Start here: how this walkthrough works
What there is to find, what you can miss, and the few mechanics worth knowing first.
This walkthrough covers the whole campaign of Gears of War: E-Day: 5 acts and 26 chapters, with every collectible, Hard Case, supply cache and secondary objective in a checklist at the top of each chapter. Tick things off as you find them — your progress is saved in your browser.
What there is to find
| Type | How many | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Collectibles | 140 | Lore items: dog tags, letters, posters, odd objects. They only add story, but finding them all unlocks Memories From E-Day. |
| Hard Cases | 125 | Yellow cases that unlock weapon mods and mod slots. A pop-up warns you when one is close. All of them unlock Relax. I’m the Map. |
| Supply caches | 38 | Refill ammo and let you swap equipment and mods. Unlocking everything they offer gives Quartermaster. |
| Secondary objectives | 17 | Optional side missions that reward mods. Finishing all of them gives Side Piece. |
- Most of the loot is packed into four big chapters: Hold the Line (Act 2), Last Foothold (Act 3), Hope and Ruin and Tough As Nails (both Act 4).
What you can miss
- Nothing is lost forever (you can replay chapters), but these are easy to walk past:
- Points of no return. Open chapters close areas behind you. The big one is the Octus Tribunal muster point in Hold the Line — finish the first half of that chapter before you go in.
- Secondary objectives only appear when you get near them, and some only unlock after a certain main objective.
- Hard Cases are often tucked in side rooms, behind cars or up on balconies. If the pop-up appears, stop and look around.
- The route split in Enemy Lines (Act 3). Playing the Mags and Marcus side shows extra story about Carlos that the Dom and Lucas side doesn’t.
Mechanics worth knowing
- Emergence Holes (E-Holes). These glowing red holes are where the Locust come up, and they keep spawning enemies until you close them. Only a Frag Grenade seals one — thrown by hand, or fired as a frag round from the Gut-Puncher, which reaches much further. Acid, incendiary and concussion rounds don’t work.
- Active Reload. Press reload, then press it again as the bar crosses the marked zone. The yellow zone is a Perfect Reload: faster, and your next bullets do extra damage. The white zone is a Quick Reload: faster only. Miss both and the reload takes longer.
- Mods. Hard Cases and side objectives unlock mods; you fit them to your weapons and gear at any supply cache. Mod slots are rarer than mods, so grab every Hard Case that lists a slot.
- Difficulty. There are four levels: Casual, Normal, Hardcore and Insane. You can change difficulty from the pause menu. The For Whom The Bell Tolls achievement needs Insane plus 100% of everything, but the collectibles themselves can be found on any difficulty.
How to use this guide
- Each chapter starts with its checklist — collectibles, Hard Cases, supply caches and side objectives, each with a short note on where it is — followed by the walkthrough in the order you play it. Boss fights have their own section with tactics.
- Hard Cases don’t have names in the game, so each chapter simply numbers them for reference; the location note next to each one is what matters.