Gears 5 Collectibles Guide: List of COG tags, Relic weapons and more

Gears 5 offers a ton of collectibles. While the franchise has always had lots of little tibits tucked tidily away for thorough players to find, Gears 5 has 90 different collectibles. These are composed of different COG tags, files, documents and more. Then, there’s also a new kind of collectible item, one with impact on the gameplay: Relic weapons. In this guide, we go over the location of every single collectible in Gears 5.

Related: Gears 5 guide: List of Jack upgrades and where to find them

While the Omen symbol (the Skull and Cog, the symbol of the Gears franchise) has usually been associated with COG tags, in Gears 5, seeing that symbol means that a Relic weapon is nearby. Relic weapons are unique weapons in the Gears 5 campaign that have special bonuses. There’s also a few achievements tied to Relic weapons, including getting a kill with each, so they are worth hunting down. You can see the Relic weapons that we’ve found below:

Enforcer Relic

Most of the Relic weapons found in Act 2 can be acquired at any point in the open areas. This one is the exception – you can only grab it during Act 2, Chapter 2. When you first have to stop the Skiff, open a gate and acquire the map, take a left instead of a right into the back of the security room. There, you’ll find the Enforcer Relic. You have to grab it here because once the Skiff has jumped down on to the ice below, there’s no going back. Click to enlarge the images.

The Enforcer Relic does more damage and hits harder however, its rate of fire is a bit slower.

Longshot Relic

You can find the Longshot Relic at any point during Act 2 when you can freely roam and pull up your map, as early as Chapter 1. After passing through the first gate, head to the left and you’ll eventually find a small shack on the ice. Inside the shack, the Longshot Relic is resting on a table, underneath a white Omen sigil. Below, you’ll find images of the location on the map and what the shack looks like. Click to enlarge the images.

The Longshot Relic has an Active Reload bonus, where performing an Active Reload properly will give you two shots instead of one, which is great for rapidly dealing headshots against groups of Swarm.

We are currently in the process of updating this section as we find and grab images of the other Relic weapon locations.

The collectibles in Gears 5 include COG tags, UIR tags, other types of tags, documents, photos and many other items. There’s a whopping 90 collectibles to find. They’ve been broken down by Act and Chapter, so if you’re looking for specific items it’ll be easy to scroll through.

Act 1 collectibles

Act 1, Chapter 1

• Weathered Spectacles

Found immediately after rappelling down into the water, just walk to the right instead of heading to the left and you’ll find this item on a rock.

• Onyx Guard Challenge Coin

From the aforementioned water, head to the left but instead of going up the hill, keep going to the left and down a very short ways. You’ll find this coin on a rock.

• Wellness Advisory Poster

A short way into the chapter, you’ll see a waterfall (Marcus will comment that only a handful made it off Azura alive), then head into some buildings. On a wall on your left, you’ll find the poster.

• COG Tags: Fallen Azura Gear

Later in the chapter, you’ll have Dave open some doors as a DeeBee follows you. Go into the Infirmary (it has the word Infirmary up top, it’s hard to miss) and on the right, there’s a dead Gear who’s been reduced to a skeleton in armor. Pick the tags up from the corpse.

• Chairman’s Wristwatch

In that same area, leave the Infirmary and go upstairs. Take a right, then a left and in a small back room, there’ll be a desk with the watch.

• Lightmass Missile Strike Authorization

After a fight where your remaining DeeBee is destroyed and there’s a huge explosion in the middle of the room, go near the back of the room but take a left. Up a short flight of stairs, you’ll find the document on an old computer terminal.

• UIR Hammer of Dawn Blueprints

Going back into the big room where the explosion went off, go up the stairs and have Jack open the door. On the table directly in front of you, you’ll see the blueprints.

Act 1, Chapter 2

• Photograph of Kilo Squad

The moment the cutscene ends and you control JD, walk forward and check Baird’s desk. There’ll be a small photo to grab.

