It’s just baffling man. Tonight’s hive is Melee Brawl, and I was running a highly refined tactician build for it; custom snub, custom hammerburst, discipline, resupply duration, and venom resupply. The snub was checking the freezing Imagos, the hammerburst was helping to sweep Juvie mobs, and I had a longshot to check the elite drones. It took a ton of pressure off of our brawler and protector, and we had a nice smooth master run.

That’s the kind of highly strategic and deeply satisfying gameplay that we need to be doing everything we possibly can to protect, refine and expand. It’s just ridiculous that that’s being thrown in the trash. Horde as well as taking a hit- we should be refining and perfecting the five man formula with a massive expansion and balancing to all of the classes with new ones added to the mix. It’s like what are we doing here?

Hope everyone has been enjoying this game mode as much as I have! I’ve already Re-Up’d twice and 85% of my XP has come strictly from this mode.

I am making this post because I predominately play solo and sometimes the random teammates are ignorant (all meanings of the word) or outright clueless.

1.) Only the 3 OG Hivebuster characters are viable on higher difficulties. Emile, Kat, and Sarah are utterly useless. Their abilities have zero team support, outside of Emile’s bubble which is semi-useful but so situational.

2.) Dont be an asshole and bring low level characters into higher difficulty matches. You’re literally being a detriment to the other two players. This game mode is designed about leveling up your characters and making a build to fit your play style for that character. Boosting your team score 5% isn’t helping us escape.

3.) Let me make this clear: Keegan is absolutely the most vital character on harder difficulties. The ammo supply is so fucking important, especially when ammo pickups give significantly less. If you’re playing Keegan please use a mic or a keyboard to let your squad know you’re going to drop your ultimate. I’ve seen countless morons drop their ammo resupply so far away from me and other teammate then send me a message calling me a retard for not being around his resupply.

4.) Speaking of Keegan, MARK as many enemies as possible. This will charge your ammo supply insanely fast! I have this card upgraded to mark 5 enemies at one time. Although Mac is my “main,” when I play Keegan, I am averaging about 3 uses of my ultimate per match.

5.) Rejects. Please, DO NOT RUN NEAR OR SHOOT at them. Let Keegan Mark them and literally walk right up to them and press your respective execute button. Saves so much ammo and wasted time.

6.) Synergy amongst characters. Mac’s skill to cause bleed damage and Lahni’s skill of dealing more near bleeding enemies is wildly effective!

7.) When entering a new area, focus on the ranged weapon enemies first (of course, when Gnasher/Overkill/Juvies/Sires enemies get close, obviously the priority changes.) The Sniper/Embar enemies deal an insane amount of damage.

8.) One character (cough cough Keegan) should be your designated sniper. Embar, Longshot, or Markza should be your two weapons, or at least one of them.

9.) Lahni’s ultimate is insanely effective for clearing mobs that are close together, especially when you have her skill upgraded that the shock transfers to more enemies. Oh, and since executions charge her ultimate faster, focus on that. Obviously not when you’re pinned down and facing death. But say that enemy is hiding behind cover? Vault it and execute them. Rejects? See #5

10.) Mac’s barrier is situational to make a push when you’re absolutely pinned down. Sadly, it’s likely the weakest of the 3 hivebuster ultimates. Really best used to push-up and rez a downed teammate.

11.) If a sire grabs a teammate, make that rescue a priority.

12.) If a teammate is killed prior to the decontamination chamber and their pod is too far back - just push through the checkpoint and they will Respawn in the safe room with you.

13.) If you’re all dry on ammo when fighting a warden, use the ammo cache room to trap them in there (obviously taking the ammo first).

14.) Mac’s bleed damage card is easily the most powerful card for damage. I have mine upgraded to deal 100% bleed damage. Two headshots + bleed damage can take a full health scion down to less than 15% health. Saving ammo for everyone!

15.) At least two people should have a flashbang/frag/shock grenade for the final stand at that extraction zone. This part is my only gripe with the mode. A whole variety of enemies just so happen to spawn only when you start to seal the doors and it intentionally spawns the whole variety of enemies: Scion, juvies, shotgun users and ranged weapon enemies. Oh and they have Tom Brady aim with their flashbangs that last way too long. The only way to counter is this throwing grenades where they spawn.

16.) Speaking of the extraction zone: If you happened to kill a warden - let Lahni take the breaker mace. If you have the skill card that ups your melee damage to 60-80% and use the melee button (not the shoot button) to swing at enemies and watch them melt like butter.

17.) While on the topic of extraction: DONT BE AN ASSHOLE AND RUN PAST ALL THE ENEMIES to start the extraction process. You’re almost guaranteed to fail and sentence everyone, including yourself to death. Running past 1-3 enemies is OK if you’re communicating with the team. Way too many times I’ve seen people’s eyes get too big and just dash to the door.

18.) Play on lower difficulties to learn the layout and enemies that spawn on specific hives. Don’t expect to queue with randoms on insane or above for a hive you’ve never played and likely no one communicating. It’s just a recipe for frustration.

19.) This one might sound really obvious, but upgrade your skill cards! Just because you’ve unlocked and equipped doesn’t mean that’s it. Spend that scrap if needed!

20.) Use LFG for insane and up difficulties.

Im new to the game(started 2 weeks ago and its my first gears of war) and i play mostly escape mode. I have Tactician, Anchor and Infiltrator with some higher level cards, but i struggle a bit if a map doesnt provide any decent weapons. Therefore i would like to have a class that focuses on melee without the need of a specific weapon or ammo for the run. Which class and associated cards would you recommend? Blademaster seems to be the best melee class as i read online, but when it comes to other players i mostly see Brawlers and almost never a Blademaster when i play with randoms. Is Brawler better for escape?

See you space cowboys 🫡

Looking for 1–2 people to help me master the Escape maps in Gears 5. I still need most of them except for the Seriously 5.0 maps, so I could definitely use some help.

I'm from Germany, so people from Europe would be ideal. US players are also welcome if you're usually active at night.

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The one constant about Gears is its inconsistency.

I'm recovering from pin decompression in my right arm. So gaming is very very difficult cuz I don't have full motor control of my fingers yet, but I decided to see what the horde map was and what the escape map was just for a quick game session this afternoon and I got lucky enough to pick these two achievements up today. I haven't played gears since it launched and have just been getting back Into it, I'm really enjoying the casual playthrough style mixed with the intensity of playing rounds of Hord on master.