Some holiday hangover/downtime lets me finally finish up and put another giant info drop under your tree. This time it’s statistics regarding enemy energy pickups, the final kind of income in the Gears 5 Horde v4.0 ‘energy economy’ (also see taps and forges).
When killed, enemies leave behind a double (or triple, for most bosses) rotating “diamond” energy symbol for players to pick up (walk over) in order to gain an enemy-specific amount of energy (assuming the drop doesn’t get stuck inaccessibly inside the map, seen most often on stairs). It doesn’t matter how the enemy dies-- shot, bled out, its suicide attack, friendly fire, etc.-- though I did notice a Snatcher spike killing Lambent was sometimes causing energy to not appear.
A.I. soldiers can also obliviously wander through the energy, and unlike energy collected from taps or from forging, it is given to the human part of the team. So for at least this game mechanic you aren’t penalized for being short some team members.
All players get the same amount (two people get “the base amount” divided by 2, three players = total / 3, etc.). Many base totals appear intentionally chosen to be evenly divisible by 1-5 players, but for the ones that aren’t, it tends to round up so each player might get slightly more (e.g., the Elite Drone worth 795 energy to 1 player is worth 398 each for 2 players, a total of 796 for the team). Like taps and forges, it doesn’t matter if you’re DBNO or dead, you’ll still get your share of any energy pickups by the team.
If the energy drop hasn’t been collected within 30 seconds, it’ll reduce to a single symbol (or in some very rarely observed cases, go from 3 diamonds to 2), and the total amount of energy the pickup is worth is divided by half. Similar “rounding errors” for dividing by 2 can occur like above. Namely when energy drops that aren’t multiples of 10 but end in 5 are halved, they’ll be rounded up or down to a nearby multiple of 5. For example, an Elite Drone kill dropping 795 energy will decay after 30 seconds to 395 energy, compared to a Locust Drone dropping 280 energy that properly halves to 140 energy.
There’s only a single halving. It won’t drop further to a quarter (or to a single symbol for those 3-diamond stacks that decay visually to 2).
All remaining uncollected energy disappears on the next wave start. Other than that, it doesn’t matter whether you pick it up during the wave or during the interim build time, as the energy granted is the same. No class gets extra energy for picking it up anymore, though Infiltrator and Nomad have Healing Jolt/Powered Sprint cards that give them health when doing so. (Note that you can collect energy when crawling/down-but-not-out, but even at Level 6-- 100% healing-- those cards won’t stand you back up on your own.)
The amount of energy provided also isn’t altered by difficulty or the Power Drain modifier. It is obviously boosted by the Super Energy modifier (next time it appears I’ll try to remember to check whether the description’s stated 30% IIRC bonus is accurate).
You can see in the HUD on the top left how many energy drops have fallen but haven’t yet been picked up, as well as their current per-player worth. There are occasional discrepancies between that and what you actually pick up. For example, after killing a Boss Rush Carrier single player it can say “On the field (1): 2333”, but picking it up actually provides 2335, as seen in the screenshot sequence above. I don’t know what that’s signifying about how the game tracks/calculates energy drops internally.
Total enemy net worth
AFAICT most enemies provide a consistent amount of total energy regardless of wave number, and often even across modes. But there are differences, particularly regarding bosses (including “mini-bosses” and Wardens, boss or otherwise). I’ve also encountered “normal” enemies that give varying amounts-- sometimes even within a single wave?!
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to discern if they differ by anything beyond energy (health, damage, visual appearance). For modes that support multiple bosses at once, there also appears to be a “primary” and “secondary” categorization-- even when you get two of the same kind, each individual boss may give one of 2 different amounts. I’d love to hear if anyone has any insight into this.
