege and Versus play.

Requirements include 25,000 kills in Versus and reaching player level 100 and then Re-Upping. That puts a full achievement run far beyond the campaign's length. If that is your goal, plan for multiplayer to be most of your time.

How it compares with other Gears games

E-Day sits at the top end of the series for campaign length. The Coalition's own comparison puts Gears 5 at about 15 hours, but that figure includes time spent crossing its open areas. Most other entries in the series came in at around 10 hours.

The difference is in how the hours are spent. E-Day's time comes from story chapters and cinematics rather than travel between objectives. That means less downtime per hour, but also fewer natural breaks, so plan sessions around chapter ends.

Does co-op change how long it takes?

The campaign is the same length in co-op, but the experience is usually smoother. With four human players online, or two in split-screen on one Xbox, downed players get revived reliably. That cuts down on the restarts that pad out solo runs on Normal.

Co-op also has its own completion goal. The You're My Brother achievement asks you to finish every Act in co-op. If you plan to earn it, playing the story with friends from the start avoids a second run later.

Split-screen is limited to two players on a single Xbox. For three or four players, everyone needs their own console or PC, with crossplay between Xbox, Steam and the Xbox app.

Planning an Insane run

Insane is the hardest campaign setting, and two achievements are tied to it. Today We Are Canceling the Apocalypse requires finishing every Act on Insane. The For Whom the Bell Tolls achievement goes further, requiring 100% of the campaign on Insane along with a completion on any difficulty.

Nobody has published a reliable Insane completion time yet, so we will not guess one. What is clear is that it will run well past a Normal playthrough, since reviewers already found Normal demanding. Doing it in co-op is the safest approach.

Multiplayer has no finish line

Campaign length only covers part of the game. Horde Siege supports up to 12 players in three squads of four, and Versus is 4v4 with ranked and social playlists. Both are built for repeat play rather than a single completion.

Class levels in Horde Siege also matter: at class level 10 you gain health and damage bonuses, which affects how hard higher difficulties feel. Levelling classes is a long-term goal of its own. See our Horde Siege tips before you jump in.

What changes your playtime

Difficulty is the biggest factor. Reviewers on Normal still found themselves going down often, and IGN noted that solo AI squadmates did not always revive them. Playing in 4-player online co-op, or 2-player split-screen on one Xbox, smooths that out considerably.

Exploration is the second factor. Listening for collectible chimes and opening every Hard Case adds time, but it also upgrades your weapons. Our beginner tips explain how to keep fights short and avoid restarts.