Gears of War 3

I just wanna confirm that you can use positive mutators and still get the achievement.

I've just done 50 waves of Horde in 1 sitting with the Super Reload mutator turned on and both of us got the achievement for completing 50 waves.

Another lad joined in (by invite) for the last 5 waves (which was all he needed) and he got the achievement as well. His waves 1 - 45 were done with other gamers and without mutators so mixing and matching makes no difference either.

For reference I never played this game before the patch was released.

EDIT - I've since been through all 50 waves on Insane with the Super Reload, Infinite Ammo and Instagib Melee mutators active. Everyone got their Ribbons, Medals and Achievements as expected so in my experience mutators don't affect any kind of progression in any way with the exception of the +\- XP% that's intrinsic to the mutators you use.

EDIT 2 - Mutators don't void ribbons, medals or achievements for playing the campaign on Insane. Did this yesterday and everything unlocked for everyone playing.

EDIT 3 - My advice for 50 waves on Insane - regular Lancers and Hammerbursts, play on Gridlock and have at the bare minimum the Super Reload mutator. If there're 5 players then no more than 2 should have a Hammerburst. I'll call the entrance near where you spawn the back entrance. Build a sentry gun and barbed wire to help the guy/guys in that room. I suggest razor wire for this as it'll last longer than laser fences when tickers come out and doesn't cost too much. Offset the players by having more defending on the side nearest the centre of the map. Keep focusing on the active reloads as Super Reload makes your Lancer more powerful than even a Mulcher or the Silverback's chaingun. Keep your head down (remember you are playing on Insane) and if you've also got Infinite Ammo don't be afraid to blind fire your way through the rest of the clip just to get a Super Reload in. Boss waves can be frustrating depending on what you have to fight. Lambent Berserkers are a pain no matter what. All I can say is kill everything else and then everyone get into the centre of the map. There's plenty of cover to block the berserkers charges but be aware I've seen it jump over the trashed cars and kill people. Savage Corpsers can be killed from inside your "base" as they often won't come up the stairs. If they do then run for your life and use the same tactics you'd use any other time you face them. Stay in the base for Brumaks keeping your head down and for the love of god don't take cover next to each other. 1 lucky missile can wipe everyone out. If you also have the Instagib Melee then regular Berserkers are a 1 hit kill. Reavers are simply Super Reload fodder but again, don't sit right next to each other in case of a lucky missile/Torque Bow shot
I've done 50 waves on Insane 3 times now and twice there were only 3 of us so the mutators I mentioned above really help a lot.
This is what worked for me but also bare in mind the comment on my solution from RaajTM. I've not used his method myself but I think it would work pretty well.

Suggested Mutators unlocking methods
Instagib Melee - You have to get 200 kills while playing as Wretches. Play on Checkout as most of the cover in the map can be hidden behind and jumped over by a Wretch. I found Wave 3 worked best for me as there're enough humans to get 5+ kills almost every time and the defenses aren't too difficult to deal with. Other than that just keep at it. This is one of the quickest Mutators to unlock in the game and the benefit it gives for Insane Horde/Campaign is fantastic.

Infinite Ammo - 100 Combat Engineer ribbons. There's a splitscreen turret reloading method that's well documented so I won't explain it again. The way I did it was playing Wave 9 on Casual and killing everyone except the last 2/3 enemies and then getting killed. Restart the same wave and repeat until you have every Command Post at your disposal. After that I was starting the wave, killing til I got about $4000 and then getting killed. That amount of money should ensure you can get a combat engineer ribbon regardless of what you have to spend money on. Rinse and repeat. I was able to cycle a wave in 2 minutes including the time it takes to die and the 30 second intro where you can build fortifications. I don't know which of the 2 methods would work out quicker as from what i read about it the turret reloading method requires you to quit back to the main menu and then reload Horde. Take your pick. Just to confirm the Combat Engineer ribbon is one that can be earned multiple times in 1 Horde session so restarting Horde isn't a requirement.

Super Reload - Bronze Master At Arms medal. This is given when you get a bronze medal (100 kills) with both shotguns, both Lancers and the Hammerburst (a total of 500 kills). The quickest way to to do this has got to be Team Deathmatch against Casual bots. You'll annihilate them easily and if you want you can set the game to 35 respawns per team (40 kills to win a round) so you shouldn't need more than 3 rounds with any weapon and you can get away with murder playing against casual AI. In TD you can simply shoot them when they're down for a kill. Chainsaw and Retro-charges count as kills for that weapon and also stack as executions.


If something needs explaining better then all you have to do is ask. If all you're gonna do is down vote this solution without asking/suggesting clarification then go right ahead and see if I care. The ratio of positive to negative votes tells me what I need to know.

Managed to do this on normal (though can be done on casual) with a team of 5 on overpass and didn't die once.