The following table shows my experimental results for total energy provided to a single player (and usually the whole team) for each enemy. It’s already excessively large 
so doesn’t include how much individual players get for 2-5 player teams (or if the 30-second halving occurs). Divide as needed yourself, and it should be close enough, subject to the rounding behavior mentioned previously. The names of the enemies are what appears in the kill feed, sometimes followed by a weapon distinguisher in parenthesis.
| Enemy Type | Horde | Horde Frenzy | . | Boss Rush | Escape From Kadar | Horde Mania | Horde Roulette | Jingle Juvies | Mad Man’s Monsters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bastion | 700 | 700 | . | 795 | |||||
| Bolter | 280 | 280 | . | ||||||
| Boomshot Scion | 935 | 935 | . | 935 | 2335 | 935 | |||
| Buzzkill Scion | 700 | 700 | . | 700 | 700 | 1165 | 935 | ||
| Carrier | 3500 | 1400, 2100, 2800 | . | 2335 | 3265 | 2335 | 4665 | ||
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| Cyclops | 280 | 280 | . | 280 | |||||
| Deadeye | 185,375 | 375 | . | 375 | 375 | ||||
| DR-1 Devastator | 700 | 700 | . | 1400 | |||||
| DR-1 Oppressor | 560 | 560 | . | 745 | 560, 655 | 1165 | |||
| DR-1 Protector | 560 | 560 | . | 560 | 465, 560 | 560 | 655 | ||
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| Drone | 375 | . | 465 | ||||||
| Dropshot Scion | 795 | 795 | . | 935 | 795, 975, 1165 | 935 | |||
| Elite Drone | 795 | 795 | . | 375 | 795 | ||||
| Elite Grenadier | 560 | 560 | . | 885 | |||||
| Elite Hunter | 560 | 560 | . | 560 | 840 | ||||
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| Elite Sniper | 560 | 560 | . | ||||||
| Flame Grenadier | 700 | 700 | . | 700 | |||||
| Flock | 2335 | 1400 | . | 2335 | 2335 | 4665 | |||
| Frankenstein’s Imago (Hammerburst) | . | 235 | |||||||
| Frankenstein’s Imago (Lancer) | . | 280 | |||||||
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| Grenadier | 560 | 560 | . | 465 | 280 | 655 | |||
| Grenadier Elite | 280, 700 | 700 | . | ||||||
| Guardian | 1165 | 1165 | . | 935 | 1400 | ||||
| Hunter | 375 | 375 | . | ||||||
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| Ice Scion | 700 | 700 | . | 700 | 700 | 1165 | 935 | ||
| Imago | 185 | 185 | . | 185 | 185 | ||||
| Juvie | 140 | 140 | . | 140 | 95, 140 | 140 | 140 | 95 | |
| Kestrel | 7000 | 2800 | . | 2335 | 3265 | ||||
| Lambent Drone | 185 | 185 | . | 185 | 185 | 235, 375 | |||
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| Lambent Grenadier | 560 | 560 | . | 560 | 560 | ||||
| Lambent Theron | 560 | 560 | . | ||||||
| Leech | 140 | 140 | . | 140 | 140 | 140 | |||
| Locust Drone | 280 | 280 | . | 140 | |||||
| Locust Hybrid (Cryo Cannon) | . | 235 | |||||||
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| Locust Hybrid (Gnasher) | . | 325 | |||||||
| Locust Hybrid (Pipe) | . | 235 | 280 | ||||||
| Locust Hybrid (Retro Lancer) | 185 | 185 | . | 185 | 235 | 185 | |||
| Locust Sniper | 280 | 280 | . | 325 | |||||
| Matriarch | 5600 | 2800 | . | 3500 | 1635 | 3265 | 2800 | 4665 | |
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| Mulcher Scion | 795, 935 | 935 | . | 2335 | |||||
| Palace Guard (Lancer/Torque Bow) | 560 | 560 | . | 560 | |||||
| Peace Maker | 185 | 185 | . | 185 | 185 | 185 | |||
| Popper (Frag/Incendiary/Shock) | 280 | 280 | . | 280 | 280 | 280 | 185 | 375 | |
| Pouncer | 700 | 700 | . | 935 | 935 | 935 | 935 | ||
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| Reject | 280 | 280 | . | 280 | |||||
| Sentinel | 2335 | 1400 | . | 1400 | 2800 | ||||
