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Award Winning Tactics achievement in Gears of War 3

Award Winning Tactics

Earn at least one Onyx medal.

Award Winning Tactics0
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How to unlock the Award Winning Tactics achievement

  • Nikke84Nikke84
    14 Sep 2011 15 Sep 2011 19 Sep 2011
    This achievement requires you get earn any one of the 65 different onyx medals. The easiest and fastest medal by far is the one called "Doorman" it requires you to manipulate 2000 objects in the campaign.You earn credit towards this medal everytime you press a button, pull a lever or open a door etc.
    Load up Act I Chapter I, after the cutscene with Jace you will climb up a staircase and open a door, right in front of you will be a piano. Walk up to it and press X to "play" it. Mash your X button for about 1.5 hours and you will have the easiest and fastest onyx medal in the game!

    You should also keep in mind that you will earn a onyx medal for completing the game on insane, if you plan a playthrough on that difficulty you won't need to worry about this achievement.

    For the full list of onyx medals, check out my Seriously 3.0 guide:
    Gears of War 3Seriously 3.0The Seriously 3.0 achievement in Gears of War 3 worth 1202 pointsReach level 100 and earn every Onyx medal.

    Guide not helping? View 7 more guides for this achievement.

    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    Nikke84what
    Posted by Nikke84 On 01 Sep 14 at 17:18
    Octobot SuperThis actually ended up being my last onyx! Mostly just because it was last on the list.
    Posted by Octobot Super On 24 Dec 22 at 19:39
    Octobot SuperI'm running into the same issue with presses not counting, which is obnoxious. From 495 to 500 it took me like 15 presses
    Posted by Octobot Super On 26 Dec 22 at 10:56
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  • PROF4NEPROF4NE
    22 Sep 2011 23 Sep 2011 26 Sep 2011
    In my experience, the easiest (probably the funnest aswell), is to get about 4-5 of your buddies, head into Beast mode and beat it on Insane without failing a round. If you do however end up failing, you can easily restart back to wave 1 without having to go back to the lobby.

    TIP: Have 4 guys be exploding Tickers, and the other a Wretch (I say wretch because it's the 1st tier of beasts so you can start right away). Have the Wretch go near the enemies and press X to do the "scream", which stuns enemies for a few seconds, then have the tickers rush in and blow em away.

    When you get about halfway through, have at least 2 people be the Giant Serapede. It is VERY effective (especially against Silverbacks), and it's really hard to kill.

    Also, make sure at least 2 people can be Berserker and one a Boomer when you hit Wave 10 or 11. Wave 12 isn't all that difficult because of the lack of COG Heroes, so it can be accomplished doing it with the Serapedes and such.

    My buddies and I only restarted once doing it this way and it took about 20min.

    EDIT: Forgot to mention, best map to do this on is Trenches. It's small and has some good flanking routes and the humans are almost always outside of their fortifications.
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    VrilThis is much more fun and should actually take less time (if you're skilled enough) than mashing X for hours. I've beaten Beast on Insane without failing twice out of five attempts, but the whole ride was fun! Ticker spam is definitely the way to go, with a few Drones and Serapedes thrown in there and maybe some Beserkers for wave 12.
    Posted by Vril On 28 Sep 11 at 17:14
    VrilAlso, highly recommend Checkout! Small map with the Gears coming very close to Locust spawn. Works well with the Ticker spam method.
    Posted by Vril On 28 Sep 11 at 17:15
    ElectrondottsJust got the game and received my first onyx stone this weekend in Beast Mode, and based on how long it took us (23 mins), this is probably the quickest method. We rarely used Tickers unless we were low on cash but mostly Savage Drones to begin with. We usual had one Kantus, a Mauler and Drones and we finished off wave 12 with a Corpser, a Berserker, a Serapede and Drones on Trenches.
    Posted by Electrondotts On 24 Oct 11 at 17:30
  • xI Jason93 IxxI Jason93 Ix
    30 Sep 2011 02 Oct 2011 03 Oct 2011
    The easiest way I found to get an Onyx Medal is in Horde mode where you need to make "1,000 Fortification Modifications":

    An easy solution is get a second controller and log in as a "guest".
    Start up a private Horde match.
    Set it to any difficulty you want because it doesn't really matter all that much, unless you suck in which case make the difficulty fairly easy. :P
    I used Checkout for the map, doesn't matter what map you choose really, I just preferred Checkout.
    When the match starts use one of the controllers to "build your base", doesn't matter which controller you use as it costs nothing to build your first base.
    Take control of the "guest" account and give all the money to your main character.
    Build a turret with the money you've been given.
    Make the "guest" take control of the turret and start firing.
    As the turret's firing, spam Y when you're next to the turret with your main character and watch your money slowlyyy go down.
    During the rounds make your "guest" account go into cover so it doesn't die. And when the rounds over put 'em back at the turret and rinse and repeat.
    It'll take a few rounds if you have 0 fortification modifications, but if you have 500+ like I did, it'll take 5-10 minutes at the maximum. :)
    ALSO, this can only be done between rounds as you can't upgrade or build fortifications during rounds.


    HOPEFULLY I made all that sound clear.
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    demont101I was going to post this same solution cuz I just did this lol it's a great idea I was just beaten to writing it
    Posted by demont101 On 07 Oct 11 at 15:48
    MattyJWestGood solution, only took me 15 minutes to finish off (had ~500 upgrades already from regular Horde) and it certainly beats playing a piano for 6 hours!
    Posted by MattyJWest On 10 Oct 11 at 23:55
    PRIME SIXWorks great. Thanks!!!
    Posted by PRIME SIX On 11 Jun 12 at 15:09
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