Last week, Bungie gave Destiny players their first look at The Reef social space launching with the House of Wolves DLC. During the tour, Bungie community manager Deej shared tons of details about new vendors, new experiences, and even revealed the new Destiny weapon upgrade path.

However, while The Reef tour did show off the new Trials of Osiris vendor, Brother Vance, Bungie saved the full reveal of that multiplayer experience for another day. That day is today.

As part of their second livestream, Bungie took players through the Trials of Osiris, as seen through a series of Crucible matches. The developer explained what is different for Trials, how gear will work, and how matches are structured, and by and large it sounds intriguing.

For Trials of Osiris, Bungie is introducing a new Crucible mode called ‘Elimination’. In Elimination, players will compete in pre-made teams of 3 (no matchmaking/flying solo) against an opposing team. Matches will be composed of a series of rounds wherein the team that eliminates all opponents gains a point. The first to five points wins.

However, unlike most Crucible modes in Destiny, Elimination has no respawning. Players can only revive teammates, but only after a five-second timer has elapsed. This way, players will favor teamwork and sticking together over all else, lest they fail.

And make no mistake, failure is a big thing in Trials of Osiris because three losses vanquish a player’s passage. Passages are like score cards that keep track of a player’s consecutive wins.

Those wins are important because each Trials of Osiris win will unlock better gear in Brother Vance’s selection. So, for example, one win on a score card/passage might be good for a class item, while 7 will give players the opportunity to purchase an armor piece or a weapon.

Wins will come at a premium, though, as Trials of Osiris promises to be the hardest Crucible experience yet. Since players can only enter the multiplayer mode with two companions (again, no matchmaking for teammates), Bungie wants to ensure Destiny players develop strategies as they go. To that point, they promise that each week of Trials will feature only one Crucible map, from the time it starts on Fridays (10am PDT) all the way until it ends during the weekly reset (2am PDT).

Destiny Trials of Osiris Brother Vance

Although players cannot use matchmaking for teammates, Bungie assures them that opponents will be carefully considered. More specifically, Bungie wants to ensure that the opposing team has an Internet connection equal to or better than your own. In other words, Bungie wants to minimize lag.

The Trials of Osiris livestream was fairly comprehensive, seemingly answering any all questions players might have about the new Destiny mode. However, here are a few other things we learned:

  • There will be Trials of Osiris-specific consumables - like an item that removes a loss from the score card or makes the first win count as two.
  • Each round has a two-minute timer. If a team hasn't won by then, a capture point appears on the map and the first team to capture it wins.
  • You can win Trials of Osiris gear just from competing in the mode.
  • Quitting a match still counts as a loss.
  • After each match you will enter back into matchmaking.
  • Attach and defense power and gear matter just like in Iron Banner.

Overall, the look at Trials of Osiris was likely enough to convince Destiny players that the Crucible mode is worth a shot. However, the high barrier to entry and skill level may not make it ideal for more casual multiplayer fans. Since there’s no new raid, Bungie wanted to give level 32 players (and above) something more challenging to explore. Not to mention, the Trials of Osiris loot is among the coolest designed stuff we’ve seen.

What do you think of the Trials of Osiris? Does it sound like something you would try?

Destiny – House of Wolves releases May 19, 2015 for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.