Hello Gearheads,
PizzaLegolas here with his next Character Guide as promised :-)
This time I will talk about Baird, one of my favorite characters in the Gears universe lore-wise and in Gears 5 Horde playstyle-wise!
About me
I'm in love with the Gears universe since Gears 2, and an Engineer(ing student) in real life. I love to use my brain (theorycrafting) and optimize things, even the smallest everyday-habits (e. g. writing my grocery shopping list in order of how the things appear at that certain market).
I started to play Gears 5 right at the start of Operation 4, but I have very much Gears and especially Horde experience since Gears 2, and mastered all Maps in regular Horde and Horde-Frenzy without abusing barrier exploits.
Disclaimer: I am a PC player and write this guide for Master difficulty and with an optimal playtyle in mind. Other playstyles may work as good, especially on lower difficulties. All information used in this guide is earned throughout my own thought processes and gameplay experience!
Horde & Horde-Frenzy Stats
Horde Stats from Gears5.com (2020/09/09)
Horde-Frenzy Stats from Gears5.com (2020/09/09)
Horde Stats for Baird from Gears5.com (2020/09/09)
Horde-Frenzy Stats for Baird from Gears5.com (2020/09/09)
Baird
Baird is the ultimate Engineer lore-wise and one of the three currently available Engineers in Gears 5 Horde, along with Del and Kat. That means he starts the game with a repair tool and has cards available that boost his fortifications instead of just hist own damage output. He also has a discount (currently 10%, but soon to be 15%) for buying and upgrading fortifications from the fabricator, and moves slightly faster than other characters while moving fortifications.
Baird's signature card is Precision Repairs in my opinion and this is what really forms his identity as an offensive, sniper-ish Engineer compared to Del, who is a more classic and defensive Engineer. This card allows you, to not worry about manually repairing fortifications (except Energy Taps and Sentry ammo) at all, saving much time, energy and the need to expose yourself and walk around the map. This enables a barrier-heavy building style and allows your team to place them very far afar from your base, which helps keeping enemies distanced and abusing natural choke points of the maps pretty well.
Pros:
- Precision Repairs is possibly the best card in the game right now
- Way higher damage than other Engineers
- An actual very useful ultimate (unlike Del's)
- Awesome lore in my opinion
- DB Industries Baird skin
Cons:
- Less discount than Del (which is neglibable imo)
- No inital fortification health increasements (but Precision Repair compensates for that)
- Mechanically harder to play due to his sniper-ish nature and need to kill enemies to repair
- No access to Stim outside of getting it from teammates (which isn't a problem in a well rounded teamcomp and not neccessary anyway)
- Less accepted in the playerbase than Del (because he is a newer character with a lot of "hidden power" and people didn't read this guide yet)
Card Loadout (bold cards are my standard loadout)
Essential:
- Bloody DR1: up to 110% bleeding damage caused by his summoned DR1
- Experimental Weapons: up to 100% bonus damage with DeeBee weapons (Embar, Overkill, Enforcer, Tri-Shot, RL4 Salvo, Shock Grenades) to <50% HP enemies
- Global Overclock: up to 55% faster ammo recharge time of all weapon lockers (even those not built by himself)
- Precision Repairs: up to 1600HP heal of fortifications when dealing a killing blow with a precision weapon (Embar, Longshot, Markza, Torque Bow). Does not have to be a headshot!
5th slot suggestions:
- Inspired Sniping: Consecutive Longshot or Embar hits reduce the remaining cooldown of his ultimate. The way it's worded makes it really hard to give numbers here, but reducing his ultimate cooldown might be the best option, because the DR1 is really strong!
- Global Sentry Upgrade: up to 35% increased dealt by all MG Sentries (even those not built by himself). A good card, when you want to run a sentry-based base setup, and even better if you combine it with a Del in your team and his damage boosting card!
