Gears of War 3 is out, and we’ve been playing for many hours to deliver you the most in-depth secrets guide around. We’ve already told you how to level up fast, and what the best weapons are, but we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s on offer.
From weapons skins and avatar items, to game-changing Mutator unlocks and new characters, there is a massive range of collectibles waiting to be unearthed in Gears of War 3 multiplayer, and we’re here to help you grab them all.
Gears of War 3 boasts a wide range of unlockable characters, 32 of them to be exact. Both the Locust and COG start with a basic selection already unlocked from the start, such as usual suspects Marcus, Dom, Cole and Baird, while the basic Locust enemy types, and Queen Myrrah are fighting on the other side.
To unlock the rest, you simply need to meet certain conditions while levelling up in campaign or multiplayer, and hitting certain targets during online matches. Here is the list in full.
Ranked character unlocks
Soldier in COG Gear: Rank up to level two
Locust Miner: Rank up to level three
Sam Byrne in COG armour: Rank up to level four
Locust Bloodmount rider: Rank up to level five
Dizzy: Rank up to level seven
Locust Hunter: Rank up to level eight
Jace Stratton in COG armour: Rank up to level ten
Theron Guard: Rank up to level 12
Clay Carmine in COG armour: Rank up to level 14
Classic Dom (Gears 1 & 2): Rank up to level 17
Locust Spotter: Rank up to level 20
Classic Cole (Gears 1 & 2): Rank up to level 23
Locust Flame Grenadier: Rank up to level 26
Classic Baird (Gears 1 & 2): Rank up to level 30
Ben Carmine in COG armour: Rank up to level 34
Locust Grenadier: Rank up to level 39
Anya without armour: Rank up to level 45
Colonel Hoffman: Rank up to level 50
Locust Elite Hunter: Rank up to level 60
Anthony Carmine in COG armour: Rank up to level 75
Medal character unlocks
Unarmoured Marcus: Complete the Gears of War 3 campaign
Classic Marcus: Earn the silver ‘Veteran’ medal (awarded for playing many multiplayer matches)
Cole in Thrashball gear: Earn the gold ‘MVP’ medal (awarded for being MVP many times in multiplayer)
Golden Locust Miner: Earn the gold ‘Rifleman’ medal (awarded for earning bronze medals for all three starting rifles in multiplayer)
Golden COG soldier: Earn the bronze ‘War Supporter’ medal (awarded for playing in multiple Gears of War 3 community events)
Golden Locust Hunter: Earn the gold ‘Master At Arms’ medal (awarded for earning bronze medals for all five starting weapons)
Chairman Prescott in COG armour: Earn the silver ‘Allfathers’ medal (awarded for earning a bronze medal in each multiplayer mode)
Savage Theron Guard: Earn the Onyx ‘I’m a Beast’ medal (awarded for completing all of Beast mode without losing a single round)
Aaron Griffin: Earn the Onyx ‘Big Money’ medal (awarded for earning a lot of cash in Horde mode)
Gold Cole Train: Complete ten matches as Cole in Thrashball gear during the Gears of War 3 beta
Locust Sniper: Earn the bronze ‘Headshot’ medal (awarded for achieving many headshots)
Locust Kantus: Earn the gold ‘Medic’ medal (awarded for reviving many squadmates)
Gears of War 3 also hides a wide range of unlockable weapon skins, that are tied to completing achievements in both previous Gears of War games, as well as hitting set targets in Gears of War 3. Here they are.
Golden weapons
Gold Lancer: Unlocked by playing a multiplayer game of Gears of War 3 online during first week of release, or by having the gold Lancer in Gears of War 2 already.
Gold Hammerburst: Unlocked by playing a multiplayer game of Gears of War 3 online during first week of release, or by having the Gold Hammerburst in Gears of War 2 already.
Gold Retro Lancer: Achieved 100 kills with the Gold Retro Lancer during the Gears of War 3 beta.
Gold Sawed-Off Shotgun: Earn the ‘Commando’ achievement in the first Gears of War (Complete all campaign acts on ‘Insane’ difficulty)
Gold Gnasher Shotgun: Earn the ‘Veteran Gear’ achievement in Gears of War 2 (Rank up to level 100, and win a match on all four Snowblind DLC maps)
Flaming weapons
Flaming Hammerburst: Participated in a match during the first Gears of War 3 beta week.
Flaming Lancer: Participated in a match during the second Gears of War 3 beta week.
Flaming Sawed-Off Shotgun: Participated in a match during the third Gears of War 3 beta week.
Flaming Gnasher Shotgun: Participated in a match during the fourth Gears of War 3 beta week.
