Lancer Replica

Project Triforce is offering a replica of the Gears Of War Lancer. It is on preorder now for a cool $995 $950. Check it out now!

How to Plant a Boomshield

Boomshields are not doubt the most important part of any strategy to beat the horde.  By now you should know how to plant a boomshield, but if you don’t know how thats ok cause N3RDI3 has your back.

And now, for the magic AND mystery of planting a boomshield…

While holding the left trigger button, press the “X” button.  This will make your character plant a shield.

Then you say, “BUT N3RDI3, SOMETIMES I JUST CAN’T PLANT IT!!!”

And then I say, thats because you are standing too close to an obstacle.  Your character takes a step before planting a shield so you need to make sure you are back far enough from an obstacle to give your character room to take a lunge while planting the shield.

Then you say, “BUT N3RDI3, I’M NOT EVEN AROUND AN OBSTACLE AND I STILL CAN’T PLANT IT!!!”

And then I’m all… You are probably trying to plant it where an enemy/teammate was just killed.  Sometimes walking back and forth will allow you to push a downed enemy out of the way so you can plant a shield.  Sometimes there is just “gore” on the ground and you still can’t plant it.  You can just hold it for a while until the gore goes away and you can try to plant it again, or you can find a clean patch of ground to put your boomshield in its home. 

And then you’re like…  “BUT N3RDI3, I JUST WANT TO DROP THE SHIELD.  I STILL CAN’T PLANT IT AND I DON’T EVEN CARE AT THIS POINT.  I JUST WANT TO THROW IT AWAY!!!”

And then I’m all like… If you can’t plant a boomshield and you don’t want to hold it anymore, switch to one of your other weapons.  You will drop the boomshield.

Remember!  Left Trigger + X

10 Tips to Beat Day One

Over the past few weeks my teammates and I have gotten pretty good at beating Day One.  We still haven’t beaten it without restarting, but it usually only takes a few restarts to beat it all they way to wave 50.  I think it is just a matter of time and a little luck before we beat it start to finish without restarting.  We can consistently beat this map and have done it with as little as three guys.  Here are 10 strategies to beat Day One…

1.  Always have a person running the heavy weapons.  Figure out who is the best with them and let them go nuts.  The faster you use up the heavy weapons ammo, the faster it reappears so don’t worry about using up the ammo.  (Heavy weapons alternate between the mortar and Hammer of Dawn every other wave on the regency balcony.)  People that suck with heavy weapons should let someone else run them.  Even if there is an unused weapon sitting there because a good aimer can drop 5 good mortars in no time at all.  A sucky aimer can drop 5 sucky mortars in no time too I guess, but the point is, unless the heavy weapons expert is constantly neglecting their job, give them time to pick up the mortar and put it to work.

2.  Have somebody guarding the stairway up to the regency balcony.  The heavy weapons don’t do any good if the person never has a chance to use them.  Its very important to have somebody watching the heavy weapons persons back and to pick them up when they go down.

3.  Pick up the shields that spawn in the arcade every round and bring them over to the base of the regency stairway.  By wave 10 you should have plenty of shields to keep the maulers and bloodmounts at a safe distance while you take down the horde.  Wait for these big guys to get hung up on your shields and then drop mortars and hammers on them.  Death from above yo!

4.  Having 2 to 4 people guard the regency stairs has worked well.  The more people we have had guard the stairs the better we have done.  We have also played where one or two people are over the arcade balcony, but it is impossible to revive those people when they go down in the later waves.

5.  EVERYONE needs to replant shields at the end of every wave so they do not disappear.  Ideally each person picks up a shield before the previous wave finishes.  This allows you to plant up to four shields each before they disappear during the next wave.

6.  Name the locations on the map so everyone that is playing understands when you say something like “Take out the Kantus by the arcade”.  For naming conventions, we use “Regency” for the area infront of and under the movie theater balcony, “Frat House” for the building across the street with the orange banner, arcade for the arcade, and “The Office” for the office/retail building to the left of Regency which has a sign that says “Office/Retail” if you look up.  Also use convention “left”, “right”, “far left”, “far right”, “straight ahead”, etc as much as possible so teammates can call out locations of enemies and downed teammates.

7.  Get the mortar dialed in right away.  Practice with it on early waves.  When on top of Regency, you cannot hit the horde with the mortar when they spawn “far left”.  Only use the hammer of dawn when they are far left.  Wait for the horde to come between The Office and the parked cars next to it to fire the mortar.  It is also easy to fire the mortar at the horde when they are in the bunker on the sidewalk to the left of the Frat House (straigh ahead of Regency).  The best time to use a mortar is when the horde spawns to the far right of Regency because you can reach all the way to the end of the street when the horde spawns in one tight bunch.  A single mortar can take out multiple targets to the far right, this is critical in later rounds.

8.  Do not waste the Hammer of Dawn chasing down targets.  Pick a patch of ground in front of a walking target and start “firing” so that death-from-above coincides with the enemy walking directly onto your targeted spot.  Chasing down walking targets with a poorly aimed Hammer uses up too much ammo.  Also, pointing the Hammer of Dawn directly at a walking target can cause the aiming process to constantly reset and you will never be able to get a shot off.  The laser from the Hammer of Dawn needs to stay steady for a couple seconds before the satelitte can fire.  Aiming at the ground allows the satellite to lock onto a steady target and fire.

9.  In “The Office” on the other side of a small wall is either a gorgon pistol or magnum.  Make sure each person picks up a beefier pistol from here in the early rounds.  The pistols do a lot of damage when properly aimed, especially at slow moving targets like butchers or maulers.

