Ranked runs two ladders. Most people only notice one

Versus Aug 15, 2026 9 min read

Ranked opens Oct 13 Season and Events

Your badge does not decide your opponents. A hidden skill rating does, and you never see it.
Squads matchmake on the highest rating in the group, not the average.
Skill Divisions are letters, A to D. The metal ranks, Bronze to Diamond, are the other ladder.
Quit penalties decay as you finish matches. A bad night does not follow you forever.

Two systems, not one

Plus Re-Up, which is not a rank

Hidden skill rating

Skill Division

This is what matchmaking uses. You never see the number. Four divisions, and they are plain letters, not metals.

Highest
Lowest

Your Division does not limit your Rank, but it sets how much is at stake: “the amount of points at stake scales with your Skill Division”. The higher your hidden rating, the larger the swing in Rank Rating (RR), the number behind your visible rank, on every result.

The panels, word for wordR1, R2

R1 Word for word

“Ranked is built for competitive play, with tighter matchmaking and strict penalties for leaving early.

Matchmaking is based on your (hidden) skill rating for that playlist. Squads matchmake based on the highest skill rating in the group.

After completing your placement matches, you’ll be assigned a Skill Division and Rank.”

Source. The in-game ranked onboarding panel, quoted in full.

Two consequences. Your badge does not affect who you play against, so a low rank with a high hidden rating still gets hard games. And squads matchmake on the highest skill rating in the group, not the average. Taking a much weaker friend into ranked pulls them up into your bracket rather than pulling you down into theirs. These ratings are kept per playlist (each mode’s queue): your rating in one mode says nothing about another.

R2 Word for word

“Your skill rating puts you into one of four Skill Divisions, and represents how good you are right now relative to the other players in that playlist.

Skill Divisions:
• Division A (Highest)
• Division B
• Division C
• Division D (Lowest)”

Source. The in-game Skill Division panel, quoted in full.

The four Skill Division letters A, B, C and D beneath a division crest, with B lit — **Figure 1.** The letter is the whole ladder: no metal, no sub-step, no number attached.

Your division may not be fully hidden. The game has a display for your own division and another for the lobby’s, which suggests you can see roughly how it rates the room you are in. Our reading

Rank Rating

The visible ladder

Sets your Rank, the badge on your card. Matchmaking ignores it completely. Bronze, Silver and Gold each run five steps. Onyx runs three. Diamond starts at zero rather than one.

UnrankedPlacement
Bronze5 steps
Silver5 steps
Gold5 steps
Onyx3 steps
Diamond4 steps, from zero
Masters—

The rank list the game shows stops at Diamond: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Onyx, Diamond. The Unranked badge is a COG gear that lights five segments during placement. The number on a badge looks like a step within a rank. The game does not say. Our reading

Masters, and what is unannouncedArt only

The game contains finished art for a Masters tier in three designs: a chrome skull with red eyes on a spiked shield. No text in the game names it, and the rank list stops at Diamond. It is the clearest sign of a tier above Diamond that is not switched on yet, so no step count is given.

Account progression

Re-Up

A separate system, not a Versus rank. It is tied to your Player Emblem and applies across the whole game.

Four Re-Ups at 100 levels each matches the publicly stated 500 total levels. Announced The art disagrees: there are ten numbered Re-Up badges, I through X. The onboarding screen agrees with the text, showing I to IV lit and a faded V. The extra badges may be room to grow. Our reading

The prompt, word for wordR5

R5 Word for word

“You’ve hit Player Level 100; now it’s time to Re-Up. Choosing to Re-Up will reset your Player Level to 1 as well as grant you an exclusive customization reward. You can Re-Up a total of four times.”

Source. The in-game Re-Up prompt, quoted in full.

Not a rank. The Soldier Rank chevrons you may have seen are Horde Siege class progression. The game calls it your “Soldier Level”. Different system, different screen. The four classes are broken down on the classes page.

How Rank Rating (RR) moves

The game gives no RR numbers

Factor	What the game says
Match outcome	RR is “won and lost based on match outcome, match duration, and personal performance”. You cannot lose points when you win or gain points when you lose.
Match duration	Named as an input in the rules, but it gets no row of its own in the post-match breakdown.
Skill Division	“The amount of points at stake scales with your Skill Division.” The higher your hidden rating, the larger the swing on every result.
Tier boundary	The game has a Promotion Bonus and a Demotion Penalty, so moving up or down a rank is worth more than a normal result.
Rejoin after a disconnect	“You cannot lose points on a win” is not absolute: disconnect, rejoin and win, and you still take a small RR hit.
The breakdown	The post-match screen itemizes Tier Modifier, Performance, Leave Penalty, MVP, Win / Lose, and a Total RR line.
Ranking up	A celebration animation plays. Ranking down has no equivalent.
Thresholds	— No RR figures are published anywhere: no thresholds, no points per win, no per-rank floors. If you see a specific RR number quoted, it did not come from the game.