• Mark 3 Lancer Blueprint

From Baird’s desk, walk up the short stairs and go to the right. On top of a box, you’ll find this blueprint.

• Trauma Record: Marcus Fenix

Turn around and walk to the other side of the room past Baird. You’ll find this white document next to a takeout box.

• Gym Notice to Trainees

After the cutscene where you’re introduced to the polite and charming Fahz, check the wall directly behind the fallen training DeeBee. You’ll find this amusing notice there.

• DBI Marketing Brochure

Exit the gym and go to the right. In the small lobby, turn to the left and you’ll find this brochure on a small couch.

Act 1, Chapter 3

• COG Tags: Fallen Raven Pilot

Once JD has been saved from the Juvies and you can move again, check the fallen Raven pilot in front of you for some COG tags.

• The New Ephyran: 20th Anniversary Edition

Once you walk out from your burning surroundings to the next room, check a desk in front of you.

• Seditious Literature

After a brief fight with the Swarm, head upstairs then turn to your left. Check a desk against the railing and you’ll see a magazine with SEDITIOUS stamped on it in bold red letters.

• Settlement 2 Welcome Package

After finding a small group of survivors and Gears huddling in a building, look towards the small area you’re supposed to crouch through. Go to the left in a small room and you’ll see this pamphlet on a small desk.

• Storied Embry Star

After Lizzie Carmine shows up and you’ve called in additional Guardian DeeBees to clear the street, check the building that Swarm snipers were previously huddled in. Go up the stairs and in the dark back of the room, find a desk with an open drawer. Look down into the drawer to grab this medal.

• COG Tags: Fallen Gear at Condor Crash

When you find the Condor gunship that’s been brought down and is currently a flaming wreck, about halfway through the wreckage, you’ll see a dead Gear on your left. Grab the tags on the body.

• Seran Colossus

In the street where Poppers (Juvies with grenades attached) attack you and Cole loudly voices his displeasure, check the very end of the street on the left and go in the bookstore. On a stand in the middle of the store, you’ll find this book.

Act 1, Chapter 4

• Memo to Bomah Staff

When you go through the gate to the Grand Bomah Hotel, go to the left and hop up into the garage. In the garage, there’ll be a table past some boxes where you can pick up the memo.

• COG Tags: Fallen Gear at Hotel

When you enter a pitch-black room and Jack provides some light, look in front of you where two Gears have been butchered. You can grab tags off the corpse leaning against the shelf.

• Lost Plush Horse

After entering a lobby with several dead civilians, check under the upper balcony near some couches to pick up this plush toy.

• Settlement 2 Summer Birth Pamphlet

Go upstairs from the lobby with the plush and check on your right to see a table with balloons behind it and baby bottles on it. Pick up the pamphlet here.

• Song Lyrics

After fighting your way through the street and entering the theater, head upstairs and find the wardrobe and makeup section. On the left in a small room, you can grab this sheet of lyrics.

• Worn Lighter

In the backstage area of the theater, there’s a small mirror and bust on a desk, next to a poster advertising Jace Stratton. Grab this lighter from the desk.

• Octus Canon Scroll Prop

On the stage, in the same area where you find the control panel to lift the curtain, check opposite the controls and nab this theater prop.

Act 2 collectibles

Act 2, Chapter 1

• Hand-Carved Riftworm Flute

After the cutscene, walk down the stairs on your right and check the building on your right. This flute is on a table.

• Ilima City License Plate

As you walk towards the objective, you’ll see a big building marked Infirmary on your left. There’ll be a furnace on your right and right next to the furnace, you can grab this license plate.

• Lost Gear Helmet

Past the furnace, you’ll see a large, decorated bone statue. Go past that and on the left in some flowers and snow is this helmet.

• Wooden Toy Lancer

After a young boy taunts you then runs away, check the corner of the building where he was standing. On a block next to the building, you’ll find this toy.

• Major Howl and the Battlin’ Ants

From the block, walk forward then to the left and go inside the salvage shop. On a back table you can find this poster.

