Gears of War 4

The EASIEST method:
Start the lite horde with 5 soldiers on the map Lift, once the game starts, without picking up the fabricator, everyone needs to leave the game excepting the host, then re-join with any class you want, once inside, using the speedrun method, complete the first 23 waves, on the 24 leave 1 enemy alive, then the same players needs to leave one more time the horde, and re join with the soldier class, finish the final wave and the achievement will pop.
Speedrun method:
Starts at 02:07

I am sure there will be a fancy solution with a video soon, but hopefully this will help for now.

Note: I am going to reference the Lift speed run. If you don't know how to do that, learn it first. Knowing the map and the spawn patterns will only help you here. If you insist on skipping that, check comments for a brief location guide.

So obviously Lift on Insane with all soldiers.

50 waves: It takes longer, but you have more easy waves to collect money on with the same number of boss waves.

Cards: I wouldn't attempt this with low level cards. You want a good mix of grenade and assault rifle cards. Damage, capacity, plant are the most important. Resupply, less so because you'll be wiping for a full arsenal. Then your best mix of assault rifle cards. I would have at least 1 player dedicated to assault rifle (p.s. accuracy boost is very helpful). 1 guy with high level hammer (ideally the assault rifle guy). Team revive... We didn't use it. If everyone is dead, it's a bad wave, wipe. Ignore fortification cards. You won't be building. Fortifications are just a money pit. They are easily destroyed and the repair tool is a waste (you will die a lot).

Strategy: Same positions as speed run. Plant grenades in the kill box, but don't overdo it. You want the "scout" to have full grenades. Put your AR guy at Sniper and your floater at Sniper Decoy. When wave starts, "scout" should move center and lob grenades from cover. You won't have shock grenades often, so this lob extends the damage phase. Clear waves and save money. Use wipes to reload grenades and collect more money. And to get a feel for difficult waves.

Hammer: Try not to use it until 30 at the earliest. Then use sparingly. 38/39/40 are okay to use it, but see how far you can get without it. Resist the temptation to drop it when things are falling apart. Worst thing is to use it and die. Best time to use it is when you've failed a few times and then start off the wave strong. During "hammer waves" we waited until the red bar was about halfway down and had at least 4 guys alive. 1 hammer drop at that point usually left us with 2-4 enemies remaining. Be careful, they can still ruin your wave.

Gear: Pick up your favorites when you can, but don't get attached. You will lose them. Save your loot boxes for when you need them. Drop shot, salvo, and shock grenades are very helpful and you probably won't be earning many bonuses in the later waves. Don't waste them early.

Money: You really want to have around $100K at wave 40, so that you can drop the hammer once per wave from 43-44 and still have enough for multiple drops at 49/50. You can be more liberal with it and fail a few waves to earn it back, but no one wants to be scrambling after 48 waves of horde, so keep an eye on it.

Time: Took us 3 hours. 38 is where it got tough. 41 and 42 were okay and then 43 and up took multiple attempts. 50 was easy because we had 90-something in the bank. And we used it. It took 5-6 level 4 hammers to kill a stubborn snatcher.

That's all I got.

Boobs before noobs.

Hei. This is not a complete guide but more of some helpful advise to people still going for this achievement, we unlocked this achieve with this method.
We combined this with the "You Are The Support Son!" Achievement. If you are not going for both of these achievements other solutions are easier!
I tried with a good team to do these achievements legit which was nearly impossible, and we were all players who did not like to "cheese". After over three hours we decided to give up doing them legit.

