Trials of the Nine Guide

This guide details the basic tactics and skills that players must employ if they are to stand a chance at winning a Trials of the Nine match.

For information on the Trials of the Nine format itself, see its own page.

Basic Skills

In order to win a match, players must rely on five basic skills. They are the criteria that make for a good (or a bad) team.

The basic skills are the following:

• Mechanical Skill: This encompasses the personal abilities of each player when aiming, moving around the map, or using class abilities. Good spatial awareness and knowing your controller by heart usually result in high mechanical skill.
• Teamfights: This is the ability of players to fight together with their teammates and know how and when to engage an enemy.
• Communication: In Trials of the Nine, communication is key. Effective communication can be the difference between a win and a loss.
• Objective Play: It is essential that all players on a team are familiar with the objectives of the mode. In most PvP Modes, killing your opponents is not enough and winning a match is determined by objective completion instead.
• Pre-fight Strategy: Strategy, especially in Countdown matches is extremely important. Knowing how to position your team, what lanes to cover, and why to do it will give you a great advantage over players with a weaker (or non-existent) strategy.

Positioning and Peeking

When covering a lane, players must make sure that they have a solid position. Good positions are usually behind corners that you can use as cover where the enemy cannot flank you without exposing themselves. If there is a good line of sight towards your position, with suitable cover nearby, then this is not good positioning.

When you find a suitable position, prepare to peek your enemies and take the shot. When peeking, you will usually have a chance to take one or two shots at most. Also, the enemy will probably be at mid or long range. Therefore, you want to use a Pulse, Scout, Sniper, or Fusion Rifle with high damage per shot. Even if you do not kill an enemy with a single shot, you will weaken them severely, so your teammates can finish the job.

In peeking fights, players must make sure to know their limits. If you are not a very experienced player, make sure to take a shot and immediately return to cover. This will maximize your chances of survival and winning the encounter. However, if you are sure that you will win the battle if you stay in the danger zone for a bit longer, do so.

A good position can be improved further with skillful use of your class abilities. Hunters can roll in and out of cover faster than the other classes, while also reloading a little faster. This allows them to stay in firing position for a bit longer than their enemies. Titans can use their Barricade to protect from flanking and rushing enemies. Warlocks can use their healing and overshield abilities to force an enemy back into cover and wait in the firing lane for them to peek, just to take the first shot.

Duels

Duels are the type of fights that little to no cover and are usually won by the players with better mechanical skill. Such fights usually happen in areas where no one can hide or retreat, therefore there is always a winner.

Duels are usually fought with weapons that do a lot of damage at close range, such as SMGs, Auto Rifles, Pulse Rifles, Hand Cannons, Shotguns, and Fusion Rifles. These are the weapons types that can win you a duel without extra help from teammates and without using class abilities. Due to the nature of this type of fight, in most cases, it would be unwise to rely on extra help.

Countdown Tips

When it comes to Countdown, Pre-fight Strategy is king. Killing enemy players is of no importance if you are unable to stop the opposing team from completing their objective.

The most important objective is to stop the enemy from advancing, either if they want to plant the bomb, or because you have done it yourself and you are now on defense. Take every opportunity to damage the opposing team and make sure they cannot advance towards the bomb sites without getting punished.

Ideally, you will also effectively communicate with your teammates, so you can focus your fire on one target at a time, ensuring their demise.

When you are on the other end, advancing towards the bomb sites, the best-case scenario would be when you get a kill without losing your teammates. When that happens, start a slow advance towards the enemy positions. If you play as a team, you will be able to use your advantage in numbers to take out the remaining foes and complete your objective.

Using and Dealing With Power Ammo

Power Ammo can be a gamechanger in Countdown matches. It is best used to punish a bad position or a mistake your enemies have allowed. However, against skilled players, you wouldn't find much use for Power Ammo in other than 1v1 or 2v2 fights.

When dealing with an encounter that involves three or all four of your enemies and they have Power Ammo at their disposal, make sure you minimize the time you stay in the open. Ideally, you want to have suitable cover at all times and deny them the chance to take you down with a well-placed Power shot.

Survival Tips

In Survival matches, you want to make sure that you plan ahead and take good positions for covering high-traffic areas. Ideally, you will have three players covering the most popular lanes and one player switching between less-popular lanes and guarding the team against flanking enemies.

Each Survival round will come with a 3-minute timer. If teams have equal lives remaining at the end of it, Overtime will kick in and a capture point will spawn. The first team to capture the point wins the round, so make sure you plan ahead for that. Set up your positions near the end of the round in such a way that you will be close to the capture point if it spawns.