Operation 7: Drop 1 - Reveal

The time has come to talk about Operation 7! This post will cover everything you can expect to see when the operation goes live on Tuesday, May 18.

Trailer

Before you dive into the full post, check out the Operation 7 trailer!

Characters

Hana Cole

Holding advanced degrees in biochemistry, toxicology and chemistry, Hana Cole is a gifted scientist who takes an unconventional approach to solving problems. Joining Colonel Hoffman in his fight against the Swarm, Hana's technological innovations are the secret behind Scorpio Squad's ability to destroy enemy hives from within.

Ukkon

The monster who creates monsters, Locust scientist Ukkon is responsible for genetically engineering many of the creatures that terrorized the people of Sera after E-day. In the early years of the Locust War, he also used Imulsion to create a new breed of biological horrors.

New Map Addition

Ephyra

The burning remains of the once-prestigious Estemont Hotel serve as the focal point of this Ephyra city block. Controlling the hotel is key, but numerous points of entry give ample opportunity to counterattack.

PvP

Some of the changes we're introducing in Operation 7 will automatically refresh existing content. Ranked is also one area where automatic refreshes will extend the experience. For Operation 7, we're introducing Competitive mode to do just that.

Competitive

Competitive is our updated ranked system for Gears 5, bringing leaderboards, more modes to compete in and more.

Gear Points have now been removed and we use a total points system for each playlist. The higher your total points, the better you have been performing. Reaching certain milestones in the leaderboards also grants special rewards, so check the section below for information on that.

Competitive – Leaderboards

As mentioned previously, Competitive will be adding leaderboards across each mode. At the start of Operation 7, we will be adding the following modes to the playlist:

• Control

• Team Deathmatch

• 2v2 Gnashers

• Free for All (8 players)

• Guardian

The flexibility of Competitive will mean we can add more modes over the course of the Operation. In the next two weeks, we'll be adding Execution 2.0 and Escalation.

With each mode having a leaderboard, we will shift to a placement system for each playlist. This leaderboard is seasonal which means they will reset at the start of each Operation.

Oh… and of course you can filter the leaderboard to compare yourself to your friends to see how you are faring against them!

In addition to all of this, you are also able to view each individual player's leaderboard stats and filter them by week/seasonal/lifetime!

A little more on those rewards!

1,000,000+ points

On Rank Graduation: Mark (same on each playlist) + 10,000 XP +2,000 Coins On Rank Graduation: Banner (variation per playlist) +15,000 XP +3,000 Coins

And that is not all! If you finish in the top 1,000 players in any of our Competitive playlists, at the end of a season, you will receive an exclusive Heroic weapon skin reward. Check out the full reward list below!

FFA 2v2 Gnashers Guardian

Assault Precision Power Power

• Loadout = Lancer, Gnasher, Snub, Boltok, Talon

• Assault = Enforcer, Hammerburst, Claw, Lancer GL, Retro Lancer

• Precision = Markza, Longshot, Embar, Torque Bow

• Power = Boomshot, Dropshot, Scorcher, Breaker Mace, Overkill

In Operation 7, the Heroic weapon set you can earn is called Heroic Obsidian. This can be earned if you are in the top 1000 players in one of the competitive playlists at the end of the season. Check below for a preview of it!

One last bit of exciting news to mention about leaderboards is that alongside the seasonal leaderboards, we will also be adding an all-time leaderboard for each mode, this will persist across Gears 5 forever, meaning the top spot is always in play!

PvP – Custom Versus Mutators & Swaps

Back in November 2020, we introduced unique mutators to the Gears 5 campaign as part of the Xbox Series X|S update. We've seen how well these were received, and we are happy to announce we are bringing some of these over to Operation 7- Drop 1 for use in your Versus custom matches!

• Headshot explosion

  • Cause an area of effect explosive on death

  • Cause confetti to fly around when headshotting an enemy player

• Health Regeneration modifiers

  • Health regens only in cover

  • Health regens on hit

  • Health regens on both hit & being in cover

• Low Gravity Death – the gibs of dead players float

• Voiced gun sounds – You just knew we had to bring this one in.

• And over 20 screen effect options!

Alongside the mutators, we have also added the ability to weapon swap the following weapons in Custom Versus:

• Pipe

• Snowshot

• Cluckshot

• Cupid's Torque Bow

• Golden Gun

We are so excited to see what custom variants you can produce! Look out for versus event playlists from us in the future featuring some of these mutators.

PvP – Custom Versus Progression

Also coming in Operation 7 Drop 1 will be the ability to gain multiplayer progression while playing through custom matches!

