No sarcasm from me, here.
This idea feels inevitable, and truly Gears.
Baird needs to invent a Lancer Hammer of Dawn attachment. That, my friends, is your “Freedom Lancer.” Just hose down targets, paint 'em with a laser, and obliterate the Swarm.
It would be more of a power weapon than either the HoD or the Lancer GL before it. And, like the Lancer GL, it would have a higher rate of fire than other rifles (and high damage) with great accuracy. However, instead of “grenade ammo” like the Lancer GL, the Lancer HoD would have a long charge-up time between laser blasts. This would be shown as a horizontal charging bar, a reverse of the Retro Lancer’s bayonet charge bar.
Here’s another idea, and this one’s for the Swarm (or, as I like to call them, Scabs):
Elite versions of the Pouncers, Snatchers, Carriers, and other Lambent v2 monsters. With blackened, hardened shells and slightly larger bodies, these things would be just as tough to kill. But, they also have upgraded attacks. The Elite Pouncer, for instance, wouldn’t just swat shotgun blasts at Gears; they’d also fire one quill after another in rapid succession, like machine guns.
Also: juvenile forms of all of these beasts, which perform different roles.
A Juvenile Carrier has an exposed chest and bloated, glowing backside that it drags around like a Corpser’s belly. It digs new Nests around the perimeter of mature Hives, then empties its cargo of orange goop into the hole, before covering it all with a fibrous, fleshy membrane. Afterwards, the juvenile Carrier’s abdomen shrivels up and the body hardens into its red, “scabby” armor.
Juvenile Snatchers, meanwhile, are shrimpy and almost insect-like. Their tails are still incapable of ranged attacks, but they’re able to squeeze and squelch through openings like an octopus. This makes them ideal scouts to patrol, unseen, around their Hives. Their job is to act as the eyes of Scions, and they make the “door snot” (which they also use to attach weapon caches to ceilings, until such time as a Drone or Scion comes along to collect). There might be a dozen Juvie Snatchers throughout the game, acting as optional “secret” enemies to kill for an Achievement. They flee quickly and can’t be followed, but they’re easy to kill.
Juvenile Pouncers, or “Hoppers,” are used to collect and recycle all the goop from the outer perimeters of Hives. That means they go around scooping up and swallowing what remains from Pods, old Nests, and slain monsters. They travel in packs, but they’ll split up and scatter when fired upon. However, the more goop a “Hopper” collects, the brighter its distended belly glows. Orange-glowing Hoppers cause damage when they explode upon death, but red-glowing Hoppers will explode like grenades. Also, these detonations leave a small, burning AOE field upon death.
Lastly, one more idea because why not:
The Swarmaks are clearly dying out, and relatively few in number. So the Swarm needs to start using bio-engineered warbeasts.
And to armor their warbeasts (as well as themselves) the Swarm could start bio-engineering “armor growths” to affix to their bodies. They should also use their warbeasts to carry equipment, ammo, and additional weaponry. Imagine the prison beasts that walked the ceilings of Gears 2’s massive tunnels, merged with the final boss from Gears 4, but crawling with smaller Swarm enemies.
Add in a few ways for us to kill Pouncers and Snatchers faster, other than torque bow headshots, and we should all be happy.
