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.

Beating Bloodmounts

Here is the best strategy I have seen for beating bloodmounts…

- Do not count on sandbags or short walls to stop a bloodmount, they can jump over them.
- Bloodmounts cannot jump over a planted shield so make sure you have plenty of them.
- Always aim for the rider first. If he is dismounted he can kick your shield down to let the bloodmount through. Then your dead.
- Always aim for humanoid locust before shooting a bloodmount because they can knock down your shields.
- When your team is shooting, have everyone shoot at the same bloodmount rider and kill all the riders one by one before the bloodmounts themselves. The riders can shoot over your shields so take them out ASAP.
- Let tickers get next to bloodmounts before shooting them. Their explosion damages the bloodmounts (or any other enemy).
- Flame boomers cannot kick down a shield but flamers can. Shoot down flamers before they get to your shields, but let flame boomers get next to the shields by the bloodmounts before shooting their tanks. They explode like tickers once thier tank starts spewing fire.
- Holding shields a few steps behind shields planted in doorways is a good way of protecting yourself. Magnums and gorgons can take out the riders easily. People not holding shields can stand behind the shield holders with shotguns, lancers or hammerbursts to take out the riders.
- Once you take out a rider, leave the bloodmount until all other riders or humanoid type locusts are dead (assuming you have shields planted to keep them out).
- Bloodmounts only come out in waves 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.
- Make sure to get ammo at the end of wave 9, 19, 29, 39, 49.
- Never run for ammo in wave 10, 20, 30… you won’t make it back 90% of the time.
- Never run to save a teammate in wave 10, 20, 30… let them try to make it back to safety where you can revive them, otherwise you won’t make it back 90% of the time.
- Grenades, sniper rifles, mortars and the hammer of dawn are difficult to use against a bloodmount because they move so fast.
- Don’t waste ammo on bloodmounts when they are far away, let them come up to your shields before firing. You’ll need all of your ammo.

Horde Friday Night!

There is going to be some crazy horde action Friday night and I’m looking forward to it. I swear if I get another group that drops out or another group of 9 year olds I’m going to snap my GOW2 disc in half. Its getting ridiculous. Oh, and thanks to the group that left me in wave 10 on day one a few weeks ago. No, I didn’t get beat on wave 10, I played by myself until wave 14 and gave up because it was boring playing alone. But thanks for giving up on the game as soon as you got beat. Quitters suck.

Rated M for Mature

I’m not sure why parents think it is ok to let their kids play games that are rated M for Mature. GOW2 is not a game that children and some teens should play (maybe even some adults). DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS PLAY MATURE GAMES! Too many times I have found myself playing with kids younger than 10 years of age online. Why are your kids playing these games, and WHY ARE YOU LETTING THEM PLAY ONLINE! GOW2 is an awesome game, but kids should not play it.

Plus your young punk kids suck at GOW2 and hurt the team.