You can visit various websites around the web for tips and tricks to grind out Gears of War 5 medals, but there are many tricks you can come across from just playing the game.

Are you looking to climb the ranks? You have no doubt noticed the grind required with many of the medal challenges.

“Collect 1,000,000 power in Horde,” or “Deal 100,000 damage to enemies.”

Hopefully, these grinding tips will make your medal journey a little bit more fun and bearable – or give you direction if you haven’t started yet.

Casual Play

Many of the medals can be earned just by playing the game casually, but if you’re like me and other players, you probably want to grind them out so you can go back to enjoying the game.

If you have any suggestions to add to this list please drop them in the comments for the rest of us mere mortals.

Let’s begin!

Basics

1. Team Medic – Open up a solo custom Horde match. Turn on bots, but don’t allow other players to join. Start in a later wave so that the monsters do more damage, but keep the difficulty setting at beginner. The bots are incredibly dumb and will wade through mulcher fire to help you achieve this medal.
2. Executioner – You can combine this grind with Lahni’s Escape challenge, as well. Open up a solo custom Escape game. Choose Lahni. Choose The Hive as your map on beginner difficulty. There are usually several early enemies you can sneak up on (do NOT run–if you walk it won’t alert them) and execute them from behind. Double-melee usually puts average enemies on the ground where you can execute them, as well. You can do this in early Horde rounds, too, but might as well get two birds with one stone in Escape.
3. Finish Them – This one will take a little time. Notice this challenge requires “kills” and not “eliminations”. Open up a solo custom Horde game. Keep the bots turned off so they don’t take your sweet kills. Choose Del for the auto turrets (unless you prefer a power role), and start on beginner at Wave 1. Have fun. Edit: Apparently another clean way to rack up kills quickly is to do this in Horde mode on wave 10. Keep restarting wave 10 until a Carrier boss spawns. Kite him around killing the projectiles he launches at you.
4. Marksman – This will take a little time as well, but you can double this up with Mac’s Escape challenge as well, if you’d like. Open a solo custom Escape game. Choose Mac and whichever map you are most familiar with. Start on beginner difficulty, and have at it. The Boltok is your friend. The other way to farm this is to use Marcus in Horde. Solo custom Horde. No bots, no allies. Beginner difficulty. If you act like a damage sponge your ultimate will fill faster. Pop the ultimate and get insta-headshots for the duration (I’m pretty sure this gives you true-headshots, and not just head-shot type damage multiplier, but correct me if I’m wrong). When you don’t have your ult up go ahead and try to use the Boltok, Markza, or Longshot if you can find them on a corpse.
5. Body Count – 15,000 eliminations is nothing to sneeze at, but it goes pretty quickly if you don’t pay much attention to it. A couple ways to farm this, however. Solo custom Horde with bots on beginner, or even party Horde. Del usually works well with his auto-turrets. You can also jump into KotH games in versus (which will help with some of those Versus and Ranked challenges, as well) and have a blast. Keegan on Escape comes to mind as well, using his card that allows you to mark multiple targets, and allowing your team to mow them down. Whichever method you choose, be sure to mark your enemies if you’re playing with others, as those kills count as eliminations for you even if you don’t touch the enemy.
6. Carnage – If you want to rack up a lot of damage very quickly then I would recommend auto-turrets in Horde. Solo custom Horde, with bots (they’ll help revive you…..some times), beginner difficulty, set to a high Wave to start. Drop down a couple level 4 turrets, and let them do the work for you while you pick off enemies. You can easily rack up a few hundred thousand damage in just a couple Waves this way. Also, power weapons (think boomshot, dropshot, breaker mace, frags) are your friends in any game mode.