Overrated / suboptimal / useless:
- Bloody Support: Completly counter-intuitive to his kit, since it requires you to hold on your ultimate and basically never use it. The bleed damage of 30% isn't that high either, and there are better bleed users and even bleed snipers (Paduk) out there, if you really want to play that
- Explosive Killshot: Counter-intuitive to his Precision Repairs. When you kill downed targets, you want the surrounding enemies (and maybe other downed targets) to stay alive, because Precision Snipers procs off kills with Precision Rifles only. Will also not proc that often, since it's a rare occasion that multiple enemies are gathered a downed target
- Melee Resistance: Probably good for Escape, but literally no use in Horde. You shouldn't be that close to enemies anyway as Baird, and the card won't really make a difference on Master difficulty
- Nerves of Steel: A repair boosting card, that you do not need, since you should not use the repair tool most of the time, and especially not when enemies are around with Baird
- Parting Gift: Despite a visual bug of this card, that literally adds the damage bonus to every weapon when equipping this card (without increasing the damage though which absolutely makes sense) you won't make much use out of this, especially not on Master difficulty
- Combat Engineer: Probably a card most of you will disagree with me on. However, the only things you should really use your repair tool on are Energy Taps and Sentries (to refill ammo). Since this does not increase the ammo reload time of sentries (and it takes super long anyway, so that you will automatically repair the sentry you refill the ammo on anyways, without this card as a side effect), and it is no problem to repair one or two taps per wave without it in the preparation time of a new wave, this card will waste a slot 90+% of the game. When playing Baird like Del and using the repair tool very often in the game, you are playing him suboptimal anyway and probably would be better with just playing Del. And trust me, you really do not need this card to do your job. I've beaten several Master runs with my Baird setup, and even one on Pahanu where my team managed to have all taps alive from the moment they appeared and not get one killed once during the whole run
- Enforcer Porting: While the number of this card is really high and makes the Enforcer a really accurate weapon, the only waves you might want to use one of those is the first few waves, when there is a Kait on your team that wants your Overkill early on. Other than that, your weapon loadout should really only consist of the Embar and the Overkill or a Longshot (not counting Heavy Weapons here because they don't require a free slot). So another card that nets you 0 value 99% of the game
- Heavy Resistance: Same as Melee Resistance, you are not supposed to take much damage, because is squishy without access to Stim, and you should work on your positioning, when you get downed too often. Also, the Damage Resistance Bonus won't really make a difference on Master difficulty
- Score Boost cards: Only equip those for a score run, but I am not discussing there here
Weapon locker (aka weapon loadout)
By mid to late game, every character usually should have and had its own level 4 weapon locker. These are my weapon suggestions, in specific depending on the map you play on and teamcomp you have:
- Cryo Cannon
- Embar
- Longshot
- Tri-Shots
As Engineer you are by default a more supportive character. Unlike having a support-ish built Carmine in the game you should totally have a Cryo Cannon in 1 slot available at all times, because it is really strong vs certain enemies (Guardians), Mini-Bosses (Sentinels) and Bosses (Flock, Matriarch, Carrier, Snatcher). With a Cryo Cannon in your hand and you DR1 on the field you can absolutely solo a Flock for example, especially pre wave 41.
Having a fully reloaded Embar at all times or at least the ability to reload your Embar when you want it really helps in getting these required Precision Rifle kills for your repairs. Same goes for the Longshot. When to prefer which weapon:
- The Embar is your default weapon and it really synergizes with your Precision Repairs, since it lets you kill downed targets from range (without having to hit the head which is the case for the Longshot). It also let's you kill enemies without downing, once they have low enough HP for that even with a body shot instead of a headsdhot. The Experimental Weapons card helps with that a lot, too. With an active reloaded Embar shot you are able to oneshot Trackers and Leeches throughout the whole game, making them great targets for your Precision Repairs!
- The Longshot has a higher initial damage than the Embar. On a map with long sightlines, playing a more sniper-ish Baird is better than using the Overkill as your secondary weapon. With the Longshot, you are able to oneshot Imagos up to wave 40 (with an active reloaded headshot) and deal more DPS to higher health targets than with the Embar.
The Tri-Shot is my prefered weapon for later waves or when your Embar is out of ammo and has to reload. Usually I will use the Tri-Shot at the beginning of a wave and switch to the Embar as the remaining enemy number lowers, since you want to repair stuff once in a while. You really notice the damage boost kicking in once the enemy hp gets lower than 50% with the Experimental Weapons card equipped. It is also great for regaining your ultimate really fast, because it loads up with damage dealt and you will deal alot when hitting stuff with your Tri-Shot. Also a great weapon to use when pairing up with a Marcus that shares his ultimate, sometimes I even outdamage him in a wave when cycling through Tri-Shots only! You need more than one in your locker if you want to utilize those, since you don't have any access to capacity increasement and you will run out of ammo very quick, especially during later waves.
I don't really like using the RL4 Salvo as Baird, since there are way better users of explosive weapons than you, and the Tri-Shot is generally way more ammo-per-weapon-locker-slot efficient. Also, I don't like the Salvo at all. The visual cluttering and screen shaking and noise triggers me a little bit as Sniper player :-D
The reason I don't put the Overkill here is, despite me thinking that this is a great weapon to use as Baird, is that you usually only want to use your overkill on the early waves of the game and later on Mini-Bosses and Bosses. So having it loaded up in your inventory as secondary weapon is usually enough, and you should start using it on Bosses once you are able to get close safely only, but still have to value the use of the Cryo Cannon over the Overkill then. It is a great weapon for the early waves though. During later waves, when you want to kill the last remaining enemy with your Embar for Precision Repairs to proc, reducing the enemy HP with the Overkill first will also be a lot easier. Once their HP dropped enough, switch to your Embar and secure that lasthit.
