Progression · all modes

Progression & unlocks

What you level up, what you earn by playing, what costs money, and how the seasons and achievements fit in.

What you level up

Player Level

Earned from Horde Siege and Versus matches and from weekly challenges. It caps at 100. At 100 you can Re-Up for a reward and start again from 1, up to four times, which makes 500 levels in total. The last one earns Gears 2 style wings next to your name.

Class levels (Horde Siege)

Each of the four classes has 30 levels at launch. Levels unlock weapons, equipment and mods for that class, and raise its base health and damage at certain points. See the Horde Siege guide.

Source: The Coalition's multiplayer deep dive ↗

Medals and challenges

Medals are back from Gears of War 3. There are more than 80 medal series at launch, each with Bronze, Silver, Gold and Onyx tiers plus a new Diamond tier that awards a player title. Medals pay out Coins, banners and emblems, and you can show up to three on your emblem.

Challenges	How many	Rewards
Weekly	12 a week: 6 in Horde Siege, 6 in Versus	Player XP. They reset each week, so missing one doesn't set you back for long.
Seasonal	20 per season, across both modes	Poses, weapon skin sets, banners, emblems, icons and some base characters
Event	5 per limited-time event	Themed cosmetics
Foundations	A few that never expire	Tutorial tasks that mostly unlock base characters

If you miss a seasonal or event reward, it's added to the Barracks after a cooldown, and you can buy it there with Coins or Iron. While a challenge is still running, though, you can't buy its reward. The only way to get it is to finish the challenge.

Coins, Iron and the shop

Nearly every cosmetic can be earned by playing. There's no battle pass.

Coins are earned by playing. You get them from match performance (there's a weekly cap on these, which The Coalition says is enough for a Legendary skin with some left over), every ten Player Levels, and from medals. Coins from levels and medals don't count toward the cap. Spend them in the Barracks on the item you want.
Iron is the paid currency. It buys the same Barracks items, or the weekly shop offers.
The weekly shop discounts items that are also sold individually in the Barracks. Nothing is shop-exclusive, and a bundle gets cheaper for each item in it that you already own.

The only things you have to pay for

Content from the Premium Edition and Premium Upgrade, including the five seasonal customization packs
Charity bundles, with proceeds going to Crisis Text Line
Partnership items, such as the Metallica "Ride the Lightning" weapon skin set

Cosmetics

More than 60 character skins at launch, and every main campaign character is unlockable from day one.
Weapon skins come as full sets that you can apply to any weapon.
Poses show in lobbies and match intros; they're not emotes.
Banners also appear in Horde Siege, marking objectives your squad completed.
Emblems, icons (also used when you mark an enemy), titles (earned only) and menu music. One of the four launch music tracks is an instrumental of Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls".
Limited-time extras: the Liquid Death promotion gives a Legendary "Chainsaw Flex" pose from September 25 to November 30.

Seasons after launch

Season 1: Emergence began with Early Access on October 1 and runs for eight weeks, until December 1. It includes all the launch maps, modes and cosmetics and three limited-time events: Halloween, 20 Years of Gears and Thanksgibbing. Each event runs for two weeks and has a Versus event mode, a Horde Siege event mission and exclusive rewards. The start dates haven't been announced. Versus Ranked opens on October 13, weekly challenges refresh every week from then on, and shop offers rotate every Tuesday.

The Coalition says E-Day will have at least five post-launch seasons and has named the next ones: Season 2: Legacy, Season 3: Infiltration, Season 4: Pendulum and Season 5: Devotion. What each one adds hasn't been published. We'll add it to the update log when it is.

Players of Gears of War: Reloaded can unlock the Fire and Fenix pose (the "Prison Breakout" achievement) and the Old Guard Medal and "Locked n' Reloaded" title (the "Re-Up" achievement).

Source: The Coalition, "Emergence Begins", September 30 ↗

Achievements

There are 54 achievements worth 1,000 Gamerscore, and finishing all of them earns a Mythic Achievement. Every achievement also unlocks a player title, and the campaign ones unlock base characters.

Campaign: story achievements for Acts 1 to 5, plus ones for co-op, secondary objectives, Hard Cases, collectibles, Supply Cache unlocks and an Insane run.
Horde Siege: class-specific tasks (Sonic Disruptor stuns, Pulse Drone tags, Stim Vaporizer revives, Adrenaline Injector time), extracting with everyone alive on Allfather, 50,000 kills, and maxing all four classes.
Versus: 25,000 kills, a Demolition detonation, and winning Conquest without the enemy scoring.
The big two: "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (Insane campaign, all side missions and hidden items) and "Dead Serious", this game's version of Gears' famous "Seriously": 100% campaign on Insane, 25,000 Versus kills, max Player Level and all four classes maxed.

Four Mastery achievements each award a Legendary character skin. Every achievement, grouped, with Gamerscore → The original list is on Xbox Wire ↗