Weapons

1. Lancer GL – Solo custom Horde. No bots. No allies. Start with Wave 1 on beginner, and use JD (the GL is one of his primary weapons). Kill everything with the GL. When you die restart the Wave, and keep going. This shouldn’t take longer than an hour.
2. Talon – Same procedure as the GL, except you’ll use a character that starts with the Talon (there’s a couple to choose from). This one will take a little longer, obviously.
3. Claw – Since no one starts with a Claw in any mode there are two ideal ways to do this. One way is through Arcade. Build up eliminations until you can afford the Claw (6 elims), and then switch to a character that has access to it, such as Marcus on the COG side. Purchase the Claw, and mow em down. The other method for those of you who don’t enjoy Arcade is to turn to Horde mode. Solo custom, with or without bots, (human players tend to suck up a lot of kills, so avoid them if you’re grinding), beginner difficulty. Start with a Wave near or higher than 10, and you should start seeing more and more spawns with the Claw. Swipe it from a corpse, and go to town.
4. Cryo Cannon – Don’t bother wasting your ammo on enemies who can be DBNO UNLESS they are already in the downed state. Small creatures, such as Juvies, can be killed outright with the frost beam. Open up a solo custom Escape game, pick whatever character you like best, and choose The Hive or The Gauntlet. The first large room before the safe room in The Hive will have a Scion with this weapon. Lure him out, kill him first, and then go around downing enemies. Down them quickly before they get revived. Pick up the cannon and ice em. The Gauntlet also has a pair of Scions in the first encounter, with one of them typically carrying the Cryo Cannon.
5. Breaker Mace – Two methods here. Play Arcade, build up eliminations (7) with someone who can buy the mace, and swing for the fences. The other way to farm this is in The Hive on Escape. Go into a solo custom game, start on beginner. The first large room (red room) after the safe-room will spawn 1 of 2 bosses (from what I’ve seen), the Swarm or the Warden. You want the Warden. Grab the boomshot from a supply room before fighting him, and kill him with it. Pick up his mace, and save it for the evac site. After the doors at evac start shutting waves of enemies will pour in (good spot to farm Juvies). Use the mace relentlessly.
6. Frag – KotH and camp frag spawn when it comes up. Use them in the hill. You can also try to find the frags in the supply rooms in Escape, or sometimes from the bodies of the explosive Juvies in Escape, as well. If you find them in Escape always be sure to save it until you find a red power weapon ammo box to bump you up to two grenades. Group up a few enemies, and toss one in. Save one or two for the evac site, as well, when the enemies start pouring through the doors.

Enemies

1. Juvie Hunter – Juvie’s aren’t a very consistent spawn like most typical enemies in Horde and Escape, however, there is one spot in Escape where you’ll almost always find several to slaughter. Open up a solo custom Escape game. Pick whichever map you’re most familiar with (the Gauntlet always seems to flood with Juvies in the end), and set it on beginner difficulty. Save a power weapon (or two) for when the gates start to close after you’ve called for the evac. Slaughter the little buggers.
2. Drone Hunter – Drones spawn regularly in Escape and Horde modes, so choose which game type you prefer, and get to killing. You can do this with or without other players, just keep in mind other players will take your kills. As I’ve recommended before, if you choose Horde mode taking Del is always a good option with his auto-turrets to help lay down some heavy fire for quick kills. This one is a grind.
3. Scion Hunter – Later Waves in Horde spawn Scions fairly often, so jumping into a solo custom game with or without bots, and setting the Wave to a high level isn’t a bad idea to farm this out. You can also hit up a custom Escape match for this medal. Every map in Escape spawns a few different Scions, especially The Gauntlet. If you want this to go as quickly as possible then after you kill a Scion or two, and before you hit the end of an act (safe room in Escape), go ahead and suicide to restart from the last checkpoint, and kill them again, and again, and again, etc.
4. Boss Hunter – The best place to do this is in Horde, in my opinion. The Warden in Escape (the guy you’ll face most often) is considered a Scion, and not a boss, so don’t waste your time with him on this challenge. Open up your custom Horde game, with bots or others players this will be easier (notice the medal requires eliminations, and not kills, so it’s okay if someone else “steals” the kill from you as long as you marked or shot the boss). Start on wave 10 on beginner, and kill the bastard(ess). Head back to the lobby, and do it again. Or you can head to wave 50 where it seems if you dispatch of particular bosses quick enough (in my experience this has happened with Swarm, Swarmak, and Warden) a second one will be spawned immediately after.
5. Creature Hunter – We’re back to using the word “kill” instead of “eliminate” for this medal. Again, I would recommend using Del and the auto-turrets in solo custom Horde without other players. Using bots is up to you on this one, as they won’t steal many of your kills. Do this on beginner to make it quicker and easier, and if you start on a later Wave you’ll have more energy to spend when you secure the fabricator. Throw down those auto-turrets, upgrade them, and let them take care of your side work.

