Eight guns, slot and change

Gnasher

The Gnasher is the shotgun the Gears of War: E-Day weapon notes lead with. Its tube drops from 8 shells to 6, and it shares a round-by-round active reload with the Breechshot. It can be fired during a slide. Those three facts are the short card. Seven other named weapons have printed changes beside it: Breechshot, Prototype Lancer, Hammerburst, Lancer MK1, Snub, Smoke Grenade, and Heavy Boomshot. The Coalition's gameplay update is the source. Steam does not add a ninth name in the material used here, and Horde class rows do not add private guns.

The board below filters by slot. Shotgun covers Gnasher and Breechshot. Rifle covers Prototype Lancer, Hammerburst, and the Lancer MK1 that the notes call Retro. Sidearm is the Snub. Grenade is the Smoke Grenade. Heavy is the Heavy Boomshot, also called the Locust Prototype Boomshot. Each row keeps the printed change and the player-facing line, which is often a PvP note. Numbers that are not in the notes, such as damage per pellet or a reload timer in milliseconds, are not filled in. The filter is the way to read one slot on a phone without losing the other rows.

Slot, change, and the player line

Active reload is the system that ties the two shotguns together. Both use a round-by-round version rather than a single magazine ping. The Hammerburst, an accurate 6-round burst inspired by the original Gears of War Hammerburst, gets a different reward: a perfect active reload increases its rate of fire. The Prototype Lancer is described as an all-round rifle with a higher rate of fire and a deeper magazine than recent Lancers. The Lancer MK1 resumes its Gears 3 role, deadly up close and viable at mid-to-long range if the recoil is controlled. Those are role sentences, not spreadsheets.

The Snub is tuned closer to early Gears games. It fires as fast as the trigger and is quick to draw and stow. The Smoke Grenade throws volumetric smoke that saturates a space and blocks both player and AI sightlines, so it is the utility piece in a Horde wave as well as in a 4v4 flank. The Heavy Boomshot lets a player tear heavies off turret bases. Carrying it slows the Gear, and most other movement is still allowed. Breechshot's PvP line is the sharp one: a one-shot headshot, plus axe executions. That execution note is the closest the weapon post comes to a melee rule.

WeaponSlotChangePlayers

Gnasher

Shotgun

Round-by-round active reload shared with the Breechshot. Capacity goes from 8 shells to 6.

Can be fired during a slide.

Breechshot

Shotgun

Same round-by-round active reload as the Gnasher.

One-shot headshot in PvP, with axe executions.

Prototype Lancer

Rifle

Higher rate of fire and a deeper magazine than recent Lancers.

Described as an all-round rifle.

Hammerburst

Rifle

Accurate 6-round burst. A perfect active reload increases rate of fire.

Inspired by the original Gears of War Hammerburst.

Lancer MK1

Rifle

Called Retro. Resumes its Gears 3 role.

Deadly up close. Mid-to-long range if recoil is controlled.

Snub

Sidearm

Tuned closer to early Gears games.

Fires as fast as the trigger. Quick to draw and stow.

Smoke Grenade

Grenade

Volumetric smoke saturates the space.

Blocks player and AI sightlines.

Heavy Boomshot

Heavy

The Locust Prototype Boomshot. Heavies can be torn off turret bases.

The carrier is slowed, and most movement is still allowed.

How to read a change without a spreadsheet

A change line answers what is different from the gun players remember. The Gnasher's capacity cut is that kind of line. The Retro label on the Lancer MK1 is that kind of line. A player line answers how it feels in a fight against people or against AI. Slide-firing belongs to the Gnasher. Sightline blocking belongs to smoke. Slow carrying belongs to the Boomshot. Where the note says nothing, the row says nothing. There is no bloom value, no pellet count, and no headshot multiplier except the Breechshot's one-shot headshot in PvP, which is a binary claim rather than a multiplier.

Filter chips match the slot word on the row, so a thumb can hide every rifle and leave the two shotguns, or the reverse. All puts the eight rows back. The same rows are the source for Horde Siege and for Versus. No post splits a campaign Gnasher from a multiplayer Gnasher. Premium's Bravo Squad Signature Weapon Pack and the Emergence Omen Weapon Skin are cosmetics on the edition page, not extra guns with their own handling. The Exfil Weapon Skin Set from the pre-order note is the same kind of item: a skin, unlocked at launch, not a ninth stat block.

Where these guns meet the modes

In Kalona the Lancer chainsaw is the printed execute on a low-health Boomer, and the Prototype Lancer is the rifle the statue puts in Marcus's hands, described there as the Prototype Chainsaw Lancer. The weapon note's Prototype Lancer is the all-round rifle with the deeper magazine. The statue caption and the weapon note are talking about the same family of early Lancer, and they do not print two different stat lines. A player who wants the statue's pose, the Crimson Omen, and the steelbook is on the edition page. A player who wants the six-shell tube is on this one.

Versus inherits the slide, the active reload, and the Breechshot headshot. Horde inherits the smoke rule that mentions AI, and it does not inherit a class-locked gun because the class chart was never printed. Ranked on October 13 will use whatever sandbox ships, and the weapon post does not schedule a day-one nerf or a day-one buff beyond the changes already listed. If a tuning note arrives with the weekly challenges, it will name a gun and a number. Until that note, the eight rows are the sandbox. The gold build these guns ship in was announced September 17 by Mike Crump.