Gears of War 2 - Achievement Guide

Created by Jeff

last edited by Jeff 1 year ago

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Version		Type	Achievements/Trophies
Permissions	Owner Only	Completeness	Finished
Can all authors publish?	No	Date Created	Oct. 31, 2008
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Welcome!

Gears of War 2 features 50 achievements totalling 1,000 points. The points are spread across all modes, with some that are specific to the campaign, co-op, multiplayer, or horde mode. Other achievements total up regardless of your mode of play.

Campaign (Single & Co-Op)

The campaign mode is the game's main story and can be played alone or co-operatively. Some of the achievements are specific to co-op play, but most of these are based around simple story progression and completing the game.

Achievement Name	Achievement Description	Points
Green as Grass	Train the rook (any difficulty)	10
It's a Trap!	Story progression in Act 1, Chapter 2	10
Escort Service	Story progression in Act 1, Chapter 4	10
Girl About Town	Story progression in Act 1, Chapter 6	10
That Sinking Feeling	Story progression in Act 2, Chapter 4	10
Freebaird!	Story progression in Act 2, Chapter 5	10
Heartbroken	Story progression in Act 2, Chapter 6	10
Longitude and Attitude	Story progression in Act 3, Chapter 3	10
Tanks for the Memories	Story progression in Act 3, Chapter 4	10
Water Sports	Story progression in Act 3, Chapter 6	10
There's a Time for Us	Story progression in Act 4, Chapter 2	10
Better Wrapped in Beacon	Story progression in Act 4, Chapter 3	10
Have Fun Storming the Castle	Story progression in Act 4, Chapter 6	10
And the Horsey You Rode in On	Story progression in Act 5, Chapter 1	10
You Are the Support, Son	Story progression in Act 5, Chapter 2	10
Brumak Rodeo	Story progression in Act 5, Chapter 4	10
Does This Look Infected to You?	Story progression in Act 5, Chapter 5	10

The only potentially optional achievement in the above list is Green as Grass, which you'll get for going through the optional training at the beginning of the game. As there are collectibles to find in this training sequence, you'll pass through this sequence sooner or later if you're playing for points.

Completing the game brings achievements, depending on which difficulty you're playing. As the hardest difficulty level is locked until you've beaten the game once, chances are you'll have to play through the game at least twice to get them all. The difficulty achievements stack, so you could conceivably blaze through the campaign on Casual, then again on Insane to get all four. That's sort of soulless, though. Since the game's most certainly worth playing, we recommend you play through on Hardcore (which is the difficulty most like Gears 1's normal mode, then on Insane. Playing on Insane is also a good time to get the game's co-op achievements, as it can be a little rough on your own.

Achievement Name	Achievement Description	Points
Tourist of Duty	Complete all campaign acts on Casual Difficulty	25
Guerilla Tactician	Complete all campaign acts on Normal Difficulty	50
Artist of War	Complete all campaign acts on Hardcore Difficulty	75
Suicide Missionary	Complete all campaign acts on Insane Difficulty	150

As you play, you'll occasionally encounter flashing items of interest. When you stand over or next to these items, you can press X to collect them. An on-screen indicator will let you know that you're near something that can be picked up. Three achievements are tied to finding these collectibles. You can view them in the War Journal menu, along with a helpful list of which levels still have collectibles in them. There are 41 in all.

Achievement Name	Achievement Description	Points
Collector	Recover 5 collectibles (any difficulty)	5
Pack Rat	Recover 20 collectibles (any difficulty)	15
Completionist	Recover all 41 collectibles (any difficulty)	30

The game's cooperative mode brings three more achievements based on the number of areas cleared in co-op mode. Unlike Gears 1, these achievements aren't specific to Dom. Either player can get them. Since you'll probably also want to complete the game on Insane difficulty, teaming up with a friend to power through the game's hardest mode in co-op seems like the most effective way to get these.

Achievement Name	Achievement Description	Points
One-Night Stand	Complete 1 chapter in co-op on any difficulty (Marcus or Dom)	10
Open Relationship	Complete 10 chapters in co-op on any difficulty (Marcus or Dom)	30
Friends With Benefits	Complete all acts in co-op on any difficulty (Marcus or Dom)	50

Horde

Horde mode is a multiplayer cooperative game for up to five players. It contains 50 waves of progressive difficulty as you take on groups of AI-controlled enemies on the multiplayer maps. As a general rule, it's best to find a spot on the map that can be easily defended by five players and sticking around that general area. Of course, you'll need to occasionally dart out into the open to get more ammo. Try to do this at the start of a round, before the enemies start appearing in force.

Remember that grenades can be stuck to walls and used as proximity mines, which can be handy for defending a staircase or other area that would otherwise be left open. Also, picking up and planting shields at the entrances to your hideout will prevent Bloodmounts from getting through the doors and up in your face.

