Horde Basics

Horde is a classic Gears game type first introduced in Gears of War 2. It pits you and up to four of your friends against fifty waves of enemy forces, with a special boss wave every ten levels. Horde is played on modified versions of the multiplayer maps in the game. Each map contains roughly four Command Posts, any of which you can choose as your base. At the beginning of the round, your team is given a small amount of cash and 30 seconds to prepare before an enemy wave.

You can spend your money to purchase and build fortifications around your Command Post. Every Command Post in the game has a different set of fortifications, as well as different terrain to contend with—some are easier than others, while some are extremely difficult. You can purchase additional Command Posts, eventually unlocking all of the fortifications on any map.

Using the fortifications you build and the power weapons you purchase, you must then survive and defeat the incoming enemy wave. Dealing damage to the creatures earns you cash. Once a wave is completed, your team can then build and repair fortifications, purchase new equipment, and get into position for the next wave.

Leveling Up

Buying and repairing fortifications upgrades your Horde ‘levels,’ your ability to build the higher levels of fortifications. You achieve a level for each type of fortification: Barriers, Turrets, Sentries, Decoys, and the Silverback. Once you unlock a given fortification’s maximum level, further builder upgrades give you a discount to the purchase or repair price of a specific fortification type.

Your Horde progression is persistent, and it is saved as you play multiple matches of Horde online. Initially, you cannot build all of the fortifications, all of the levels of any one fortification, or the Silverback. It’s very unlikely that you can come anywhere near wave 50 in a single attempt without a full team that has completely unlocked all the fortifications. So, don’t worry about failing your early games while you work on leveling up your base-building skills.

Cash

You earn money in Horde by damaging and killing enemies. It is also possible—and critical—to trade money with each other between rounds. If you’re playing with random people online, you may not see a lot of cash sharing. But whenever you play with friends, make an effort to pool your money to purchase or repair key upgrades.

It’s a viable tactic to focus on building up one part of one base fully, or to buy a Silverback early and pour all of your cash into repairing it each round.

Fortifications

Once you purchase a Command Post, you can build fortifications around it. Once you construct any defense, you can upgrade and repair it between rounds.

You simply don’t have enough cash in the early rounds to fully build and upgrade all defenses in a given Command Post. This is especially true on some maps that contain a great many barriers, some of which aren’t tactically critical. Consequently, it’s vital that you choose carefully which fortifications to build and upgrade.

• Once you construct the Silverback, it is always a high priority. Never let it be fully destroyed; always get it standing between rounds.
• Turrets should be your first purchases and upgrades. They can inflict huge casualties on incoming Locust and Lambent forces.
• The choice between sentry guns and barriers depends on the specific Command Post. Sentries act as additional fire support, but a key barrier can give you valuable time. Evaluate the terrain and choose the best option.
• Choose barrier purchases and upgrades carefully! You cannot afford to repair every barrier at any given base constantly.

Weapons and Ammo

The normal weapon pickups that you would encounter during a multiplayer match are scattered around each level. However, in Horde mode, you must pay for the weapons! If you’re already satisfied with your weapons loadout, you can also purchase additional ammo crates to reload your equipped weapons.

You can also scavenge fallen weapons from enemy forces. However, you can’t rely on this method entirely, as you don’t always face enemies that provide useful weapons. Nor is it always safe to leave your base to go pick up a weapon during intense waves. You do not have enough cash to continually purchase power weapons, reload ammunition, and build up your Command Post.

If you’re a much better fighter with power weapons, you may want to invest your money in maintaining your ammo supply. That way, you can use your power weapons strategically to remove key threats during each wave.

Waves

You can face one of four possible enemy rosters, as well as one base ‘core’ set that is always used—it contains the most basic Locust enemies.

Enemy Rosters

The Berserker or Brumak can potentially be the boss for any boss wave, though they do have slightly lower chances of appearing than the ‘special’ bosses.

Every wave, you face a new set of enemies pulled from a special roster of Locust, Savage Locust, or one of two Lambent lists. There is also a ‘basic’ roster that can appear at any time, which includes the usual suspects: Tickers, Boomers, Drones, etc.

