Whenever we hear “Gears”, we know that we are in for a battle with waves of monsters that we have to kill along with our friends. A lot of new mechanics have been added this time to make it even more immersive, challenging, and fun. But don’t you worry, we are here to help you with everything you need to be prepared for. This guide will give you all the known information about Gears 5 Horde Mode.
The best multiplayer mode in Gears 5 is the Horde Mode which is still considered the flagship. However, we have received several alterations this year, even the character skills, as well as the power distribution, has been upgraded. This guide will state every change made within the Horde Mode.
Gears 5 Horde Mode
If you have skipped the competitive modes in Gears of War, then this Arcade mode is for you. Where you can select who want to pay as from a list of characters with defined roles, active/passive abilities, and equipment.
Skulls are the currency used in Arcade Mode which you can use to purchase upgrades as well as character enhancements. If you die you will lose the weapon you so dearly invested in, but you will keep your skulls, however.
- No more gear packs.
- No more season pass.
- No more loot boxes and free maps.
- Private play and matchmaking DLC maps are free.
- You get earnable content exclusive to every new Tour of Duty System.
- Purchases are no more made through RNG which makes it better because you know what you will be getting.
- You won’t be seeing any loot boxes in this mode. These are the points provided by the developers which they had for their post-launch.
- They have set the shop like this so that you cannot purchase an item that needs to be earned and vice versa except the hero characters, of course, which can be bought using the premium iron currency.
The Premise
Same as the past games contained, Horde Mode also rocks the same basic premise. I am gonna put this as simply as possible, you get a Fabricator box which you place at any spot you like.
Then with a group of four friends kill all the enemies as they come, you can revive a friend if he is knocked out and vice versa. You stand as long as one of you remains and if everyone in your team gets knocked out you lose.
Power is dropped by the dead body of each enemy, currency used for upgrades and other items from the Fabricator. Equip yourself with better weapons to fend off enemies efficiently.
As you progress and reach the 10th wave bosses which you might know from the campaign, yeah those who were hard to kill, the same will start appearing and you will have to fight them off.
Your goal, for now, is to reach wave number 50 and more difficulties will present themselves to you then.
Power Tap
There is a new mechanic is Gears 5 which is the power tap. You will see power taps spawning in the map in the beginning and wave 11, if successful in capturing this location your team will be able to round up extra power for every round.
But be careful as the tap will not be near the Fabricator so your team will have to divide to to defend more of the locations and after the interval of 10 rounds this is happening again which will divide you even more.
I’ll advise you to not attempt it if you don’t have your friends alongside you because those computer-controlled squadmates aren’t that good.
Power Distribution
The power distribution mechanics have also changed this time as power will be equally distributed among all the teammates regardless of whoever picks it up.
Even if the one picking up the power is far away you can still get upgrades from the Fabricator.
Characters
The character you choose determines the abilities and traits you will have during the game. You get six of them to choose from and here are some of the details you should know.
JD Fenix
This guy defines offense, gets ammo for every sixth headshot he takes and can fire artillery on the enemy he desires which is his ultimate ability.
Marcus Fenix
His ultimate ability is that he can automatically take headshots and this ability charges when he takes damage. Also, this dude is like a tank.
Kait Diaz
Gets power by killing enemies nearby. Can use camouflage to be invisible and kill enemies in stealth as her ultimate ability.
Del Walker
The best character to displace the Fabricator and build fortifications. Can call Deebee trackers which can kill enemies.
Fahz Chutani
This character is also very offensive, every sixth critical kill yields him extra pickups, can see and shoot through walls as his ultimate ability.
Jack
A drone-like character who can kill marked enemies. He can hijack enemies and then use them to kill their fellows. Sound pretty brutal but it’s fun.
Read more about Ultimate Abilities on our ultimate abilities guide.
Achieving Balance
You should try to have the most balanced team as much as possible. As such, keep one offensive player on your team. Someone should be playing as Jack and taking advantage of his speed and extremely helpful abilities.
Perks
Perks and skill cards are how you can improve your performance. They might sound similar but they ain’t. If you play Horde Mode games individually then you can receive potential boosts for your characters which you can set using perks.
They cost in power and the cost increases as you keep on upgrading and they also last for a whole match so it’s better to get perks instead of barricades or turrets. Here’s how you can buy perks:
The time interval you get between waves is when you can press Y to open up the small perks menu. Each character will have options of their own.
You can choose to increase your critical damage, ammo cap, etc. based on the character you have by using the power you have picked up.
Every character can get 4 perks which you can upgrade 10 times and with each upgrade comes greater power and with it greater responsibility.
In summary, just open up the perks menu by pressing Y during the break between intervals.
Press Y between each horde wave to open the Small Perks menu, choose the perks wisely and upgrade them as you go.
Skill Cards define the overall level of your character between matches. The number of skill card slots increased as you level up and change themselves to form rewards if you play as a particular character.
Some skill cards are responsible for increasing your melee damage and others are there to improve the overall score of your team etc. Extra cards are fed to the existing card to upgrade them.
Surviving Tips
Leave one enemy alive so that you can pick up all the drops easily instead of having to race against the clock. Get familiar with all the weapons as you can run out of ammo so don’t be reluctant to grab any gun you can find and start shooting.
Keep Longshot or Markza around to kills larger enemies which require some focused fire.
Do everything possible to save yourselves from sires. These nasty creatures will drag you away from your team for good which means you cannot be revived.
Scream, shout and beg for help from your teammates to help you out if one of them catches you because if they don’t before the timer runs out. You’ll be dead.
Powering up the Fabricator
You have to place the Fabricator at a place of your choice at the start of the match and when the match begins picking up the power that you get from killing enemies.
Use the power you gained to power up the Fabricator by going towards it and pressing X twice which will deposit power in the Fabricator.
Abilities
There are two kinds of abilities in the Horde Mode namely Ultimate and Passive. Here’s what we know about the Passive Abilities.
Passive Abilities
These abilities are specific to each character and workout automatically as you the requirements are completed. Here is the list of all the characters with their passive abilities.
Kait
Increases her power by 25% by killing enemies nearby.
Marcus
Can recharge his ultimate ability by taking damage.
Del
Can build and carry fortifications more easily than others.
Fahz
You get a pilfer pickup after every sixth critical kill.
JD
And in case of JD you get that pilfer after the sixth headshot.
Jack
Ultimate cooldown is reduced when enemies are killed by Jack.
Emile – AZ39
Same as JD. A pilfer pickup at the sixth headshot.
Kat – 8320
Same as Del. Can build and carry fortifications more easily than others.
Sarah Conner
Ultimate ability is recharge with the damage you take.
P.S. Did I mention that you can also play as Dave Batista in Gears of War 5? Cause you can.
This is the end… of our guide. We hope that we helped provide you with all the information you needed. Let us know if you want us to cover something else and have fun playing this masterpiece.
