I generally hate PVP games. When games support PVP but have an option to disable it, I usually will. I just have no interest in competing with people who measure their worth by their ability to “own noobs” in a video game. That said, I’ve begrudgingly played PVP in Destiny for several years now; typically just to earn special gear or complete seasonal objectives. I find PVE in Destiny far more satisfying since you don’t have to play the “meta” to get ahead. And as a solo player, it’s a chore finding a team and disheartening when I enter a PVP match against a full clan.
But Bungie has been improving things for solo players. Over the last year, they’ve added “Freelance” modes to several PVP modes (Crucible, Iron Banner, Gambit, and Trials) for solo players where everyone in the match is playing solo. I found I did far better in Iron Banner when solo queueing (maybe I’m not quite as bad as I thought?), making PVP a bit less of a nightmare.
How Trials of Osiris Works
Trials of Osiris is Destiny’s end-game PVP mode, where two teams of three compete over several short rounds (I think there’s a time limit of two minutes), with the first to five wins victorious. Trials is a little different from typical 6v6 PVP, but works a bit more like high-level PVE: when you die, you have to wait for an ally to revive you. A team wins by eliminating the other team, or by capturing a point after the time limit. To enter Trials, you need a “passage” ticket purchased from Saint-14 in the Tower that tracks your wins. If you win seven matches with no losses, it’s a “flawless” ticket and lets you access The Lighthouse, where you can redeem special rewards like “Adept” weapons with slightly better stats or special armor.
Within the past few seasons, Bungie introduced Freelance mode for Trials in a “Trials Labs” option that isn’t always available (unfortunately). This weekend was the first time it’s been available this season, and I’ve been wanting to give it a try (for a chance at some of that sweet Trials loot), so it seemed like it was about time. I headed to Saint-14 to purchase my ticket.
There are four types of passages: Passage of Mercy, which forgives one loss; Passage of Ferocity, which awards a bonus win after your third win; Passage of Wealth, which increases your rank points from reaching 3, 5, and 7 wins on a ticket; and Passage of Confidence, which requires a previous flawless win and grants a bonus reward from the flawless chest.
Dipping my toes
I purchased a Passage of Mercy as a feeble attempt to go flawless. I won my first match thanks to some far better players on my team, but lost my second match relatively quickly, spending my free loss on the ticket. I could have bought another ticket (resetting my progress), but just decided that next time I’ll use Ferocity to get a bonus win and finish the ticket faster.
The rest of my matches over the weekend were about 50/50. Sometimes there were players on the other team that were simply better at PVP, or played the meta better. After seven wins, my ticket was completed and I started getting better rewards after matches; typically just extra Trials engrams, which I opened for a random piece of Trials equipment. (Though I wasted several engrams early trying to get good rolls of one of the few weapons I had unlocked.)
I started off running a PVP build I had seen on YouTube build around the Lorely’s Splendor Titan helm and the Le Monarque bow. Loreley’s Splendor lets you spawn a sunspot when you cast your Barricade, and allows sunspots to heal you, making them a great defensive ability. The Titan’s bottom-tree Sunbreaker subclass gives you a buff called “Sun Warrior” while standing in a sunspot and for five seconds after. This buff gives a 20% damage increase, and a precision shot from Le Monarque against a player with no defensive buff will result in a kill (the headshot does a big chunk of damage, and lingering poison damage finishes them off). I was doing fairly well with the build, but got bored with it and started trying other things. Toward the end, I decided to run with a hand cannon to try to finish an objective, but I’m not very good with hand cannons and had only middling success.
Regardless, I actually found it… Fun? I think? It was great unlocking some new weapons that are actually really effective. No god rolls, but all Trials weapons have an origin trait called “Alacrity” which increases your reload speed, stability, aim assist, and range whenever you’re the last living member of your fireteam or running solo. That last bit surprised me – there’s some really great solo weapons locked behind an endgame team-based PVP mode, which seems odd.
Final Thoughts
I think the “Freelance” mode for Trials needs to stick around just to open it up to more of the Destiny community (all us solo players). I did some searching and found that there’s actually some debate as to whether or not it should be permanent (or exist at all).
The arguments against seemed to be limited to a minority of players that see it as only for “elite PVP players” and there’s no room for filthy solo players or casuals. (The people I mentioned above who measure their worth by their Trials score.)
The arguments for were far more numerous. People generally seem to like opening up the accessibility and letting more players access the content, along with making it easier to earn the special Trials gear. I also saw these players typically acknowledge the general issues with Trials, which mostly just boil down to too much focus on going flawless. A common complaint is around matchmaking, where a top 10% team may get matched against a bottom 20% team, which is far from fair, and a loss kills a chance at flawless. Removing the “flawless” quest would alleviate the problems around getting matched with a far superior team.
My biggest issue with most of Destiny has been the gating of rewards behind certain activities that are inaccessible to some players (typically solo players). I’m fine if the rewards are cosmetic to show off an achievement, but often those rewards are weapons or armor that are significantly better than what can be found elsewhere, which can give an edge to players who are able to engage that content more easily.
All that said, I’ll likely continue playing Freelance Trials whenever it’s available, and hopefully Bungie takes some notice of players like me and makes it a permanent option.