Step one is find a crew to do this, everybody should have good soldier cards and atleast one more class.
Step two is start a private horde match on the lift map. Use normal 50 waves, this is because of the time between the waves, witch is necessary for speedruns Everybody should be soldiers. The host uses the normal speedrun loadout - please refer to this method on other guides for the two achievements.
Step three everybody but the host commits suicide and leaves the match
Step four the host sends invites to the other members who leaves and returnes with the desired classes for the speedrun.
Step five, play the game as you normally would in a speedrun, but make sure to spend all the energy on fabrications (this means NO HoD!), (everybody but the host can spend energy) and to create several decoys and sentries on the backside of the map, so that you have a place to run to at wave 50
Step six, when there are only a few guys left on wave 49 host most pause the game. All the other players leave and rejoin as soldier classes. Have a mix of grenade bonuses and assault rifle. The Cover Boost card is nearly imperative! The host keeps the game paused until everybody else has rejoined. From this point onwards, nobody uses ANY energy! No building, repairing, buying weapons or usage of HoD or Team Revive!
Step seven, the host unpauses the game and goes way back to a safe place and pretends he is a coward, this to be certain of no death until the wave is over.
Step eight, one or two players run and plant grenades at normal positions, and everybody should be at their prior round start placements.
Step nine when most the normal enemies are dead run back to the fabricator (this should be protected with fabrications). The boss (all of them) are now a complete idiot as he does not have allies, and will focus on your decoys and be damaged by both the team and your sentries.
Step ten, the boss dies and the wave is completed, you should unlock both theese achievements and if the host never died, and nobody died during wave 50 you should also get the perfect run achievement.
(Optional step elleven) Give me an upvote as you become very happy that both these difficult ahievements became much easier!

If i have left anything unclear please comment and I will see what more I can say.

The achievement requirements with this method are only to start and finish the game with five soldiers, and that the host dosn't spend any energy during the entire match, and everybody else don't spend any power during wave 50.

Hope this helps :)

September 2023

I just completed a successful session with a solid group where we unlocked three achievements in one sitting:

School of ‘08
In Private Horde, complete 50 consecutive waves on Hardcore without the team building fortifications



Do You Even Lift?
Complete a 25 or 50 wave variant of Horde on Lift with 5 Soldiers on Insane



You Are The Support Son!
Complete a 25 or 50 wave variant of Private Horde on Insane without spending Fabricator power




This also gives you the associated ribbon required for the Chest Candy achievement for finishing Horde with everyone as the same class.

—— —— —— —— ——

Map: Lift
Difficulty: Insane
Mode: Standard (50 waves)

Recommended with five players, one of each class. The host should be whomever is playing the Soldier for the full run.

Rough outline:

1. Join in the lobby and set the game up. Agree on who will play which class during the run. Everyone select the Soldier and start the game

2. When everyone is loaded in, the Host should pause the game. All 4 other players quit the game and return to main menu. Everyone joins the game again, selecting their class for the run.

3. Wait for all players to fully load into the match. If the player has completed the countdown and can see a map of the stage, then they are loaded in. Host can then unpause the game.

4. The Host can then proceed to place the Fabricator down. This will spawn in the players. Now, resume the game as normal and play through without restrictions.

5. At the end of Wave 49, host once again pauses the game, everyone quits and then joins back as a Soldier.

6. During the final wave, nobody should spend any power.


Using this strategy, the Host (Soldier for full run) cannot purchase or spend any power at all during the full run. Which is fine, as they will be planting grenades and nothing else.

Other than this, there are no real restrictions until the final wave when everyone else returns as Soldier. Any player can die. You can fail any round and fail as many times as necessary. Any player other than the host can spend money on Skills or Fortifications (until they rejoin back as Soldier).

Playing on Insane does unlock the Hardcore achievement.

I have read that you can pause, quit and rejoin during Wave 50 itself. This may be easier as you can have Sniper use the Sniper Strike to thin out the final wave. I never tested that myself, though, but can imagine it would work. But with this strategy, the idea is to have all Sentries set up for a painless Wave 50.


General strategy:

Do a Speedrun on Lift, manipulating the enemies to spawn into one location. Use this video to explain the positioning:
Use this thread for general speedrun tips and advice:
Horde Speedrunning Tips

Doing a regular 50 wave variant is essential so you have enough rounds to build up the cash to purchase enough Sentries. We tried on 25 variants numerous times and it was a failure.