Escape

1. Escape Challenge – Just so we’re all clear, a “Challenge Hive” is the weekly active Hive, and all other Hives are Past Hives. This is pretty straight forward. Two ways to go about this: bring some bros into your Escape lobby, do your thang and have fun, OR go into a solo custom Escape game, beginner difficulty, and just run from the start point straight through to the evac site, only stopping to avoid enemies. Do this over and over and over again, and hate your life in the process.
2. Past Hive Veteran – Exact same tip from the previous medal, just do it with the Past Hives instead of the weekly Challenge Hive. Choose a map that is smaller in size and familiar to you.
3. Escape Body Count – This medal says “kills” and not “eliminations” so I’m going to base it off of that without specific testing to be certain. No two ways about this one. Play lots of Escape matches in solo custom lobbies on beginner difficulty. You can either pair this up with Hivebuster medal challenges whilst you kill your way through each round of Escape, OR, you can get to the evac site, pull out a power weapon you’ve been saving, and kill the wave that flows into the doors. Suicide, and start from the safe-room checkpoint. Run to the evac doors, and do it again. Rinse and repeat.
4. Escape Attempts – This is the easiest of the “Escape” challenges. Acts are the segments of each Escape game sandwiched between safe-room checkpoints. You run from the starting point to a safe-room and initiate decontamination? You’ve completed an act. You get from the safe-room to the evac and escape on the helicopter? You’ve completed an act. With that being said you won’t be able to suicide to reset progress on this as that will take you back to your checkpoint that you already completed. Do this one with buddies, or solo, doesn’t matter–it goes fast, especially if you run right through without fighting enemies.
5. Hive Master 1 – There are two very difficult time-consuming medal challenges to complete, and this is one of them. I have yet to do it. I’m saving these for last. The only tip I can offer here is to do the other Escape challenges first on your way to building up your preferred character so you can tackle this with high level cards. Also, do this with a premade group of friends, not with randoms who don’t have a mic. From what I’ve heard this goes fairly well if you use a combination of Keegan (for multiple marks perk to achieve ammunition ultimate), Mac (active pistol bleed perk to slow down regen on health), and Lahni (for her fast hitting ultimate stuns). Remember, this is Challenge hives, not past ones.
6. Past Master 1 – This is the other hard medal challenge of the two. This one is only made easier by the ability to pick and choose Past Hives from the list and practice, practice, practice on them at your own pace. The same recommendations from the previous medal challenge apply to this one, as well.

Hivebusters

1. Veteran Hivebusters – There’s no way to cheese this with suicides and restarts. The quickest way to complete this medal is to run from start to evac with as little combat as you can manage. Do this solo for quicker uninterrupted runs, or with buddies to make it less boring as shit.
2. Lahni the Executioner – This pairs very well with the Basic: Executioner challenge. Solo custom Escape on beginner. Choose a map you like (The Hive works well here due to enemies near the beginning that can be sneaked upon), and start downing foes. Usually a double-melee will put an enemy on the ground (if they are DBNO eligible), and from there you can execute. If you sneak up behind an enemy you can also get a cheese execution quickly.
3. Keegan the Eliminator – This take a little bit of time, and it is best done with other players. Beginner difficulty, and be sure to equip your perk card that allows for marking multiple enemies. Mark every enemy you can at all times. When your team mows them down it counts as eliminations. If you want to try to speed this up you can (team) suicide before completing the evac process after wiping out dozens of evac wave enemies to restart at the last checkpoint and do it over and over again. This works best with buddies who are down with the suicide plan.
4. Mac Veteran – The Boltok you start with is your friend. If you find yourself having trouble headshotting moving enemies, then go melee-down them and headshot them as they crawl around. Not very easy to cheese this one unless you’re good with headshots–in which case you can try farming the evac wave over and over again and suiciding before escaping. This challenge works best in solo custom so no one can steal your kills.
5. Scorpio Body Count – The quickest way to do this would be with Keegan and his multiple-mark perk card. Mark every enemy you see, and help your team mow them down. Again, this can be farmed with the evac wave if your team is down with the suicide-farm plan. Keegan’s ult will be usable several times if you’re consistently marking enemies, which allows for more ammo, and more prey and spray.

Horde

1. Horde Veteran – You can do this solo with bots, or with friends. Start a custom Horde match on beginner. Set the wave to 50. Choose your favorite character (I use Del for auto-turrets), and clear the wave. This counts as a completion. Rinse and repeat.
2. Wave Survivor – This one is pretty standard. Either jump into the Horde queue to play with randoms, or do this with buddies (bots are possible too, but they are dumb and mostly worthless). Set your difficulty to beginner, start on wave 1, and start clearing. If you want to do this quickly then just do waves 1 – 10, and then start over.
3. Horde Carnage – I find this easiest to accomplish in custom solo Horde with bots in the late waves. I start with a high wave, set up my upgraded auto-turrets with Del, and let the grind begin. A couple waves typically nets me a couple hundred thousand damage if my turret stay active.
4. Power Hoarder – This one is a doozy. I do not know if the energy-sharing feature counts towards this or not, so without that clarification I recommend doing this challenge solo with or without bots. Other players will end up picking up most of the energy, and if the energy-sharing feature doesn’t count in this medal that is a total waste of time. I setup auto-turrets with Del, and typically start in higher waves due to the increased energy dropped. Clear the wave up to the last enemy, and go claim your powa. This one sucks.
5. Horde Body Count – This is “kills” and not “eliminations” so doing this solo is best (correct me if I’m wrong). Beginner difficulty. Start with higher waves (more enemies and energy to spend), and setup auto-turrets with Del. Do this over and over again until your mind is numb. In the later waves I typically get around 20-25 kills per wave. I use bots to help keep me revived, and they tend to get a few kills.