• New Village Rules Mandate

Past the stable, enter the building in front of you. You’ll see this sheet of rules hanging up on your left.

• Note to the Chief

When you reach the stairs where villagers are planting flowers, instead of going down the stairs, enter the building just behind them. This note is laid out on a table in the middle of the room.

• Norsko’s Letter

After you can see the Village Chief working, before going to the gate on the left to talk to them, turn right and find this letter on some crates.

• Outsider Skiff Schematic

After the fight against the Swarm begins, go up some stairs and you’ll find a room with a Silverback (which you can use!) on the left. On a crate next to it you can grab this schematic.

• COG Tags: Oscar Diaz

After you are in the dark room with the Skiff and need to turn the lights on, check one of the workbenches along the wall to get these COG tags.

Act 2, Chapter 2

• Grindlift Maintenance Notes

Now that the world has opened up and you can roam freely with the Skiff, find the abandoned train tunnel. After going in and fighting a Carrier, check the back of the train car for the notes. (It’s worth mentioning that you’ll have a second chance to grab this collectible in Act 2, Chapter 4, as you’ll be openly roaming the same area again)

• Faded Photograph

Follow the tracks outside of the abandoned train tunnel a short distance and you’ll come upon a single, detached train car. Enter it and you can find the photograph. (Much like the collectible before, you can grab this during Act 2, Chapter 4 as well)

• Islander’s Lost Earring

A short ways in front of the Old COG gate you’ll use to move on later, there’s some crashed trucks covered in snow. You can nab the earring here, lying next to a corpse and Torque Bow. (Much like the collectibles before, you can grab this during Act 2, Chapter 4 as well)

• Lena’s Journal

As you head to the New Hope facility main mission, you’ll pass an Outsider campsite (it’s impossible to miss). At this campsite, you can grab a journal, netting you a collectible and also kicking off a secondary mission. (Much like the collectibles before, you can grab this during Act 2, Chapter 4 as well)

Act 2, Chapter 3

• Intercepted Letter

In the New Hope facility lobby, go to the back right corner and you’ll find this letter.

• Sovereign Directive 10345

Later, you’ll find yourself having dropped down a hole into a dark hallway with lots of cells. Exit the room you dropped into and turn to the right. There’ll be a locked door near the end of the hallway that Jack can open. The directive is in the back of this room.

• Patient Analysis: AX-331-2

Leave the room you found the directive in and turn to the right. Amidst a lot of medical equipment, you can find this analysis near a body covered with sheet.

• Patient Analysis: EV-184-9

After finding a special cell that clearly belonged to a child, jump through the window. The analysis is on a table to your left.

• Patient Analysis: RK-619-4

A short distance ahead, you’ll find a long hallway with light coming in from openings in the ceiling. There’s a door on the right, with the corpse of one of the Sires on an examination table. You can grab the analysis from next to the body.

• Timeworn Data Drive

After dropping down from some destroyed stairs, you’ll enter a server room, with dozens of cables running along the floor. The data drive is on your right in the dark.

Act 2, Chapter 4

This section is very long and very open, so remember than you can backtrack and grab any collectibles from Chapter 2 you previously missed. Also, the open world sections of this can be done in any order. You’ll get a notice when you’re about to leave the open area behind permanently and until you get that notice, you’re free to roam and explore.

• Frayed Pouncer-Tooth Necklace

One of the missions in Chapter 4 that has you leave the Skiff behind is an abandoned mine. At the abandoned mine entrance, go up the watchtower to nab this necklace lying on the floor.

• Nethercutt Mining Poster

Inside the abandoned mine, when you make your way to the locker room, go to the right into a small room. There’ll be a poster on the wall.

• Nethercutt Miner’s Journal

In a large, dark room illuminated by several pods hanging from the ceiling, go to the back and to the left. A small side room has this journal on a table.

