Gears of War: E-Day Hotfix Notes (October 22 and 26): Smoke Grenade Exploit Closed, Ranked Disconnects Sped Up

The Coalition has followed up its big October 14 patch for Gears of War: E-Day with two more hotfixes in quick succession. The October 22 hotfix cleared another batch of Campaign blockers, changed how Ranked handles players who drop out, and arrived alongside the game's Halloween event. Four days later, a small patch on October 26 finally shut down the Versus exploit that let some players see straight through Smoke Grenades.

Both updates are live on Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam and the Microsoft Store). Neither one is a balance patch – the Versus meta is unchanged for now – but if you play Ranked, both are worth knowing about.

TL;DR

• October 26: fix for the exploit that let players turn off Smoke Grenade effects, plus fixes for several movement-related crashes and more stability work on PC, Xbox and handhelds.
• October 22: Ranked matches now dissolve 1 minute after a player disconnects and doesn't come back, down from 2 minutes.
• October 22: four chapter-specific Campaign fixes, two Horde Siege fixes and a fix for the Gnasher T-pose bug.
• Xbox Cloud Gaming now defaults to Performance instead of Quality.
• Still open: some players report freezes or crashes during long sessions; Versus balance feedback is under review.

October 26: the Smoke Grenade exploit is gone

When the October 22 notes went out, The Coalition listed one known issue that stood out above everything else: an exploit in Versus that allowed players to see through Smoke Grenades. In a mode where smoke is one of the main ways to cross open ground or cover a revive, that's a serious competitive problem, especially in Ranked's first weeks.

The studio said at the time that a fix was in progress and that it had already taken enforcement action against players abusing this exploit and others, including aimbots. On the morning of October 26, the official Gears of War account announced a small patch that closes the exploit. The same update fixes multiple crashes tied to player movement and adds further stability and optimization improvements across PC, Xbox and handhelds.

No full patch-note page was published for this one, so treat it as a targeted fix rather than a content update.

October 22: general fixes

The larger of the two hotfixes starts with the usual round of stability, performance and crash-reduction work on PC, Xbox and handhelds. On top of that:

• Characters no longer T-pose if you blind-fire the Gnasher from medium cover and then quickly aim down sights.
• On Xbox Cloud Gaming, the default graphics setting is now Performance instead of Quality.
• Players whose system date or time was set incorrectly can now sign in again.

The cloud change is small but welcome – Performance mode generally makes more sense for a fast shooter streamed over the internet, and many players never open the settings menu.

Ranked and Versus changes

The most noticeable competitive change concerns disconnects in Ranked. If a player drops and doesn't rejoin, the match now dissolves after 1 minute instead of 2. That means less time sitting in a lopsided game waiting for someone who isn't coming back.

Versus also gets two more fixes:

• More spots on the maps where a dropped Demolition bomb could end up out of reach have been fixed. The October 14 patch had already dealt with a similar problem on Park, so this extends that work to other areas.
• The "Killjoy" ribbon is no longer awarded by mistake when you destroy enemy equipment.

Campaign fixes

The Campaign gets four chapter-specific fixes in the October 22 hotfix:

The Act Four train car fix matters most for completionists, since Secondary Objectives count toward 100% completion and achievements like Side Piece.

Horde Siege fixes

Two Horde Siege bugs are fixed in the October 22 update:

• In the "Close E-Holes" Secondary Objective, other squads closing E-Holes could stop you from completing it. That no longer happens.
• If one player failed to load in, everyone on the server could be kicked. That has been fixed too.

The second fix is a big deal in a 12-player mode, where one bad connection used to be able to end the night for three full squads.

The Halloween event

The October 22 hotfix landed alongside E-Day's first limited-time event. The Halloween event added two themed playlists:

• Trick-or-Treat (Versus): players wear pumpkin heads and fight over the Jack-o-Cannon, with special weapons hidden in pumpkins around the map.
• Horde Siege event mission: squads take on the Boogeyman and his glowing pumpkin enemies.

Both came with limited-time challenges and cosmetic rewards. If you still have challenges to finish, check the in-game event tab, since limited-time playlists and rewards disappear once the event ends.

Known issues and what's next

The Coalition says some players are still seeing freezes or crashes in long play sessions, and the team is investigating. It is also reviewing player feedback on Versus balance and working on updates for Season 1, with details promised later.

Looking further ahead, the official Season 1 roadmap lays out what's left of Season 1: Emergence, which runs until December 1:

• Three two-week themed events: Halloween, 20 Years of Gears and Thanksgibbing, each with a Versus event mode, a Horde Siege event mission and exclusive rewards.
• A "birthday gift" for all players on November 7, the 20th anniversary of the original Gears of War. The Coalition hasn't said what it is yet.
• Shop offers that rotate every Tuesday.

After that comes Season 2: Legacy, built around the series' 20th anniversary, followed by Seasons 3 to 5 (Infiltration, Pendulum and Devotion). No start date for Season 2 has been announced.

What it means for players

For Ranked players, the October 26 patch is the important one. A smoke exploit undermines trust in every close match, and The Coalition fixed it within about a week of flagging it – while also taking enforcement action against players who abused it. The shorter disconnect timer is a smaller but practical improvement for anyone who has sat through a broken 4v5.

For Campaign and Horde Siege players, these hotfixes are mostly about removing frustrations: fewer stuck objectives, no more whole-server kicks and better stability. The long-session crashes remain the main open problem, so if E-Day still freezes after a few hours, you're not alone, and a fix is being worked on.