Gears 5 Operations roadmap: Here's all the free stuff coming to the game, and when

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Here's what's coming in Gears 5's first Operations, AKA seasons, of content

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Gears 5 is out, and the release date was just the beginning. A new post from The Coalition explains what structure that post-launch support will take: as you may have noticed, Gears 5 launched neck-deep in Operation 1: Launch, and the next one will begin in December. Coming in this first Operation are new Supply cards, special events, and even some new characters - with even bigger changes to follow in the second.

Here's a schedule of everything The Coalition has explained for Gears 5 Operations so far. You can check out the Gears 5 patch notes for more specific, moment-to-moment changes.

September

Starting, well, now the big day to watch for during each operation is Tuesday. That's when a new selection of cards will be added to the Supply and when the Gears 5 Store's Weekly section will be refreshed. Tuesdays will also bring in a new Featured Escape Hive, and you'll be able to earn rewards - including weapon skins in certain weeks - for placing well in the Featured Escape Hive and Ranked Playlists.

October

Once you've had some time to get accustomed to the base game, October will bring in some juicier Swarm-stomping action. The weekly refresh schedule will continue, and weekly Special Events will begin for both Versus and Horde mode early in the month. The Coalition says you should look forward to classics like One Shot One Kill (OSOK) returning as well as some newcomers.

Later that month, Gears 5 will get its first post-launch characters, including a new COG Hero with their own Ultimate and Skills for use in Escape and Horde mode. You'll be able to earn them just by playing the game, which is nice.

November

The Coalition didn't say anything about what will happen in Gears 5 in November, so I'm just going to guess, hm… Turkeys vs. Pilgrims mode, complete with a limited time buckle-hat skin for Kait. Yep, that's what I'm going with.

December

Operation 2 begins! This one's going to roll out a lot more stuff to Gears 5. It's a broad enough selection that I'm just gonna copy over the bulleted list from The Coalition directly.

  • Versus Modes
  • Multiplayer Maps
  • Characters including COG Heroes
  • Tiles for Map Builder
  • New featured events
  • New weekly Escape Hives
  • New weekly Supply Drop content

On top of all that, the weekly cadence of new featured modes, special events, store items, cards, and beyond will continue throughout Operation 2. What's on the table for Operation 3 and beyond? We'll just have to wait and find out.

Don't miss out on any of the Gears 5 Relic Weapons while you're out on the hunt.

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.