Alright Gears, Listen up! Chairman Fenix is here to give you a debriefing on how to improve your horde gameplay for Gears of War 3. Whether you are just starting your horde journey from the ground up or have been grinding through those waves; I’m here with several different improvements that can help cruise through all fifty waves with ease. Let’s get started from beginning, and work our way up into the more advanced tactics!

Step 1: Find Your Role in the Squad

Let’s face the facts, no one likes to play with people they don’t know, and it‘s hard to enjoy of a game type alone. This gametype relies heavily upon teamwork, communication, and most of all execution. When playing with friends you already know what needs to be done, and more than likely have some or all tools for those more advanced levels. Although this isn’t the case if you are entering this gametype with group of random people; here are things that you should know upfront.

1. How do my teammates play?
2. Do they have headsets to communicate?
3. How are we going to execute our plan of attack?

 
If you don’t have the opportunity to have these questions answered before the map starts, or if you happen to join mid-fight, then sit back a few rounds and watch how your teammates play to figure out what strategy you want to run. One person may play very aggressive and charge out into the middle of the fray screaming, “Come at me, bro!”. While that isn’t particularly a legitimate strategy, you almost have to be prepared for anything horde. One person may sit at the top with a Hammerburst and just rain bullets down on anything that moves. We’ll break down more play styles in upcoming articles. For now, you have to learn to crawl before you can walk.

Now, once you have a feel for how your team is going to play, communicate via your Xbox Live headsets to confirm a plan of attack for the rest of the map. However, one player usually is missing a microphone or is shy, doesn’t like to talk to people or strangers. This is where one of my new favorite components in this game comes in at, spotting. With a simple click of the left stick (or if you re-arranged your button set up, remember what button you set your spotting trick to), you can light up your enemy for all your friends to rain bullets down upon. Amazing little thing that can be used during play, or in the ghost cam if you are unlucky and happen to die during play. Why is it so important? If the “come at me, bro“ player is about to get flanked by all of the bigger locust, he better be ready to either fight to the death, or run like a girl if no one is giving him cover fire. To be honest, no one wants to run their emergency plan because they are the last player alive, but sometimes, it’s all you have.

Speaking of emergency plans, do you have one that is almost always ready to be executed? Remember, not all plans are full-proof. One well placed ink from a Kantus, one well thrown frag from a Grenadier Elite, one well timed Grinder/Mauler combo and it’s all over but the crying for that wave or run for the top of the leaderboards. Any plan can be developed on the fly if need be, but the location of where to execute that plan is what you want to plan ahead for as well. There should always be a main plan and an emergency plan for when you get sent up the creek without a paddle.

Step 2: Location, Location, Location.

Not only is it the key strategy in real estate, it also dictates a good portion of how you can plan and plot for the long haul in horde mode. If you are the type to run up and grab the first outpost, chances are you are NOT planning accordingly and need to pay attention, ya yellow bellied maggot. You are dragging your team down by going for the first shiny outpost without prior discussion with your teammates first. If you are just joining into the fight, get your backside over to where the party has already begun and start helping with the fortifications for the outpost.

A great outpost has four things:

1. Elevation for Snipers and Hammerburst/Lancer fire
2. Choke Points to funnel enemies into
3. Exit Strategies for when it hit’s the fan.
4. A Command Center for when it REALLY hit’s the fan

 
Even if you have 2-3 out of the 4 things listed, you have a viable place to start hunkering down.

We’ll get into how you will instinctively know if a certain place is good enough for hunkering down in the next part. For now, let’s move onto what makes each location a great place to hold up at.

Step 3: Mind your barriers, turrets, sentries, decoys, command centers, and the silverback.

Here is your bread and butter. This is what will make or break your starting position. Each maps outposts have a set number of barriers, turrets, sentry guns, decoys, and command centers with a lone silverback usually sitting in the middle of the map. While you’re going to learn next article about using your instincts to figure out where the best place to hold up is, right now your going to learn the pros and cons of each fortification.

Barriers

Pros: Slows down the enemy. Cheap fortification to repair if you keep it at level 2. Very good for creating choke points with using the electric and laser fence. If you use your ears you can figure out which razor wire your enemies are coming thru. Decent health.

Cons: Can be very expensive to repair at higher levels. If you walk thru the electric and laser fence you are temporarily left with no barrier (which can be hurtful in a time where you have to run like hell). Getting to a level 3 or 4 barrier will cost a pretty penny which can be spent elsewhere.

These are always the first line of defense and a damn good one to boot. Keep it cheap and it’s cost effective.

Turret

Pros: Conserves your main ammo supply. Has to be bought in certain situations for the bonus wave. Very powerful. Can one man army a wave. Average health.

Cons: Will nickel and dime you if you use it all of the time. The game puts some of the turrets in the oddest of places. Going past level 3 will only net you more health and defense, which you really don’t need.

Very, very powerful fortification and something I recommend you having 2 of if the command post has them.

Decoy

Pros: Can kill multiple enemies with the explosion it can create. Can be stuck with grenades to make more explosions happen. Its name says everything it does.

Cons: Weak in health. Can be shot from afar to be destroyed. Those grenades you stick to it can kill you too if you stand too close.

The Decoy does just what it is designed for, becomes a distraction so that you can run/shoot anything that is shooting at it. Works very good when you are in a tight situation and need an escape.

Sentry Gun

Pros: Does not need a player to be standing in it to shoot. Can slow down and damage the enemy. Has stopping power at higher levels. An annoyance or distraction to the locust horde. Combo’s well with a decoy.

Cons: Sucks in the health department. Costs way to much to upgrade. Damages itself, so you have to repair it after every round if you want to keep it around. Reaching deep in the pockets to repair it after you decide to upgrade it. Only good if you REALLY want to use it.

To be honest, I do not recommend using this unless you really want to use it. It is not that good of a fortification.

Command Center

Pros: Helps with completing certain objectives for the bonus wave. Can kill a lot of enemies when upgraded on a good map. Has a different upgrade when you an in an in-closed roof map.

Cons: It is very in-accurate at times. Difficult to use two on one map.

The big red button. This can work wonders on every map, and it can have very large in-accuracies for reasons unbeknownst to any of us. Upgrade to the level of your liking.

Silverback

Pros: Walking cover. A literal tank. The rockets on this thing tear apart anything they come into contact with. Works very well in a tight space. Best used if you want to choke all the enemies into one certain choke point. The chain gun is very beastly and has a rapid cool down time.

Cons: Buying this, the rocket upgrade, and the repairs that sometimes go into this beautiful piece of work are just UNGODLY high.

While buying everything you need for the Silverback and sometimes the repairs are high, this thing is worth the purchase if you just park it in some random corner and use it only when the time calls for it. I’ll explain more where this beauty is concerned at a later time.

Got all of that? Good! I’m not through with you yet though soldier, be sure to come back for the Intermediate and Advanced level of learning for Horde.