As you can see, I did the most damage.
(That actually is a bug…)
Now first off, this works best in Horde Frenzy but also works very well in normal Horde. There’s quite a few things I’m going to cover here to be most efficient as a Jack without only having to smelt weapons (in Frenzy you should actually never have to smelt weapons, a Forge is pointless and you’re better off with Taps).
I have been playing Jack lately since I noticed you’ll most likely never be able to grind his cards in Escape. Being the boring support role really got on my nerves so I started to experiment a little bit up to the point that I almost entirely changed my card setup. Fun fact, this was doable already since the beginning when Gears 5 was released, I just never noticed…
So first off, at launch, I had the following card setup:
However, I quickly noticed that Healing Upgrade is pointless and I exchanged it with Explosive Hijack. Therefore, the card setup I was running until recently was this one:
This is probably also a pretty standard setup that plenty of people are using.
With the past being covered, let’s move on to today!
Horde Frenzy is finally available as a game-mode since OP4. Jack may sound pointless in a Horde Frenzy, but he is actually really really good and he doesn’t have to smelt any weapons at all. Time to show you the card setups I’m running for Horde and Horde Frenzy!
Horde
Horde Frenzy
I believe it makes sense to explain, why I swapped off Healing Upgrade and Repair Speed first or why I even used them to begin with.
Pre OP4, I wasn’t really aware that Healing Upgrade is kinda pointless. Being able to heal a teammate faster makes no sense on Master since they’ll get insta-revived when you’re keeping the healing-beam on your teammate and usually your teammate goes down with a couple shots anyways, regardless of the faster healing.
Repair Speed was sometimes useful if you had a bad engineer and a lot of fortifications. Nowadays however, most Hordes don’t run as many fortifications anymore as there used to be, so you can also help enough with your regular base-repair-speed. The only advantage is to keep Taps alive longer but there isn’t really any point since you’re usually then taking the risk of getting damaged.
Now let’s get back to the ways of Jack, the Boss-killer.
How to properly use your Hijack Ultimate
Obviously you’re usually the guy who smelts everything and heals your teammates. But this can be very boring very quickly and it is always nice to actually shoot some enemies every once in a while. The Hijack Ultimate let’s you do that exactly. The problem is, whenever you’re hijacking an enemy, you can not pickup Cog Tags or really help your friends when they’re down, since you’re usually in relatively close-combat. But if you’re teammates always go down, then you might consider working with a different team anyways.
To properly benefit from Hijack, you need to keep certain enemy-types in mind which are most efficient, and it is very important that you kill at least 5 enemies to keep your Ultimate for a very very long time. With execution rules on, this means you’ll either have to kill enemies that don’t go down, or you have to be close to them to easily land a finishing blow before a teammate steals your kill. With Backstab, you have to land finishing blows, unlike Marcus who only has to deal damage. However, in close-combat you’re very vulnerable even if your hijacked enemy has more health and does more damage than usual. I’ll get through those details of the enemy-types a little later.
Hidden stats during Hijack
Hijack comes with a lot of hidden stats that you may not be aware off. Unfortunately, the Horde modifiers do not apply to the enemy type (e.g. double health or double damage), however the enemy itself already comes with increased stats. I’m not 100% sure but by the looks of it, any enemy you hijack, if not already damaged, comes with x3 health and x3 damage. In addition, your hijacked enemy starts off with a little bit of Stim when not already damaged too much. The hijacked enemy also heals itself when taking cover long enough which is key to keeping your hijacked enemy. You have to be in close-combat, yet always need a way to fall back and recover your health. Also very important to note is, Backstab not only grants you up to 25% more Ultimate duration, in addition it also slows down the Ultimate timer by a certain amount (probably by the same amount of Backstab). This is very important to know since this will have you keep the Ultimate throughout the entire wave and makes you the boss-killer that you can be eventually. It will be slowed down so much eventually, that it looks like the Ultimate will never ever run out. Here a little showcase of how it can look like (I killed all enemies on the first wave of a Horde Frenzy):
Enemy types to Hijack
The enemies you’re looking for are usually the following types:
Imago (Juvie sets - wave 1), it is so strong in super close combat to down most enemies with a single mag or at max two mags even if they have double health. Focus on the Juvies first to quickly extend your Ultimate duration and then focus on Imagos. If you have Rejects, shoot their lags off and stand next to the Reject for a bit until it initiates self-destruct, then move on.
