Gears of War E-Day Difficulty Levels
Gears of War: E-Day has separate difficulty systems for its Campaign and Horde Siege modes. The Campaign offers traditional difficulty presets alongside individual gameplay adjustments, while Horde Siege uses a different set of difficulties that become more demanding as your classes level up. Choosing the right setting can also affect how efficiently you complete missions and earn certain achievements.
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All Difficulty Levels
Campaign Difficulty Explained
Custom Difficulty Settings
Horde Siege Difficulty Levels
Which Difficulty Should You Choose?
How to Change Difficulty
All Difficulty Levels in Gears of War E-Day
Gears of War: E-Day has four Campaign difficulties: Casual, Normal, Hardcore, and Insane. Horde Siege also has four difficulty levels, but uses Rookie, Infantry, Commander, and Allfather instead.
The distinction matters because Campaign difficulty focuses on tailoring the single-player or co-op experience, while Horde Siege difficulty determines the challenge and potential rewards for individual missions.
CAMPAIGN DIFFICULTIES
Casual – Easiest
Normal – Standard
Hardcore – Challenging
Insane – Hardest
HORDE SIEGE DIFFICULTIES
Rookie – Beginner
Infantry – Intermediate
Commander – Advanced
Allfather – Hardest
You can access the Campaign difficulties from the beginning, so Insane does not require completing the story first. Horde Siege recommends difficulty levels according to your selected class level, with more demanding missions intended for better-developed classes.
Gears of War E-Day Campaign Difficulty Explained
The Campaign's four difficulties provide different levels of challenge while following the same story. Rather than choosing purely by how experienced you are with shooters, I would consider whether you want to explore Kalona, experiment with weapons, or push through demanding combat encounters.
Casual
The most forgiving setting. Best for enjoying the story, exploring locations, finding collectibles, and learning the game's combat without frequent setbacks.
Normal
The standard experience and my recommendation for most first playthroughs. Combat presents a challenge while still providing room to experiment with different weapons and tactics.
Hardcore
Designed for players already comfortable with Gears combat. Positioning, ammunition management, and knowing when to leave cover become more important.
Insane
The toughest Campaign setting. Best for experienced players who want demanding encounters or are working toward achievements requiring Insane completion.
Normal is a good starting point even if you've played previous Gears games. E-Day introduces additional combat and movement options, so spending some time learning how enemies behave can be more enjoyable than immediately committing to Insane.
Hardcore is a good middle ground for returning veterans who want enemies to feel threatening without taking on the full demands of Insane. I would reserve Insane for players who actively enjoy replaying difficult encounters and refining their approach.
How Custom Difficulty Settings Work
One of E-Day's more useful additions is the ability to customize the Campaign's individual difficulty settings instead of using a preset for everything. This allows you to adjust specific aspects of combat without necessarily making the entire game easier or harder.
The customization system includes settings affecting factors such as player health, damage, recoil, active reload difficulty, and available lives. You can choose different preset levels for individual options.
There is an important catch: the game's overall difficulty classification follows the lowest difficulty selected among your customized settings.
For example, setting most options to Hardcore but leaving one on Casual means the resulting custom difficulty is classified at the Casual level.
Example Custom Setup
Player Health – Hardcore
Player Damage – Hardcore
Recoil – Hardcore
Active Reload – Casual
Resulting Difficulty: Casual
This matters most if you're attempting Insane difficulty achievements. Lowering one individual setting may change your effective difficulty classification, even when every other setting remains on Insane.
If your goal is completing all the game's achievements, I would avoid using customized settings during an Insane run unless the final difficulty classification explicitly remains Insane. Our Gears of War E-Day achievements guide covers the Campaign challenges that require this difficulty.
All Horde Siege Difficulty Levels
Horde Siege uses class levels to recommend an appropriate difficulty rather than relying on the Campaign's presets. This makes sense because leveling a class unlocks additional equipment, weapon modifications, and eventually improvements to its base combat capabilities.
The four Horde Siege difficulties are:
Rookie
Recommended Class Level: 1–9
Best for new classes, learning objectives, and experimenting with equipment.
Infantry
Recommended Class Level: 10–19
A good starting challenge once you've unlocked more of your class's equipment and abilities.
Commander
Recommended Class Level: 20–30
Better suited to established builds and squads that can complete objectives consistently.
Allfather
Recommended Class Level: 30
The highest difficulty, intended for maximum-level classes and squads prepared for demanding encounters.
These levels are recommendations rather than a guarantee of success. A level 30 class with poorly selected equipment or an uncoordinated squad can still struggle, while an experienced group may be comfortable tackling higher difficulties earlier.
Higher difficulties provide better rewards, but they can also introduce additional mission pressure and modifiers. These may alter combat rules, such as requiring Perfect Active Reloads or limiting when health regenerates.
Unlike the Campaign, picking the highest difficulty isn't always the most productive approach. Horde Siege requires successful mission completion and extraction to secure certain rewards, making consistency especially important.
For example, if your squad repeatedly fails Commander missions, dropping to Infantry may produce more reliable rewards over several runs. Our Gears of War E-Day Weapon Parts guide explains why completing Secondary Objectives and successfully extracting matters more than simply playing on the hardest setting.
Which Difficulty Should You Choose?
For the Campaign, I would recommend Normal for most players and Hardcore for experienced Gears veterans. Insane is worth selecting from the beginning if you're specifically aiming for its achievements, but otherwise there's little reason to force yourself through the hardest encounters on your first run.
Horde Siege is more situational. Your class level, squad coordination, and the type of mission you're playing should all influence the difficulty you select.
Best First Campaign Difficulty: Normal
Best for Experienced Players: Hardcore
Best for Insane Achievements: Insane
Best for New Horde Classes: Rookie
Best for Early Horde Farming: Infantry, once your class is ready
Best for Maximum Challenge: Allfather
Another factor worth considering in Horde Siege is mission length. A difficult Blitz mission lasting around 15–20 minutes is a very different commitment from a Horde mission that can last nearly an hour. I would test a higher difficulty in shorter missions before committing to longer runs with the same squad.
Also, class level matters more than overall player experience when choosing a Horde difficulty. If you switch from a maximum-level Assault to a newly unlocked Medic, don't assume the same difficulty will feel equally manageable.
How to Change Difficulty in Gears of War E-Day
You can select your Campaign difficulty from the Customize Difficulty screen when setting up the Campaign. Choose one of the four presets or open the individual difficulty options to adjust the experience further.
For Horde Siege, select a mission playlist and use its difficulty selection option. The game also provides a Change Difficulty screen showing the available difficulties and the recommendation based on your current class level.
Campaign: Campaign Setup → Customize Difficulty → Select Preset or Custom Settings
Horde Siege: Select Mission Playlist → Change Difficulty → Choose Difficulty
If you're experimenting with Campaign custom settings, always check the resulting difficulty before starting an achievement-focused run. In Horde Siege, reassess your difficulty whenever you switch classes, unlock significant equipment upgrades, or begin playing with a different squad.
Ultimately, the best difficulty isn't necessarily the highest one available. For the Campaign, choose the level of challenge you enjoy. For Horde Siege, choose the difficulty where your squad can consistently finish objectives, extract successfully, and steadily improve its equipment.
