Hey guys.
Has anyone gotten the Escape Master 4 Medal and mastered all the hives on this tour so far? I was wondering if anyone can help me out! Definitely need a fully stacked Cole! I see Cole’s running through these hives with no problem!
My gamertag is A JACOB 19
Not all of the Op 4 Hives have been released yet. We have three more to come - The Gatekeepers; The Split; and The Mist (I think in this order as well).
PC players can change the date on their PCs to access these unreleased Hives, and console players can play them if they join a PC host who has done this (I’m a console player and I’ve played these future Hives myself but not mastered them yet).
One of the guys on the forums has mastered all of these Hives (as well as past Hives) solo using Cole, but this is more of a reflection of their ability more than anything!
With The Malfunction, I’d say Cole isn’t even needed. Fahz is more useful on this Hive in my opinion. The other two characters can vary and I’ve done it with several combinations like Mac, Keegan, Clayton, Cole, Kait, Lizzie…
The Ambush, I found Cole useful as the rear guard to deal with the Juvie spawns, but this is on account of him being very tanky. Having said that I’ve done this with different characters in this role too. This Hive is easy if you have a designated rear guard. It’s a boring job, but a very important one. This Hive becomes unnecessarily hard if no-one watches the rear and you get Juvies all over you. Again I found that Fahz is very good for leading the way and sniping everything (especially if you get the Sniper spawns - but nonetheless you get a Longshot halfway through the 1st section). Keegan is a good choice as well as there’s a Boomshot early on, but again, this Hive I’ve done many times with lots of different combinations of characters.
The Onslaught - now this one on the surface is very tough. The first half is straightforward, but the second section is very tough due to the sheer numbers of enemies it throws at you. However some players are aware of a way to exploit the spawns and you can basically run through the second section (but at the expense of a strong score). The first half can be easily done using your core basic skills and using the turrets. The second half, if you run I’d suggest at least one team mate go as a tanky character like Cole, COG Gear or Clayton just in case as you’ll be running past several Elite Drones.
I mastered The Onslaught like it was an escape match instead of a horde match and didn’t sacrifice score - I was top 3%. If I’ve gone up or down I doubt it’s farther than a 1 or 2 percent which is still enough for the best payout.
Tagging onto this. Future hives are a bit of fun. The Split is the most challenging of the bunch and while someone may be able to solo it with Cole, this will prove to be a difficult hive for many folks.
I know all of the Hives haven’t been released yet, but as far as the ones that were for this operation… anyone want to add me and help out? It would be greatly appreciated! Always looking to connect with the Gears community
Gamertag: A JACOB 19
You mean you ran through the 2nd section? Did you or your team mates have any score cards on?
I’ve seen from friends and their positions on the leaderboard in the top 3-10% region with a very wide range of scores. I’m not totally sure who has been using score cards and who hasn’t (and how many cards and what levels), but all of them did it on Master and ran through the 2nd section, but they seem to range from -01:15:00-ish to -00:30:00-ish.
I get the impression that there will be a fairly large number of players who will be able to master this by running through the second section and retaining a top 5% position may come down to some relatively small details. A few extra executions here, and a few extra marked headshots there can make all the difference.
What region/timezone are you in?
I’m a UK console player. I tend to routinely play Horde with a group of friends starting from around 21:00-22:00 through to midnight UK time most evenings but am usually playing Escape before then - usually between 19:00-21:00. Depending on times, I’m happy to help out.
Yes, I ran through act 2 with score cards.
Also our clayton got as many cog tags as he could - even in the 2nd act.
But still if not killing the warden and many scions was detrimental to my score then those things were sufficient to make up for it.
I’ve heard some rumours about some sort of glitch on this Hive which increases the score. I don’t know the details, but someone told me that it involves the COG tags. I don’t know anymore than that.
Headshots can make a big difference to score, especially the bigger enemies like DR1s. Trouble is, they self-destruct after so much damage and I’m told when they do this it only gives you a partial set of points. And when the Juvies cause chain reaction deaths, that also costs you apparently. I’ve done this Hive many times and sometimes there can be a fairly big difference in score despite running the same characters and cards. I’ve played with some very good Fahz’s who can rake up very decent scores even by the saferoom because of the number of headshot kills. I’m told that score-wise, you really need the DR1 spawn in the first act to get the best scores as there are lots of DR1s, wheres the explosives spawn doesn’t have as many high-value targets.