| Shock Tracker | 140 | 140 | . | 140 | 140 | 140 | |||
| Sire | 700 | 700 | . | 140 | 700 | 935 | 700 | ||
| Snatcher | 5600 | 1865, 2800 | . | 2335 | 3265 | 2800 | |||
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| Stump | 1400 | 1400 | . | 2100 | 1400 | ||||
| Swarmak | 7000 | 2800 | . | 3735 | |||||
| Theron Elite | 700 | 700 | . | ||||||
| Theron Guard | 560 | 560 | . | 375 | |||||
| Tracker | 185 | 185 | . | 140 | |||||
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| Wakaatu | 7000 | 2800 | . | 3500 | 3735 | ||||
| Warden | 1865, 2335, 2425 | 1400, 1865 | . | 935 | 2100 | 1635 | 2335 |
I don’t have especially high confidence this is complete, particularly for the modes I don’t normally play (I had a hard time getting some enemies to regularly appear with just 1 or 2 local players, and can’t know if there’s sometimes another “worth” for an enemy that might appear but I wasn’t ever given), so additions/corrections are welcome. I assume you can encounter plain "Drone"s in 50 wave Horde, even though I never recorded them? They’re definitely rare in Horde Frenzy.
Wave 1 total energy availability
By themselves, those energy drop statistics are probably more meaningless than most I post since it’s hard to influence play with just the knowledge of how much a given enemy is worth. I think at least one thing you want is to combine it with expected types and numbers of enemies per wave so you can predict maximum potential energy availability.
I also have a working hypothesis that at least one factor in the types and numbers of enemies spawned in a wave (approximated by the “enemy meter”) is tied to, or at least closely approximated by enemies’ energy worth. (The variations in energy amounts for a given enemy type mentioned above might be tweaking meant to make more or fewer of them appear in certain sets?)
I don’t have that complete info, but I can at least give bonus preliminary facts about the wave 1 energy totals for all the modes:
- First, start with the amount of initial energy each player gets for a given Horde mode when the Fabricator is first placed to kick off Wave 1. (That’s 1,000 for 50-wave Horde and Jingle Juvies, and 10,000 for the rest.)
- Then combine it with the relatively tight range of enemy energy drops totals (assuming no 30-second-halving and everything is picked up) I’ve experimentally determined and posted below.
- Lastly, add the tap stats for how much the initial 1-3 taps provide after Wave 1 ends.
The result is the following table of my currently estimated maximum possible energy ranges for a 5 player team after completing wave 1:
| Energy Source | Horde | Horde Frenzy | . | Boss Rush | Escape From Kadar | Horde Mania | Horde Roulette | Jingle Juvies | Mad Man’s Monsters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial team energy (5 players) | 5,000 | 50,000 | . | 50,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 | 5,000 | 50,000 |
| Max wave 1 energy drops | 1,625 - 1,865 | 7,440 - 7,690 | . | 4,665 - 5,080 | 4,815 - 5,005 | 1,630 - 1,735 | 7,005-8,685 | 1,625-1,765 | 1,650 - 1,840 |
| Max tap energy after wave 1 (5 players) | 1,500 | 15,000 | . | 4,500 | 4,500 | 1,500 | 3,000 | 1,500 | 1,500 |
| Max total team energy | 8,125 - 8,365 | 72,440 - 72,690 | . | 59,165 - 59,580 | 59,315 - 59,505 | 53,130 - 53,235 | 60,005 - 61,685 | 8,125 - 8,265 | 53,150 - 53,340 |
(Edit: Fixed busted spreadsheet copy job for some modes’ taps and totals.)
So take heed, all you “must deposit until wave x” lobbies: I’m a step closer to objectively finding out how much you’re actually worth.
