Here it is, the Gears of War 4 June Update has been revealed as Rise of the Horde. This is an absolutely massive update, so let’s dive in. Due to the extreme length of the details for this update, we’re covering the necessities, with the full details available on the official website. Starting things off, there’s an official announcement trailer to cover the basics.
Here’s the trailer:
Now, here’s an extensive list of everything coming in Rise of the Horde.
New Skills
- Engineer
Flow – Take reduced damage while repairing fortifications
Overclock – Increase the rate which Weapon Lockers replenish ammo
Salvage – Enemies killed by your sentries have a chance of dropping ammo magazines - Heavy
Thick Skin – Take reduced damage from explosions
Berserker – While carrying a heavy weapon you deal more damage as your health gets lower
Last Stand – While carrying a heavy weapon you take less damage as your health gets lower - Scout
Dodge – Take reduced damage while roadie running
Speed Loader – Roadie running will reload your equipped weapon automatically with Active Reload rounds
Cloak – Being stationary and in cover for seconds will cloak you from enemies – leaving the cover or shooting will remove the cloak. Shoot enemies from Cloak for a small damage boost. - Sniper
Steady Hand – Take less damage and have reduced camera shake (when being attacked) while aiming or scoping
Magic Bullet – Critical hits with precision rifles (Longshot, Markza, EMBAR) penetrate through enemies and increase the damage of the next shot
Called Shot – Targets you mark take increased damage from all sources - Soldier
Siphon – Planted grenade kills cause enemies to drop more Power
Resupply – Regenerates one grenade every [X] seconds (up to starting loadout number)
Assault Rifle Accuracy – Assault Rifles become more accurate the longer they are fired while in cover
Boss loot drops AND MORE
Take those new Skills out into the field and defeat Bosses in Horde Matchmaking for new rewards – each Boss Wave you defeat at Wave 30, 40 and 50 will drop a singular random Horde Skill. Harder difficulties increase the likelihood of a rare drop, so challenge yourself for the best chance at an awesome drop.
We’ve also now added a new UI feature that now shows how many Power drops – and how much they are worth – are left on the field. While this benefits the whole team, Scouts can now rest safely at the end of the round knowing they cleaned up every possible Power drop out going into the next Wave.
Try Gears of War 4 Free
We also have some exciting news to share for Xbox One and Windows 10 gamers who haven’t jumped in to the Gears of War 4 experience yet. Beginning on June 9th and running until June 15th, we’re offering a limited time trial version of Gears of War 4 to download for free!
New Difficulty Levels: Inconceivable and Ironman
With new and improved skills also comes tougher challenges. Prepare to take on the toughest fight in Gears of War history with the new Inconceivable difficulty level, coming to both Campaign and Horde.
In addition, Ironman Mode comes to both Horde and Campaign with Rise of the Horde. Ironman means one simple thing – don’t die. In Campaign, one death will restart your game back to square one. In Horde, no COG tags will be dropped when you die and one failed wave spells the end of your run to Wave 50. You can toggle Ironman on any difficulty that suits you, and there’s some achievements out there to chase for fans willing to take on the ultimate high risk challenge! Plus, exclusive to Horde, Ironman adds a 5% XP bonus for all XP earned and XP Bounties completed during the match.
Earn 500G of New Achievements
A full list of the Achievements is available right here.
New Maps: Avalanche and Rust Lung
- Avalanche
The Gears of War 2 map you know and love is back. Set in a mountainside resort, this village sits below a mountain with an unstable build-up of snow at its peak. During the match, the snow avalanches onto the battlefield, killing anything in its path and changing the entire middle of the map. Prepare to fight for the Boomshot the moment the snow falls. - Rust Lung
This returning map from Gears of War 3 brings an intense close-quarters flavor to this month’s map drop. Cover in the middle of the map can be dropped or raised with the press of a button – sneak around your opponents flank to give them a nasty surprise as their cover disappears from right in front of them!
Crossplay Comes To Ranked
Xbox One and Windows 10 unite! We’re incredibly excited to enable Crossplay in Ranked Play beginning on June 6th, bringing Xbox and Windows players together in the battle to earn the highest rank possible.
For players who want to preserve the competitive spirit of console play, where all opponents run on similar hardware with similar equipment, we’ve added a Crossplay Toggle to enable Xbox One players to choose whether or not to match with players on Windows 10.
Additionally, there’s an absolutely massive list of new player rewards, special Season Pass owner rewards, Horde balance changes and more on the official website.
As a fan of Gears of War 4, I really have to say I’m happy with how regularly The Coalition has been providing updates and listening to the community. Hopefully this continues for many months to come. In the meantime, everyone on Xbox One and Windows 10 can enjoy Rise of the Horde when it releases on June 6th, 2017.