• Letter to Momma

Back out in the free-roam of the open section, you’ll need to take the Skiff across a narrow bridge between icy ledges at one point. Before crossing, you’ll spy a snow-covered Centaur tank on your right. Go up to it and on a crate next to the tank you can find this letter.

• Security Memorandum

At the East Tower Substation, you can go inside and find this memorandum opposite a frozen corpse. This is also part of the Outsiders secondary mission and is necessary for opening another substation.

• Krav’s Locust Tag

At one of the Old Derrick Sites, you’ll see a Grindlift capsule below a yellow flag. Next to the capsule is a Locust skeleton, which you can take the tag from.

• Grindlift Actuator Component

At the same Old Derrick Site as above, check the iced-over Derrick for a yellow compartment that you can open. This is also part of a secondary mission that when complete, nets you an Ultimate upgrade for Jack.

• Orders from Ketor Skorge

At the second Old Derrick Site, enter into the wreckage and you can find this document on a skeleton to your right.

• Grindlift Actuator Component

At the same Old Derrick Site as the orders were found, make your way down and over to the second iced-over Derrick. Nab this component from a yellow compartment. This is another part of a secondary mission giving you an Ultimate upgrade for Jack.

• Lena’s Scribbles

As you arrive at the North Tower approach and have to dismount the Skiff, check to your right for the North Tower Substation. Before you enter the substation (which requires the Security Memorandum collectible from the previous substation) you can grab a note on the keypad.

Act 2, Chapter 5

• Nethercutt Helmet

Once you’ve broken through the ice, you’ll make your way to a security door with laser-targeting autoturrets. Turn around but don’t go back the way you came, go to the left (your right facing the security door) and walk until you see frozen corpses trapped in ice. There’s a helmet on top of the ice.

• Subject Analysis: UL-119-2

After disabling the first cryo jets so you can walk through the room, go to your right up a ramp and kick down a door. At the back of this room, you’ll find the document

• Subject Analysis: TE-872-3

After a dramatic cutscene that leaves you standing in a room with a giant yellow tank, grab the document off the floor directly next to you.

• Lexigram Board

After making your way through a second batch of cryo jets and disabling a generator, grab the board from next to the generator.

• Subject Analysis: EV-184-9

When chasing the Niles bot, you’ll make your way through an area with several malfunctioning cryo jets. Grab this document off a table right under of the jets.

• Sketchbook

When you make your way into a room with a dead scientist and notice that the massive tank that held the Matriarch is busted open, turn to the left and go into a dark room. The document is on the floor in the dark to your left.

Act 3 collectibles

Act 3, Chapter 1

• Corisku Newspaper

When you gain control of Kait, there’ll be a bar on your left. Grab the newspaper there.

• Doomed Empire, by Logan Hobbs

After going downstairs into the baggage claim area, there’s a book next to some boxes. Swipe it.

• Missive to Agent 9

Go through the airport metal detectors, turn left but instead of taking another left, keep going straight ahead to a small room. The ominous document is on a table in the back

• Nomad’s Creed

Past the table where some Claw machine guns are laid out, you can find this creed stabbed to another table with a knife.

• The Astounding Lightning Rangers!

Out in the open with all the different hangars, head into Hangar 4. Check to the left of the aircraft, there’s a comic book to grab.

Act 3, Chapter 2

• UIR Tag: Fallen Loyalist

As you arrive at the Rocket Hangar for the main mission, stop and go to the right of the entrance. You’ll see a corpse propped up against a wall with a tag to grab.

• Hammer of Dawn Command Case

After first entering the building, you’ll make your way to a dark room where Fahz is complaining about the lack of lights. There’s an armored skeleton with a command case for you to snatch.

• OZP-11 Termination Directive

In the vast, open hangar where you’ll be spending a lot of time traversing via gurney, don’t get on the gurney yet. Go down and to the right, where you’ll find this document on a barrel.

• UIR Space Mission Brief

A few hallways and corridors later, there’ll be a room of enemies to clear out with the floor covered in red sand and capsule in the center. Drop down but go to the left up into a hidden room with a model of a Rocket on a table. Towards the back of the room, you can find this brief.

