In October last year, we said we knew Trials needed love, and we committed to doing that in early 2021. It’s early 2021 now. We’re making some changes to Trials, and I’m excited to share the details.

We set ourselves two goals:

1. Make Trials more accessible without compromising on challenge
2. Make Trials more fair and varied in how they challenge you

We’re delivering three features in the next two patches (1.5.6 and 1.6.0) to achieve that — Normalised Power, Per-Weapon Solo Leaderboards, and Trials Goals.

Tuning Overhaul (1.5.6)

“But that wasn’t on the list!” — indeed. This isn’t a feature per se, but it is important. We’re thoroughly re-tuning Trials across the board — Behemoths, modifiers, stagger thresholds, you name it — to make fights more fair, more balanced, and longer. And we will keep tuning in future patches.

Yes, longer — the shorter a fight is, the more that random factors can influence the outcome, and that isn’t fair. A longer fight also has more margin for error, giving Slayers opportunities to learn and improve. The most skilled players will still be clearing Trials in only a couple of minutes, but sub-five-minutes will be the new sub-three. This tuning will land in 1.5.6 along with...

Normalised Power (1.5.6)

We’re normalising your gear’s power and resistance in Trials in 1.5.6, so everyone undertaking a Trials run will have the same base power and resistance level no matter their gear level - specifically, 550. When we launched the reforge mechanic, we created a world where going back to content earlier in progression was more valuable than ever before. We also created a world where players were forced to choose between reforging their gear and keeping it max level to compete in Trials. That’s not a choice we want players to have to make. Your cell selection, element matchups, and Slayer’s Path unlocks will still impact your strength in a Trial, but you can reforge without worrying about your Trials results.

Per-Weapon Solo Leaderboards (1.6.0)

You’ve asked for this for a long time, and we listened. Even in an ideal world, where every weapon was perfectly balanced, each Trial would still have a “best for this encounter” weapon dominating the solo leaderboards. While mastery of multiple weapons is valuable, being forced to play a weapon you don’t enjoy sucks. From 1.6.0, in addition to global leaderboards, we’ll have per-weapon solo leaderboards, each of which will grant a weapon-specific reward title you can equip to show you truly are the best with your weapon of choice. Getting top 100 on any weapon’s leaderboard will grant you access to the Prestige Store, too.

Trials Goals (1.6.0)

Right now, the leaderboards only value speed, but speed is only one aspect of mastery — slaying fast is impressive, but slaying fast without getting downed is more impressive. So says Lady Luck, and it’s her leaderboard. To recognise that, we’re adding Trials Goals in 1.6.0.

Dauntless Trials will have three goals — one for winning, one for not getting downed, and one for a sub-five-minute time. Normal Trials will have five goals — the same three as Dauntless Trials, plus one for three staggers, and one for breaking four parts.

We’re also switching up how you earn marks to be based on goals completed rather than time. Your marks earned in Normals will still cap out at three goals completed, but this will make unlocking Trials cells and other gameplay mechanics less of a grind, and make the mode more accessible.

Your leaderboard placement will be determined by goals first, then time. A three-goal run will always beat a two-run regardless of time, and a fast two-goal run beats a slow two-goal run.

tl;dr

More accessible, more fair, more fun Trials are coming in the next two patches. We’re looking forward to hearing your feedback on it all.

FAQ

What about Tragic Echo?

Effects like Tragic Echo that proc “when you get downed” will not deny you the No Down goal. So long as your teammates can’t run over to revive you, you can hit that goal.

What tuning did you do specifically?

• Standardised all hunt modifier timers in Trials (for example, the Bomber mod will activate every 30 seconds exactly rather than between 25 and 35 seconds)
• Decreased Dauntless difficulty Trials from 700 power to 650
• Removed the Inferno modifier from all applicable Trials
• Trials Behemoths' health increased by 65%
• Trials Behemoths' health scaling per player increased by 30%
• Trials Behemoths' part health reduced by 20%
• Trials Behemoths' stagger health increased by 28%
• Trials Behemoths' stagger health scaling per player increased by 30%
• Trials Behemoths' wound health scaling per player increased by 25%

Why no per-weapon group leaderboards?

Groups can contain a mix of weapons, so there isn’t an obvious way to do per-weapon boards without requiring “all one weapon” groups — and that’s not a healthy meta.

Won’t this drastically change the top 100?

No. It may change the order a little, but all top 100 times are already fast enough for the five minute goal and most of them (especially the fastest) have nobody getting downed either.

Will my Slayer’s Path boosts from reforging apply?

Yes. We want players to be rewarded for their time and dedication.

Won’t having Slayer’s Path boosts make it unfair?

No. The bonus power you gain is valuable and will help Slayers achieve their own best results, but skill will always be the key to getting a top placement.

Are you going to do something about all the cheaters?

Yes. We’ve been more actively policing the leaderboards for the last few weeks and are upgrading some of our tooling to more effectively identify exploit abuse.

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