Gears of War: E-Day Easter Eggs & Hidden Details You Might Have Missed

Gears of War: E-Day has more than one or two novelty secrets hidden around Kalona. Some are classic Easter eggs with a proper reward at the end, while others are story details, series callbacks or environmental touches that longtime Gears fans will appreciate immediately.

The strongest part is that most of them actually feel like they belong in E-Day. Kalona is still a functioning city at the start of the invasion, so posters, shops, bars, signs, magazines and off-route interactions all help fill in the world before it becomes the broken version of Sera players already know.

These are the best Easter eggs and hidden details worth talking about right now.

1. The Cluckpuncher Brings Back Gears 3's Exploding Chickens

The biggest Easter egg found so far is also one of the funniest weapons in the game.

Hidden throughout Act 2, Chapter 2: Hold the Line are seven egg-carton triggers. Most of them are inside refrigerators around stores and Major Burger restaurants. Shoot the correct eggs and you hear a chicken cluck confirming the step counted.

Complete the entire sequence and the Cluckpuncher appears for Marcus to pick up.

The weapon is fully usable and fires explosive chickens instead of normal explosive rounds.

That makes the reference obvious for longtime Gears players. The Cluckpuncher is E-Day's callback to the Cluckshot from Gears of War 3, a hidden Boomshot variant that also launched exploding chickens.

Instead of simply hiding the weapon in one room, E-Day builds a full mini-hunt around it. That makes it one of the best secrets in the game rather than just a one-second joke.

If you want the exact seven-step route, use our full Cluckpuncher / Chicken Gun guide.

2. The Expedition 33 Toilet-Paper Joke

One of E-Day's strangest references has nothing to do with Gears lore.

Players found a hidden bathroom interaction where Marcus replaces a roll of toilet paper and solemnly says:

"For those who come after."

That line is a direct nod to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

The line itself is one of Expedition 33's most recognizable phrases, and the toilet-paper setup mirrors the joke that spread around that game shortly after release.

It is a small joke, but it is also a very deliberate one. E-Day delivers it completely straight, which makes it much funnier than if the game had tried too hard to point at the reference.

It is also easy to miss because there is no collectible, challenge or achievement attached to it. You only see it if you stop exploring like a scavenger and start exploring like a nosy player.

3. The Armored Prayer Bar Is a Gears 2 Callback

The bar Marcus and Dom are drinking in at the beginning of the Campaign is called The Armored Prayer.

That is not a random name.

It is a direct callback to "The Armored Prayer," one of the best-known tracks from the Gears of War 2 soundtrack.

For newer players, it is just a cool bar name. For older fans, it is exactly the kind of subtle series reference that rewards paying attention without interrupting the story.

This is the sort of detail E-Day handles well. It gives the world more personality, but it also feels like something Gears veterans were always meant to catch.

4. E-Day Shows Exactly How Marcus Got His Lip Scar

Marcus carries a couple of iconic scars in the later games, and E-Day quietly explains one of them.

During the supermarket sequence, a Drone catches Marcus across the lip. The Coalition later confirmed that this is the moment he gets the lip scar he carries for the rest of the series.

That may sound minor, but it is exactly the kind of detail Gears fans notice immediately.

The studio also explained that his other major scar comes from prison, so E-Day is only telling the origin of this one. In other words, this was not accidental damage in a random fight. It was a deliberate continuity detail placed into a very specific scene.

5. Tai and the Chainsaw Lancer Scene Comes From Existing Gears Lore

One of E-Day's most important fan-service scenes is also one of its best lore callbacks.

The supermarket encounter involving Tai Kaliso, the broken bayonet and the improvised chainsaw weapon is not just a cool set-piece made for the game. The Coalition has said this moment comes from existing extended Gears lore, where a similar scene originally happened about a year later.

E-Day moves the scene forward in the timeline so players can actually witness the birth of the Chainsaw Lancer during the Campaign.

That alone makes it a worthy hidden-detail section, but there is another nice touch behind it: The Coalition even went back and used the same real-world chainsaw model that helped create the original Lancer sound years ago.

So the scene is not just a lore callback. It is also a production-level callback to the series' most recognizable weapon.

