Trials of Osiris represents the pinnacle of PvP when it comes to Destiny 2, and in the Lightfall expansion, it’s received a few tweaks to make it more accessible to the wider playerbase.
The removal of the Freelance playlist and the addition of Fireteam-based matchmaking has consolidated the player pool and made the matches within it far fairer for those participating. Legacy Focusing gives players a chance to pick up loot no longer available from the activity itself. On top of all of this, the Flawless pool remains in effect on every Trials of Osiris weekend to give more Guardians a chance at shooting for the Lighthouse and earning exclusive Adept loot.
Trials can be a daunting prospect for the majority of players, especially the more casually-inclined audiences far more accustomed to a PvE environment. But Trials of Osiris also holds within it some of the most lucrative loot in the game—such as the new Strand submachine gun The Immortal—that can singlehandedly define metas across Destiny 2.
The Flawless pool exists to try and incentivize these otherwise casual players to dip their toes into the mode and gun for some loot of their own. Knowing how it works, the times that it’s active and the benefits that it can bestow upon you are crucial to getting the most out of Trials of Osiris, especially if you’re a player new to the tournament-style experience.
How does the Flawless pool work in Destiny 2 Lightfall?
The Flawless pool is a system for dividing up matchmaking within Trials of Osiris in the second half of the weekend. When reset on Sunday hits, all players that have completed a Flawless Trials Passage and earned loot from a trip to the Lighthouse are moved into a matchmaking pool that contains only other players who have also gone Flawless that weekend.
What this system allows for is a much less daunting experience within the mode for its more casual playerbase. Without having to face off against opponents who have already gone Flawless—no doubt representing the upper echelons of PvP ability—round and match wins become much easier to obtain. As both round and match wins accumulate to increase the number of rewards and reputation you’re earning each Trials match, it’s important for even the more relaxed grinders to get those small wins on the board.
It also gives players of above-average skill the opportunity to go Flawless where they would otherwise fail to do so against those tougher opponents. This makes Adept loot much more obtainable than it would be otherwise, better matching the availability of Adept weapons on offer in Grandmaster Nightfalls and Master raids. But it’s important to remember that once you’ve gone Flawless yourself, you will also be subsequently added to the Flawless pool too.
A recent post by Bungie suggested it’s experimenting with new matchmaking paradigms that would allow the devs to remove the Flawless pool entirely, but as of Lightfall and season 20, it remains in the game. A Trials Labs is planned for sometime later in the season to test out this new paradigm, and the successes or failures of it will no doubt influence the Flawless pool’s future for Destiny 2.
