Locust Drone in Gears of War: E-Day — Tactics & Behavior

The Locust Drone is the rank-and-file of the Horde — and in E-Day it is a genuinely different enemy than the ones Gears veterans remember. The Coalition rebuilt the AI to make Emergence Day feel like facing an unknown, organized enemy for the first time.

How do Locust Drones fight in E-Day?

Confirmed behaviors from the official gameplay footage and press previews:

• Deliberate flanking — Drones reposition to hit your sides the moment you fixate on a lane.
• Reactive cover use — they dive behind cover when shot, not just scripted into it.
• Smoke tactics — Drones throw smoke grenades to blind you, then rush through the screen.
• Coordinated rushes — they push in groups rather than marching into your sights one at a time.

The net effect: holding one piece of cover indefinitely is a losing strategy, which is exactly what the horror framing wants — you never feel settled.

What are the Drone variants?

What weapons work best on Drones?

• Prototype Lancer — sustained fire drops standard Drones fast; the chainsaw ends anything that closes. See the Lancer guide.
• Gnasher — the answer to rushes: one shell deletes a charging Drone at close range.
• Frag grenades — group rushes cluster up; a cooked frag ruins a push, and frags seal the E-holes feeding more Drones in.

Where do you fight Drones?

Everywhere — they are the baseline enemy of the whole campaign, first erupting during the Act 1 night and entrenched across the Legacy Bridge in Act 2. In Horde Siege they scale into the wave-based mode’s core pressure. For the full enemy picture see the Locust Horde overview.