Choose the upper part of the map (above the mortar/hammer spawn) and upgrade the barbed wire to blue lasers. I recommend that you don't upgrade to Red as it only hinders enemies just as much as blue does and it's incredibly expensive to repair. There are two turrets and the possibility to upgrade to a sentry gun. Just hold at the top when it gets frantic and - you can also buy the Silverback to make the boss waves a breeze :).

If you fail any wave, you can begin again from anywhere if you play private - the host just picks the wave to start on just like Gears of War 2.

Although, it's a bit more difficult now as you need to build up money and defences. Good luck!

*Strictly SOLO for the achievement/Bronze medal and not for the Onyx medal* (although I may take on the Onyx challenge and see how it goes)

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Update - Solo completed on difficulties: Casual, Normal.
-Current incomplete progression: Solo on Hardcore.
-Boss updates since writing this guide: Brumaks are very easy, faced them on Hardcore difficulty wave 20.
-Corpser update: It appears that they are now able to follow you up the stairs and into the tower. haven't seen a game patch, maybe they get smarter with difficulty?!
-Fortifications: Added the sentry south of the decoy
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I soloed all 50 waves. It is quite easy yet a challenge as you get higher in waves but not any harder than playing campaign/arcade on insane.

So you don't need a team of 5 in case you are having a hard time completing all 50 waves, don't have the time to commit, or w/e. If you decide to take on the challenge, here is a my guide of how I went about it.

Although you will be playing solo, I would recommend you sign in a 2nd controller. By doing so, you will rack up a ton of ribbons and XP. It also helps in the later waves if you get in a bind to have the 2nd controller revive you should you go down. Another great reason is the idle character is always parked at the back by the freeway which means no locust will spawn behind you and flank you. (Note, I did not use a 2nd controller on all waves, but on most)

Here's what to do:

Map: Gridlock
Difficulty: Casual
Main weapon: Lancer (without question)
Secondary weapon: (w/e you want)
Pistol: Gorgon Pistol w/Super Reload is beast (use w/e you like however)
Mutators: Super Reload/Infinite Ammo (3rd mutator w/e you want) I used No Ammo Pickups strictly to lower a 50% XP loss to 40%.
Fortifications: On the freeway side. Upgrade the 2 barricades by the wall/car and upgrade the decoy, that is all you need. Later on in the waves when you've saved enough cash, buy the Silverback and park it at your base all the way in the back by the freeway. I only used it in case of emergencies, you will not depend on it much.

Waves 1-40 are pretty much cake and you can actually run around the map freely, 41-50 gets tricky, you will encounter a lot of Grinders which can wipe you out quick. On the left hand side of the car (opposite the Barricade) plant a shield whenever you can so you don't get bum rushed.

The only time you will get overwhelmed is if there are locust in the tower directly left of you. Run up quick, take them out, and head back behind the car.

***VERY IMPORTANT*** Always make sure Super Reload is active, it's like shooting balloons, they go down quick even in the later waves when the locust are super buffed. I constantly wasted regular bullets so I could Super Reload as many times as possible. (Infinite Ammo is key)

Boss waves: The easiest bosses I found were the Reavers, Corpsers and surprisingly Gunkers. Berzerkers can be tough later on and I never encountered a Brumack. If you get Berzrkers and can't take them out, just reload the game, it will give you different bosses every time. It is also important to kill the trash first and then take out the bosses last, unless you have one in your face, then take it out.

Reavers and Gunkers go down fast with Super Reload, Corpsers have thick armor so run up to the tower and unload from there, Corpsers can't get through the stairs and when they dig, they just come up in the same spot. If you get a Centepede, use the Silverback, it was my savior. Or...reload the game.

Remember, you don't have to do all 50 waves at once, you can always continue from the last wave you started. Also, try not to quit in later waves of 10 because having the cash to build your barricades helps a lot but it is doable without as I did it quite a few times. As a matter of fact, my last continue was from 47-50. Finally, don't kid yourself, you will probably die quite a bit in later waves (41-50) but trust me, if you've played insane, it's nowhere near as aggravating.

So, if you want a challenge, it's quite fun and it added value to my game.

Have fun and good luck.

Hi the above mentioned idea is pretty damn good, here is what i did to make it easier and also to get the ribbons for optional quests during Horde 2.0

1) use the Modifier " Super Reload"
2) Casual Difficulty
3) Map Overpass
4) barricade on the actual overpass in the middle area
5) 2 people operate on Turrets
6) 2 people do the fences and upgrade them until the last blue one because if you upgrade on the red fence its to expensive to repair them and tickers can bring everything down pretty fast
7) dont built fences on boss waves because bosses destroy them anyway within a second
8) before boss waves only use refill on turrets and no structures to save money in case something bad happens
9) 2 people on boss waves concentrate on the smaller enemies and the others pin down the bosses with turrets and normal fire power. When all smaller ones are dead, all should concentrate their fire on one boss and then the second one