Hunter (Leech sets - wave 2), a Hunter can very quickly snipe enemies. Focus on Leeches and if you have a Marcus, hook up with him if he’s not too far away. Otherwise play your own game and stay close in combat. Headshots help a lot but are not a must.
Boomshot Scion (Leech sets - wave 4), these guys are massive killers. Usually one active Boomshot kills any Drone. Focus on Drones and Rejects, then deal with the bigger ones.
DR-1 Devestator (Deebee sets - wave 4), unfortunately deebee waves are a bit tricky but DR-1 Devestators with their Salvos can quickly get rid of enemies. With double health they’re still a bit bad so you’ll have to focus on trackers first. They’re unfortunately also relatively slow but there isn’t really any better enemy type you can use.
Elite Drone (any set - wave 7), these fellows are by far the most powerful Hijack that you can go for. They absolutely obliterate any enemy, yet you still want to focus on smaller enemies first to quickly extend your Ultimate. It is not recommended to sit next to Marcus since you’ll only down the enemies and you have to be up close to kill them. Eitherways, these will be your guys to terminate bosses.
Mulcher Scion (Leech set - wave 8), besides Elite Drones, you can also go for Mulcher Scions which are even stronger since they’ll melt through enemies and have a super short cooldown on their heavy weapon. You still have to be relatively close but you can also be at medium range (max. 15 meters) and the enemy still shatters into pieces.
Any other enemy type isn’t really worth going for. If playing Frenzy, the enemies obviously can appear in earlier waves already.
Handling in close-combat
As told very early on, you have to be in close-combat which puts you at a risk of losing your Hijack quickly if you’re not careful. It is very important that you’re relatively close to a huge low-type enemy-set at the beginning to quickly extend your Ultimate. Most enemies will go down and you therefore have to stand next to them to kill them. Never ever use your melee, it’s slow and weak. Kill them off with bullets. Also never reload your gun manually, instead waste all bullets in the mag. This will give you a chance of an active reload which will make the gun much stronger. Keep your cover pieces in mind where you can fall back. If your Omen circle starts to get really red, retreat and wait until your health is recovered. Try shooting the first enemy on a distance, then walk up to him to finish him off. Again, never melee or execute an enemy, use your gun and shoot them, even if they’re down, it’s much faster.
Killing bosses
Finally, since you know all the above, you shouldn’t have much troubles to figure out how to kill the bosses. First extend your Ultimate by killing at least 5 enemies, by then your Ultimate should be long enough to deal a lot of damage against bosses. You always want to get rid of the small enemies first since usually those are the ones killing your teammates, not the bosses. And it also makes it much easier to fight against the bosses without those small minions shooting at you every time.
Killing a Flock is straight forward. Killing a Snatcher is just shooting the belly. Both of them can’t do much against a Hijacked enemy. Killing a Carrier just means having a little bit of distance, otherwise it’ll grab you. Killing a Matriarch means pretty much the same and obviously you need to shoot her in the back. Killing a Kestrel can be annoying. Its rockets deal massive damage so you need to keep an eye out for those. Other than that, just shoot the engines. And finally, killing a Swarmak is best done by going for the blisters on its back. Your teammates will almost always shoot it at the front but never really be able to destroy the blisters at the back. The hijacked enemy has easy going for its back due to its health and usually this will grant you also the finishing blow on the Swarmak.
Recharging the Ultimate
There is two ways you can recharge your Ultimate quicker. Marking enemies and zapping enemies. Zapping enemies is risky and usually only worth on enemies that are close to the base. Marking can be really helpful especially if a Marcus is just blasting through the waves. Just keep spamming that analog stick (or whatever button it is on PC). 
And that’s about it. I haven’t really recorded anything so sorry for the huge texts you’ll have to read through.
