Gears 5 developer, The Coalition, has rolled out the next big update (Gears 5 Title Update 4) and it’s live! With this update comes many changes to the game, including Ghasher improvement, new characters, map changes and a new event. All of this comes free of charge after Gears dropped the season pass model it had with Gears 4. Check out the full Gears 5 Update 1.1.145.0 patch notes below.
The Lunar New Year event kicks off this week that comes with a free for all golden gun game mode. The mode pits 14 players with one shot kill pistols for a fight to the death. Pick up 108 kills in this special event to earn the Year of the Rat Blood Spray and the Golden Gun Boltok Weapon Skin. Fan favourite character, Kantus, makes his Gears 5 debut this week. You can earn him by completing totem challenges or purchase the character. A reminder to those that purchased the Operation: Free For All bundle, Kantus comes included free of charge and will be made available on this release schedule:
10 am PT: Title Update 4 rolls out available for download. Kantus will not be available.
12:30pm – 1pm PT: Live Update 1 deployed
- Kantus becomes available to earn through the Kantus Totem.
- Existing Operation 2: Free For All bundle owners will receive the Kantus Character.
- It may take up to 1-2 hours to appear. You will need to relaunch the title to test if your character has appeared.
- Kantus Character added to the Operation 2: Free For All bundle.
3 pm PT: Live Update 2 deployed. The Kantus is available for individual purchase through the Store.
Along with Kanus comes much-needed fixes to parts of the game. The Gnasher shotgun is being fixed after an investigation into inconsistencies that were brought up by the community. This arrives in Live Update 1 scheduled for 1 pm PT on Tuesday. This will not be active with the release of the TU at 10 am. You can read more about the changes here.
Changes to the map Icebound are also on the way. The map was very slow and disliked by the community as a whole. The Coalition has updated the map with the following changes:
Layout Change: The mantle cover at the top of each tower’s slope slide has now been removed. This adds a new vulnerable flank to allow this strong position to be countered more easily.
Weapon Layout Changes: The weapon layout has been modified to provide more options to counter the strong tower positions and allow players to traverse the ice area more easily.
Lock: Frag Grenades have been removed and replaced with a Dropshot.
Middle Ice: Cryo Cannon has moved to the center of the ice, replacing the original Dropshot location
Trading Post: Cryo Cannon has been moved and is now a Torque Bow
Market/Radio: Boltoks have been replaced with Enforcers
Stable Spawn/Power Spawn: Incendiaries and Shock Grenades remain the same
KOTH: The ground level tower rings (at the bottom of the slides) have moved into the interior of the towers where the Enforcer spawns. Player spawns have been updated to cater to these changes.
Escalation: There are now three weapon placement slots on the centerline, up from 2. This is to be at parity with all the other maps.
Gameplay Updates:
- Added new ‘Simple’ Omen Option
- Added a menu toggle between Simple (new) and Immersive (existing) Omen options
- Reduced overall redness for Immersive Omen
- Added new unique damage indicators for receiving active damage on The Omen
- Damage indicators will now fade immediately upon removal of an incoming threat (e.g. Enemy shooting you was killed). The most recent damage indicator will otherwise remain on the Omen until health has started regenerating
- Fixed an issue that hid the Omen momentarily when being grabbed as a meatshield
- Fixed an issue that could cause the Omen to flicker with dynamic resolution changes
- Added a 0.25-second delay before being able to melee after firing
- FFA: DBNO Self Revive Time lowered to 8s (4s if tapping) – was 15s (7.5s if tapping)
- FFA: Removed one magazine from Overkill ammo on pickup
- FFA: Increased respawn time for Breaker Mace and heavy weapons to 120s (was 60s)
- Arcade Blitz: Hills now drain points very slowly when uncapped, rather than never draining
- Escalation: Weapons can now be placed at half-time
Characters:
- Kantus added to character roster
- Baird’s Global Sentry Upgrade card no longer affects Baird’s weapons
- Baird’s Experimental Weapons card no longer applies to heavy weapons
- Lahni’s Shock Chain card now functions correctly again
Maps:
- Icebound: New geometry changes, weapon layouts and ring updates to improve gameplay
- The Pit: When scoping with a Longshot on a slide, the scope will now appear and accurately show where your shot will land
- The Pit: Fixed an issue that could cause players on slides to float/fly or move erratically
Fixes and Improvements:
- Added Estimated Wait Times for playlists
- Added stats for FFA Quickplay and Arcade Blitz
- Added a ‘Mark All Viewed’ button to Customization menus
- Fixed an issue where users would sometimes not be able to finish a Hive playthrough on Map Builder when verifying with more than one user
- Fixed an issue causing global chat to not display for both teams
- Fixed an issue that could sometimes cause the front-end menus to enter into a broken state if a lobby dissolves immediately
- Fixed an issue that prevented the step-down animation from playing when a user cover slipped over a drop-down
- Fixed an issue where LTing with a heavy weapon near High Cover would drag the player into cover leaving them unable to LT
- Meatshields can now be grenade tagged by opponents
- Added messaging to alert users to already owned content when viewing bundles (such as the Operation 2 Bundle)
- Horde: Resolved a bug that could cause Level 4 MG / Shock Sentries or Weapons Lockers to be unable to be picked up after being healed and then placed inside a piece of cover
- Horde: Fixed an issue that could cause a user to be unable to move after being saved by Jack from a DBNO struggle with an enemy
- Horde: Fixed an issue that could cause negative damage values in the scoreboard
- Guardian: Players who Join In Progress or Rejoin will now be able to respawn if their leader is alive
- Tiles: Minor fixes to address LOD and lighting issues on several tiles
- Keyboard: Key binding any movement, combat or actions to “K” will now work on Allfather’s Arena
- PC: Fixed a crash that could occur shortly after launch
- Campaign: Fixed an issue where the Skiff could become stuck if mounted too quickly after killing enemies at the lower bridge controls in Vasgar
- Campaign: Fixed an issue where the Skiff could get stuck in the air in Vasgar
- Campaign: Fixed an issue that could cause infinite loading after the end credits
- Versus: Improved lighting on the MVP screen
- Accessibility: The narrator will now mention options to quit or change profile in the menus.
- Accessibility: Narrator will now specify the player’s MP level when reading out the number
The weekly refresh with a new hive and new store items will also go live on Tuesday at 9 am PT. This is the first significant update for Gears 5 in 2020, and we will update the page, letting you know what to expect in terms of the size of the update.