Bonus Waves

Every four rounds, you are given a special objective to complete. If you successfully complete the bonus objective, your team is rewarded with a special weapon drop between waves. These crates typically contain power weapons, but can also contain ammo for your entire team. These boosts can be very helpful for maintaining momentum in a long Horde match. Always prioritize completing the bonus objective if it doesn’t jeopardize the defense of your base.

Bonus Rewards

Boss Waves

Every ten levels—at 10, 20, 30, 40, and finally 50—you face a ‘boss wave.’ This special wave of enemies contains one or more boss monsters. The specific boss is dependent on the roster of enemies you are currently facing. It may be a Lambent boss, or it could be a Savage Locust or Queen Locust boss.

As with the base waves, if you fail against a given boss repeatedly, the game will shuffle the roster and give you a new foe to face. The bosses are not all created equal. Their difficulty varies tremendously depending on the map you are playing, what fortifications you’ve built, and the round in which you encounter the boss. Some bosses change in difficulty as you rack up enemy boosts in the later rounds. Early Gunkers aren’t too threatening, but they can be a lot scarier when they have enhanced accuracy and damage.

Horde Bosses

Berserker

The Berserker boss is actually two Berserkers, making this a very dangerous, very difficult boss to face. Once the Berserker is inside your base, you can expect to lose a huge chunk of your fortifications, not to mention the risk to your team. During rounds that the Berserkers appear, Scorchers spawn near your Command Post. You can use this early warning to prepare for their appearance.

The best way to handle the Berserkers is to have two players pick up the Scorchers and stay on Berseker bait duty. The idea is to keep the Berserkers occupied while the rest of your team mops up the wave. Once you deplete the wave, you can turn your attention to the Berserkers. Naturally, this doesn’t always work out so cleanly. At a bare minimum, try to keep the Berserkers outside of your base. You really, really don’t want them inside wrecking your hard-earned defenses.

If you must take down the Berserkers early, light them up with the Scorchers or the Hammer of Dawn, and focus fire on them one at a time. Don’t waste Scorcher ammo by continuing to fire while they are burning. Switch weapons and fire away until they recover, then switch back and ignite them again. Hopefully your team has kept one or more power weapons around. It’s extremely helpful to take down one of the Berserkers quickly by using the stronger weapons.

Brumak

Armed with massive twin cannons and a missile launcher, the Brumak is large, impressive, and sounds scary. It isn’t nearly as bad as some of the other bosses…if you have cover. Out in the open, the Brumak is a terror. All of its weapons are potentially lethal. Even in hard cover, the Brumak’s missiles can damage or kill once the beast gains a damage boost.

You have a few options when you deal with the Brumak. One is simply to leave it alone until the end of the wave. The reason for this is that, if you kill it early, a second may appear later in the wave! Another option is to shoot out its weaponry and leave it crippled until you finish the wave. This may be necessary if the map has too much open space and not enough roofs to protect your team from bombardment. Finally, you can try to flank the Brumak and hit its fuel tanks. These tanks are vulnerable, and hitting them with power weapons can take out the Brumak relatively quickly.

If you’re trying to avoid fighting the Brumak, stay near buildings and other large, hard cover that can block the incoming fire. However, make sure you have someone in its line of sight at all times to draw its fire. If you ignore the Brumak entirely, and it moves into close range with your team, you’re in for a world of hurt.

Reaver

Reavers attack with powerful missiles, and their riders can be quite dangerous when they use power weapons against your team. Reavers typically show up in pairs. Like the Brumak, their threat level is highly map-dependent. On open maps, they are a terror; on maps with more cover, they are easier to handle. In all cases, try to shoot off the rider quickly to reduce the Reaver’s effectiveness. Any power weapon or even concentrated rifle fire can down the rider in short order.

The Reaver has a weak spot on its underbelly, but it does not show this weak point easily. You need to get around to its rear. Terrain permitting, bait the Reaver with some easy targets, and have a teammate or two sneak around the rear with a power weapon.