Crimson Omen weapons
Crimson Omen Hammerburst: Earn the ‘Welcome to Beast Mode’ achievement (awarded for finishing all 12 waves of Beast Mode on any difficulty)
Crimson Omen Gnasher: Earn the ‘Welcome to Versus’ achievement (awarded for killing ten enemies in Team Deathmatch)
Crimson Omen Sawed-Off: Earn the ‘Welcome to Arcade Mode’ achievement (awarded for completing five Arcade campaign chapters)
Crimson Retro Lancer: Earn the ‘Welcome to Horde Mode’ achievement (awarded for surviving the first ten waves of Horde mode)
Team Insignia weapons
Team Insignia Lancer: Earn the bronze ‘Veteran’ medal (awarded for playing many multiplayer matches)
Team Insignia Retro Lancer: Earn the silver ‘Veteran’ medal (awarded for playing many multiplayer matches)
Team Insignia Hammerburst: Earn the gold ‘Veteran’ medal (awarded for playing many multiplayer matches)
Team Insignia Gnasher: Earn the Onyx ‘Veteran’ medal (awarded for playing many multiplayer matches)
Chrome Weapons
Chrome Lancer: Earn the ‘Don’t Hate The Player’ achievement from the first Gears of War (awarded for finishing with the most points in a ranked match)
Chrome Hammerburst: Earn the ‘Dirty, Dirty Horde’ achievement from Gears of War 2 (awarded for surviving the first ten waves of Horde in Gears of War 2)
Chrome Gnasher: Complete the campaign of all three Gears of War games
Chrome Sawed-Off: Earn at least one achievement in the PC version of Gears of War
Chrome Retro Lancer: Earn the ‘Domination’ achievement in the first Gears of War (awarded for completing 10 co-op campaign chapters as Dom)
Onyx Weapons
Onyx Lancer: Earn the onyx ‘Lancer’ medal (awarded for scoring many kills with the Lancer in multiplayer)
Onyx Hammerburst: Earn the onyx ‘Hammerburst’ medal (awarded for scoring many kills with the Hammerburst in multiplayer)
Onyx Gnasher: Earn the onyx ‘Gnasher’ medal (awarded for scoring many kills with the Gnasher in multiplayer)
Onyx Sawed-Off Shotgun: Earn the onyx ‘Sawed-Off’ medal (awarded for scoring many kills with the Sawed-Off shotgun in multiplayer)
Onyx Retro Lancer: Earn the onyx ‘Retro Lancer’ medal (awarded for scoring many kills with the Retro Lancer in multiplayer)
Gold Omen Weapons
Gold Omen skins for all of the five starting weapons will become unlocked once you hit level 100 in Gears of War 3, and this can be achieved by ranking up in all modes, which includes single, co-op and multiplayer varieties.
When you start playing Gears of War 3 online, you’ll find that you can’t pull off weapon-specific executions in multiplayer, only the unarmed version. To unlock specific weapon executions, you have to amass a set number of kills with each gun online. Here’s a break down of how many you need.
Lancer: 200 kills
Retro Lancer: 200 kills
Hammerburst: 200 kills
Gnasher: 200 kills
Sawed-Off: 200 kills
Longshot: 40 kills
Scorcher: 40 kills
Boomshot: 40 kills
Torque Bow: 40 kills
Boltok Pistol: 40 kills
Gorgon Pistol: 40 kills
Mulcher: 40 kills
Mortar: 40 kills
Digger Launcher: 40 kills
Hammer of Dawn: 40 kills
Oneshot: 40 kills
Cleaver: 40 kills
Comparable to Halo’s ‘Skulls’, you can tweak certain parameters in Gears of War 3’s Arcade and Horde modes by meeting certain requirements. We’ve listed how to earn each Mutator below, as well as explaining what each one does.
Big Explosions: Makes every explosion even bigger (awarded for earning 100 ‘Hail Mary’ ribbons in multiplayer, for scoring a Boomshot kill from 200 feet)
Big Head Mode: Gives all characters massive heads (awarded for earning the gold ‘Horder’ medal, for completing 100 waves of Horde mode)
Comet: When you roadie run, your charge gains power, and lets you kill enemies by simply running at them (awarded for earning the gold ‘Shock Trooper’ medal, for earning many ‘First Blood’ ribbons in multiplayer)
Enemy Regen: Allows enemies to regenerate health over time (awarded for earning the silver ‘Aficionado’ medal, for completing many Arcade chapters)
Flower Blood: Blood splatters are now replaced by flourishes of flowers (awarded for earning the silver ‘King of COG’ medal, for earning many ‘Ready For The Heavies’ ribbons)
Friendly Fire: You can hurt and kill your teammates (awarded for completing the campaign in four-player co-op mode)
Headless Chicken: Scoring a headshot on an enemy will cause them to go crazy and attack their allies for a few moments (unlocked from the start)
Infinite Ammo: Gives you infinite amo for every weapon in the game (awarded for earning 100 ‘Combat Engineer’ ribbons, for creating, repairing or upgrading five Horde objects in one deployment phase)
Instagib Melee: Each melee strike causes enemies to explode (awarded for killing 200 Wretches across all modes)
Laugh Track: Adds a cheesy laughter track to the game (awarded for earning bronze ‘Tour of Duty’, ‘For the Horde’, ‘I’m a Beast’ and ‘Warmonger’ medals)
Must Active Reload: Your gun always jams when reloading, unless you perform a perfect active reload (awarded for earning the silver ‘Active Reloader’ medal, for pulling off many perfect active reloads)
Piñata: Score bonuses drop from fallen enemies, which earn you bonus points in arcade mode (awarded for earning the gold ‘Investor’ medal, for earning a lot of cash in Beast mode)
Super Reload: Each successful active reload increases your bullet damage and clip size (awarded for earning the bronze ‘Master At Arms’ medal, for getting 100 kills with all five starting weapons)
Vampire: Regen health is turned off, and instead, you must kill enemies to get health (awarded for earning 200 ‘Executioner’ ribbons, for getting the most executions in one multiplayer match)
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