Gears of War Villain Tier List

For nearly 19 years, players worldwide have fought the near endless monstrous hordes of Gears of War’s iconic Locust subterranean monsters. Over two decades, more foes have been unveiled to fight against the heroic soldiers of the Coalition of Ordered Governments, such as the Union of Independent Republics, the Lambent, DeeBee robots, and the Locusts’ successors, the Swarm. Each of Gears of War’s factions have their own reasons for fighting for control or dominance over Sera. The UIR fought for control of the resource Imulsion and independence from the UIR. The Locust fought to escape the Lambent infection and usurp control of the surface world. DeeBees fought to serve the First Minister of the new COG and protect its citizens while the Swarm sought to destroy humanity.

While Gears of War is famous for its brutal campaigns and addictive multiplayer, it’s not particularly known for its wide cast of distinct, individual villains. With the exception of the Lambent, which was an Imulsion-based infection that turned all life into zombie-like monsters, each of Gears of War’s factions were headed by frequently maniacal leaders, though only a few were actually seen in the games. For instance, no UIR leader has been shown in-game yet. Despite this, the Gears of War games still feature a handful of villains that can be ranked by their intimidating presence, impact on Sera and its inhabitants, and effectiveness as antagonists.

S-Tier Gears of War Villains

• Doctor Niles Samson
• General RAAM
• Queen Myrrah/Reyna

The best Gears of War villains are those who conducted some of the most despicable and merciless acts in all of Sera’s known history. While Doctor Niles Samson never appears alive in any Gears games, his actions are responsible for the whole series because he created the Locust. Towards the end of the Pendulum Wars, Samson was ordered to treat children afflicted with the Imulsion-derived Rustlung disease but later experimented on them to create the monstrous Sires as supersoldiers for the COG. Using one child named Myrrah’s innate resistance to Imulsion, Samson created the Locust but his mistreatment of Myrrah and the Locust led to their revolt and eventual war on humanity. 42 years after E-Day, a copy of Samson’s consciousness reawakened Myrrah in the body of Reyna Diaz.

Queen Myrrah led her Locust Horde to wipe out all of humanity after learning of her daughter Reyna’s supposed death while under the care of Samson. To do this, she ordered her greatest soldier, General RAAM, to lead the invasion of the surface later known as Emergence Day. It’s estimated that 25% of all humans on Sera were killed on E-Day alone under RAAM’s command. For 14 years, RAAM would leave absolute destruction in his wake, brutally killing COG troops personally such as Alicia Valera and Minh Young Kim, or using flying kryll creatures to rip entire cities to shreds. Samson, Myrrah, and RAAM’s actions nearly wiped out not just humanity but all life on Sera.

A-Tier Gears of War Villains

RAAM didn’t survive to see the end of the Locust War, but he was succeeded by his second in command and longtime friend, Skorge. One of the few Kantus military leaders in the Locust Horde, Skorge was initially just the High Priest of the Trinity of Worms in the Locust’s religion, but became High General after RAAM’s death. As High General, Skorge would lead a giant Riftworm to sink entire cities, but at times would fight on the ground, dual wielding Gorgon Pistols or using a powerful Dual Chainsaw Staff that could cut through an entire Centaur tank. Skorge had multiple run-ins with Delta-One during Operation: Hollow Storm in Gears of War 2 but was shortly killed thereafter after being thrown off his mutated Reaver Hydra.

Like the Hydra, multiple, gigantic, mutated Hollow creatures appear throughout the Gears of War series. Most of these creatures encountered during the Locust War were created by Ukkon, the Locust’s chief geneticist, who was also responsible for the creation of the towering Brumaks and Corpser creatures using Imulsion. Unlike other Locust leaders, Ukkon wasn’t a true Locust but was instead the first and only Sire to retain his cognitive ability. 25 years after V-Day, a Locust Drone was remade into a Swarm Scion known as The Speaker, who coordinated the creation of the Swarm under the leadership of Myrrah’s consciousness. While The Speaker’s presence in Gears of War 4 was brief, he proved to be an intimidating antagonist as he kidnapped people and fought atop a Swarmak.

B-Tier Gears of War Villains

• First Minister Mina Jinn
• Colonel Ezra Pound Loomis
• General Karn

Not every Gears of War villain is intimidating, competent, or even plays a major role in the games they appear in. This was the case for Gears of War: Judgment’s Colonel Ezra Pound Loomis and General Karn. For the entirety of Judgment’s runtime, Colonel Loomis constantly exhibits poor leadership as he needlessly sends COG troops to their death in Halvo Bay and is more of a threat to Kilo Squad than the Locust themselves by ordering their execution for saving Halvo Bay. However, Kilo Squad barely interacts with the leader of Halvo Bay’s invasion, General Karn, anyway. The squad only sees the aftermath of Karn’s carnage and immediately kills Karn when they first directly encounter him at the end of Judgment.

In contrast to some of Gears of War’s uninvolved antagonists, Gears of War 4’s First Minister Mina Jinn plays a larger role for about half of the game’s runtime, leading DeeBee robots. However, Jinn is not an intimidating antagonist and comes off as rather unreasonable and shortsighted, as she is quick to assume the worst of people and only attempts to properly help people fight the Swarm when it’s too late. Jinn abuses her control of DeeBees to dominate her populace and even those striving for independence, constantly destroying property, and ensuring people continue to despise the COG despite their actions in attempting to rebuild society.

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Systems

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Released

2025

ESRB

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Publisher(s)

Xbox Game Studios

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