‘Destiny’ Iron Banner And Trials Of Osiris Changes, Return Detailed By Bungie

Destiny players have tested themselves in the new Strikes, Raid, Crucible, and other activities with the release of The Taken King over two weeks ago. PlayStation and Xbox owners will be able to add the Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris to the list of activities changing for Year Two. Bungie provided details Thursday on when both will return and what is new with them.

Iron Banner will be the first special Crucible activity to makes its Destiny Year Two debut on Tuesday, October 13. The event typically starts at the beginning / end of every month. We’ll have to keep an eye on if Bungie sticks with this new schedule.

Trials of Osiris will quickly follow the Iron Banner by kicking off its first Year Two event on Friday, October 16. Both events will conclude when the Weekly Reset arrives on Tuesday, October 20.

Lord Saladin, Brother Vance, and their designers make an appearance in the Weekly Update. https://t.co/dWBGw8axDu pic.twitter.com/07k1oecAUY

— Bungie (@Bungie) October 1, 2015

There’s the promise of new gear for both. The image at the top of this article shows some of the new Iron Banner gear that is coming including a Hunter helmet covered in a wolf’s head and a Titan helmet that looks like a piece of medieval armor.

The new Light Level system introduced with Destiny: The Taken King will provide perhaps the biggest impact to Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris. The power curve has been adjusted, but Bungie is not ready to share the details on that yet. Instead, the developer shared some of the quality of life changes that are being made to both.

Iron Banner is the older of the two Crucible events and is perhaps receiving the most welcome changes. The Tempered Buff is now automatic instead of requiring a purchase while Lord Saladin’s inventory of weapons and armor for sale stand a chance to drop at the end of matches. New bounties are also being added, including all new weekly bounties that will reward Legendary Marks. Speaking of which, those marks will now be required to purchase gear from Lord Saladin instead of Glimmer.

The goal of achieving nine wins in Trials of Osiris just got a little more difficult. Instead of matching fireteams based on just the best connection quality, Bungie will now try to match teams that have the same number of wins. That means facing high-skill opponents after gaining that eighth win. Additionally, players that want to continue playing past nine wins may do so, but they won’t receive additional rewards.

Destiny players will no longer have to visit Brother Vance to get their rewards. Instead, they’ll be end of match rewards that improve with quality as more wins are earned.

You can check out the full details on the Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris changes below. See anything you are looking forward to or don’t care for? Sound off in the comments below.

Iron Banner Changes

• The tempered buff is now automatically applied and continues to grow in effectiveness each day of the event.

• The alt catch-up buff and Iron Medallion mechanics are unchanged.

• Potential match completion rewards now include both weapons and armor, matching the same items available from Lord Saladin during each event.

• Drop rates have been increased and are intended to be the primary source of rewards from Iron Banner. If you don’t get what you’re hoping for, you have the option to visit Lord Saladin instead.

• Gear purchased from Lord Saladin now requires Legendary Marks instead of Glimmer.

• New emblems have been added to his inventory.

• All new bounties including nine Daily bounties (three per day) and three new Weekly bounties which reward Legendary Marks.

• Recommended minimum Light for Iron Banner: 230.

• Only Level 40 Guardians can lead a Fireteam.

Trials of Osiris Changes

• Trials gear will now drop exclusively as end-of-match rewards for winning teams.
  • The more you win, the better those drops will be!
  • There’s no need to return to Brother Vance, all rewards come directly to you.

• Passage Coins still drop for the losing team. Trials is still about winning, but Coins can help make that easier.

• Trials Passages now have a Details page containing your active buffs. You won’t be able to add buffs once you’ve started your Trial, so make sure you buy them first!

• Players that go undefeated on their Passage will continue to be invited to The Lighthouse.

• Players may continue to play in the Trials past nine wins (but they won’t get any better gear).

• Brother Vance now has Trials Bounties available each weekend to provide players with a way to get sweet Trials gear, even if they’re not reaching the Lighthouse.

• Regular Crucible Bounties are also still valid in Trials.

• We will attempt to match up teams with similar win counts.
  • If you have one win, we will try to match you with another team with only one win.
  • If you have eight wins, you will be matched with another eight-game winner.

• If we can’t find a high-quality match, we will loosen the win requirements first (in other words, we will not prioritize “wins” over low-latency matches).

• Overtime timer in Elimination will now show 0:00 instead of stopping at 0:01 when time expires.

• Teammate and enemy Revives now have distinct audio cues.

• Recommended minimum Light for Trials of Osiris: 290.

• Only Guardians with at least 251 Light can lead a Fireteam.

[Images via Bungie]