Mutators are a new addition to Gears of War 3 allowing you to make the game easier, harder or more fun. Points/experience received in Arcade or Horde mode will vary depending on the easy and hard mutators you choose.
Mutators[]
Fun Mutators (No Change)[]
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Big Head | Unlock the gold Hoarder medal (Complete 1,000 waves of Horde) |
| Effects | |
| Causes the heads of everyone, both Locust and Human, to inflate to comical proportions. Both Human and Locust combat and mission dialogue (not cutscenes) become high-pitched. |
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Pinata | Unlock the gold Investor medal (Earn $500,000 in Beast mode) |
| Effects | |
| Special tokens drop from every kill. Collect them to gather points. |
* This is NOT additional points for kills. Each enemy will drop coins corresponding to the amount you would get from the enemy. They also disappear within a few seconds.
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Headless Chicken | Available immediately |
| Effects | |
| If an enemy receives a fatal head shot, they will flail around, firing at their allies. However, if the head of the last enemy alive is decapitated, that enemy will attack the nearest player (or fortifications in Horde 2.0.) If the decapitated victim is a Butcher, he will simply walk around and attack the nearest enemies/allies. The moment the blood spouting from the Butcher's head stops, the Butcher drops dead and this goes for any enemy that is decapitated. |
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Laugh Track | Unlock the bronze Tour of Duty, For the Horde, I'm a Beast and Warmonger medals (Finish Campaign, Horde, Beast and Arcade on Casual difficulty) |
| Effects | |
| After every kill, a crowd will laugh, similar to that of a sitcom. |
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Flower Blood | Unlock the silver King of COG medal (Earn 2,000,000 points in Arcade) |
| Effects | |
| All blood effects are replaced with pretty flowers. |
Hard Mutators (+5% - +10%)[]
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Friendly Fire | Successfully complete the game in 4 player co-op |
| Effects | |
| Enables friendly fire. This is the only Hard Mutator to add only +5% exp. The rest all add +10%. |
| Mutator | Requirements |
| No Ammo Pickups | Available immediately |
| Effects | |
| Gets rid of ammo boxes on map and does not award you ammo after completing a wave. |
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Must Active Reload | Unlock the silver Active Reloader medal (Perform 2,500 perfect active reloads) |
| Effects | |
| Failing to perform a perfect active reload will cause the weapon to jam (same as failing to active reload at all). The normal active reload bar is removed, and not attempting to reload at all will still jam your gun. |
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Vampire | Get the Executioner ribbon 100 times. To obtain the executioner ribbon, perform the most executions (List of Gears of War Executions) in a game of Versus. (Curb-stomps, extended executions, chainsaw kills, retro charges and taking captive all count as executions for this ribbon.) |
| Effects | |
| You do not regain health, but the damage you inflict upon enemies heals you. |
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Enemy Regeneration | Unlock the bronze Aficionado medal (Play 50 chapters in Arcade) |
| Effects | |
| Non-Lambent Enemies regenerate health. |
Easy Mutators (-25%)[]
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Super Reload | Unlock bronze Master at Arms medal (Obtain 500 kills with each of the starting guns) |
| Effects | |
| Active reloading gives a much larger damage boost, gives an extra round in your magazine for every bullet you reloaded, and makes actives last forever until you change weapons/die. |
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Infinite Ammo | Earn the Combat Engineer ribbon 100 times. |
| Effects | |
| Unlimited ammo for all pistols and starter weapons (not grenades, but Gorgon and Boltok pistol as well), but you must reload between mags. |
* The Cleaver technically gets infinite ammo as well, but you have to hit "B" to attack after "Right Trigger" no longer works.
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Instagib Melee | Score 200 kills as a Wretch (in Beast mode) |
| Effects | |
| Player melees cause instant death except on Lambent Berserkers. |
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Big Explosions | Unlock the Hail Mary ribbon 100 times |
| Effects | |
| Both friendly and enemy explosions have a larger blast radius. No extra damage is added. |
| Mutator | Requirements |
| Comet | Unlock the silver Shock Trooper medal. (Obtain the First Blood ribbon 300 times |
| Effects | |
| When you roadie run, you build up energy until you ignite into a fireball that you can unleash on impacting enemies. After roadie running, you will be unable to roadie run again for a few seconds. However, while roadie running you will run clean through many enemies as they instantly explode. |