We’ve already covered how big changes are coming to Horde mode, but that’s not the only element seeing some major tweaks. The soul-crushingly hard Seriously line of achievements makes a return, and with even more requirements than ever before!

A Changing Philosophy

The previous iterations have had varying levels of difficulty, with some having less incentive to actually complete. Getting 100,000 kills in Gears 2 required a level of farming that frankly didn’t seem worth it for instance, while earning all 65 Onyx medals and hitting level 100 in Gears 3 took a huge time investment but was at least fun the whole way through.

New Gears developer The Coalition - having taken over from series regular Epic Games back in 2014 - knew changing up the formula was necessary but might lead to some backlash, so they issued this statement about the new achievement focus:

We heard the fan feedback on Seriously 3.0 from Gears of War 3 so we’ve streamlined the requirements from that version to offer clearer, less intrusive goals (for example, you won’t need to get 6000 kills with each weapon) that still take time to earn."

A New Breed Of Seriously

So what exactly will be required for overly zealous fans willing to put in the effort this time around? After plenty of teasing, the multi-tiered requirements have now been revealed as:

Complete the Campaign on Insane Difficulty Re-Up 10 Earn all Ribbons  Earn a Rank Placement in each mode Get all 5 Horde classes to Level 10 Level any 5 Horde Skills to Level 5 Complete all 10 base on-disc maps from Wave 1-50 (any difficulty)

This reveal tells us some interesting things about Gears 4. Since the re-up scheme has clearly changed from 3 to at least 10, hopefully they won’t take as long each time or this achievement will vex for years.

Having to hit wave 50 for 10 different maps of Horde mode will also be a major challenge if the difficulty is on par with Gears 3 (I’ve only ever made it to wave 50 on one single map myself). Presumably other achievements will be earned along the way however, like finishing the campaign on Insane.

What do you think of these changes, and are you planning on going for Seriously 4.0 this fall?