I'm lost with characters unlocks

Gears 5
#1

Ok I’m probably super late and this is going to be annoying for people. But I really don’t understand how to unlock new characters.

I got the game to play with my brothers, we played the original trilogy way back. Now we’ve all got our own lives but we make time to play games still now and then. We want to get back into horde and play with new characters but can’t figure out how to do it. It’s really not clear.

It seems the only option is to purchase skins which seem a little overpriced, or there might be an insane grind to do to get them? I don’t want to pay for a character that isn’t fun to play, as now the card system (I hate these card systems in every game) and the perks mean your character choice is tied to your playstyle. I can’t just get my favourite. I like that each character plays differently but it feels a bit too much.

There’s totems, irons, scrap, cards, prices. Xp, achievement style goals. If I have to pay to unlock a character can you not just tell me how much you want instead of showing irons?

I miss the GoW3 system. We’ve been talking about just going back to that instead,

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#2

100 Iron = $1 so keep that in mind.

Characters =/= Skins anymore, like Rainbow Six or Overwatch if you’re familiar.

All Characters are free to unlock if you make a totem with scrap and do the challenges. All OP3 characters and going forward will only require you to grind 30k XP for their totem while previous ones were more complicated.

There’s also the $20 OP Bundles that come with all the characters from any given OP, a weapon set and some Iron.

Skins can be earned in the TOD by gaining stars–or they can be bought in the store for $2-5. Other than that there’s no real difference.

And offering characters and skins for Iron instead of direct purchase makes it easier for TC to sell you too much Iron.

In the TOD you can earn $5 worth of Iron, enough for one skin.

So all the characters are free if you grind for them. Or you can pay for them.
But skins can only be unlocked through the TOD (Grinding) some VS events (Like Thrashball Cole) or bought through the Store for cash/Iron only.

You can only get $5 of Iron through the TOD as I mentioned, there’s no way to grind it. Other than that you have to pay for it.

And it should remind you, but buying a skin for a character doesn’t unlock that character itself so you cannot use the skin until you unlock the character.

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#3

Okay, thanks man!. So how do I get scrap?

#4

Playing the game should give supply drops and a duplicate supply drop gives scrap. It will take a while at first, but eventually you will get constant scrap to keep on crafting the totems

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#5

Scrap is something that you naturally gain over time.

There is a system called Supply Drop which automatically gives you randomised items from the Supply Drop pool. You cannot scrap them, but over time as you build up yout collection you will get duplicates which are automatically scrapped. Unfortunate as a result you probably won’t get very much scrap to begin with because if you’re new to the game you won’t have many Supply items, and therefore won’t be getting duplicates.

Supply Drop items are given based on your play time. I don’t know the precise calculations, but it’s something like one item per 30 minutes or something similar. You can buy Boost which doubles the rate, but I personally think it’s poor value so wouldn’t recommend it.

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#6

Going back to Gears of War 3 is never a bad thing either. It’s a solid game and still holds up.
Just remember that iron purchases are entirely optional. All characters can be earned free.

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#7

All characters are free. Skins are optional.

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#8

You get scrap by playing the game. Any mode. The longer you play the more scrap you will get (usually).

Scrap is based on duplicate cosmetics. If you get a duplicate skin, banner, etc. it is automatically scrapped. The amount of scrap you get is based on the rarity of the duplicate.

To unlock a hero for Horde: first spend 100 scrap to craft the totem for that hero. Equip the totem. Do all the challenges for that totem. Restart your Xbox and the hero is now playable.

A lot of heroes are already available and don’t need to be unlocked. But be aware that horde has changed. Heroes have special abilities and skill cards they get as they level up. There are no duplicate heroes allowed in the same horde match. And lots of other details I’ll skip for now.

TL;DR is that PvE in this game is a grind fest. There are multiple complex economies running in this game and they all require grinding.

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#9

I’ll add one more detail: you can pay real money to unlock heroes. Make sure you are buying a Hero and not a skin. Example: COG Gear is a hero. Johnny COG is a skin.

An easy way to tell which is a hero and which is a skin: go to the customization page and the characters tab. These are the heroes.

Iron is one of the main in-game currencies. Like @Buster_McTunder said, 100 iron usually equals $1 unless you get a bulk discount. I believe heroes are 500 iron each unless you buy a bundle.

#10

read descriptions, you need xp points and do challenges

#11

It’s not really that they’re discounted in a bundle, moreso that the Bundles (By TC’s own standards) have $30 worth of content in them for $20. That’s why I’ve been going for them. Because buying all 4 OP characters with Iron would be $20, but the bundle comes with $10 worth of Iron, I think $5-7 worth of boost (More than enough to complete the TOD in 20 days) and a weapon set.

#12

Just play and you’ll get scrap when you get an item you already have as a drop (then it gives you 5 to 600 scrap depending on the item rarity if you already have a duplicate of that item). If you have boosters, you’ll get double the drop rate, which will allow for more scrap.

It’s annoying now for new players, but day 1 ppl got bonus scrap depending on the game edition, what past gears 4 achievements you completed in time and for the bad servers in the beginning. It made it easier to get it from nothing back then, so ppl have been building up easier since day 1 whereas new players have to play high difficulties for rarer drops. That’s why I recommend a booster to speed up the scrap accumulation. Good luck!

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