Gears of War E-Day Beginner's Guide: What to Know Before Launch

Gears of War: E-Day is not a remaster, a remake, or a soft reboot. It's a prequel set 14 years before the 2006 original, developed by The Coalition alongside People Can Fly, covering the single worst day in the franchise's history: Emergence Day, when the Locust Horde erupted from beneath the planet Sera and nearly ended human civilization in hours. If you've never touched a Gears game, this is the designed entry point. If you've played every entry since 2006, expect your muscle memory to get punished. This guide covers everything you need before October 6.

What is Gears of War: E-Day?

The campaign takes place in and around Kalona, a fictional city with a stadium, industrial waterfront, airfield, and dense residential neighborhoods. The Locust invasion spreads across all of it as the story progresses. You play as one of four soldiers in Bravo Squad, and the game lets you pick any of them from the very first mission, whether you're going solo or jumping into co-op.

The story also answers a question longtime fans have always had: how did the Lancer Assault Rifle and its chainsaw bayonet actually come to exist? E-Day tells that origin story, with Marcus Fenix directly involved in its development during the earliest chaos of the invasion.

Choose your Bravo Squad member

Related guide·Gears of War: E-Day

Is Gears of War: E-Day on Xbox Game Pass?

Gears of War: E-Day hits Xbox Game Pass on October 6. Here's which tiers get it, what edition you receive, and how to upgrade.

Who is in Bravo Squad?

Four soldiers, four very different backstories:

• Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago are young COG soldiers still adjusting to civilian life after the Pendulum Wars. Their friendship is under strain because of the recent death of Dom's older brother, Carlos.
• Mags Carter is a former Gear who left the military and took work at Kalona's Imulsion refinery. She's a hardened veteran with complicated history with the COG.
• Lucas Reyes is a young cadet and communications officer who, until Emergence Day, had never seen actual combat.

The full campaign is playable as any of the four from mission one. That's not a cosmetic choice — each character brings their own perspective to the same events.

What's actually new in the combat?

This is where E-Day separates itself from every prior entry. The cover-based, chainsaw-Lancer formula is still the backbone, but the movement system has been rebuilt more aggressively than any previous Gears game.

Jumping is in the series for the first time, opening up rooftops, crumbling structures, and elevated flanking routes that older games simply didn't have. Alongside that, you can slide out of a sprint, climb onto vehicles and structures, and vault into low cover significantly faster than before.

Several classic close-quarters mechanics are gone entirely. Chainsaw dueling, meat shields, grenade tagging, vault kicking, and Yank and Shank have all been removed. In their place are two new systems:

• The Rage meter, built through sustained accurate fire at mid-range, which you activate for burst damage or to survive being pushed out of cover.
• The lunging system, which handles gap-closing and lets you dodge telegraphed heavy attacks from elite enemies.

How should you approach enemy encounters?

The enemy AI is built to punish static positioning. Stay in one piece of cover too long and Locust Drones will maneuver around your flanks. Threat prioritization determines whether you survive the mid-to-late campaign.

Snipers are your first target, always. They hold long sightlines and track you the moment you leave cover. Leaving one alive while you focus on ground troops means a fast death. Boomers are the opposite problem: they don't flank, they just advance. Constantly. You need to fall back systematically from cover to cover while applying sustained fire to build your Rage meter, not rush them with a shotgun.

What weapons should you prioritize?

Ammo economy is tighter in E-Day than in previous entries. The expanded map design and longer firefights mean you can't just grab whatever's on the ground and push forward. Building a balanced loadout through the weapon customization system is the approach that works.

New weapons join the returning roster: the Gut Puncher grenade launcher and the Incinerator shotgun are confirmed additions alongside the Lancer, Gnasher, and Longshot.

Completing secondary objectives throughout the campaign yields the resources needed for weapon customization. Treat those side missions as mandatory, not optional.

Customize the Lancer for mid-range fights

What multiplayer modes are available?

Beyond the campaign, E-Day ships with a full multiplayer suite:

• 4-player online campaign co-op with crossplay between Xbox and PC
• 2-player split-screen on consoles
• 4v4 competitive Versus matches
• Horde Siege, a new 12-player mode where three squads defend Kalona together across 50 waves, with each player selecting a class: Assault, Marksman, Medic, or Breacher

For players who want to lock down beta rewards before launch, the complete beta rewards guide covers all 6 exclusive unlocks and the fastest ways to earn them.

Which edition should you buy?

Three editions at launch:

• Standard ($69.99): Full game, all modes, the Exfil Dom Legendary Character Skin and Exfil Legendary Weapon Skin Set as a pre-order bonus.
• Premium ($99.99): Everything in Standard, plus 5 days of early access from October 1, the Bravo Squad Signature Weapon Pack, five seasonal customization packs (starting with the Emergence Pack), and 1,000 Iron currency.
• Collector's Edition ($299.99): Everything in Premium, plus physical collectibles.

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers get E-Day on day one at no extra cost. If you want to know exactly how early access works and what it costs, the early access breakdown has the full picture.

For players who only want the campaign and multiplayer, Standard covers everything. The Premium and Collector's extras are cosmetics and physical items, not gameplay content.

Do you need to have played the original Gears games?

No. E-Day is set before the 2006 original and tells the story of how the Locust invasion began. The game is built as a new entry point. Knowing the later games adds context (you'll recognize where Marcus and Dom eventually end up), but nothing about the story requires prior knowledge of the series.

For everything else you need before October 6, including exact regional launch times, achievement unlocks, and the full Gears of War: E-Day strategy guide collection, the resources are ready to go.