10.  Do not be a rambo and go after enemies by yourself.  Time after time we see people try to play chicken with maulers and every time they go down.  Stay behind shields and stay with your team.  This is a team game and it requires coordinated attacks by the entire team.  Everybody plays a different part and they are all important.  A coordinated team should have these people

Player 1 – Gorgon/Magnum, Lancer, Hammer of Dawn.  Always on Regency Balcony running heavy weapons.

Player 2 – Gorgon or Magnum, Lancer, Torque Bow or Boomshot. Always guarding stairs to Regency Balcony and behind shields.

Player 3 – Gorgon or Magnum, Lancer, Torque Bow or Boomshot. Guarding stairs to Regency Balcony and behind shields.

Player 4 – Gorgon or Magnum, Lancer, Sniper Rifle.  On either balcony, perferably Regency.  Can help with Heavy Weapons.

Player 5 – Gorgon or Magnum, Lancer, Shotgun.  This person uses the shotgun to take out tickers at a distance, espcially when they are near larger enemies.  Floats between Regency Balcony or base of stairs at Regency.

Double Experience – Labor Day Weekend

I made it to wave 48 on Day One last night playing horde. It is a double experience event and every 10th wave is only Sires. It was pretty awesome. Too bad we couldn’t beat it all the way to wave 50 in one shot. We started over on wave 48 and made it to wave 50 without any trouble.

Our strategy was to have 4 guys below the regency stairs. They protected the stairway and had plenty of boomshields. I was above the regency balcony running the heavy weapons. I didn’t have to get ammo once during all 50 waves because I used the Hammer of Dawn and the mortar. I also used the Magnum and the Lancer which regenerate ammo every wave.

Every 10th wave was strictly sires. It was pretty easy to chainsaw them all down even on wave 50. I think those waves were the easiest waves. It was definitely fun.

More info on the Horde Labor Day Event.

Back in Business

The N3RDI3 horde blog is back in business. Tell your friends. Its time to play horde RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

Horde Wave 50!

I should mention that I have made it through wave 50, but only by restarting at the current level when my entire team was beaten. I’m still working towards beating all 50 waves in a public match without having to restart.

It seems like it is getting harder and harder to find a good team in the public forum. Almost every time somebody quits, people don’t talk, or you get teamed up with a smart mouthed 8 year old.

GOW2 Dark Corners Map Pack

I purchased the dark corners map pack this weekend. I haven’t really gotten into playing it yet, but will try to add some posts about it in the next week.

Boomshields and You!

In earlier versions of GOW2, the locust horde could not kick down boomshields. This was a bug that was exploited by gamers since you could plant a shield backwards in a doorway and it would never get kicked down. A patch to GOW2 fixed that bug, but many people still think planting them the opposite way will protect them.

Planting shields backwards will NOT prevent them from getting kicked down. Always assume they will get kicked down sooner or later.

I ran across a cool yet not so cool glitch a few weeks ago on Day One. You can plant a shield on the balcony above the arcade so that it faces the street in a space that does not have a short wall for protection. You can actually climb over the shield and jump to the street below from the balcony. This is cool if you are getting rushed by the horde and need to escape. Unfortunately for me, I landed on top of a truck below and was stuck on the truck for a few rounds until I died. Morale to the story, don’t jump off a balcony onto a truck when a escaping the horde.

Will it Chainsaw?

These are things I think you can chainsaw in XBOX Gears of War 2:
• Wretch
• Drone
• Genadier and Elite Genadier
• Cyclops (they can chainsaw back!)
• Bolter
• Theron
• Sniper
• Kantus
• Flamers
Things you cannot chainsaw:
• Tickers
• Maulers
• Flame Boomers
• Butchers
• Boomers
• Grinders
• Bloodmount
• Bloodmount rider (when riding)
Please correct me if I’m wrong or add anything I missed.

Fighting a Kantus

A kantus in GOW2 can make the later waves very difficult to beat. A kantus can throw ink which can wear you down very fast and wipe out your entire group if you aren’t careful. Here are some strategies for beating a Kantus.
If you are going to snipe a kantus, always aim for the head (although in the later rounds, it can take still take multiple shots to the head to take them down).
The best time to snipe a kantus is when it is ready to throw ink. A well timed shot will stop them from throwing ink.   If they do throw ink, immediately run for cover somewhere else.  In the early rounds you can stick it out through an ink cloud without dying, but rounds over 30, you won’t be able to tough it out.  Where ever you take cover, expect to have to run from time to time because of ink, so pick a spot that leaves you options for running and taking cover.
A kantus can revive its downed friends so it is important to take them out before they can start reviving their buddies.  When they revive their horde friends, the enemy being revived briefly turns white and “rises” back to life.  If you look around, you will see the kantus bringing that enemy to life.
Yes, you can chainsaw a kantus.  Roadie run up behind a kantus that is preoccupied with someone else.  They may turn around and shout which will knock you down.  You can usually get back up before they are done shouting.  The second you get back up, run at them with the chainsaw flying and you can take them down.  If you don’t get up fast enough, they can knock you down again with another scream.  You have to be very careful to get up behind them when you are trying this.  Chainsawing from the front doesn’t work too good.
A kantus usually carries around a gorgon pistol which is my favorite handgun in the game.  It fires 5 shots every time you pull the trigger.  After you take out a kantus, you may be able to find one on the ground where it fell.
When a kantus is getting shot at, it usually won’t hold still long.  Firing a lancer at it will usually only let you get a few rounds into it before it does a diving roll after which it immediately stands again.  Fire at a kantus until it rolls and stop shooting.  Anticipate where it is going to stand up again and start shooting as soon as it starts standing up.
Always communicate with your teammates to call out the location of enemies, especially a kantus, and concentrate your fire on them one at a time until you take them out.
To spice up GOW2 challenge your teammates to tag a kantus with a grenade or chainsaw them.  Anybody can snipe a kantus, its takes a real gamer to saw em down.