Welcome to What’s Up, your weekly update on all the latest news, game updates and more in Gears 5 and beyond.

Here’s What’s Up in Gears this week:

Operation 2: Free For All

Thanksgibbing is back and crazier than ever

Boost Double Stars + Free Boost this Thanksgiving weekend

Division Reward Week: Lancer

Weekly Store and Supply Drop

Escalation Mode Update

Holiday Gift Guide 2019 Out Now

Operation 2: Free For All

The news is finally out there. Free For All will be making its return as part of the aptly named Operation 2: Free For All on December 11th 2019!

Free For All will be joined by the arrival of Heroes Lizzie Carmine and Baird as part of this huge update that includes new Characters, Maps, Modes (more than just FFA!) and more – and we’ll reveal all the details next week.

Don’t forget, if you are planning to complete Operation 1’s Tour of Duty, this means you have just over two weeks left to finish up Tour 1 before the arrival of Tour 2!

Feature Event: Thanksgibbing

It’s time for Thanksgibbing! Forget the leftovers and gather your Gears family and blow them to pieces with insane Cluckshots.

Arriving on Tuesday, Thanksgibbing is a variant playlist where everyone starts with a Cluckshot – a version of the Boomshot that fires hyper deadly chicken projectiles. (Why chickens on Thanksgibbing? Because of this beauty of a Gears 3 Easter Egg!)

In Gears 5, we’ve turned the Cluckshot up to 11 – it’s the Cluckshot you know from Gears 4 until you hit an active, making your projectiles flying chickens that will carpet bomb explosive eggs along their flight path.

Yes, we did just get to write a paragraph explaining we have carpet bombing chicken weapons in Gears.

Thanksgibbing Goodies

In addition to the Free Boost weekend, we’re also giving away some Turkey-themed goodies for logging in over the Thanksgibbing weekend!

Log in anytime during our Boost Double Stars event for Thanksgibbing to claim a free Cluckshot Boomshot Weapon Skin, Turkey Animal Mark, Cooked Turkey Mark and a Turkey Leg Mark!

Thanksgibbing will be available from Tuesday, November 26th at ~10am PT – Tuesday, December 3rd at ~10am PT.

Boost Bonus: Double Stars + Free Boost

As part of our Thanksgibbing festivities, we’ll be running an extended weekend of Boosted Double Stars in Tour of Duty from Thu, Nov 28 at 2am PT – Mon, Dec 2 at 2am PT!

Just like our Horde Hero event last week, everyone can get involved with Free Boost for every day you log in during the event. Here’s the full timings for the event including when you can claim each day of Free Boost:

Thursday Free Boost: 2am PT – 1:59am PT (Friday)

2am PT – 1:59am PT (Friday) Friday Free Boost: 2am PT – 1:59am PT (Saturday)

2am PT – 1:59am PT (Saturday) Saturday Free Boost: 2am PT – 1:59am PT (Sunday)

2am PT – 1:59am PT (Sunday) Sunday Free Boost: 2am PT – 1:59am PT (Monday)

New Earnable Content

Division Reward Week: Lancer

Animated Master Lancer Weapon Skin

Following the Ranking System update a few weeks ago, it’s time to grind for your next placement skin rewards!

Based on your placement within Divisions, you’ll received themed weapon skins for your Division and all those below it (for example, Gold Tier placements will earn the Bronze, Silver and Gold skins for the weapon of the week). This week’s weapon for Division Reward Week is the Lancer!

Remember, Divisions are about placing and holding your position rather than high watermark, so battle for your position throughout this week.

Division Placement Rewards will be awarded at the end of Operation 1 on December 11th, giving you an extra week to make it to the highest rank possible!

Escape Leaderboard Rewards

In case you didn’t know. Escape has Leaderboard Placement Rewards up for grabs every week for the Featured Hive and the 3 Past Hives available in Matchmaking. Here’s what’s up for grabs this week:

Forever: Infected Snub Skin (Top 1%), Infected Dropshot Skin (Top 10%)

Infected Snub Skin (Top 1%), Infected Dropshot Skin (Top 10%) The Clock: Infected Lancer GL Skin (Top 1%), Infected Torque Bow Skin (Top 10%)

Infected Lancer GL Skin (Top 1%), Infected Torque Bow Skin (Top 10%) The Trap: Infected Overkill Skin (Top 1%), Infected EMBAR Skin (Top 10%)

Infected Overkill Skin (Top 1%), Infected EMBAR Skin (Top 10%) Last Stand: Infected Gnasher (Top 1%), Infected Boomshot (Top 10%)

As with the Division Placement Rewards, placement based rewards will be awarded at the end of Operation 1 on December 11th.

Supply Content Drop

Supply Drops are another way to earn rewards in Gears 5, dropping you content from the Supply Pool every time you fill your Supply meter just by playing the game!

Here’s this week’s drop of Supply content available this Tuesday:

Weapon Skins: Relaxed (Breaker, Enforcer, Hammerburst, Lancer GL, Markza)

Banners: Hivebuster Comic Cover 2-A, Hiverbuster Comic Cover 2-B, Hivebuster Comic Cover 3-A, Hivebuster Comic 3-B

Weekly Store Items

This week’s Weekly Store Items feature a new skin for the lovable asshole Fahz Chutani and the ever-lovable Jack!

Lieutenant Chutani Character Skin

DB Industries Jack Character Skin

Lieutenant Chutani (Fahz) Character Skin – 500 Iron

DB Industries Jack Character Skin – 250 Iron

Animated Windflare Boltok Weapon Skin – 400 Iron

Trinity of Worms Banner – 100 Iron

Gears 5 Update

Last week, we released some new updates to Escalation as part of our ongoing work to improve the gameplay experience for both Ranked Escalation and the Competitive scene.

If you missed the news, head over to our announcement for full details on the changes.

We also changed how points are earned in KOTH and Escalation with a ring cap now worth 30 points and a break worth 10 points. We made this change so your score better reflects how we calculate ranked performance.

Holiday Gift Guide 2019

Last but not least, it’s almost December (how, when?!) which means – for many of us – gifting season is here.

Whether it’s for the Dom to your Marcus, the Sam to your Baird or the Reyna to your Kait, we’ve got you covered with our Gears Gift Guide including some brand new items just in time for the Holidays!

Check out our extensive Gears Holiday Gift Guide here.

Signing Off

That’s it from us this week! Your first peek at Operation 2 will become a big ol’ reveal next week as we dive deep into what you can expect.

Until then, see you online.

TC out.