This Week in Gears: Operation 7!

Hello everyone! Operation 7 lands tomorrow!

If you haven't already, check out our deep dive on Operation 7.

Now, let us see what we will be playing.

Versus Event: OSOK – Exploding Headshots

Not just any OSOK event, with the latest updates allowing us to use mutators in PvP for OP7, we are bringing to you OSOK with exploding headshots and a Movie Poster filter. Feel like an action star in this event as you pop some heads!

This event also has reinforcement spawns enabled, meaning you will be automatically respawning as close as possible to your teammates.

Horde Event: Horde Frenzy on three new maps!

To kick things off in Operation 7 for Horde, we will be providing a special playlist for you to play Horde Frenzy on three new maps added exclusively for this playlist – Atrium, Turbine and Command.

Once the event ends in two weeks these maps will be playable in private matches!

Weekly Store

• Armored Ukkon – 250 Iron
• Scientist Hana – 250 Iron
• Team Labyrinth Weapon Set – 850 Iron
• Hana Banner – 100 Iron
• Ukkon Ventilator Mark – 65 Iron

Feature Store

• Ronin Karn – 1500 Iron, 10,000 Gear Coins
• Line Art Full Set – 850 Iron, 6,800 Gear Coins
• More is Better Banner – 100 Iron, 800 Gear Coins
• Rift Worm Mark – 65 Iron, 500 Gear Coins
• Locust Rune Kill Bloodspray – 250 Iron, 2,000 Gear Coins

Operation 7 Bundle

• Armored Ukkon
• Scientist Hana
• Lightmass Bomb Full Set
• Ukkon Regenerating Banner
• Artillery Mark
• I Win Bloodspray
• 700 Iron
• 30 Days Boost

The bundle costs $14.99 USD

Gears esports

Here is what you can expect across the world of esports in Gears 5!

Gears Pro League

After a glorious Spring Major the action doesn't stop! Tune in this weekend as teams square off to take their rightful place in the Pro League qualification tournament ready for the new season!

Look out for the full information on this event at gears.gg!

EGL

This weekend the team at EGL will be running the fourth week of their EU open series!

Featuring matches of Control, Escalation and Execution 2.0 this tournament offers prize money up for grabs and the opportunity to square off against top teams in Europe!

Look out for how to sign up on the @EGLGears Twitter!

Store

Black Steel Savage Kantus – 2.99 USD

Gears Glory

Just in time for Operation 7, this Gears Glory is focused on popping heads! We've seen some fantastic clips already.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">@GearsofWar #GearsGlory pic.twitter.com/sluaggpueS— Seven (@Seven_up_94) May 7, 2021</blockquote><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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A beautiful Triple

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">#GearsGlory @GearsofWar pic.twitter.com/5ONeNLfDiJ— MisstallicA🐝 (@_GabbyMireles) May 7, 2021</blockquote><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Heroic Myrrah with a Longshot

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">#GearsGlory #Gears5 Headshot month! 💪🏼 pic.twitter.com/49gLIu3V4y— OG SIE 247 (@OGsie247) May 7, 2021</blockquote><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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The elusive Quad

Patch Notes

General

• Players will now receive Gear Coins when earning unusable duplicate Skill Cards.
  • Unusable Skill Cards earned prior to this title update will be retroactively exchanged for coins up to a limit of 100,000 Gear Coins
    • Common – 5 Coins
    • Rare – 30 Coins
    • Epic – 100 Coins
    • Legendary – 400 Coins

  • For each level 6 skill card earned after this update, you'll earn the following Gear Coins for each rarity
    • Common – 5 Coins
    • Rare – 30 Coins
    • Epic – 100 Coins
    • Legendary – 400 Coins

