Halloween arrived in Gears of War: E-Day on October 22, 2026, with limited-time modes in Versus and Horde Siege, The Coalition announced in a Steam post that also carried the day’s hotfix notes. It is the first of the three themed events promised for Season 1.
The Details
The Halloween event has two parts, in The Coalition’s words:
- Versus Trick-or-Treat: “Don your pumpkin head” and fight for the Jack-o-Cannon, while both teams hunt for “special weapons (and tricks) hidden within pumpkins scattered throughout the map.”
- Horde Siege: “Battle the Boogeyman and his gang of glowing gourd goons.”
Players earn rewards by playing the limited modes and missions. The post does not list the rewards or give an end date, but The Coalition’s Season 1 post says each of the season’s three events (Halloween, 20 Years of Gears and Thanksgibbing) “will run for two weeks” with a Versus event mode, a Horde Siege event mission and exclusive rewards.
The hotfix brings stability, performance and crash fixes on PC, Xbox and handhelds, and fixes:
- characters T-posing when aiming down sights right after blind firing the Gnasher from medium cover;
- everyone being kicked from a Horde server when one player fails to load in;
- other squads’ E-Hole closures blocking the “Close E-Holes” objective;
- Ranked matches dissolving one minute after a disconnect instead of two;
- more spots where a dropped Demolition bomb could not be reached;
- four campaign blockers in Acts Two, Three and Four.
Still broken: a Versus exploit that lets players see through Smoke Grenades, which The Coalition is working on, and freezes or crashes in long sessions. The studio says it has taken enforcement action against players using that exploit and others, such as aimbots, and that Versus balance changes are coming in Season 1 updates.
What This Means for Players
Horde players get a boss mission with its own rewards, and a full lobby no longer collapses when one player fails to load. Our best Horde Siege class guide is a good place to start.
Versus players get a party mode with pumpkin weapons, and Ranked players get the full two minutes back to reconnect. Our Gnasher guide and Ranked explainer still apply.
If you still crash, our error codes and crashes guide has the fixes, and The Coalition collects reports at aka.ms/GearsSupport.
When and Where
- Halloween event: starts October 22, per The Coalition’s post; about two weeks, per the Season 1 plan.
- Season 1: runs until December 1.
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC (Xbox app and Steam) and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Source: The Coalition, “October 22 Hotfix Notes + Halloween Event”, Steam, October 22, 2026, and “Season 1: Emergence”, gearsofwar.com.