The Rank panel, word for wordR3

R3 Word for word

“Your Rank is determined by your Rank Rating, which is won and lost based on match outcome, match duration, and personal performance. You cannot lose points when you win or gain points when you lose, and the amount of points at stake scales with your Skill Division.”

Source. The in-game Rank panel, quoted in full.

Placement matches

No rank until placements are done

“Your rank will be determined once your placement matches have been completed.”

How many? The game does not say. The counter fills in as you play. The usual figure of five comes from the Unranked badge, a COG gear with five segments that light one at a time. Our reading Probably right, but the game does not state it.

Finish What You Start

Quit penalties decay

R4 Word for word

“Abandoning your team is not tolerated in Ranked.

Disconnected players may rejoin up to two times. Rejoining and finishing the match results in a minor Rank Rating penalty, but no matchmaking penalty.

Leaving by choice is final and immediately applies a loss, plus maximum Rank Rating and matchmaking penalties.

Repeated quits escalate penalties and may restrict Ranked access. Completing matches reduces penalty severity over time.”

Source. The in-game “Finish What You Start” panel, quoted in full.

The useful part is the last sentence: penalties decay as you complete matches. The game also treats a crash differently from leaving by choice.

Every Versus mode, on its own rule card

The cards on the Versus page

Four modes ship at launch and three more rotate in. Every line is quoted from the rules card in the game. A dash means the card gives no figure, not zero.

The seven mode cards7 modes

Team Deathmatch Launch mode

Last team standing wins. 15 lives per team.

Rounds: 2 to win
Round timer: 10 min

Conquest Launch mode

Hold the zone to capture it. Capture 4 zones to win. The game has an Overtime state for this mode, but what triggers it is unknown.

Rounds: Single
Round timer: 25 min

Demolition Launch mode

Obtain the bomb, plant it, then defend until it goes off. 60 second fuse.

Rounds: 3 to win
Round timer: 6 min
Blast damage: 1,000
Blast radius: 1,000 units

Crucible Launch mode

Hold the Core in the zone to capture it. Capture 3 zones to win the round.

Rounds: 2 to win
Round timer: 10 min

King of the Hill Rotation

Two teams hold the zone for a cumulated 120 seconds to win the match. The game has an Overtime state for this mode, but what triggers it is unknown.

Rounds: Single
Round timer: —

Guardian Rotation

Last team standing wins the round.

Rounds: 2 to win
Round timer: 10 min

Warpath Rotation

Capture the zone to gain points. 100 points to win the round. The game has an Overtime state for this mode, but what triggers it is unknown.

Rounds: 2 to win
Round timer: 10 min

All seven cards, word for word7 modes

Mode	Rounds	Round timer	The card, word for word
Team Deathmatch	2 to win	10 min	Last team standing wins. 15 lives per team. When a team runs out of lives it gets one more chance before death is final, and a zone spawns. Capture it or wipe the enemy to win.
Conquest	Single	25 min	Hold the zone to capture it. Capture 4 zones to win. Each zone has a 3 minute timebank that drains while it sits unoccupied; if it hits zero the match ends in a draw. Nothing else in Versus works that way.
Demolition	3 to win	6 min	Obtain the bomb, plant it, then defend until it goes off. 60 second fuse, and fuses are team-based. Once your team plants you stop respawning; if nobody detonates, the lowest remaining fuse time decides the round.
Crucible	2 to win	10 min	Hold the Core in the zone to capture it. Capture 3 zones to win the round. Each team has its own set of zones and they move independently, and dropping the Core voluntarily costs you capture progress.
King of the Hill	Single	—	Two teams hold the zone for a cumulated 120 seconds to win the match. The zone is only available for a short time before it moves somewhere else. Unlimited respawns. The card gives no round timer; every other mode does.
Guardian	2 to win	10 min	Last team standing wins the round. The leader mechanic Guardian has carried in earlier Gears games is not stated anywhere here.
Warpath	2 to win	10 min	Capture the zone to gain points. 100 points to win the round.

What the rule cards don’t say3 gaps, 1 correction

Respawn rules exist only for Team Deathmatch and Demolition. Conquest and Crucible say nothing about respawns at all.
King of the Hill has no stated round timer. Every other mode gives one.
Guardian’s leader mechanic is not written down. It may well work the way it always has. The card does not say it, so neither does this page.

Correction

If you have seen DFA or Attrition listed as unannounced E-Day modes, they are not modes. They are Demolition and Crucible under older working names, and the Attrition label is not the returning Gears 5 mode of that name.

The six maps

On the Versus page

Six launch maps: Battleship, Outpost, Market, Park, Precinct, Skyward. The August 11 update added none. The maps page covers each one callout by callout. Bots that fill empty slots have five difficulty tiers of their own; see what each tier changes on the Versus page. Anything published here and later withdrawn is listed on standards and corrections.