Gears 5 guide: All the tips and tricks to make killing the Swarm a breeze

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Our Gears 5 guide has all the information you need to battle against the Swarm and bring peace back to Sera, whether you're returning to it after an absence or have picked it up as one of your Xbox Games with Gold. Although the "of war" part has been dropped from the title, this is still very much part of the Gears of War series and brings the usual challenges for those games. If you're looking for a helping hand, whether it's general tips, component and weapon locations, side mission locations and walkthroughs, and even advice on what choice to make when presented with a spoilerific decision, then we've got everything covered in this Gears 5 guide.

Gears 5 review

Gears 5 review

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After the mediocre Gears of War: Judgement and Gears of War 4, our Gears 5 review explains just how the latest instalment does enough to inject some life back into the franchise, although some aspects still feel stale. "Gears 5 biggest changes don’t reinvent the series, but give the classic shooter more room to breathe. Let Gears be Gears."

Gears 5 tips

Gears 5 tips

Playing through the campaign on insane difficulty is just that... absolutely freaking insane(ly hard). Take on board some of our Gears 5 tips to help ease yourself through it, although there's not much we can do about the amount of bullets each enemy takes.

Gears 5 components

Gears 5 components

Gears 5 components

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Throughout the campaign, you'll stumble upon components. These are used to upgrade Jack, your helpful robot drone, with abilities and powers that will assist you until the end. Some are tough to find though, especially if you want to upgrade Jack all the way, so make sure you follow our Gears 5 components guide to find all the locations.

Gears 5 Relic Weapons

Gears 5 Relic Weapons

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Gears 5 Relic Weapons are even more difficult to find than the components, because there's only one in the entire campaign for each weapon. They're essentially more powerful versions of the standard variants; for example the Longshot Relic gives you an extra bullet per active reload, while the Retro Lancer Relic fires explosive rounds.

Gears 5 Lost Outsiders

Gears 5 Lost Outsiders

Gears 5 Hollow Storm: Train Tunnel

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One of the first side missions you'll come across is Gears 5 Lost Outsiders, found in Act 2. It's not completely straightforward so make sure you follow our walkthrough to ensure you don't get stuck.

Gears 5 Hollow Storm

Gears 5 Hollow Storm

Gears 5 tips

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Around the same point in Act 2 is when you'll discover the Gears 5 Hollow Storm side mission, and it involves visiting three locations off the beaten path to get another Jack upgrade. Follow our walkthrough so you know exactly where to go.

Gears 5 Scavengers

Gears 5 Scavengers

Gears 5 Scavengers

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When you make it to the open world section in Act 3, you'll find the Gears 5 Scavengers mission. It's similar to both Lost Outsiders and Hollow Storm in that you need to find the correct three locations in order to complete it, so our guide will help.

Gears 5 unlockable characters

Gears 5 unlockable characters

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Did you know there's a bunch of Gears 5 unlockable characters in multiplayer, including Sarah Connor and Emile from Halo: Reach? We've got the lowdown on how you unlock them right here.

Gears 5 campaign decision

Okay, listen. The final guide has huge spoilers for the campaign. You can see it below, underneath the three beautiful Gears 5 images. Only scroll down if you don't mind the biggest aspect of the campaign being spoiled. Last chance...

(Image credit: Microsoft Xbox)

(Image credit: Microsoft Studios)

(Image credit: Microsoft Xbox)

Gears 5 JD or Del

Gears 5 JD or Del

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

We warned you about spoilers! When you're almost at the end of the campaign, you have to decide who to save: JD or Del. In our Gears 5 JD or Del guide, there's no right or wrong answer, but we've got the consequences of each explained and what it could mean for Gears 6.

Ford James

Give me a game and I will write every "how to" I possibly can or die trying. When I'm not knee-deep in a game to write guides on, you'll find me hurtling round the track in F1, flinging balls on my phone in Pokemon Go, pretending to know what I'm doing in Football Manager, or clicking on heads in Valorant.