Destiny 2 Trials of the Nine

Trials of the Nine is the new version of Trial of Osiris for Destiny 2, Trials of Osiris was originally on the first game Destiny. If you have played Trials of Osiris then this is pretty much the same gameplay but with a twist. Trials of the Nine is a PvP Crucible match in which you basically have to try and win nine rounds (with no losses) in order to go Flawless. When you have won nine rounds you get to go to a special area and get given powerful loot form what I have heard. If you have three losses then your Passage Card gets whipped with all of your wins and you have to start from scratch (brutal I know!!).

If you want to try and play Trials of the Nine you have to do these requirements first:
• Be 260 Light Level or more
• Complete Destiny 2 Campaign
• Completed the Call to Arms Crucible Milestone

Since I have already have completed all the requirements I was able to participate in the Trials. I neglected to mention that you need a Fireteam of four (including myself) to do this. I think the main issue I find with Destiny is that it’s a great game to play if you have friends in the real world who are able to play it with you. I have friends that I could play with but they are all at different stages in the game, not online at the same time as me or they are doing something else e.g. Raid. Thankfully for me I had made friends online from the previous game that were willing to do it with me.

The one thing I didn’t realise when Trials came out was there was a new area called The Third Spire and which you can explore when you win your first match in Trials. I had a look around the area and all I could see was this huge vast amount of space with a spire. I’ve heard from various online friends that you can get inside the spire presumably when you have gone Flawless but some players have found a glitch to get inside it anyway.

The closer you get to the spire you start to see The Emissary of the Nine where you can trade in Tokens of the Nine. You get these by winning a match in Trials or completing the challenges (pretty similar to Crucible currently and Trials of Osiris but you don’t collect the quests from The Emissary). It’s better to save as much Tokens before visiting her because when you increase your reputation you get a legendary drop with the more Tokens you have. It’s also a good idea to join a clan because I believe if someone in your clan goes Flawless you get an engram drop. I like the challenges because if you don’t win you still have a chance of getting tokens from the challenges and potentially go up a Light level.

Playing Trials was fun and absolutely infuriating because I personally felt Trials was heavily dominated with players with 290+ Light. At the point I was doing Trials I was a 265 Warlock who was desperately trying to get higher Light levels to do the Raid (although recommended Light is 270 for the Raid, players wanted 280+ Light Guardians). The game play for the first week was detonating the charges was actually good fun because you still had a chance of winning even though you have all been killed. Most of the time you didn’t win because it was heavily dominated by 290+ Light but it was still fun trying (this week it was elimination with certain amount of revives which I got destroyed with 271 Light). The maps changed each week which gave some variation except it became predictable because you knew where the other team were coming from and you still most of the time died.

At the beginning of the match your equipment is locked so you can’t change any equipped items in the current match. It also lets you get to view all players in the match with a cool intro. In the intro it listed all of the Guardians weapons, element and showed off their equipped emote. The Emotes I’ve seen have made me laughing like the Salty Emote although it gave me a sinking feeling when you saw your opponent’s team. They all had funny ones but it wasn’t until I saw their Light (yet again all players 290+ with an occasion player being 280).

The First Map I played on Trials ↑

My only chance I had to get higher Light after doing all the reset challenges was Trials of the Nine that was only available for the weekend. I like that Bungie have introduced Trials to be available from Friday till Monday because before when (in the first game Destiny) it was just random and you felt rushed to get everything done before it disappeared. I have searched the PS4 community for help but with the current light level I was on and some of the others in team (around 270 and 280 Light) I felt no one really wanted to help us.

It was only when I read on the community there was someone taking people Flawless that instantly messaged asking for help. To my horror they wanted me to pay the player(s) to take me Flawless – so I enquired a bit more about the price (for interest/curiosity only). They quoted $60 but if I did it thorough the player it would be $50. I was shocked to think that there are players in the PS4 Community who are trading in a free Community to get players to do Flawless. I understand if you can make easy money; you are just going to do it. I think it takes away the satisfaction of doing Trials with your own skills and abilities. It also takes that gratifying feeling that you get when you finish helping a player and that is what the true spirit of the community should be.

To me, I would describe it as cheating but I can understand why players do it at the same time. I even considered it myself due to being stuck on 265 Light with no way of levelling up because I couldn’t do the Raid and was pretty much cannon fodder to the players in Trials.

I spoke to my brother about it and he described it in the best possible way:

“It’s like paying a group of prestigious players in Call of Duty to protect you and take hits for you so you can up your Kill to Death Ratio.”

This sealed it for me I refused to pay someone because I want the satisfaction of going Flawless down to my own skill and my awesome team.

Overall I enjoy Trials but I find it impossible to play because the majority of the players I am matched against are 290 Light+. I am not having a rant about anyone who is higher than 290+ Light I’m more having a gripe about Destiny’s matching system. Although they say the light isn’t relevant in the matches because they do like an equaliser so you’re almost all the same light. I think the weapons haven’t been affected therefore they are not equal in power. The maps are consistent through the weekend which makes it predictable which doesn’t make it any easier to win. Since not being participating in Trials I have gone up in Light quite a bit which is pretty awesome because I have been doing Nightfall, Exotic Missions and the rest challenges. I am currently a 280 Light Warlock and I am considering to try Trials again since I drastic gone up in Light.

I am willing to help any Guardian in need of help with Trials or anything on the game (sorry I can only help on PS4). I will ask for no money – NOTHING at all!! I want to help my fellow Guardians because I feel great when I’ve helped someone and the joy I can hear/imagine when we did something that they have been struggling on makes me happy.

My PS4 name is Okami-Ammy_ feel free to add me and I will accept all who do 😄

*Since writing this article I'm currently 292 ad I still haven't gone Flawless