Destiny 2: New Trials of Osiris Changes Explained

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Human Made

Penned by Kody Wirth

Kody is our expert Destiny 2 and shooter genre writer. He lives in Oregon.

Reviewed by Ashley Johnson

Destiny 2 has long ignored PVP. It’s been a while since we’ve seen new maps and game modes, and high-level play like Iron Banner is just repetitive. However, with The Witch Queen expansion next year, Bungie has laid out a roadmap for how they plan to beef up PvP — and it all starts with Trials of Osiris.

That’s right, Trials of Osiris launched with a full revamp in September 2021. This top-tier PvP mode is now more rewarding, more interesting, and genuinely more fun to play than ever before. Here’s everything you need to know about the new Trials of Osiris.

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What is Trials of Osiris?

Trials of Osiris is Destiny 2’s highest-tier PvP content, and it’s only available on the weekends. Teams of three duke it out in an elimination-style game mode where every player only has one life and can only be revived by a fellow teammate. To win a round, you need to take out the entire enemy team. If a match is tied, a neutral point will emerge that allows you to win by claiming it.

Win five rounds, and you’ll emerge the winner of a single match of Trials of Osiris. The match is also timed and the maps will rotate every single week to shake things up. Your Power Level carries into this mode (minus your seasonal artifact), making this a true test of skill.

How Does Trials of Osiris Work?

On the surface, Trials of Osiris likely seems like your standard deathmatch PvP content. However, it’s the rewards system that has always made it unique. To participate, you must claim a Trials Passage Card from Saint-14 that tracks your wins and provides a benefit like one loss being forgiven or an additional win after winning two rounds.

This is all meant to help you go flawless, which is a holdover from the original Trials of Osiris from the vanilla Destiny. This system requires you to win seven games in a row to visit the Lighthouse and claim some Adept weapons. You can actually claim as many Trials Passages as you want in a given weekend to try to go flawless multiple times.

When Does Trials of Osiris Start?

Trials of Osiris officially made its comeback on September 10, 2021. It will regularly return every weekend, starting on Fridays at 10 AM PST and running until the weekly reset the following Tuesday. The only time it will not be available is during the weekend of Raid reveals or when Iron Banner is active.

What’s Changed? New Trials of Osiris Explained

This new Trials of Osiris rework is no joke and brings with it a fully revamped experience. Sure, the breakneck 3v3 gameplay is still there, but it’s a lot more rewarding. Here’s everything that has changed so far in Trials of Osiris.

Expansion Requirement for Security

Trials is now wrapped into premium Destiny 2 content. That means that you’ll need to own the latest expansion, which is currently Beyond Light, in order to participate. Once The Witch Queen expansion arrives, that will be what you’ll need to play.

This change is all about security and to help Bungie mitigate the creation of nerf accounts. The premium requirement comes in tandem with the introduction of Battleye anti-cheat software. In short, Trials of Osiris should be filled with more legitimate players and fewer issues.

Losing Is No Longer the End

One of the most frustrating aspects of the original Trials of Osiris is that you had to go flawless in order to gain any rewards. If you lost three times, your run would be worthless and only give you a bit of XP for your trouble. Now, all of that has been overhauled, making Trials arguably the most loot-heavy experience in Destiny 2.

Match Completion and Pinnacle Rewards

Now just completing matches provides you with rewards, similar to how Crucible operates. These won’t be top-tier items, but they are Trials-exclusive weapons that can help you fill out your collection. 

Additionally, there are specific activity rewards you can complete to earn Pinnacle gear, which includes:

• Winning seven matches in a given weekend.
• Winning fifty rounds in a given weekend.

Bounties and Vendor Reputation

Saint-14 has now been overhauled with his own reputation system and available bounties. These function exactly like Crucible, Gambit, and Vanguard bounties, where you can acquire four dailies that align with extra randomized bounties for a slightly larger cost. These will last throughout the weekend so there’s no need to worry about getting them done within twenty-four hours.

Saint’s Reputation System has its own set of rewards for reaching various levels. You’ll gain reputation as you complete matches based on the number of rounds you’ve won on your Trials Passage. You can stack up to twenty wins on a single Trials Passage, making it well worth completing your ticket and sticking with it.

Trials of Osiris Engrams

The other benefit of increasing your Trials Reputation is that you’ll earn Trials Engrams. You’ll earn a powerful Engram every three Tiers. These will decrypt into a random selection of Trials of Osiris Armor and Weapons (non-Adept). You can even focus Engrams with Saint-14 to snag variations of weapons you’ve already received, including Adept weapons.

Trials of Osiris Matchmaking

One factor that severely limited Trials of Osiris participation was the lack of matchmaking. It’s designed to be end-game level PvP content, so it wasn’t always easy to get two more players together to run matches for a few hours. Thankfully, that has been adjusted with the introduction of a card-based matchmaking system in this overhaul.

Basically, you’ll join up and compete against players that have the same number of wins as you and similar Trials performance in a given week. If that takes too long, the pool will widen gradually to make sure you can still play. And the best part is that the team at Bungie is continuing to look closely at matchmaking and already making tweaks.

In Week 2, they added in a Flawless Pool, which would pit more those that had filled out a card with continuous wins against each other. This was designed to help fledgling players avoid matching up multiple times against highly skilled teams. The actual results were a bit mixed, so going into Week 3, this will only be activated on Sunday to provide more time for players of all skill levels to compete.

Trials of Osiris Labs

In the spirit of continued iteration and testing, Bungie has also announced the introduction of Trials Labs. This separate playlist will serve as their proving ground throughout Season 15 to test targeted changes and even entirely new gamemodes. They’ve already announced that there will be:

• A capture/elimination hybrid mode — Randomized capture points spawn with an extended timer. The round can be won by capturing it or eliminating the opposing team.
• Trials freelance — A solos-only queue that helps single players have a better chance of competing.
• No intro quest — One weekend that opens up the gates without having to complete the Trials unlock quest.

Ruleset Changes

The last bit of news to go over is the slight ruleset changes that have been implemented. These adjustments should help prevent players from stalling (waiting on Supers) and reduce the chances of matches snowballing one way. Here’s how Trials matches have changed:

• Round time has been reduced from 120 seconds to 90 seconds.
• To prevent players from peeking around corners with the camera, emotes remain in first-person and players are forced to swap weapons when they run out of Sword ammo.
• Special and Heavy ammo do not carry over between rounds.

How to Unlock Trials of Osiris

If you’re wanting to jump into this new version of Trials of Osiris, there are some prerequisites for less seasoned players. Thankfully, the questline to unlock it has been simplified, but it can still take a while. Before we jump into the specifics, try to complete the quest during a Crucible Valor 3x boost week to speed up your progress.

Now, to unlock Trials of Osiris, you’ll need to complete the Trials Access Quest. You’ll need to visit Saint-14 to acquire it and will need to:

• Be at least Power Level 1260
• Earn 15 Valor ranks
• Defeat 50 opponents in Elimination

It’s really the Valor ranks that can slow down your progress, so be ready to grind and even practice with your Fireteam for when you’ll eventually unlock Trials.

Join the High Ground

Hopefully, you’re already well on your way to going flawless or at least claiming a ton of loot. So far, it seems like the Trials update is a success, and the team at Bungie deserves a round of applause for this relaunch. Be sure to share this article on your favorite social platforms to help your Fireteam prepare to crush the enemy team. For the latest on Destiny 2, sign up for our newsletter for regular updates. 

Happy gaming!