The Coalition has pulled the curtain back on the newest Gears 5 content drop, Operation: Free For All, which will be dropping on December 12 on Xbox One and PC. This content drop will include new modes, maps, characters, and a brand new Tour of Duty with over 200 unlockable items for players to grind through.

Mentioned in the title, the free for all game mode will be launching with this content drop and will support up to 14 players, making it Gear’s 5 largest mode in the playlist to date.  The Coalition says to support fights this big, they have created three brand new maps explicitly built to support a great FFA experience, each with their distinct style of gameplay.

The map descriptions are as followed:

Pit: This mining excavation frozen in time features huge slides that funnel combat into a dangerous central pit. Venture into the depths of the Pit to be rewarded with the best weapon pickups – if you can survive.

Core: A claustrophobic battle in the heart of a machine with fights that will be defined by bridges separating the two main sections of the map.

Nethercutt: This sprawling maze features large landmark rooms that create fierce points of contention and plenty of mayhem.

Along with the featured FFA game type, Arcade Blitz and 2v2 Ghashers are other modes that are joining the fun. Arcade Blitz is a no holds barred fast-paced objective mode, where objective hills move quickly, and points can only be captured by standing within the hill. This is an Arcade mode, so character arcade abilities come into play here. 2v2 Ghashers is the classic Gears mode where you and a buddy team up to take on another group of two on maps from Gears 4, Boxes, and Foundation Mid.

New characters were also revealed. After teasing both Lizzie Carmine and Damon Baird as COG hero’s last week, The Coalition got into detail about the heroes’ abilities and Swarm characters, Jermad and Locust Drome for use in Arcade and standard multiplayer. Also mentioned was another Swarm character, Kantus, who will be available in January 2020.

Damon Baird: 

PvE Details:

• Role: Engineer
• Ultimate: Reinforce DR-1 – Summon a DR-1 that targets enemies
• Passive: Build new Fortifications at a small discount and carry Fortifications faster
• Skill Cards: 16

Versus Arcade Details:

• Passive: DB Specialist – Significantly reduced recoil on DeeBee Weapons
• Loadout: Enforcer, Snub, Flashbang
• Weapon Tree: Shock Grenade (2), Overkill (4), EMBAR (6)]
• Skull Bounty: Multi-kill Eliminations

Lizzie Carmine:

PvE Details:

• Role: Tank
• Ultimate: Summon Silverback – Summon and pilot a Silverback on the battlefield
• Passive: Enemies that die with your mark reduce the cooldown of your Ultimate
• Skill Cards: 16

Versus Arcade Details:

• Passive: Hot Footed – Taking damage makes you move faster for a brief time
• Loadout: Lancer, Talon, Smoke
• Weapon Tree: Shock Grenade (2), Gnasher (4), Dropshot (6)
• Skull Bounty: Multi-kill Eliminations

Jermad:

Versus Arcade Details:

• Passive: Hard Headed – Headshot Damage Reduction
• Loadout: Retro Lancer, Snub, Flashbang
• Weapon Tree: Ammo (3), Mulcher (6), Torque Bow (7)
• Skull Bounty: Multi-kill Eliminations

Locust Drone: 

Versus Arcade Details:

• Passive: DB Specialist – Significantly reduced recoil on DeeBee Weapons
• Loadout: Enforcer, Snub, Flashbang
• Weapon Tree: Shock Grenade (2), Overkill (4), EMBAR (6)
• Skull Bounty: Multi-kill Eliminations

Other mix-ups to hero characters include a buff to Fahz and three new skill cards for Kat in the horde mode. Previously Escape only characters, Mac, Keegan, and Lahni, will be introduced to Horde along with new perks for the mode. Marcus will also be introduced to Escape alongside all of his Horde abilities. In addition to the five new maps for FFA and 2v2, two Arena maps will also be added for both Public and Private Play with the launch of Operation 2. A new map Allfathers Arena and a Gears 4 favorite, Lift, will be available in standard MP. 27 new tiles for the Escape map editor are coming in the Operation that will allow even more customization when designing custom made Escape maps.

Gears 5’s battle pass system, Tour of Duty, has a list of improvements that the community has been asking for. Doubling the number of earn-able medals groups for Versus players to 4 Medal Groups, plus an additional Medal Group tied to Versus Special Events. It provides more opportunities for Versus players to earn big hits of Stars in Versus to match the number available in PVE. The Coalition has also excluded Character Skins from any of the mode-specific Medal Group Rewards and placed them in the main Tour of Duty level rewards instead. Boosts will now offer double stars for daily challenges when activated, allowing for faster leveling of the Tour.

All of this is free content that can be earned through gameplay, but for those wanting to gain access to the new characters without the grind, Gears 5 offers a bundle and includes all four new characters, the complete Eclipse weapon set, 1000 Iron and 30 days of Boost, all for $19.99.

Operation: Free For All drops on December 10, 2019

Source: Gears5.com.