Perks (ordered by usefulness in my opinion)
As writing this guide, Engineers don't have Perks yet available. They should have them soon though and there is no reason not to discuss this already ;-)
Generally spoken, I think that Perks of DPS characters are more important to get first than the ones of Supports and Engineers. However, once there is enough base built up and money to spend, there is no reason not to utilize Perks. And Baird can totally take the role of a DPS carry aswell, so when you notice you are one of the stronger members of your team, don't hesitate to perk up to carry the game! Unlike DPS characters I will categorize his Perks a bit differently:
Ultimate Cooldown: Since my loadout and playstyle contains lot of usage of his ultimate, this should be the first Perk to be maxed out. The DR1 is super strong, especially with the Bloody DR1 card on a high level!
Max Health: Getting more max health for the later phases of the game (wave 31+) when the enemy damage gets doubled is no bad idea on any character. Especially Elite Drones hit like a truck and surviving a bit more damage before going down is really helpful, especially when you want to use a Tri-Shot and expose yourself during most of the wave. If you get downed holding a Tri-Shot, you will have to pick it up and usually it drops at the opposite side of the cover, so having more health really helps you with that playstyle!
Fortification Damage: Depending on the numbers, this might be very strong on a sentry focused run. An absolute waste of energy if you run barriers only though.
Fortification Health: Not sure how this will work, but if this only affects newly build fortifications (after leveling the Perk), this Perk is going to be pretty useless as well. If it affects already built fortifications, it's actually not bad, but not required at all. It's a luxuary Perk when you really swim in energy. It might be useful though if it affects fortifications that you upgrade, since you most likely will upgrade your sentries very late in the game and having your inner circle of lvl 3 or 4 barriers at a higher health has no disadvantage at all. Depending on if you run a sentry based setup or not, this would be the 3rd or 4th Perk to level up, if at all.
Gameplay
Everybody should deposit energy into the Fabricator (or give it to you), so you can start building a base. Depending on if you run a Jack with Optimizer card equipped with you, you either want to rush a level 4 Forge (the most efficient way of using it) or buy as many level 1 barriers as you need (depending on the map) to survive the first few waves of Horde. You will not have to repair manually, so you can actually spam quite a lot of those on harder maps, and get weapon lockers a bit later. Fully charged weapons won't help you clear the wave when you get overrun by enemies! Sometimes I buy nothing but barriers for the first 7 waves or so.
Important: When you start buying weapon lockers, always finish leveling up a locker to level 4 before buying another one! Each locker level ugprade not only increases its available slots, but ammo regen rate massively! Sharing is caring, especially in the early game. Personal lockers are a thing for mid to late game!
With the Embar you are able to hold your ground and kill many enemies just by yourself. Make sure to use the active reload for a big damage boost (2.400 damage vs 4.250 for a headshot) as often as you can, since you can even oneshot some targets. If you manage to pickup a Longshot (especially after trading away your Overkill to a Kait), this is even more the case, since it has a higher damage on full health targets (3.000 damage vs 7.500 for a headshot), meaning you are able to oneshot nearly all small targets. It is no bad idea to grab another Overkill dropped by enemies early on again (and it is a quite common weapon drop), because it is really strong and you will have less problems with ammo before weapon lockers are built than with a Longshot. You can still pick up one later, and deal quite a bit damage with it (not as much as a Fahz though), but also proccing your Inspired Sniping!
If you are able to hold on your Overkill though, it is super strong on Baird, especially during the first 10 waves. To take away some pressure from your DPS characters, you should focus on killing Juvies and Sires that try to reach your teammates, and the Overkill is the perfect weapon for that. It is also a great weapon to use vs Bosses, and most of the time I will have the most damage dealt in a Boss wave as Baird. Using your DR1 first to lower it's health to the 50% HP threshhold and actually taking aggro from the Boss, and therefore tanking it, and then finishing the Boss with the Overkill is the prefered strategy here.
Talking about the DR1 - it is quite hell of a strong ultimate, especially in the early waves. This is for a few reaons:
- It spawns another unit, creating a 6v5 scenario
- It deals very much damage, especially with the Bloody DR1 card on a high level
- It does not cost any ammo to kill enemies and the tough part about the early game is being ammo gated
- It lowers the HP of a targeted enemy very continuously, meaning you can really well prepare the killing blow with your Embar to proc Precision Repairs
- It has quite a low cooldown, especially if you actively shoot targets instead of hiding in cover and more so if you use the Inspired Sniping card
- You have it up at least every second or third wave, depending on how well you play. Don't sit on your ultimate the whole game, there is no reason not to use it! It doesn't cost you anything except cooldown.