• Prescott now plays audio when retro charging and chainsawing enemies.
• An issue that resulted in the size of Civilian Anya's hands being enlarged has now been addressed.
• Captain Hoffman should once again no longer have Marcus' voice lines.
• Harbour: A particular piece of cover should no longer allow Grenades to clip through it.
• Tomb: A Level of Detail pop on some sandbags near the COG side has now been addressed.
• High Tea: The Gnasher/Boltok weapon tile will now match the weapon preview.
• The Simple Omen will no longer go away before a player is completely healed.
• Adjusted the gib range slightly to compensate for the changes made to gib calculation in Operation 6.
• A rare instance in which the Torque Bow arrow would attach outside the player.
• The option to disable cross-play has now been removed.
• Known Issue: The icon to distinguish if a player is playing Gears 5 on PC has now been removed. This will be re-added to lobbies as soon as possible!
• The classes section in Customization will now correctly tell you the number of classes you have maxed out.
• Field of View options have now been added to all Xbox One consoles.
• The stats menu has been updated and will now automatically show your stats for currently active playlists in Gears 5, this has additionally fixed issues where certain modes wouldn't appear in the stats menu at all.
• We've updated Quickplay to now be a 5 v 5 playlist, with this change we're also using this as an opportunity to review feedback on the modes we currently offer in Quickplay, be sure to let us know your thoughts when OP7 launches!

PvP

Note: Get the full rundown on PvP updates for Operation 7 – Drop 1.

• Ranked has now been replaced by Competitive mode.
  • Competitive mode uses a points-based leaderboard system and will no longer use the rank tier system. Everyone will start from scratch.
    • In particular scenarios extra points are given when the following occurs in your match
      • Winning a match
      • Winning a round
      • If you complete a match and your team has had players quit
      • If you play solo (not in a party)
      • If you are the top player on your team

  • A seasonal leaderboard and all-time leaderboard can be viewed to view your progress through each mode.
  • Each player's stats can be individually viewed for that respective mode.
  • Passing certain point thresholds on the seasonal leaderboard also grants rewards
    • 100,000 points = Mark, XP, and coins.
    • 500,000 points = Mark, XP, and coins.
    • 1,000,000 points = Banner (different for each mode, XP, and coins.

  • The top 1,000 players in each playlist at the end of a season receive a unique Heroic reward.
  • TDM: You can now queue up as a party of 4 in Competitive TDM
• Situations that allowed players to "wrap" their shots around cover have been addressed, the wrap shot technique is now much more difficult to perform as a result.
• In some instances, users were able to aim around cover without physically leaning around the cover piece, this has now been fixed.
• Removed an animation that exposed players in low cover when holding the left thumbstick.
  • Additionally, we have fixed numerous covers that allowed shots to pass over them.

• TDM: If a user joins near the end of a match the game will now consistently finish.
• Players are now able to earn progression in private Versus matches.
  • This includes Multiplayer XP, Stars for time played, Daily and Tour of Duty Objectives, and Ribbons.

• Players are now able to enable a selection of Mutators in Custom matches
  • Headshot explosion (both AOE damage and Confetti options)
  • Health Regeneration (on damage, only in cover, only in cover + damage)
  • Low Grav Death (gibs of dead players float)
  • Voiced gun sounds
  • Screen effects (20 options)

• The following weapons as available swaps in Custom Versus:
  • Pipe
  • Snowshot
  • Cluckshot
  • Cupid's Torquebow
  • Golden Gun

• A unique esports variant of Control has been added to the custom match selector
  • DBNO damage mitigation has been enabled.
  • Weapon respawns now work based on pickup not on use.
  • Reduced ammo in power weapon pickups (based on the table below)
  • Weapon spawn times adjusted (based on the table below)
  • Players can now suicide while DBNO
  • The initial starting hill for each map will now always be the same.
  • Ring orders for each map are now static.

Weapon Initial Ammo Time to Respawn Longshot/EMBAR 6 120 Torque Bow 4 120 Boomshot/Dropshot 2 120 Boltok 18 90 Retro Lancer 80 90 Frags/Incends 2 120 Shocks 1 90

Horde

• Added Lambent Drone, Lambent Grenadier and Lambent Theron to Horde and Horde Frenzy.
• Fixed an issue where Lambent death explosion did not deal damage to players or enemies.
• Fixed an issue where Lambent units would frequently spawn too close to Locust or Swarm units.
• Wardens that spawn in the context of being a mini boss will now display the boss locator and health bar.
• Reduced base health of Wardens spawning outside of boss wave to 10,000HP from 15,000HP.
• Rebalanced boss combinations in Horde Frenzy to avoid combining bosses that rapidly invalidate low cover positions (Kestrel, Sentinel, Swarmak, Flock, Predator)
• Matchmaking into Horde Frenzy will no longer frequently place players in Daily Challenge lobbies.
• Added the Flashbang Grenade to the Fabricator.
• Users can no longer stall the time between transitioning waves by pausing their game.
• Horde Classic can now be selected in custom matches as a mode. Horde Classic is similar to Gears of War 2 Horde, there will be no cards and fabricator.
  • You can select to play this mode with either 12 or 50 waves.

