Every New Multiplayer Mode in Gears of War: E-Day Explained

It's only been less than two months since Gears of War: E-Day had its first gameplay footage shown off at the Xbox Games Showcase 2026, but The Coalition is ramping up fans' anticipation for the Gears of War prequel with an official multiplayer reveal of the game.

E-Day won't launch till Tuesday, October 6th, but players can get their hands on the game's multiplayer early if they pre-order E-Day, granting them early access to the multiplayer beta starting on Thursday, August 6th, with the public open beta starting on Thursday, August 13th until Monday, August 17th.

Here, players will be able to try out many new and familiar multiplayer modes across several maps based in the new COG city of Kalona, including the PvE Horde Siege and the PvP Versus.

A New, Chaotic Horde Mode

Ever since Gears of War 2, the Gears franchise has been synonymous with its intense PvE Horde Modes, pitting a handful of players against increasingly dangerous waves of Locust, Sires, Lambent, DeeBees, and Swarm in most Gears titles.

With E-Day being set on the titular Emergence Day that saw billions of people die on Sera, The Coalition strove to revamp Horde to reflect this day's chaotic nature, resulting in Horde Siege.

Unlike previous Horde Modes, Horde Siege will drop three teams of four players in massive maps, with each team being tasked to complete their own rapidly expanding and changing objectives that will often cause squads to stumble into one another and aid in fighting Locust threats.

Horde Siege will feature rotating daily missions for players to complete in various difficulties and variants of Horde Siege such as Rookie, Infantry, Commander, and Allfather difficulties, as well as Onboarding, Blitz, Siege, and Horde mission types.

Onboarding essentially acts as Horde Siege's tutorial mode, while Blitz features short 1-2 mission objectives that can be completed in 20 minutes, Siege features multiple, longer mission objectives that can be completed in 40 minutes, and Horde functions similar to Gears of War 4's Horde 3.0, having all players fight 10 waves of Locust that can last up to 60 minutes.

During Horde Siege, players will often be tasked with defending Resonation Imaging Geographers (R.I.G.s) that map Locust tunnels, but they can also be ordered to secure areas from Locust forces, repair damaged R.I.G.s, defuse Locust explosives, eliminate High Value Targets, collect COG intel, or deliver a power core to another squad's R.I.G.

Much like Gears of War 4's Horde 3.0, players can earn and collect Energy that can be spent at Supply Caches to purchase new weapons, equipment, and Squad Perks, but they can also be used to purchase or upgrade turrets in certain areas to aid in defense.

Before players are deployed, they must select a Siege Class, such as the tough, Sonic Disruptor-equipped Assault class, the close-range, Adrenaline Injector-equipped Breacher class, the sniper-like, Pulse Drone-equipped Marksman class, and the supportive, Stim Vaporizer-equipped Medic class.

Throughout Horde Siege matches, a limited-time Invasion Event may occur, causing all squads to form up and fight massive Locust bosses and their supporting units, such as Corpsers, Brumaks, Chained Brumaks, and Tempest-like Scoria.

Once every main objective is complete, all squads will be ordered to regroup at an extraction point and hold the line until a King Raven arrives to extract surviving players and end the match.

Gears' Classic Multiplayer Reinvented

Before Horde, Gears was famous for its intense PvP matches pitting squads of COG soldier players and equally deadly Locust troop players and players will be able to experience those same thrilling matches in a new way with E-Day's Versus.

Here, two teams of four COG and Locust players will always fight against each other, with each player using the same starting weapon loadout in various sub-modes such as Team Deathmatch, Conquest, Demolition, and Crucible.

Team Deathmatch is a traditional PvP mode pitting teams against each other until one team loses all remaining lives, while Conquest functions similar to King of the Hill, Demolition function's similar to Call of Duty's Search and Destroy, and Crucible function's similar to Halo's Oddball.

Versus will be split between social and ranked playlists, with social featuring quickplay and player vs. bot matches as well as limited-time events and modes like the upcoming Halloween Trick or Treat mode and ranked featuring a more competitive and progression-focused structure, granting players Skill Divisions and Ranks as they win or lose matches in the playlist.

Gears of War: E-Day won't feature a battle pass and players will instead be able to unlock most cosmetics by earning medals similar to those seen in Gears of War 3, unlocking achievements, completing seasonal or event challenges, completing matches, or earning and spending E-Day's digital Coin currency.

However, some multiplayer cosmetics can only be purchased, such as an upcoming 2026 Never Fight Alone bundle whose proceeds will go to the suicide prevention Crisis Text Line and the Metallica Legendary Ride the Lightning Weapon Skin Set.