6. Cole Train Is Everywhere — Even Though You Never Meet Him

E-Day takes place long before Marcus and Dom meet Augustus "Cole Train" Cole in the original Gears of War.

The Coalition clearly wanted to respect that timeline, so they do not just throw Cole directly into Marcus' path for a cheap cameo. Instead, they place him naturally into the world.

The most obvious example is the Thrashball RUSH Magazine collectible in Act 2, Chapter 1: Bravo Squad, which puts Cole on the cover.

The developers have also spoken about Hanover Cougars-era Cole posters appearing around Kalona. That is a much better way to use him. Cole already exists as a celebrity and sports icon, but he is not yet part of Marcus and Dom's story.

This is also a nice example of how E-Day handles the prequel timeline in general: instead of forcing big cameos, it uses the environment to remind you that the rest of the Gears world is already out there.

7. Kalona Is Full of "The War Is Over" Details

Before the Locust attack, Kalona is coming out of the Pendulum Wars. The Coalition deliberately filled the city with signs and little details showing that people believed peace had finally arrived.

That is why you see details like:

• victory celebration signage
• peace-time discounts
• recruitment and veteran-related messaging
• newspaper references such as "UIR Surrenders – War Is Over"

None of these are giant headline Easter eggs on their own, but together they massively improve the setting. They remind you that humanity was just starting to breathe again before Emergence Day destroyed that illusion.

It is one of the most important hidden-story layers in the entire game.

8. You Can Stop and Do Push-Ups With COG Soldiers

In one optional moment during the monorail section, Marcus can join a group of COG soldiers doing push-ups.

There is no real mechanical reward attached to it. It is just there because the developers understood that little moments like this give the world more personality.

This is one of those secrets that tells you a lot about E-Day's design philosophy. The game is not only hiding upgrade items and collectibles. It is also hiding character moments.

9. "Message From The Coalition" Breaks the Fourth Wall

At the beginning of Act 4, Chapter 1: Hope and Ruin, you can find a document called Message From The Coalition near the memorial.

What makes it stand out is that this message is not from the fictional Coalition of Ordered Governments.

It is from The Coalition, the actual development studio.

The page is presented as a remembrance and asks players to think about loved ones who are no longer with us. That immediately made it one of the game's most discussed hidden details, because it briefly steps outside the fictional world and speaks directly to the audience.

Xbox later clarified that it was not intended as a layoffs reference. It was meant as a broader memorial inspired by the team's own experiences and by stories they had heard from players.

Either way, it remains one of the most personal hidden details in the entire Campaign.

10. Carlos Santiago's Tags and Photo Matter Inside and Outside the Game

Story spoiler warning: this final section discusses an ending collectible connected to Carlos Santiago.

Carlos Santiago is one of the most important off-screen presences in E-Day, and the game pays that off with one of its most emotional collectible moments.

Carlos Santiago's COG Tags and Photo are awarded as part of the ending sequence.

That would already be a strong hidden detail on its own, but The Coalition pushed it further by including physical replicas of Carlos' tags in the Collector's Edition.

The studio said those tags were built to match the exact in-game geometry, down to Carlos' name and the markings on them. The Collector's Edition also includes a replica of the photo showing Dom, Carlos and Marcus together.

That turns a story collectible into a larger franchise artifact, which is exactly why it is worth calling out in an Easter-eggs-and-details roundup.

Why These Details Matter

The best thing about E-Day's secrets is that they are not all doing the same job.

Some are there to make you laugh, like the Cluckpuncher and the toilet-paper joke. Some exist to reward old fans, like The Armored Prayer and the Cluckshot callback. Some deepen the lore, like Marcus' scar, Tai's chainsaw scene and the peace-time details around Kalona. Others are simply there to make the world feel more human, like the push-up interaction.

That variety is what makes the game's hidden content worth talking about.

We will keep updating this page as more well-supported Easter eggs and hidden details are found.

If you want more Campaign cleanup guides, use our All 140 Collectibles guide, Secondary Objectives guide and Cluckpuncher Chicken Gun guide, or return to the Gears of War: E-Day guide hub.