You managed to get through the rough start of a Horde run, great! Now it's time to build and expand your base. Depending on the teamcomp it might be more important to get more weapon lockers right now, or to buy more barriers or upgrade them to level 2. You will get a feeling for that with playtime ;-)
With Baird it is super strong to have enough weapon lockers for your team to function and just buy a shitton of level 2 barriers and plaster them all across the map! Ask your teammates for help to move them, and they usually have a better idea where to put them, depending on what part of the map they are playing on and which angle they hold. You can move them up to the enemy spawn, because repairing them is not an issue at all with Precision Repairs! Keeping the enemies away from your base and killing them clumped up stuck in barriers makes runs really easy.
If you have enough damage within your teamcomp, using your ultimate for (Mini-)Boss waves or clutch moments (when you are about to get overrun and wipe) might be more beneficial, but if your team is doing quite well, don't hesitate to use it for its DPS aswell. It also takes aggro from enemies which helps your DPS to freely damage the enemies, and it will be up again in no time ;-)
The base is quite setup and people should have perked out by now. Creating an inner ring of level 3 or 4 barriers to protect your team from Leeches, Juvies, Trackers and Sires is what I usually do by now. Don't worry about them getting damaged - not many enemies will make it that close to your base anyway, and with the Precision Repairs you should have no problem healing them over time. They don't have to be at full health at all times, as long as they are still there, they get their job done!
Also, even in a non sentry based run, putting a few in your base is never a bad idea, to help your team deal with Guardians, Sentinels and just in case something really bad happens and enemies get too close. Shock Sentries are also never bad in helping your team deal with enemies, especially vs DeeBee types, and they have quite a long range and are cheap to refill.
Tips for playing as or with a Baird
- When there are only a few enemies left and especially if they are DBNO, please mark them and leave your Baird the kill. He can get it from far away with his Embar, and he repairs every built fortification on the whole map with it!
- To get lasthits within a wave, hold on to fire with your Embar until you see that the enemy HP bar dropped at least under 50%. Hitting headshots is great, but bodyshots also execute targets instead of DBNO-ing them when their HP is low enough!
- When you trade away your Overkill for Kait's Retro Lancer, don't immediately give it to your Marcus (when you have one). Retro charge is a great way in the early game to conserve the super limited ammo and they instakill all minor enemies and especially Rejects and Sires.
- Jack is a great support character for a Baird to have, even more than for a Del in my opinion, since the playstyle "build shittons of barriers and move them across the whole map" is limited by the carry speed. However, a Jack with perked out movement speed totally solves this problem. Communicate!
- In DeeBee waves you will find Shock Grenades. You also have increased damage with those, so planting one at chokepoints and holding on the other one, so you can refill it with ammo crates or pilfer drops from your friendly neighbourhood Fahz, so you make use of them!
- When a Boss destroys stuff, especially barriers, don't try to fully heal them back up repair tool. Just revive them from their yellow state, since during the waves after Boss waves, many weak enemies (Leeches, Tracker) will spawn, making it very easy for you to heal stuff back up with a few Embar or Longshot kills. Focus on them, if you have to repair stuff!
- Trackers tend to get stuck at barriers a lot. How to find them? Once the HP bar of the barrier pops up out of your Tac-Com, this is a sign that this barrier takes damage and therefore an enemy is passing through it. When you can't see something big, it's usually a tracker. Wait until you get there safely and get that easy repair by killing it with your (active reloaded) Embar!
- Try to use your ultimate in a way, that the DR1 instantly has access to an enemy and won't run around clueless in your base. It is only there for up to 40 seconds (if it doesn't die earlier by getting killed by the enemies), so try to make the most use of it by waiting a bit until enemies gather up. Also, when using it will sitting on a ledge, it will spawn on the opposite side it (you are looking at), and can also spawn way below you. Use this, to not let him spawn in your base, but in the battle!
- With your DR1 spawned running around, you can go on a repair trip on your own. Enemies tend to focus the DR1, so stay a bit behind him, wait till he lowers the enemy HP bar enough for you to get the lasthit, rinse and repeat until everything is fully healed. This is a good tip for runs, where people don't leave DBNO enemies for you!
Horde-Frenzy
Unlike other characters, Baird plays basically the same in Frenzy as in normal Horde. Build lockers for your team, plaster the map with barriers, and use your ultimate wisely as discussed above. There is also no need to change your loadout, since those cards are the best for Frenzy as well in my opinion!
Media
How a lategame base can look like (Checkout Master run). These were at least 80 to 100 barriers put down across the whole map. Note, that all of them are at full health ;-)
The base from the earlier mentioned Pahanu run (1/4)
The base from the earlier mentioned Pahanu run (2/4)
The base from the earlier mentioned Pahanu run (3/4)
The base from the earlier mentioned Pahanu run (4/4)
Not from the same game, but another Pahanu Master run. Baird can definitely carry a game DPS-wise if played well!
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading my Baird guide, and I hope you enjoyed it and learned something. Feel free to ask questions or discuss anything mentioned in this guide :-)
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