Trials of the Nine, one of Destiny 2’s most competitive activities and which only took place on weekends, isn’t going to return any time soon, as Bungie still trying to figure out how to make the mode work with the current state of Destiny 2.
On its blog, Bungie announced the mode still isn’t ready to return. “We still don’t have a timeline for when it may return, but we do want to give you an update on our current thinking about Trials,” the developer said.
Bungie feels the mode didn’t reach the highs of the the original Destiny’s Trials of Osiris, the original competitive mode for the series, especially when it come to rallying like-minded players to play at their best. Though the company has pushed many parts of Destiny 2 to be more like Destiny, this won’t be the case for Trials. “Both Destiny and the online PvP scene have evolved since 2015, so we don’t believe that bringing back the 2015 version of Trials of Osiris would accomplish what our goals are today.”
“Until we have a solid prototype for a pinnacle PvP endgame activity, Trials is staying on hiatus indefinitely and will not return over the course of the next few seasons,” Bungie said. “When we have those new plans ready, we’ll be sure to share them with you.”
I was never the biggest proponent of Trials (I’m not good enough at Crucible to really invest in it competitively), but I know there’s a large community of players who’d love to see its return. It feels like Crucible’s Competitive mode offers the chance for players to really test their mettle, and I have to imagine Bungie is looking for a way Trials can feel significantly different from that mode. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bungie ended up merging Trials’ gauntlet-style progression with Competitive’s current stock of modes as a solution.