Escape

• Fixed an issue on Forever where occasionally certain enemies would fail to spawn.
• Fixed an issue on The Blight, The Clock, and The Trap where custom door functionality was not working correctly.
• An issue that resulted in significantly increased loading times in the saferoom has now been addressed.

Brawler

• Scorcher Master will now work correctly.
• Soothing Warmth card will now correctly regenerate your health when near a burning enemy.

Pilot

• The Silverback Scorcher card will now work correctly.

Tactician

• The duration of the Tactician's ultimate has been reduced by 50% in Horde.

Demolitions

• Fixed an issue where Demolition's "Gambit" Skill Card was not allowing the correct number of planted grenades.

Mechanic

• Changed Ultimate ability from "Reinforce" to "Turret".
• Changed the Skill Card "Bloody Shrapnel" to "Shredder Rounds". This Skill Card now causes bleeding damage for any player using the Mechanic's mounted turret.

Combat Medic

• Intervention will now revive multiple downed players simultaneously.

Protector

• Changed Passive from "Every 6th Headshot Drops Pilfer" to "Heal for 50% of bleeding damage dealt and resist 30% melee damage"
• Lowered regeneration delay of Protector's "Regenerative Field" Skill Card to 4.25s for all levels of the card.
• Increased stim gained per second on Protector's "Regenerative Field" Skill Card from 2 Stim per second to 12 Stim per second (Level 6).
• Increased additional damage of Protector's "Gnasher M45 Mod" Skill Card from 30% to 60% (Level 6).
• Increased bleeding damage of Protector's "Bloody Blade" Skill Card from 110% to 130% (Level 6).
• Increased the multiplier of Protector's "Drop Shield Duration" Skill Card from +60% to +100% (Level 6).
• Increased the range of Protector's "Close Range Recharge" Skill Card from 3m to 5m.
• Increased the base duration of Drop Shield from 10s to 15.
• Decreased the cooldown of Drop Shield from 300s to 200s.
• Changed "Critical Damage" Perk to "Damage" Perk.
• Changed "Increased Health" Perk to "Damage Resistance" Perk.
• Changed "Ammo Capacity" Perk to "Increased Movement Speed" Perk.

Architect

• Decreased the cooldown of Hologram from 300s to 150s.
• Increased the base duration of Hologram from 5s to 7s.
• Lowered regeneration delay of Architect's "Regenerative Field" Skill Card to 4.25s for all levels of the card.
• Increased stim gained per second on Architect's "Regenerative Field" Skill Card from 2 Stim per second to 12 Stim per second (Level 6).
• Changed the behavior of Architect's "Hologram Extend" Skill Card from "Snub damage from behind extends ultimate" to "Ballistic damage extends ultimate".
• Changed the behavior of Architect's "Custom Snub" Skill Card from "Deal 60% extra damage with the Snub" to "Deal 200% extra ballistic damage from the side or behind" (Level 6).
• Renamed "Custom Snub" to "Deception".

Slugger

• Changed the behavior of Slugger's "Heavy Preparations" Skill Card from "115% additional heavy ammo capacity" to "Plant 6 additional grenade traps simultaneously" (Level 6).
• Renamed "Heavy Preparations" to "Lethal Preparations".
• Increased the amount of grenade damage on Slugger's "Modified Frag" Skill Card from 130% to 200% (Level 6).
• Update the description of Slugger's "Modified Frag" Skill Card to accurately state the increased explosive radius per level.
• Renamed "Modified Frag" to "Grenade Proficiency".
• Changed the behavior of Slugger's "Stopping Power" Skill Card from "230% increased stopping power" to "Ballistic rounds penetrate unlimited targets and deal 60% additional damage" (Level 6).
• Renamed "Stopping Power" to "Power Shot"
• Changed the behavior of Slugger's "Tough Skin" Skill Card from "Resist 32% melee damage" to "Resist 32% damage within 15 meters".
• Changed the behavior of Sluggers "Follow Up" Skill Card from "Successive shotgun hits recharge ultimate for 8.5s" to "Active shotgun hits within 10m stun drones for 3s" (Level 6).
• Renamed "Follow Up" to "Impact Receiver".
• Changed Passive from "Damage taken recharges ultimate" to "Resist 50% explosive damage".
• Changed "Shotgun Damage" Perk to "Damage" Perk.
• Changed "Max Health" Perk to "Damage Resistance" Perk.
• Changed "Increased Movement Speed" Perk to "Grenade Resupply" Perk.
• Decreased cooldown of Heavy Hitter from 300s to 200s.
• Swapped loadout slots so that the Gnasher is on the right.

