You’ve been there. It’s Sunday night. Your eyes are burning from staring at the distant glint of a sniper scope on Altar of Flame, and all you want—literally the only thing keeping you in this cursed playlist—is that one specific helmet. Not even for the stats. You just want the transmog. But the game keeps giving you the same SMG roll over and over.
Honestly, the Destiny 2 trials armor grind is one of those things that makes you love and hate the game in equal measure.
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Why the Twofold Crown Set Changed Everything
Bungie finally dropped the Twofold Crown armor set recently, and it’s a bit of a departure from the sleek, Egyptian-bird vibes we’ve had for years. It’s heavier. More "battle-worn." Some people in my clan hate the Warlock ponytail, while others think the Titan shoulders are the best thing since the original Exile set.
It’s weird, though. In the past, you basically had to be a PvP god to even sniff this gear. Now? You can literally lose every single match and still walk away with the full set if you’re patient enough. Saint-14 is way more generous with engrams than he used to be, provided you’ve got a passage active.
But here is the catch.
You can't just focus the armor immediately. I see people complaining about this on Reddit every weekend. "Why can't I buy the boots?" Well, you have to find them in the wild first. They won't show up in Saint’s focusing menu until they’ve actually dropped for you as a match reward or from a random engram decrypt.
The Flawless Glow: A Flex That Disappears
Let’s talk about the glows. If you see someone in the Tower looking like a literal neon sign, they’ve been to the Lighthouse recently.
It isn't permanent. That’s the part that catches new players off guard. You go Flawless, you get that gorgeous yellow glow, and you feel like a king. Then Tuesday hits. Then the next Tuesday hits. By the end of two weeks, if you haven't gone back to the Lighthouse, your armor looks like a burnt-out lightbulb.
- Yellow Glow: The standard "I did it" badge of honor.
- Blue/White Glow: You’ve got the Light for the Lost emblem equipped.
- Red Glow: You’re rocking the Flawless Empyrean emblem.
The colors used to be more distinct, but honestly, some of the newer shaders—looking at you, Sanguis—interact with the glows in ways that Bungie probably didn't intend. I've seen Warlocks with a weird pinkish-red hue that looks like a visual bug, but they're keeping it because it looks unique.
High Stats or Just for Show?
Is it actually worth wearing? Mostly, no.
Unless you get lucky with a 65+ roll, most players just turn the Destiny 2 trials armor into ornaments. The "Trial by Firing Squad" origin trait on weapons is great, but the armor doesn't have a set bonus that changes the game in PvE or PvP. It’s pure fashion.
If you are hunting for high stats, though, focusing at Saint-14 is technically an option once you’ve unlocked the pieces. It’s expensive. 1,500 Glimmer for a basic passage is nothing, but the engram cost for focusing specific pieces adds up fast when you're hunting for that perfect 30-discipline roll.
How to Actually Get the Full Set Without Losing Your Mind
If you aren't a 2.0 K/D player, stop trying to go Flawless on a Friday. Just stop.
The "Pools" system means that if you wait until Sunday or Monday, the absolute sweat-lords are usually separated into their own matchmaking bracket. This is the best time to farm. Buy a Passage of Wealth. It gives you increased reputation, which means more engrams, which means more chances at the armor pieces you're missing.
Don't delete your "bad" rolls until you've checked the transmog screen. I once dismantled a Titan mark thinking I’d just buy it back later, only to realize I hadn't actually "unlocked" it for focusing yet.
Actionable Next Steps for Your Grind:
- Check your Collections: Make sure you actually need the piece you're chasing; sometimes the "new" set looks remarkably similar to old ones in the thumbnail.
- Wait for Double Rep Weekends: Bungie usually runs at least two of these per season. This is the only time it’s actually "efficient" to farm for armor engrams.
- Use the Fireteam Finder: Don't go in solo if you can help it. Even a mediocre team with comms will win more often than three blueberries running in different directions, and wins mean more loot drops.
- Engram Hoarding: If you have the full set, save your engrams for the next season's refresh. Saint-14 carries them over, and you can sometimes skip the grind entirely when the next set launches.
The armor is meant to be a trophy. Even if you aren't the best at clicking heads, wearing that gear says you braved the most toxic playlist in the game and survived. That's worth a few lost matches.