Gears of War: E-Day — How to Close Emergence Holes (Frag and Gut-Puncher)

Emergence Holes keep a fight going. As long as the red smoke is rising, fresh Locust climb out of the pit and pour into the area around you. Sealing the hole is the quickest way to stop the stream, and in Gears of War: E-Day the method is simple once you know what the game is asking for.

Quick answer: Put an explosive inside the illuminated pit. Detonate a Frag Grenade or fire a Gut-Puncher round into the opening to seal it; the red plume fades, leaving rubble behind.

How to spot an Emergence Hole

The earth splits and sinks, sending a red column of smoke up from a glowing pit. Locust emerge—Wretches and Drones first, with larger enemies appearing at times. Your squad calls out that a hole or sinkhole has appeared; that callout is your only prompt.

The HUD never prints the words “Emergence Hole” and shows no counter tracking how many are open. You find a hole by its red smoke, nothing else. There is no tutorial card and no objective line telling you to close it, so recognizing the smoke is the whole job of spotting one.

Throw an explosive into the pit

An explosive going off inside the opening collapses it. A Frag Grenade that lands in the pit blows it shut, the smoke cuts out, and grey dust and rubble replace it a couple of seconds later. Anything still climbing out when the blast hits dies with the hole.

Choose the Frag Grenade from the weapon wheel’s top slot. Its aiming guide is a white arc ending in a bracket that marks the landing point. Set that endpoint over the glowing pit rather than its rim, then throw. Line it up with the smoke column’s base so the grenade falls into the hole.

If Drones are already out, throw from cover; otherwise, use a high position that gives you a clear view into the pit.
Throw early. The sooner the hole closes, the fewer enemies get out.
Save your final grenade for the next pit instead of spending it on Drones already above ground.

Each hole costs one grenade, so grab any Frag Grenade pickups you pass before and during these fights.

The Gut-Puncher works, fire grenades do not

You can seal a pit without a Frag Grenade: fire a Gut-Puncher round directly into the opening from the front, detonating it inside. The resulting fireball of rubble closes the pit just as a grenade does. During the Missing Convoy secondary objective in Act 4, Chapter 1 Hope and Ruin, a hole appears in the plaza paving beside a round tree planter. One Gut-Puncher shot into the opening leaves dust behind.

An Incendiary Grenade does not get the job done. Thrown at that same plaza hole, the red smoke kept rising eight seconds later. Fire landing on top of a hole does not close it. The rule is that a blast has to go off inside the pit, so do not assume a fire grenade has sealed anything.

Closing the holes in the clinic car park (Act 1, Chapter 4)

The first time you are expected to seal holes with grenades comes in Act 1, Chapter 4 Back in the Fold. The squad steps out of the Landa emergency clinic onto a raised terrace above a car park at night, and a short cutscene shows the first hole opening among the parked cars. You have two Frag Grenades in your equipment slot here.

Look straight ahead, below the terrace balustrade, at the hole between an orange car and a barrier arm. Select the Frag Grenade, line the end of the arc up inside the red pit, and throw. A fireball erupts in the pit and grey dust replaces the smoke, and your grenade count drops from 2 to 1.

Frag Grenade aimed into the first hole — Line the throw arc up on the first glowing pit below the terrace before releasing the Frag Grenade. Shown at 67:12 in MKIceAndFire’s video. Image: The Coalition

Go down the steps past the ambulance. More holes open among the cars to your left and ahead. A Frag Grenade pickup sits by the red planter boxes in the car park, so grab it, because every hole you close uses one grenade.

Deal with the hole by the dark saloon car. Throw from a few metres back, into the base of the smoke column, and the spot turns to cracked tarmac with no smoke.

Throwing at the car park hole — From a few metres back, drop the grenade into the base of the car park hole's smoke column. Shown at 67:49 in MKIceAndFire’s video. Image: The Coalition

The final hole is beside the iron fence at the car park’s edge. Wretches are climbing out as your grenade enters, and the dust blast and flying rubble kill any caught in the explosion.

Finish off the Drones and Wretches already out on the ground. Once the area is clear, the objective updates and a checkpoint saves. Dead Drones here drop a Hammerburst worth picking up.

Use the same tactic in later encounters. At Fairlight Outpost in Act 3, Chapter 1 Stranded, pits appear along the helipad road during the “Clear the landing zone” step. From behind a concrete block, aim and throw a Frag Grenade at the hole by the chain-link fence; a grey dust burst follows.

Holes that collapse on their own

Grenades aren’t necessary for every hole: some collapse once all the creatures that emerged have been killed. The game’s first hole behaves this way. It appears outside the Café & Bakery in Act 1, Chapter 1 Emergence.

Street hole outside the bakery — The street hole outside the Café & Bakery opens before you have any grenades, so clearing the Wretches is the whole job. Shown at 22:05 in MKIceAndFire’s video. Image: The Coalition

A hole appears in the street as Marcus carries only the Gnasher, and Wretches emerge from it. Since grenades aren’t available this early, you must kill every enemy that comes out. The hole then collapses in a burst of dust when the final Wretch falls; no grenade is used.

If you have no grenades, kill everything that comes out; the Act 1 street hole closes that way. Kill everything that climbs out and the hole can close on its own.

Mistakes that get you hurt

Approach the hole’s edge and Wretches can leap at you from arm’s length.
Taking on the Drones first lets the hole continue sending enemies into the fight.
Throwing a fire grenade at a hole and assuming it is sealed when the smoke is still rising.

You can replenish Frag Grenades from ground pickups near these encounters or, from Act 2 onward, in the equipment slot of a Supply Cache. These fights never list hole-closing as a separate objective, so use the red smoke to spot a pit and keep an explosive ready for the next one.