Striker

• Decreased cooldown of Enhanced Melee from 300s to 200s.
• Increased the bleeding damage of Striker's "Bloody Breaker" Skill Card from 55% to 130% (Level 6).
• Increased the damage of Striker's "First Strike" Skill Card from 35% to 100% (Level 6).
• Increased the amount of stim gained from Striker's "Stim Siphon" Skill Card from 23HP to 120HP (Level 6).
• Changed the behavior of Striker's "Team Up" Skill Card from "Resist 32% damage near Slugger class" to "Resist 50% melee damage" (Level 6).
• Renamed "Team Up" to "Melee Armor".
• Changed Passive from "Damage taken recharges ultimate" to "When hit, move 50% faster for 4s"
• Changed the behavior of Striker's "Melee Rush" Skill Card from "Close range damage increases passive by 210%" to "Melee or bleed kills reduce ultimate cooldown by 35s" (Level 6).
• Changed "Max Health" perk to "Damage Resistance" perk.
• Changed "Movement Speed" perk to "Damage" perk.
• Swapped loadout slots so that the Overkill is on the right.

Tour of Duty – Daily Challenges

• Arcade daily challenges have been removed
• The challenge for "Assists in a single versus match" has been removed.
• The challenge for "Assists in versus" has been removed.
• Damage dealt challenge changes:
  • 1 star: Increased from 15,000 to 25,000
  • 2 star: Increased from 35,000 to 50,000
  • 3 star: Increased from 70,000 to 75,000

• Damage in Horde or Escape challenge changes:
  • 1 star: Increased from 25,000 to 100,000
  • 2 star: Increased from 50,000 to 200,000
  • 3 star: Increased from 70,000 to 300,000

• Damage in Versus challenge changes:
  • 1 star: Decreased from 15,000 to 10,000
  • 2 star: Decreased from 37,500 to 20,000
  • 3 star: Decreased from 70,000 to 30,000

• Drone Elites challenge changes:
  • 1 star: Decreased from 7 to 5
  • 2 star: Decreased from 15 to 10

• Power in Horde challenge changes:
  • 1 star: Increased from 10,000 to 15,000
  • 2 star: Increased from 22,500 to 30,000
  • 3 star: Increased from 35,000 to 40,000

Accessibility

• Users can now disable camera shake in PvE going up to Advanced difficulty.
• Users can now use the Target Lock feature in PvE going up to Advanced difficulty.
• A new feature Navigation Ping – Escape Mode, has been added, when enabled the following changes are enabled:
  • This feature provides four options
    • Full Path Always (breadcrumb-style ping that constantly pings you to the right path),
    • Doorways Always (pinging on the main exit to each area of the map constantly)
    • Full Path on Taccom (breadcrumb-style pings that only ping when Taccom is active).
    • Doorways on Taccom (pinging on the main exit to each area of the map when Taccom is active).

  • There are unique pings when you need to interact with someone or move over cover
  • Each ping is accompanied by a high contrast visual cue

Play with TC Update

Thank you to everyone who Played with TC Devs for the Operation 6 Drop 2 initiative! This started as an opportunity to share something fun with the community, and we ended up giving away an amazing amount of Boltok Psychic Executions! With moving into Operation 7, our focus is shifting away from the event for now, but we will be taking the feedback we got about it and applying it to future community events. If you loved it, let us know!

Arcade status update

Back at the start of Operation 6 Drop 2 we temporarily disabled Arcade mode. We are continuing to investigate the issues behind this, and Arcade will remain disabled for the near future. Once we have more news to share on this, we will let you know.

Operation 7 – Drop 1 launch time

Operation 7 drop 1 arrives tomorrow! You can expect the update to launch tomorrow at 10:00am PDT!

And as always, take care and get hyped for Operation 7 Drop 1, arriving tomorrow!