Gears of War 4

This achievement actually can be cheesed, I just did it myself. You can do the splitscreen method with your guest or someone else on casual, just don't use the gnasher or lancer for either character. Again, only the account going this has to be on hardcore or above, the other player CAN BE on casual. If you haven't done your inconceivable runs, you can knock both those achievements and this one in one run with the cheese(as others have confirmed the glitched nature of solo inconceivable). I just did this myself, so the other guys saying you BOTH have to be hardcore is false

IMPORTANT: There are people who have reported that this achievement doesn't pop as mine did at the credits. My advice would be to do this when connected to Xbox Live, and if it doesn't pop at the credits, play through the campaign again and wait 72 hours for XL to sync. Make sure you do this in one save file, go on Hardcore, and don't kill anyone with a Lancer or Gnasher, including melee/ Chainsaw. Further clarification is given below.

As of the January update for Gears 4, you now will see chapter progress on the achievement. Each chapter you complete should go some of the way to getting the achievement. You can use the achievement tracker to make sure it is calibrated. There has been a person who says that the progress is slow to update, and thus 2 chapters progress may be put on instead of 1. Make sure you account for that if you decide to use this method.

Just to add clarity to the description, you can hold a Lancer/Gnasher, and shoot from a Lancer/Gnasher, but you CANNOT KILL AN ENEMY OF ANY DESCRIPTION WITH THE LANCER/GNASHER.

You can kill with any other gun, the Retro Lancer, Marksa, Overkill, Boomshot, Torque Bow, Grenades, Pistols etc.etc. just make sure you don't kill an enemy with the Gnasher/Lancer, play on Hardcore difficulty (or harder if you feel like challenging yourself) and the achievement should pop at the credits.

I would advise people to drop the Lancer and swap it for a Hammerburst or a Retro Lancer, if available, and swap out the Gnasher for any power weapons, like the Longshot, Boomshot or Dropshot.

In the first part of the prologue, swap out the Gnasher for the Marksa Mk.1 after defeating the first UIR soldiers you meet. You will find ammo for this from fallen enemies and from ammo boxes.

In the second part of the prologue, swap your Gnasher for a Hammerburst after you defeat the Locust Drones, again, you can find ammo from the boxes at the House of Sovereigns and from fallen Drones. Boomshots are available from fallen Boomers that you kill.

In the third part of the prologue, defeat the 2 Locust Drones at the top with your Snub or Frag Grenades. Then, pick up the Hammerburst, and there should also be a Boomshot in that area as well, which you can swap for the Lancer and Gnasher.

At the beginning of Act 1 Chapter 1, if you are playing as JD, you will start with a Marksa and a Gnasher, you can swap this for a Retro from Oscar, a Longshot from Kait, or a Hammerburst from Del.

In Act 2 Chapter 2, All Geared Up, you will automatically pick up a Custom Lancer and a Gnasher. Drop these before leaving the area, as leaving the area will trigger DeeBees to come down from the dropship. There is 2 Longshots, for 16 bullets, Hammerbursts, Marksas, Retro Lancers, Frag and Incendiary grenades to pick up. After this you won't be reset of your weapons until the very end, in Act 5 Chapter 3 when you go into the Giant Mechs, and by that time you cannot hold a Lancer or Gnasher for the rest of the game.

Be careful not to pick up the various amounts of Lancer and Gnasher leftovers on the way.

EDIT: I was presuming that the majority of people had already beaten the campaign before attempting this, or at least I would recommend you beat the campaign on Hardcore before attempting this.

It really isn't that difficult. If you are new, or struggling, look on the solution for the Insane campaign, for a more definitive guide on beating the campaign. They contain videos and tips on certain parts of the campaign. I wouldn't recommend beating the campaign without a Lancer or a Gnasher on a first time playing really. Play the campaign, learn where to go and where the weapons are, and swap them out. It isn't as difficult as Inconceivable or Insane by a longshot.

For those doing Co-op, it can be obtainable doing it in this mode, however, your partner must also not kill anyone with a Lancer or the Gnasher, and playing on Hardcore or they wont get the achievement themselves. EDIT 2: You can go on Hardcore and your Co-Op partner on Casual, and as long as the person playing Hardcore doesn't kill an enemy with a Lancer or a Gnasher, that person will get the achievement, and not the person getting Casual.

Like many people my achievement had glitched and was stuck at 95% I'd try redoing the prologue as well as completing the campaign again and nothing had worked. I was reading the gears forum today when I read a post about the achievement and someone trying something different.

That was when during the end of the prologue while defending anvil gate he tried something different usually he would hide in cover till the end of the chapter like me, but this time he sat on the turret firing till the end since you can't die on the turret. I tried that and the achievement poped at the end of the prologue. I'm guessing you must be on the turret at the end for it to count that you've completed the prologue.

Hope this works for others like it did for me

Just a heads up. Do not use the Lancer or Gnasher for any reason whatsoever. I chainsawed an obstacle and later chainsaw executed an enemy with the former during the Locust invasion scene at the end of the prologue, and restarted the checkpoint and it still counted against me. I later redid this chapter on a new playthrough and avoided the Lancer altogether and it eventually counted in my favor.

This may sound like a very daunting task but Hardcore, while not the easiest, is far, far easier than Insane or Inconceivable difficulty. Enemies won't soak up bullets like they do on Insane nor do a few enemy shots kill you within a fraction of a second like on Inconceivable. I made it through several chapters in a row without dying and even without the bloody-red 'COG' logo the TV screen turning dark opaque red (when near death). It's still a good idea to get a good idea of the enemies and which weapons to pick up throughout the campaign.

When the game starts, swap out the lancer for the Markza when it's dropped by dead enemies during your first fight. From there, gather more Markza ammo and use only that weapon during the chapter. After the mortar fire scene is over, you'll be fighting Locusts on a street before facing a Corpser. When it's safe to, swap out the Gnasher for the Hammer of Dawn.

Later on, when fast forwarding to JD Fenix's time, pick up a Shock Enforcer when the DeeBees are destroyed and use only that! As soon as it's safe, I frequently used the Shock Enforcer during the fights against DeeBees early in the campaign. The Shock Enforcer, despite chewing ammo like crazy, works wonders against DeeBee robot enemies, even against the DR-1s and both Sentinels (armed with Tri-Shot Machine Gun) and Guardians (RL-4-Salvo Missiles). After the robot missions were over and it was no longer possible to replenish Shock Enforcers, I eventually switched to the Hammerburst and Markza during most of the rest of the campaign. They are both available in the weapon's room during Act 2, "Geared Up". Just make sure you swap out the Lancer and Gnasher before leaving the weapons room. As I said earlier, I used the Hammerburst and Markza for at least 95+% of the remaining campaign, the remaining 5 percent involved Boomshots, Buzzsaws, and the Memento Mori for really tough fights.

Whatever you do, AVOID using the Lancer and Gnasher at all at any point in the campaign. If you reach Act 5 Chapter 3, you will be piloting giant robots, and will no longer need to use regular weapons for the rest of the game but you still must complete even these chapters in order for them to count towards the achievement.


CAUTION: This achievement can be glitchy.

If this achievement doesn't unlock right away, just start a new campaign on Hardcore difficulty and avoid shooting the Gnasher and Lancer, and avoid using the latter's chainsaw when cutting through obstacles or executing enemies. Don't even melee enemies with these weapons.

I eventually unlocked this at the end of Act II. Just keep replaying the campaign and if you successfully avoid using the Lancer or Gnasher, you'll eventually complete all chapters and unlock this glitchy achievement. Best of luck to ya.