• Loyalist Order from Major Toly

When you enter another vast room and see a chunk of a rocket to your left, go to the right and hop some sandbags. There’ll be a Longshot and this orders document.

• UIR Tag: Major Toly

You’ll come upon an area briefly glimpsed in the E3 2018 reveal trailer for Gears 5, with some deserted tanks. There’s a UIR corpse leaning against one of the tanks, grab the tag from there.

• The Major’s Speech

A short ways later, you’ll have to take a left turn through a wall that’s been blasted open. The document will be resting on a console directly in front of you.

• UIR Tag: Lieutenant Melich

At the turntable, in a room where you’ll need to order Jack to operate the turntable controls. In the back of that room, you’ll find the UIR tags.

Act 3, Chapter 3

• Nomad’s Sketchbook

In the open world, go to the Watertower location, which is part of a secondary mission. Grab the sketchbook from the same room where the sole survivor of the Watertower is. (Technically, you can grab this and all the other “open area” collectibles back in Act 3, Chapter 2)

• UIR LC Circuit A1

At the City Ruins location, you’ll have to hold out as you are attacked by Swarm, particularly a large number of Elite Hunters. After Jack slices through the door, go in and upstairs, the electronic part is on a countertop.

• Well-Worn Vasgari Flag

After grabbing the electronic part above, head to the right and over the damaged roof on your way out but stop and turn to the right after entering the next building. You’ll see a big flag hanging on the wall to grab.

• UIR LC Circuit C1

At the Artillery Battery locale, go upstairs from the room where you rescued the podded Nomads. You’ll find the circuit on a table right in front of you.

• Emergency Loyalist Radiogram

In the same room as the circuit above, on a console directly behind the table, you can snatch this document.

• Loyalist Orders to Lieutenant Melich

At a cluster of fallen tanks just south of the Harbor Docks, you’ll be able to see the bridge clearly. The orders are next to one of the tanks.

• RNV Borascu Captain’s Log

At the Cargo Shipwreck, drop down, then stick to the right. You’ll find an open cargo container with the document next to a UIR corpse.

• UIR LC Circuit B1

On the corpse of a Nomad at the far back of the Cargo Shipwreck, you’ll find the final circuit.

• Lightmass Missile Fragment

At the Cosmonaut Training Facility, before heading into the ruined building go to the far right. At a wall, you’ll find this piece of scrap.

• UIR Tag: Captain Tagger

Inside the mission, at the giant training area where pilots are tested for centrifugal force (the giant thing that spins around crushing Swarm until it breaks) you’ll find a tag on a body in the area that opens up once the training equipment blows apart. It’ll be a few steps left of what you need to do for the main mission.

• Fallen Nomad’s Visor

At the Nomad convoy you rescue, just inside the entrance and to the right you can find this visor.

Act 4 collectibles

Act 4, Chapter 1

• Encyclopedia of Tyran Military History

In a wrecked building very reminiscent of the original Gears of War, you can find this book after going down some stairs and checking a corner that is directly underneath an upstairs piano.

• Ruptured Gear Helmet

As Baird frantically yells at his AI assistant to take notes, go opposite your objective and take a right up a destroyed street. You can see this helmet at the end of the road.

• COG Tags: Minh Young Kim

As you make your way to the tomb to reinforce Paduk, take a right directly in front of the building. Wading through the swampy water, look closely to your right and you’ll see these COG tags held in place with a blade.

• Restoration Notice: Tomb of the Unknowns

You’ll see this notice right next to the door you have to go through to enter the tomb.

Grabbing every last item

Congratulations, you’ve got every collectible! There’s a lot of stuff to grab in Gears 5 and The Coalition hid items away in every crack and crevice. If at any point you grab a collectible but it isn’t showing up in your list on your menu, just be patient, it’s likely an issue with the servers syncing and the data has been recorded.

Related: Gears 5 review: An evolved formula brings home a big win for Xbox

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