Gears of War: E-Day Complete Walkthrough — Campaign Guide, Boss Tips & COG Tag Locations

Day One: Emergence

The campaign kicks off with Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago caught in the first Locust attack on the surface. The Coalition structured the story across three in-game days, each with a distinct tone. Day One is panic and survival.

You'll fight through about six major combat zones on Day One. The street opening teaches basic cover and movement. The parking garage introduces E-Holes and Wretches. The rooftop holdout teaches vertical combat with Drones rappelling from above. The first Kalona open zone lets you explore and find side content. The hospital mission forces close-quarters Gnasher combat and ends with your first Boomer boss.

I covered the minute-to-minute of Day One in more detail in the first hours guide. The short version: loot everything, find the Longshot in the collapsed apartment building, plant frags as mines on retreat paths, and kill the hospital Boomer from behind. Don't face-tank a Boomshot.

After the hospital, Dom and Marcus get a King Raven extraction that transitions to Day Two. The game gives you a clear warning before the point of no return, so wrap up any missed Day One side areas. There are 12 COG tags total in Day One's zones and you need to find them now. No chapter select for cleanup.

Day Two: The City Falls

The tone shifts hard on Day Two. Kalona is fully evacuated now. The Locust own the streets. It's less about saving civilians and more about understanding what you're fighting.

Day Two introduces the Drome, which is basically a giant armored tick that charges at you. It has a weak spot on its underside that's only exposed when it rears up before charging. The trick: bait the charge, roll sideways, and dump Gnasher rounds into the glowing belly. If you try to fight a Drome from cover, it smashes through your barrier and one-shots you on Hardcore. Don't.

You'll also meet your first Corpser in Day Two, in the underground transit tunnels. Corpsers are the spider-like heavy Locust that burrow underground and burst up beneath you. The new seismic audio cue is your warning. When the ground starts shaking and cracking, sprint in any direction. Standing still gets you impaled.

Corpser strategy is the same as classic Gears: shoot the glowing abdomen when it rears up, dodge the leg swipes, and when it covers its face with its front legs, switch to explosives. One frag planted on the ground where it's about to burrow does massive damage as it surfaces.

Day Two has probably the best mission in the game: "Jacinto Memorial Bridge." You and your squad fight across a collapsed suspension bridge while Locust attack from below, above, and both sides. King Ravens provide intermittent air support. Cover here is destructible — barricades break after taking sustained fire — so you're constantly pushed forward by necessity. No camping. The mission ends with a setpiece where you plant charges on the bridge supports and collapse a section to cut off a Locust advance. Looks incredible in 4K with ray tracing on, even if the framerate dips a bit during the explosion.

Day Two also has the game's most emotional beat, which I won't spoil, but it involves a choice Marcus makes about a trapped civilian. It doesn't change the ending but the scene plays out differently depending on what you do. Small thing, matters.

Day Three: The Brotherhood Forged

The final day is the shortest but most intense. The Locust counterattack is at full force. You're pushing toward a COG command center that's been overrun, and the enemy density is the highest in the entire campaign.

Day Three introduces the new Gut Puncher grenade launcher in a big way. You'll find it early in the day and the game throws heavy Locust at you that are basically bullet sponges unless you use it. The Gut Puncher embeds a grenade in an enemy that detonates after a short delay. Direct hits on Boomers kill them outright. Misses still create area denial where the grenade lands.

This is also where the chainsaw Lancer origin arc pays off. Marcus finds an experimental weapon in a COG R&D lab — a Lancer with a chainsaw bayonet attachment. The moment you first rev it and cut through a Drone is basically fan service, but earned fan service. The chainsaw becomes your primary melee option for the rest of the game and it's just as satisfying as it was in 2006.

The final mission is a multi-phase defense of the command center. You hold against waves of Drones, Wretches, Boomers, and multiple Corpsers. Ammo runs low. E-Holes open randomly throughout. It's designed to push co-op squads to their limit and honestly solo players will struggle on anything above Normal. Bring your best squad if you're playing online co-op. The 4-player co-op really shines here since you can assign roles: one sniper, two mid-range Lancers, one Gnasher rusher handling close threats.

The final boss is a Brumak — the giant Locust creature with chaingun arms and rocket pods on its back. Classic Gears endgame fare. You fight it across the destroyed courtyard using mounted Troikas, environmental hazards, and coordinated fire. The fight has three phases with checkpoints between each. Phase one is the Brumak on foot. Phase two has it climb onto a collapsed building and rain rockets. Phase three is a ground-level brawl where you have to target its leg joints to bring it down.

In co-op, have two players focus the leg joints while the other two handle the Drone adds that spawn throughout the fight. Solo, you'll need to alternate between the Brumak and adds constantly. The Longshot is your best friend here. Headshot the Drone reinforcements fast so you can get back to damaging the Brumak.

The ending ties directly into the original Gears of War. Marcus and Dom walk away from Kalona as the city burns behind them. It's not happy. It's not supposed to be. It's the origin of fourteen years of war and the closing shot shows the Locust emerging across the entire planet. The post-credits scene sets up a direct sequel. The Coalition has confirmed E-Day is the start of a new trilogy, so the cliffhanger is intentional.

Difficulty Recommendations

Normal is fine for a first playthrough if you want to experience the story. Hardcore is the "intended" difficulty based on how the AI behaves and how punishing the ammo economy is. Insane is for co-op squads who enjoy pain. On Insane, active reloads are mandatory, Drones kill you in three hits, and Boomers one-shot with everything. I tried Insane solo and made it about two hours before switching to Hardcore. Co-op Insane is doable with a coordinated team.

COG Tag Summary

There are COG tags across all three days. Each tag is a small metal cog-shaped badge with an audio log attached. The logs tell stories of soldiers, civilians, and families during the Emergence Day attack. Not all tags are in obvious locations. Some require breaking crates, checking behind locked doors (look for yellow power cables you can shoot to disable locks), and climbing to rooftops using the new vaulting system.

Missable tags are concentrated in Day One and Day Two. Day Three's tags are mostly along the critical path and harder to miss. If you're aiming for 100%, keep a checklist and check every room before advancing. The game autosaves aggressively but doesn't let you replay chapters to hunt collectibles. Once you move past a zone, it's locked.