Gears 5 has received its first DLC character drop. On the “hero” side we’ve got COG Gear and DeeBee. On the “villain” side we’ve got Warden and General Raam.
However, there isn’t a Carmine in sight in this first DLC character drop for the game, which is sure to upset everyone’s who’s campaigned for Carmine to be added to the game.
These DLC characters have special abilities for use across Gears 5’s various modes. COG Gear, for example, is a support character whose ultimate instantly revives downed allies. Raam’s arcade passive lets him receive active reload ammo for kills. Of note: if you earned Gilded General Raam through the Road to Gears 5 challenges in Gears 4, you automatically unlock Raam as a character for Gears 5’s arcade mode, including the base Raam character skin.
Gears 5 – Operation 1 Characters Trailer Watch on YouTube
Speaking of how you earn new characters, you can buy them directly for 500 iron each (£4.25), or earn them through a new totems system.
Here’s how the totems system works: you need to spend 100 scrap to craft the totem of any hero or villain character you want to unlock, then equip it to activate tracking for character challenges associated to the totem. Only one totem can be active at a time – a mechanic that feels like it’s designed specifically to extend the grind to unlock DLC characters.