The first wave of Heroes and Villains characters for Gears 5 are about to arrive this Wednesday with the introduction of the COG Gear, DeeBee, Warden and General RAAM!

What are Characters?

In Gears 5, a character is their identity – for example, Fahz, RAAM or Swarm Sniper are all considered Characters.

A character skin is usually a version of that character that looks different from their base look – for example, Batista is a skin for Marcus.

Unless otherwise listed, COG Team Characters – known as Heroes – come with unique gameplay for PVE with new Ultimates and Skills, along with Arcade Passives and Loadouts.

Swarm Team Characters – known as Villains – come with mirror versions of COG Team Arcade Passives and Loadouts to ensure you can always access the gameplay style you like in Arcade no matter which team you end up on (as long as you’ve unlocked the character)

And of course, outside of the gameplay they bring, all unlocked characters can be used as skins in standard Versus Multiplayer.

Now that you know what characters mean, here’s a look at each of the four characters joining the Gears 5 Roster.

COG Gear – Hero

Abilities In: Arcade, Escape, Horde

PVE Style: Support

PVE Ultimate: Team Revive – Instantly revive downed allies

PVE Passive: Enemies that die with your mark reduce the cooldown of your Ultimate

PVE Skills: 13

Arcade Passive: Bullets For Blood – Receive Active Reload Ammo for Kills

Arcade Loadout: Lancer, Talon, Flashbang

Arcade Weapon Tree: Retro Lancer (3), Random (5), Claw (6)

The backbone of the COG Army, the COG Gear is a strong support character that brings teammates back into the fight!

Their Ultimate Ability instantly revives teammates from across the battlefield, saving the day in both Horde and Escape. Their PVE Skills focus on supporting allies, including providing Stim to teammates and tougher damage resistance to keep them in the fight.

The COG Gear also comes with two base skins of the COG Gear – the Male Private Vermelo and the Female Private Casan!

DeeBee – Hero*

Abilities In: Arcade

Arcade Passive: X-Ray – See nearby enemies through walls

Arcade Loadout: Lancer, Talon, Smoke

Arcade Weapon Tree: Boltok (2), Overkill (4), Breaker Mace (6)

*Note: Due to DeeBee units being present in PVE modes, the DeeBee is one of the only exceptions where a COG Team Character (ie. Hero) will not have gameplay abilities in PVE.

Warden – Villain

Abilities In: Arcade

Arcade Passive: X-Ray – See nearby enemies through walls

Arcade Loadout: Lancer, Talon, Smoke

Arcade Weapon Tree: Boltok (2), Overkill (4), Breaker Mace (6)

General RAAM* – Villain

Abilities In: Arcade

Arcade Passive: Bullets For Blood – Receive Active Reload Ammo for Kills

Arcade Loadout: Lancer, Talon, Flashbang

Arcade Weapon Tree: Retro Lancer (3), Random (5), Claw (6)

*Note: Players who earned Gilded General RAAM through the Road to Gears 5 Challenges in Gears 4 will automatically unlock General RAAM as a Character for Arcade, including the base RAAM Character Skin.

Adding Characters To Your Collection

Adding characters to your collection can be done one of two ways – earning them via the new Totems system or purchasing them directly through the Gears 5 Store. We believe each character will take approximately 10 hours to earn – even faster if you’re good!

If you don’t feel up to the grind, each character is also available for purchase for 500 Iron. The choice is yours!

Earning Characters

Totems are your new way to unlock Characters in Gears 5, opening up a path of Challenges to complete in order to add the Character to your collection.

Craft Your Totem

Under the new Totems section in the Customization Menu, spend 100 Scrap to craft the Totem of any Hero or Villain character you want to unlock.

Complete Challenges

Equip your Totem to activate tracking for character challenges associated to the Totem. Note: Only ONE Totem can be active at a time and must be equipped to track progress.

Each Character has five objectives to complete in order to unlock. In this Character Drop, all Characters have the same four objectives with one unique objective themed to each character. Note that these do NOT track together – only for the equipped Totem.

Here’s a hint: XP and unique objectives can be earned while you’re completing your other objectives – so double up to get them done faster.

Objectives

XP: Earn 60,000 XP in Versus, Horde or Escape

Versus: Complete 40 Rounds of Versus

Horde: Survive 50 Waves of Horde (does not need to be in one match) – any difficulty

Escape: Survive 18 Acts of Escape – any difficulty

Unique Objectives

COG Gear: Get 200 assists as a COG Team character in Versus, Horde or Escape

DeeBee: Get 100 Reject kills in Horde or Escape

Warden: Eliminate 10 Wardens in Horde or Escape

General RAAM: Execute 30 COG characters as a Swarm character

Once you complete all Challenges, your character will unlock!

Characters are also available to purchase for instant access via the Gears 5 Store for 500 Iron, including 3 days of Bonus Boost.

Character Skins for Locked Characters

In future Tours and the Store, character skins will become available for characters you may have yet to unlock.

While you can purchase or acquire these Skins like any other, you need to have the character unlocked in order to use them. If you do end up in this situation, your character skins will be ready and waiting the second you unlock the character.

Speaking of character skins, we know you’ve been keen to get your hands on the Gears 5 Onyx Guard. In our next Tour of Duty, coming in December with Operation 2, you can earn the Onyx Guard skin for the COG Gear. The wait is almost over Gears fans!

All 4 Characters are available beginning today at 12pm PT! Who will you unlock first?