The hardest part of this is the final wave. I did three failed sessions where we just got wiped out on final wave, lost all fortifications and couldn’t recover.

If, for whatever reason, your fortifications at the back are at risk, the team should kill themselves ASAP. Rebuilding is expensive, especially in later waves, so protecting the assets is key. But, if anything is getting that far back, something isn’t working in your run.

Scout Notes

For the Scout, use the Cloak skill to go invisible. The Scout position on Lift (red box on left side near the enemy spawn) is really vulnerable and they will get downed every wave otherwise.

This strategy is based on purchasing as many Sentries as possible. Therefore, it is essential to have a solid Scout with L6 card for the deposit bonus. The Scout gets 2x money if they collect it while the wave is active and using Cloak was a real game changer for this map to getting the energy bonus: wait until 2 or 3 enemies left and run in.

If you need to deposit, ask the Engineer to take your place so you can run back.

Engineer Notes

In the end, I played as Engineer and had about 40 or 50 sentries all in the original player spawn point being built up exclusively for the final wave. These were all L3+. This is so we had a safe place to retreat to and let the turrets kill everything on the final wave. We killed 2x Snatchers this way with ease.

The sentries were all placed in numerous directions to create a solid overwatch. Keep in mind you may have a Kestrel spawn, so having some sentries point out to the sides is advised.

Once you get the run going, you will be kept busy purchasing. My advice would be to place the Sentries in smart locations as you go. Once you have 30 or more them, you don’t want to be figuring out how to place them and adjusting them. Take the time when you purchase them to place them well (doesn’t need to be perfect). Keep in mind you need to pick them up to upgrade them and this will change their orientation.

Also keep in mind that you need to keep a path open on both sides for everyone to run in/out. Just don’t block off things entirely.

I did not really place anything else down in terms of Fortifications - a few weapon lockers for the Heavy. I also placed one Decoy and one Sentry facing the Decoy under the Heavy.

Every other piece of energy was spent on building and upgrading as many Sentries at the back as possible. I didn’t put down any Barriers, or any Sentries near the spawn as they’d get destroyed and waste cash. You definitely have enough surplus to put a few sentries down elsewhere to help, if needed, so don’t make the run harder than necessary if the enemies are flowing out. This can happen if the Soldier isn’t using Shock Grenades, and/or if the Heavy isn’t mashing with the Salvos.

As needed, switch locations with the players in fixed locations (Scout, Heavy, Soldier) so they can deposit energy. You can die during waves without consequence or impact to the run, so don’t stress if you get wiped covering the Scout’s spot.

For cards, I had a Sentry based build: (1) Build Cost, (2) Sentry Cost, (3) Fortification health (4) Sentry Speed, (5) Sentry Capacity.

I don’t find upgrading the L3 sentries to L4 is economical. I’d upgrade everything to L3 and keep them at that level.

Sniper Notes

Nothing much different than what I wrote in my general Horde tips guide.

The Sniper was spending on Radar Pings and Sniper Strikes as necessary. Team Revive if needed.


Heavy Notes

Nothing much different than what I wrote in my general Horde tips guide.

Your only job is to collect Salvos and use them effectively. Communicate to Engineer if you need more locker spaces. Be mindful that you may get rogue spawns under your spot but that’s why there should be a decoy there.


—— —— —— —— ——

Here’s a clip from the successful run where I rejoin during the end of Wave 49.

You can see the Host is waiting for everyone to see the map screen. There are only a couple of enemies left and he runs back into the Sentry palace that was built. When everyone quits, the Host has to finish the wave solo. Everyone respawns at Wave 50.

We had two Snatchers taken out with ease. Even though I purchased the Sentries, you can see the game doesn’t attribute the kills to me due to the fact I left and rejoined as a different class.



The achievements did pop up on screen but I guess the recording doesn’t capture the notifications.