The Horde mode achievements don't require you to play through all of the waves in one sitting, or in the proper order. It only keeps track of which waves you have and haven't completed. So joining a friend's game on wave 49 and finishing out the last two waves won't get you the wave 50 points. You can start a Horde session on any level that you've previously completed, so inching your way through the mode is entirely possible.

Achievement Name	Achievement Description	Points
Dirty, Dirty Horde	Survive the first 10 waves of Horde (any difficulty, any map)	20
Hoard the Horde	Survive all 50 waves of Horde (any difficulty, any map)	30

Competitive Multiplayer

The competitive multiplayer achievements in Gears of War 2 are quite reasonable compared to the previous game. You won't find players running around using specific weapons to get kills here. Also, note that the "any mode" references in the following multiplayer achievements mean any competitive multiplayer mode. You won't rack up rounds by playing Horde. You will, however, progress towards these achievements in bot matches, which can be configured and played via the Training Grounds menu.

You could also set up bot matches against one bot with a one-minute time limit to rack up rounds played for the Party Like It's 1999 achievement. Since it'll take the bot longer than a minute to find you, matches where you don't move will end in a stalemate, forcing another round even if it's beyond the round limit for that match. Leave it on for... uh... 1999 minutes plus however long the downtime is between rounds, and you'll earn 30 points or a Red Ring of Death, whichever comes first!

Achievement Name	Achievement Description	Points
Back to Basic	Successfully complete the 5 levels of multiplayer Training Grounds	10
Standing Here, Beside Myself	Win 3 matches of Wingman (public)	10
Beat the Meatflag	Capture 10 meatflags in Submission (public)	10
It's Good to be the King	Win 10 rounds of Guardian as the leader (public)	10
You Go Ahead, I'll Be Fine	Win 3 matches of King of the Hill (public)	10
Party Like It's 1999	Play 1999 rounds of multiplayer (any mode)	30
Around the World, Again	Win a multiplayer match on each of the 10 shipped maps (any mode)	30
Kick 'Em When They're Down	Perform all 11 unique executions on a downed enemy	10

Any Mode Achievements

These achievements can be completed in multiple modes and are, for the most part, self-explanatory. But there are some tips.

Keep in mind that the achievement for killing with every weapon in the game considers the two types of grenades to be different weapons. Using grenade tags seems to be the easiest way to kill with the ink grenade.

The final sequence in campaign mode has a lot of enemies in it. If you want to just grind out the 100,000 kills for the Seriously 2.0 achievement, replaying this section of the game again and again seems like the fastest way.

Achievement Name	Achievement Description	Points
Once More, With Feeling	Perform 30 perfect active reloads (any mode)	10
Takes a Licking	Melee 30 Tickers (any mode)	30
Organ Grinder	Kill 30 enemies with a cover mounted Mulcher (any mode)	10
Shock and Awe	Kill 30 enemies with the heavy Mortar (any mode)	10
Smells Like Victory	Kill 30 enemies with the Scorcher Flamethrower (any mode)	10
Said the Spider to the Fly	Kill 10 enemies with a planted grenade (any mode)	10
Crowd Control	Melee 10 enemies down with the Boomshield equipped (any mode)	10
A Parting Gift	Kill 10 enemies with a grenade while down but not out (any mode)	20
Pound of Flesh	Use a meatshield to save your life 10 times (any mode)	10
Crossed Swords	Win 10 chainsaw duels (any mode)	10
Variety Is the Spice of Death	Kill an enemy with every weapon in the game (any mode)	30
Seriously 2.0	Kill 100,000 enemies (any mode)	50
Photojournalist	Submit a spectator photo	10

Concluding Remarks and Tips

Most of the achievements in Gears of War 2 feel like they'll come naturally over the course of your time with the game. After playing through the game on Hardcore, I was left with close to 500 points. After spending some time playing splitscreen matches against an empty controller, I got that number up to just over 500. You're given plenty of opportunities to use weapons like the flamethrower and minigun in single-player, so racking up 30 kills each with those won't be a problem.

Playing against an empty controller in splitscreen mode can be handy, however, if you want to quickly earn things like Crossed Swords, the achievement for winning 10 chainsaw duels. A stationary player will automatically start a duel if attacked with the chainsaw from the front, so set up a match with respawns (like Submission) and get it there. You can also play 10 quick games, one on each of the new maps, to get the Around the World, Again achievment.

But when it comes down to it, my ultimate recommendation is that you should just play the game normally your first time through. Then go back through with achievements in mind. The game's worth playing, achievements or otherwise, so don't rob yourself of the experience by sweating the points your first time through.

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