This includes the following:

• Multiplayer XP

• Stars granted for time played

• Daily and Tour of Duty Objectives

• Ribbons

While the progression is slightly slower than playing online matchmade matches of Gears, we feel this is still rewarding for those who like to focus on their custom matches.

PvP Tweaks & Crossplay

With Operation 7 Drop 1 we are introducing a Field of View option across all Xbox One devices, bringing console settings in line with PC.

We will be removing the crossplay option across Gears 5. Currently, we see 40% of our players disabling the crossplay option, significantly impacting the matchmaking times for our players on both PC and console.

With the field of view update coming in, the ability to plug a Mouse/Keyboard into your Xbox, plus the frame rate and input lag reduction on the new Xbox consoles we feel we are at a point where the parity between Xbox and PC is almost identical and confident enough in making this change going forward for Gears 5.

PvE

One of the most frequently asked questions we get in Gears 5 is about automatic card scrapping in PvE. We are happy to announce that in Operation 7 Drop 1 we will automatically convert your duplicated level 6 cards into Gear Coins!

If you have any acquired duplicated cards before this update, they will be converted into Gear Coins up to a total limit of 100,000 Gear Coins. Any future cards you acquire that are level 6 and duplicate will be scrapped for Gear Coins.

PvE – Mechanic ultimate change

And that is not all, we have changed the ultimate of the Mechanic. Previously they would deploy a group of electric trackers which became more of a hindrance than a benefit.

We are replacing this with a new ultimate the Mounted Turret. When activated, the engineer will deploy a turret that any player can jump on and use against the enemy.

This change also means that we will be changing the skill card "Bloody Shrapnel" to "Shredder Rounds." This skill card will now cause bleeding damage for any player using the Mechanic's mounted turret.

Note: Your "Bloody Sharpnel" card progress will carry over to "Shredder Rounds."

PvE – Promotional class tweaks

Another frequent question we often see is around the viability of the promotional classes in Gears 5, when Operation 5 released the promotional classes fell to the wayside in terms of their usefulness.

We are happy to share the following changes coming to the promotional classes in Operation 7 Drop 1.

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 for 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.

PvE – Three new maps

This Operation drop also sees the release of three new maps for Horde – Atrium, Turbine, and Command. These three maps will be playable via a special Horde Frenzy event to kick off Operation 7!

PvE tweaks

And finally, we are making additional tweaks across the PvE side of the game, check out the list below:

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, Wakaatu)

• Matchmaking into Horde Frenzy will no longer frequently place players in Daily Challenge lobbies.

• Added the Flashbang Grenade to the Fabricator.

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.

Tactician

• Tactician's ultimate no longer has +50% increased duration in Horde.

Demolitions

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

Combat Medic

• Intervention will now revive multiple downed players simultaneously.

Tour of Duty

A new Operation means a new Tour of Duty! Before we dive into the reward for each category, we wanted to let you know that we have changed a few daily challenges across Gears 5.

• 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:

  • Adjusted1 starIncreased from 15,000 to 25,000
  • Adjusted2 starIncreased from 35,000 to 50,000
  • Adjusted3 starIncreased from 70,000 to 75,000

• Damage in Horde or Escape challenge changes:

  • Adjusted1 starIncreased from 25,000 to 100,000
  • Adjusted2 starIncreased from 50,000 to 200,000
  • Adjusted3 starIncreased from 70,000 to 300,000

• Damage in Versus challenge changes:

  • Adjusted1 starDecreased from 15,000 to 10,000
  • Adjusted2 starDecreased from 37,500 to 20,000
  • Adjusted3 starDecreased from 70,000 to 30,000

• Drone Elites challenge changes:

  • Adjusted1 starDecreased from 7 to 5
  • Adjusted2 starDecreased from 15 to 10

• Power in Horde challenge changes:

  • Adjusted1 starIncreased from 10,000 to 15,000
  • Adjusted2 starIncreased from 22,500 to 30,000
  • Adjusted3 starIncreased from 35,000 to 40,000

We of course have the medal categories returning for another Tour with new challenges to take on, see the full list below!

Basics – 2,000 Gear Coins on completion

Weapons – 2,000 Gear Coins on completion

Into the Jungle – 3,000 Gear Coins on completion

Top of the Food Chain – 5,000 Gear Coins on completion

Escape – 5,000 Gear Coins on completion

Horde – 5,000 Gear Coins on Completion

Versus Basics – 3,000 Gear Coins on Completion

Competitive – 3,000 Gear Coins on Completion

Versus Events – 3,000 Gear Coins on completion

All the stars earned from the dailies and medals will go towards earning the following rewards in the Tour:

Operation 7 drops May 18, and we are looking forward to it! See you there – in the meantime, have a great week everyone, and watch our socials for more.

TC