On Tuesday night, Destiny 2 players completed the Empyrean Foundation event by donating 9,777,777,000 Polarized Fractaline at the Tower Obelisk. It was unclear going into the event what the completion of the Empyrean Foundation would do, but plenty had their guesses. They were right.
Shortly after the Empyrean Foundation goal was reached, Bungie released a new Destiny 2 trailer to confirm that Trials of Osiris will return in Season 10 on March 13. The trailer offers some insight into the design of the mode in Destiny 2 while also confirming some of the rewards that will be returning.
Bungie sets the stage for Trials of Osiris' return with director Luke Smith explaining the importance the mode had to his group of friends. For Smith and many Destiny players, Trials was a weekly event that was challenging and rewarding. Bungie hopes to bring back that same idea with Trials of Osiris in Destiny 2.
While there weren't any concrete details about Trials of Osiris in the trailer, Smith did confirm on social media that the mode will feature connection-based and card-based matchmaking. So fireteams (of 3) that are on their “Lighthouse game” should be matched up together, assuming their connections are good. What this also implies is that skill-based matchmaking will not be active for Trials of Osiris in Destiny 2, which is a smart move for Bungie.
Power level advantages will also be active for Trials of Osiris, which is a more controversial decision. Since the Destiny 2 artifact can allow players to reach insane power levels, the balancing is going to be a lot harder for Trials of Osiris this time around. However, it seems like Bungie's answer to that concern is to balloon the damage and health pools in Trials of Osiris to larger numbers. For example, a weapon hits a target for 500 in the trailer instead of the usual 50.
Other confirmations include the return of the Year 1 Trials of Osiris armor and an ornament that gives it a glow should players go flawless and reach the Lighthouse. Three popular Destiny 1 maps – Cauldron, Anamoly, and Exodus Blue – will also return for Trials of Osiris and potentially other PvP modes as well.
On paper, the return of Trials of Osiris sounds like as close to the original thing as Destiny could deliver. But with the game's move to PC there have been concerns about game balancing and anti-cheat that Bungie has yet to address. We know a lot of PvE weapons are getting nerfed, but there are still a lot of questions regarding how Bungie plans to make Trials of Osiris feel fair when so much of PvP feels cheap right now. Expect the devs to have a lot to say about those topics in the coming weeks.
Destiny 2: Season of the Worthy starts March 13, 2020 for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.