Trials of Osiris looks like it will soon be coming back in Season 10 of Destiny 2, seemingly starting to be unlocked by players participating in the Empyrean Foundation event that began at this week's reset. Many longtime players have been hoping for Trials of Osiris to return and make its debut in the sequel, and that looks like that is going to soon be a reality.

But why is Trials of Osiris so popular among veteran fans of Destiny 2 and the original Destiny? The Trials of Osiris was very much the pinnacle PvP competition in Destiny 1, and the weekly PvP event often drew attention back to Destiny even during content droughts. But with an injection of new players to the franchise thanks to the free-to-play Destiny 2: New Light, there are bound to be newcomers who have never really known the story behind Trials of Osiris.

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Trials of Osiris' Debut

Trials of Osiris first launched as part of the House of Wolves DLC for Destiny 1. It introduced an entirely new game mode to the game, a 3v3 Elimination mode that was a multi-round, first-to-five-wins match with no automatic respawns and instead required players to revive their fallen teammates. Level advantages were enabled, which meant players wanted to be at level cap to deal the most damage and take the least possible. Matchmaking was not allowed in Trials of Osiris with the mode requiring pre-made fireteams.

Trials of Osiris occurred every weekend from the daily reset on Fridays and ran until the weekly reset on Tuesdays. Trials of Osiris would take place on one map per week. That map would rotate week to week but each weekend meant players were battling on the same map again and again to win.

The ultimate goal was to go Flawless by winning nine games in a row and not losing at all (or letting the Mercy of Osiris boon erase a loss) in order to access The Lighthouse, a special social space that could only be accessed by going Flawless. In The Lighthouse, players would go to a chest that would give top-tier loot. But players could also earn gear without going Flawless; reaching five wins awarded a pre-determined Trials armor piece for the week and reaching seven wins gave a Trials weapon.

Wins and losses were counted on a Trials Passage, a scorecard that was required to enter the playlist. Players bought the Passage in the Reef from Brother Vance (who is now the Mercury vendor in Destiny 2) for 500 Glimmer. In addition, players could purchase boons that would make their journey easier using Passage Coins, which were earned from playing Trials of Osiris. The Boon of Osiris counted the next win as two wins, the Favor of Osiris would automatically add one win to the scorecard, and the Mercy of Osiris would erase a loss from the scorecard.

Trials of Osiris Goes on Hiatus

From time to time, Trials of Osiris would go on hiatus. One of the most notable times was before The Taken King expansion. When it returned, it changed things up a bit, most notably changing the matchmaking system to match teams with the same wins together to make the journey to the Lighthouse even harder. It seemed to work too, considering that after Trials of Osiris returned to the game with these changes, only 16% of teams were able to go Flawless.

A Community Event

Trials of Osiris gained notoriety in the Destiny community as a major draw each weekend to either play or watch others play. Extremely-skilled players would attempt to carry less-skilled players to Flawless, players would try to take on the game mode solo, others came up with challenges like playing Trials of Osiris with their parents, and even a touching story about popular streamer Dr. Lupo who took a fellow player with terminal cancer to the Lighthouse before he passed.

Trials of Osiris served as a kind of lightning rod for the community to rally around each weekend. Even players who couldn't go Flawless were often drawn to streams to watch others tackle the challenges of the mode.

Trials of the Nine

Instead of bringing Trials of Osiris into Destiny 2, Bungie created a new weekly PvP event called Trials of the Nine that was very different from what players had been experiencing with Trials of Osiris. Most notably, Trials of the Nine ditched the Elimination game mode and alternated week-to-week with Destiny 2's new 4v4 competitive modes Countdown and Survival. It kept the characteristic of staying on one map per week. It also locked loadouts, which meant players had to pick their loadouts before going into the mode and could not swap in the middle of a game.

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The Lighthouse was not the ultimate destination, but instead, a new location called The Spire that tied in narratively with the mysterious group known as The Nine. The Spire was far less exclusive, as anyone with just one win could load into The Spire and turn in Trials of the Nine tokens in exchange for gear. But players who were able to go Flawless with seven wins would grant themselves full access to The Spire and its rewards. In addition to being able to purchase gear with just one win, three wins would give a Trials weapon, five wins gave an armor piece, and seven wins let players choose one piece of gear out of three possible choices.

destiny 2 trials of the nine social space

Ultimately, players did not engage with Trials of the Nine as much as Bungie had hoped. Franchise director Luke Smith gave perspective on Trials of the Nine in the summer of 2019 as part of his Director's Cut blogs saying that Bungie had seen the popularity of Trials of Osiris declining in Destiny 1, so the developer wanted to create a new mode in Destiny 2 that would engage players and feel like a sequel to Trials of Osiris. Unfortunately, players gravitated even less to Trials of the Nine and Bungie eventually pulled it out of the game completely.

In those same blogs Smith said that Trials of the Nine was on hiatus indefinitely, but hinted that while Trials of the Nine would likely never see the light of day again, the original Trials of Osiris mode may still have hope of returning.

Trials of Osiris Returns in Destiny 2

While it has not been officially confirmed, leaks and datamining has shown that Trials of Osiris is indeed returning in Season 10 of Destiny 2. Last season, Bungie tested multiple variations of Elimination in the Crucible Labs playlist and then made Elimination a permanent playlist this season. Now it appears that Empyrean Foundation will usher in Trials of Osiris. It is currently unknown how Trials of Osiris may vary from its past iterations, but it is definitely an exciting time for longtime fans who have been waiting for the popular mode to return. Season 10, called Season of the Worthy, begins March 10.

Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.

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