The Reaver’s missile launch has a tell: watch for the red laser pointer to appear, and then seek cover!

Savage Corpser

Savage Corpsers are very dangerous, and they’re difficult to handle. They can move through cover and penetrate your base quickly. With their arms acting as frontal armor, they are irritatingly durable.

To damage the Corpser quickly, wait for it to rear up and expose its head, then unload on its face with everything you have. When the Savage Corpser is below ground, pay attention to its movements. It can lash out with its arms from beneath the ground, instantly downing you if you aren’t quick to evade.

Make sure your team isn’t bunched up in your base when you face Savage Corpsers. If they all push into your base at the same time when you’re clumped together, they can quickly end your team. If you can’t hit the Corpser in the face, aim for its rear. This inflicts less damage than hitting its face, but it’s better than shooting its armored arms.

Lambent Berserker

The Lambent Berserker is hands down the most dangerous of all the bosses. Pray this beast does not turn up in a late round. The Lambent Berserker has all the rage and power of the normal Berserker, but it’s augmented with greater durability and a host of vicious attacks. The Lambent Berserker can ground pound, and its leap leaves damaging pools of Imulsion where it lands. Once you damage it enough, it leaves trails of Imulsion when it charges.

As it loses chunks of its health, the Lambent Berserker moves through several stages of attack patterns. When you see it begin to use a new attack (e.g. a leap or an Imulsion charge), you know it’s getting weaker. The worst part about the Lambent Berserker is how hard it is to damage. Shooting the Lambent Berserker directly inflicts barely any damage, even with heavy weapons. In order to deal significant damage, you must shoot its chest when its chest cavity is exposed. It exposes this weak point only just after it charges someone.

So, in order to deal serious damage, someone must play bait for the beast. The rest of your team should try to line up power weapon shots into its chest when it’s exposed. The Lambent Berserker is the best argument for keeping several loaded power weapons around at all times. If at all possible, avoid facing this thing with rifles only.

Gunker

The Gunker is the less threatening of the two Lambent bosses, but it’s still dangerous, particularly in later rounds when it has an accuracy boost. The Gunker is a long-range ‘siege’ beast, launching huge balls of Imulsion as slow-moving mortars at your team. If your base has good overhead cover, this may not be a problem. But if you’re out in the open, it’s very easy to ignore the Gunker and then get hammered by an Imulsion bomb from the sky. Watch the sky when you hear cries of ‘Gunker!’ You need to know where the bombs come from and where they are likely to impact.

You can take down Gunkers fairly easily, but they tend to stay back and fire from a distance. So, depending on the map, you may need to venture out of your base to dispatch them quickly. If your base is in the open, this is a priority. If you have heavy cover, you can often save the Gunkers for last.

Enemy Wave Tips

Penalties

At waves 11, 21, 31, and 41, the enemies gain powerful upgrades.

Enemy Wave Upgrades

Notable Enemies

Maulers can ruin your base and your day. It’s easy to ignore them because they can’t attack from a distance, but don’t make this mistake. If they reach your fortifications, it’s already too late to stop the damage.

The Kantus is always a priority target. Take it out as quickly as possible. You don’t want it reviving downed Locust. The Armored Kantus is an especially nasty mini-boss type enemy. It is most vulnerable when it opens its mouth to scream. Try to hit it with a headshot. You can also take it down with a Frag tag—use an Incendiary tag, or make it cringe with the Scorcher. Be sure to call out Grenadiers when you see them, and mark their position. They aren’t dangerous if you deal with them quickly. If you ignore them, a Frag grenade can really ruin your day.

Lambent enemies can get into fights with Locust forces! You can use this to your advantage by ignoring Locust/Lambent conflicts and focusing your attention on immediate threats. Just be aware that you don’t get any cash when they kill each other!

The chainsaw on the Lancer and, to a lesser extent, the Retro Lancer charge are very useful once enemies have double health. You can use the chainsaw to execute quite a few enemies instantly if they get into close range. This saves time and ammo. Just don’t go into an execution without a teammate to cover you.