Heroes

1. Veteran Team – You can do this solo if you set it up right, but doing it with friends is probably easier so that someone always has access to a strong class, such as Marcus or Del. Custom Horde match. Beginner difficulty. Start on wave 50. Clear the wave, and then pick a new character to run it with.
2. Unstoppable Force – Early wave enemies are easier to kill, so run this solo custom, and start there. Build up your ult, and get auto-headshots when you fire at an enemy. When your ult isn’t up go ahead and try to use the Boltok, Markza, or Longshot. Pair this with the “Marksman” medal challenge.
3. Kait’s Revenge – Do this in a solo custom Horde match, without bots. Set the difficulty to beginner, and start on wave 1. Melee your enemies down, and execute them. Use a weapon other than your pistol for your execution animation to save on time.
4. Del the Builder – Start on wave 50 in a custom match as Del, without or without bots, doesn’t matter. I’m not sure if a higher difficulty setting gives you more energy (haven’t tested it), but use the energy you start with after moving the fabricator, and build as many barricades as you can (you start with 50k+ on beginner if set to wave 50). You should be able to then quit to the lobby, and start it again. If for some reason that doesn’t save your progress then commit suicide after building, and go back to lobby from there to do it again.
5. Here to Help – I’ve honestly never played as Jack, so I’m unaware of his mechanics in this regard. Given how stupid bots are, however, I would suggest doing this challenge with friends to increase the speed at which enemies are killed and assists are earned.
6. Officer Trainer – Pair this with the “Lancer GL Body Count” challenge. Start a solo custom Horde game, without bots. Start on wave 1 with beginner difficulty, and choose JD, obviously. Kill everything with your Lancer GL. To speed this up run waves 1-10, and then back-out to the lobby and start the process again, or suicide and replay waves.

Versus

1. COG Victories – These can’t really be cheesed, as they are random chance at which team you end up on. Play whatever game mode you like for this, and if you want it to go quickly then choose a shorter game mode such as TDM. Try to win, obviously.
2. Swarm Victories – The same advice from the COG challenge applies to this one.
3. Competitive Co-Op – This is super easy and won’t take you long. Choose a short game type, and get it done.
4. Season Slaughter – I’ve found that eliminations stack quickly in two modes: KotH and Arcade (through buying and using power weapons). Remember to mark your enemies even if you can’t reach them or shoot them.
5. Versus Body Count – Like it or not this one is going to take a little time, as it requires “kills” and not “eliminations”. Shotty battles are king here, and if you can’t compete that way then hoard the power weapons. If you’re looking to grind then choose a game type that allows for maximum killing potential and chaos (as a distraction to your enemies), such as KotH, or building up eliminations for easy power weapon kills in Arcade mode.
6. Versus Carnage – Think power weapons here. Boomshot, dropshot, breaker mace, frags, mulcher, etc. If you don’t have access to those then get up close with the shotty. If you aren’t good with the shotty, then rifle your enemies into the downed state, over and over again after they are revived to maximize damage they take.

Ranked

1. Diversified – This is pretty straight forward. The only really time consuming one in the playlist is Escalation as it can go for 13 rounds if necessary. If you aren’t good in Versus then team up with some buddies who are, or allow your teammates who are good to pick-up the power weapons.
2. Arcade Veteran – Again, straight forward. Just get in there, and do your best. Many of these game modes can be better won if you queue with a team that communicates and you hoard power weapons (the breaker mace is strong as F).
3. King of the Hill Veteran – Please get in the hill. FFS. And when the timer is running out on the current hill, go to the next hill instead.
4. Deathmatch Veteran – Kill them all. Seriously, just do that.
5. Escalation Veteran – This one is the slowest, as the rounds can go on for so long, and build up to 13 if necessary. Just remember to get in the hill zones to cap them. You can win this by running the enemy team out of respawns (eliminating them), having control over all 3 hill points at the same time, or by reaching the score limit first. Communication is huge here if you can find a squad to run with.
6. Guardian Veteran – Protect your Leader, please. If you’re the Leader, don’t be a shithead. Stay in cover, plant a grenade on your six, and keep your eyes open. Just because the enemy Leader died doesn’t mean you need to go ham, and start trying to be a one-man army. Let your team win it for you.

Warning: Custom versus matches DO NOT provide progress for any of these medals, and as I understand it from the posts of others neither does the campaign.

The medals can ONLY be progressed and earned through Horde, Escape, and Versus modes.

I think that covers everything for now. If you have any ideas please comment, and share them.

Note: I wouldn’t recommend grinding the Body Count, Carnage, or Finish Them medals until after you’ve completed all of the others, as you will most likely complete these medals whilst grinding everything else.