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Welcome to part two of our however-many-parts-we-feel-like series! In today’s episode we will give you all the pointers you need to bury a sea of locusts beneath you boots in the Gears of War 2 Horde mode, so read on, gentle Cogs.

Sweet Fortification
It goes without saying that your team needs to stick together. Furthermore, you need to hole up in a part of the map that has only one entrance (two at most). River is a perfect example of this. Get everyone inside one of the wooden houses and let one or two people use the power weapons that spawn there while the rest of the team prevents the Locusts from coming through the door.

Batten Down The Hatches
When killed, maulers drop their indestructible shields, which prove to be invaluable in the later waves. Taking the River example, two mauler shields can block the lone entrance and effectively keep the larger Locusts out. Drones and other smaller enemies will kick down the shields, so watch out for that, but the fatties will just stand there while you own them. Remember to pick up the shields at the end of the round, and replant them once the next wave starts. Otherwise, they will disappear after about ten seconds.

The More The Merrier
It’s true that Horde technically scales in difficulty depending on how many people are in the party. However, each additional member of your party will more than offset the difficulty increase in a number of intangible ways. First, you have more people to help revive downed teammates. Second, your team can be using a more diverse array of weapons; the more people you have, the more power weapons you can be taking advantage of. Obviously, communication comes into play here too, as well as getting a bonus to your score for more people surviving the wave.

Ammo Plan
As you probably have noticed, there are only ten different waves that increase in difficulty every ten levels. For example, wave 20 is the same as 10, but the Locusts have more health. For this reason, you should try to pick up power weapons between waves that are on the lower end of the “ten range,” like immediately following wave 10, 20, 30, etc. When you start getting towards the 7, 8, and 9 numbers, just make a quick run for ammo crates in between rounds. You don’t want to go too far between these waves, because you are much more likely to get marooned when the enemies start spawning.

The Sniper and Mortar
These two weapons are going to do the most for your team, so get them in the hands of the people who are most effective with them. Even in the later waves, the sniper will still take down any smaller Locust in one head shot. And the mortar can single-handedly level dozens of enemies at once. Each weapon takes some skill to use, but if you can keep these on your side and use them well, it will make life a lot easier.