Gears of War: E-Day Tips

Before you start

E-Day is a prequel and origin story, so you do not need to have played any earlier Gears game. Start with Boot Camp, the training mission, which teaches the basics and unlocks the FNG achievement. It is the fastest way to learn the new controls before Act 1.

The default control scheme is called Modern, and the game was built around it. Sprint sits on a left-stick click, which takes series veterans some getting used to. If it never feels right, Modern Alt is the alternative most experienced players recommend.

Turning on slide-to-cover is also worth considering. With it enabled, your character will sometimes take cover automatically as you slide around the battlefield. That makes aggressive repositioning much safer.

Cover is still everything

E-Day is a cover shooter first, and survival comes from snapping to walls, barricades and wrecked cars, then leaning out between enemy volleys. A new dynamic cover system lets you take cover against walls of almost any height. Low walls, trucks and craters all work.

The official advice from Xbox is to keep your head down and move cover-to-cover. Only step into the open when you are rushing an enemy for a melee kill. Learn when to hold a position and when to push or fall back.

Blind fire is your friend while pinned. Shooting from behind cover keeps pressure on the Locust without exposing yourself. It is less accurate, but it buys time for squadmates to flank.

Shooting and Active Reload

Every projectile now has travel time and bullet drop. At long range you have to lead moving targets instead of aiming straight at them. This is the biggest adjustment for returning players.

Active Reload is back, and it matters more than ever. Tap reload again inside the highlighted zone for a Perfect Reload, which is faster and adds a damage bonus. Miss the zone and the gun jams, leaving you exposed, so practise the timing in quiet moments.

You cannot jump and shoot at the same time. If you need to fire while changing elevation, drop off a ledge instead — you can shoot as soon as you start falling.

Use the new movement

The classic roadie run is gone, replaced by a sprint, a slide and a jump. Vaulting up ledges and switching cover positions quickly makes a real difference in firefights. Use sprint, slide and jump together to close distance or escape a flank.

Sprinting can be cancelled into other actions, so do not commit to long runs across open ground. Short bursts between pieces of cover are safer. In Versus, the same movement lets you vault, slide and jump around maps far faster than in older games.

Weapons and loadouts

Each weapon has a clear job. The Chainsaw Lancer handles close to mid range and its magazine can be upgraded. The Gnasher is your point-blank shotgun, and the Longshot deals with high-health enemies at a distance.

• Close range: Gnasher shotgun
• Close to mid range: Chainsaw Lancer
• Mid to long range: Breechshot
• Long range, tough targets: Longshot

Weapon caches around Kalona let you swap loadouts mid-mission. Hunt for yellow Hard Cases in both linear and open areas, since they contain weapon mods. Each weapon has four mod slots, and our collectibles guide explains how Hard Cases are counted.

The opening teaches melee with a metal pipe and the Snub Pistol. Once you have the Chainsaw Lancer, melee becomes far stronger. A Boomer can even be chainsawed, which earns the Okay, Boomer achievement.

Squadmates, co-op and tactical gear

AI squadmates are genuinely useful when playing solo, reviving you and picking off Locust on their own. They are not perfect, though: IGN reported being finished off while a teammate stood nearby. If that keeps happening, bring in friends via 4-player online co-op or 2-player split-screen.

Your tactical abilities include a drone scan and a stim heal. Save them for decisive moments rather than using them on cooldown. A well-timed stim can turn around a fight that was going badly.

Watch out for Armored Wretches, which can stun you. Tickers can be kicked back toward the enemy. Both are referenced by achievements, so it is worth learning these interactions early.

Horde Siege tips

Horde Siege is a 4-player squad survival mode with up to three squads, or 12 players, on one map. Choose from four classes: Assault, Marksman, Medic and Breacher. Squads share objectives and face world bosses together.

• Ammo boxes refill non-heavy weapons infinitely, including the Longshot, Incinerator and grenade launcher — but not heavy weapons like the Boomshot.
• Destroy Emergence Holes with grenades to push enemy spawns further away and give your team breathing room.
• Difficulty interacts with class level: at class level 10 you get health and damage bonuses, so a high difficulty at level 1 makes enemies very tanky.
• If you are downed while carrying a Stim grenade, you can detonate it to revive yourself and nearby downed teammates.
• Downed players can still crawl to pick up a teammate's COG Tags; take them to a Supply Cache to bring that teammate back.
• Squad perks bought at the Supply Cache apply to the whole squad, so split the cost.
• Most deployables can be picked back up and carried to the next objective.

Decoys are very durable, and pairing one with a turret can mow down large numbers of Wretches and Tickers. For Boomer-type enemies below 50% health, a chainsaw execution is available. Setting enemy health bars to always show on large enemies makes that window easy to spot.

Enemy weak points

• Bilefrog: the green orb in its mouth is the weak spot. Burst it with a high-damage shot such as the Longshot before it spits, or kick grenades and Tickers into its mouth.
• Reaver: the red weak spot on its belly takes huge damage; flank it from both sides.
• Seeder: fully armoured while firing. Use explosives to force it underground, then shoot its head when it resurfaces facing up.
• Corpser (Horde Siege): once it retreats into its hole, it takes five Breach Charges to kill; several players throwing within one or two seconds of each other stack them.

Feeding explosives to a Bilefrog is rewarded by the Explosive Indigestion achievement. For the campaign version of the Corpser fight, see the walkthrough. For difficulty and achievements tied to completion, see how long to beat.