It’s been a year since Gears of War 4 landed on store (and digital) shelves and the birthday celebrations are winding down. Like a double-punch of awesome, our birthday is followed by the October Update arriving this Monday, October 23rd!

This Update is a milestone for us for many reasons. Not only does it deliver the last two maps for Gears of War 4, but it also includes support for our incoming Xbox One X Enhancements. We’ll be talking more about the specifics of our Xbox One X Enhancements VERY soon. Stay tuned.

Check out the video above for your first look at this month’s map drop – Fuel Depot and Lift Apex!

Map Drop

Fuel Depot

That rush for Longshot in the trucks and that first dual sniper showdown is still as nailbiting as it was over 10 years ago – prepare to experience it all in a fresh light with the return of Fuel Depot to Gears 4!

Fuel Depot’s larger size provides ample opportunities to flank and catch opponents out in the open, while the warehouse gives Gnasher players a chance to shine with plenty of cover. The small windows of visibility offered by the warehouse shutters are still great for harassing your opponents with a Lancer – provided the enemy Sniper doesn’t take your head off first!

Lift Apex

Lift Apex builds upon the spirit of the original by re-imagining the design of the map without the mechanics of a moving lift and expanding territory. Set in an Imulsion Extraction Facility right in the middle of the Serano ocean, this ocean-bound elevator introduces a faster and more tactical experience than its original inspiration.

The battlefield has been redefined in small and large ways that will change the fights you think you know – from the faster flow from spawn to the numerous cover changes that offer different solutions to tackle each part of the map.

Without the movement of the lift in play, the action is fierce from the second you leave spawn thanks to two immediately available Power Weapons and Frags to fight over. The submarine bay offers a new enclosed defensible position (which is also great for Horde!) with a nearby EMBAR or Longshot that – if you’re brave enough to secure it – is the perfect tool to punish opponents from this elevated position.

New strategies will emerge thanks to timed shutters that can be closed by players in the Control Room, offering a window of protection for a limited amount of time. Use it to cover your back while crossing from mid, to force opponents into fighting up close and personal for a ring or simply to deny sightlines.

Season Pass holders can play both of these maps first with Double XP and 20% Bonus Credits from Monday 23rd October. These maps will be available for all to play for free in Public Matchmaking on October 30th.

Season Pass

The last Map Drop for Gears of War 4 also marks the end of our Developer Playlists with Double XP and 20% Bonus Credits. We’ve had a ton of fun playing with our Season Pass holders on the newly released maps the second they become available, and we hope you have too.

Since there will be no more Double XP and 20% Credit Bonus, we’re excited to introduce a new bonus in the coming months called the ‘Map Owned’ bonus. This bonus will offer a permanent percentage increase in XP and Credit gain for any maps you own whenever you play on them in Public Versus or Horde.

This means every player who owns Gears of War 4 will get this bonus across the 10 original maps – but only Season Pass holders will get this bonus across ALL 34 maps in the game whenever they play! Any individual purchases of Maps made separately also come with this bonus when played in Public Matchmaking.

The Road Ahead

There’s plenty more to come from Gears of War 4 in 2017! Halloween is just around the corner with new characters to collect, new weapon skins to earn and some spooky-themed events!

Following that, we’ll be leading into our month-long celebration of the 11th Anniversary of Gears of War! November is going to be jam-packed with things to do and new things to collect all in the midst of our launch on Xbox One X and we can’t wait to share more.

Before You Go

We have a few tips to share for those of you ready to jump in to our October Update.

Our October Update makes further optimizations to the storage it requires on your hard drive for both Xbox One and Windows 10. Expect a bigger download, but even with the new content delivered in this Update, your overall file size for Gears 4 will be smaller than it is today.

The October Update also requires the latest Xbox One Console Update. To download this Update in advance of the Gears of War 4 October Update, head to Settings -> Updates to manually update your console.

Planning on picking up an Xbox One X? You can pre-download our Xbox One X Enhanced content before you own your console by going to System -> Download 4K Game Content. Once this Update releases, you’ll be able to manually download the content for easy transfer (via external HDD or local network) once your console joins your Xbox family.

Don’t forget that only the Xbox One X has the power to take advantage of our Enhanced content, so please do not toggle this option if you’re not planning to upgrade. You’ll just be taking up storage space!

Have a great weekend Gears fans – we’ll see you on Monday to battle it out on Lift Apex and Fuel Depot!

TC