Did you hear about the tag glitch from a reliable source?
I can imagine somebody jumping to an inaccurate conclusion about points going up higher when he didn’t know a team mate had a score card and that team mate picked them for greater effect than when he did previously.
It was just from a friend. she heard it from someone else. It’s just unsubstantiated rumours at this point and may have no substance in it whatsoever. I mean, I’ve seen half-time scores (at the supply room stage) of -02:00:00, so I don’t think the highest scores (upwards of -04:00:00) are that outlandish.
It might well be that due to the extreme number of enemies spawned on the hive, people are getting much higher times than they’re used to. Would be my guess anyway. My team got a time around -1:20:00 with no Score Boosts because only Cole survived for the end on Master, with maybe 1 COG tag getting missed because our Fahz player was being stupid and ignoring COG tags because of doing too many Clock runs🙄(if this sounds harsh, there really is no better way of putting it). He was the only one to go into the first supply room at the beginning so I wasn’t there to check.
Fighting all of the monsters also hurts your score when you lose points for everybody who dies. Every time that we made it fighting it was only cole getting on that helicopter.
Heads up if you want a better score, make sure you get the right spawn. Ice Scions and Salvo Scion give you the most score out of all the Scions or DR-1s. 
Individually, yes, Salvo Scions and DR1 Devastators (and Ice Scions) are worth more points than other Scions and DR1s, but the DR1 spawn is overall better because you get more of them. For example in the very first section if you get the Frag Popper spawn, you get Grenadiers and Drones (and no large enemies); whereas for the Shock Popper spawn you get lots of DR1 Protectors. For the second fight, you only get 4 Salvo Scions (if my memory serves me correct), whereas the other spawn gives you more than 4 DR1 Oppressors. In total once you add it all up, you get more possible points with the DR1/Shock Popper spawn.
Every run we tried with DR1s gave less score even though there more of them. Salvos gave higher score even though there were less of them it was very noticeable in the first section. (Still working on it) there was a difference of nearly 15 min on an occasion between the spawns.(With all tags collected in the 1st section)
The second section is a nightmare. Still working on it, very slowly.
My strategy was to play on inconceivable and kill all enemies in the hive with ironman off, and then once I’d beaten it that way, (I believe my teams score was -1:15:00) I went back in and mastered it by just running through the second half, where the final score was only -0:43:00. This is the best way I’ve found for anyone struggling and wanting a good leaderboard time.
Any chance of FIXING the cog tag glitch TC?
Turns out my friend was correct about this COG tag glitch! 
My strategy, which worked well and got me a score in the region of -01:57:00 (I can’t remember the precise time off the top of my head), was to play the 1st section as normal, try to maximise high score kills (executions, active headshots etc), use score cards, and grab as many normal weapons, grenades and ammo as possible. In the 2nd section, run through it and when you get to the helipad just fight from there. When you get to about half ammo (or whatever point you feel comfortable) pull the switch to close the door and continue fighting while the door closes. This allowed us to use the run method and maximise kills. The disadvantage is that you can’t really carry heavy weapons with you - it may be possible but will slow you down and be hard, and for characters with venom-based cards (Keegan mostly) won’t be able to use them as you’ll obviously be very far ahead of the venom - Keegan’s Ammo Resupply won’t replenish explosive ammo.
My friends and I favoured Fahz (who obviously used the Longshot and EMBAR); Clayton (who used the Torque coupled with Serrated Edge; and a Lancer); and Kait (who grabbed a Gnasher and depending on enemy spawns, can also get an Overkill as well). It’s also worth getting someone to carry an extra Longshot for Fahz too - the Lancer isn’t necessary for Clayton, but if you choose to run a different character then it might be a different story.
Also for the 2nd section, Fahz would lead the way - we found that there’s a small window for Fahz to slow down, stop and get some headshots on the Elite Drones along the way. During this time your team mates can run to both supply rooms and grab the COG tags and catch up. The timer on the enemy spawns means that you probably have around 10-15 seconds to do these little bits before the reinforcement spawns (DR1s, Scions, Poppers etc) start to catch up with you. You can further slow them by planting a grenade or two in the green stairway section inbetween the two fights.
Considering I only got 2% rather than 1%, I may just have to try this strategy. Thing is I’ll have to get some folks with mics together, as I’m typically a solo player. Lol