Shortly after the long-lost Destiny 2 guardian Saint-14 turned up in the tower, players noticed something very amusing: He'd take notice of anyone who approached him while wearing his helmet, a Titan exotic that was added in the Curse of Osiris expansion. He doesn't seem to mind sharing, though—in fact, he suggests using it to prank Zavala, the stoic, famously humorless command of the Vanguard.

It's a clever line and a cute interaction (although you can't actually go confuse Zavala, which is a shame), but it almost didn't come to be. As Destiny 2 technical dialog desinger Kareem Shuman explained on Twitter (via Polygon), narrative designer Nikko Stevens first came up with the line, after which it was recorded, imported, and processed. But because of required reworks, it was marked to be cut, which is where Shuman got involved.

"Quietly I decided to try extra hard to make it work, since I thought it was such a cool idea," he explained. "I was having lunch with my friends and I brought it up, asking if anyone could help. @btwoodrow [senior designer Brenton Woodrow] volunteered and knew exactly what I needed in order to make the new dialogue filter that checks 'Does the player currently have the Helm of Saint-14 equipped'. At this point all design work on Season 9 had to be tracked via bugs, so I wrote a bug for him, and he sent it back resolved in under an hour! What a hero!"

That wasn't the end of it, though. Further tuning was required to ensure the line popped when it was supposed to, rather than ending up buried under a pile of other random dialog. 

"It was the last day of audio mix and we were all trying to put the final polish on things. My friend on audio test found me in the afternoon to say he'd approached Saint-14 with the helmet on and IT HAD WORKED," Shuman wrote.

To hear the line yourself, put on the Helm of Saint-14 and then go pay him a visit. You can find him hanging around in the hangar, behind an ornate rug hinting at the return of Trials.

With its seasonal model for rolling out content, Bungie has been getting gradually more adept at springing cool surprises that maintain player interest. Not that everyone likes the drip-feed approach, but I'm glad to say my crippling addiction has remained nicely engaged. Following the weekly reset on Tuesday, we were able to save Saint-14, a legendary Titan thought lost to the Vex, by going back and manipulating the timeline. 

That kind of retconning can often feel ridiculous, but for lore aficionados (ie., me) seeing Saint in action was great fun, particularly as the voice actor gave it such gusto. But then he was gone. We were told Saint needed a little time to get his head together after spending thousands of years trapped in time fighting robots bent on extinguishing all life in the universe.

Turns out he only needed a small rest, because now he's back again. After today's daily reset a pop-up message announced that Saint could be found in the hangar, where he has three new quest lines waiting for us. I'll get to those in a moment though, because more interesting—especially for the hardcore PvP community—is the rug in front of Saint's new lodgings (see below).

That Egyptian eye is the logo previously used for the Trials of Osiris mode. In Destiny 1, Trials was a 3v3 elimination mode that saw players competing to make it to 'The Lighthouse', an exclusive destination on Mercury which could only be reached by racking up seven wins. Three losses and your team was out and needed to pick up a new Trials card in order to try again. With unique (and very cool) Egyptian-themed armour and weapons on offer for those skilled enough to make it, Trials fast became the stomping ground for elite PvP players to show off their prowess. The fact the mode was only available on weekends also gave it an exclusive feel. As a result, Trials proved popular as a spectator sport on Twitch, too.

In Destiny 2, Trial of Osiris was remodeled as Trials of the Nine, with easier to earn rewards, but it never had quite the same cachet. Combined with the fact that Destiny 2's early PvP was terrible thanks to the double-primary weapon system leading to players travelling around butt-to-nut in order to get team shots, interest in the mode dropped off hard, eventually leading to Bungie putting the whole shebang on indefinite hiatus back in August of 2018. 

A year later, game director Luke Smith had this to say in his Director's Cut post: "Trials of the Nine wasn’t the hero we wanted it to be. We made too many changes to a formula that—while it had begun to decline in Destiny 1—wasn’t as flawed as we thought. When we were making Destiny 2, we talked a lot about making sure it felt like a sequel, bringing in new players, and simplifying the game—and Trials of the Nine created another casualty there." At the time Smith reiterated that Trials of the Nine was on indefinite hiatus, but his use of italics heavily hinted that Trials of Osiris might not be.

More recently, there have been clear signs that Trials' exile was drawing to a close. Last season, Bungie began testing out various forms of elimination mode in its Crucible Labs system. A little over a week ago, multiple players also began noticing a bug that appeared to show what looked like a placeholder Trials card in the current build of the game. As to when we'll actually get an announcement of Trials' return, your guess is as good as mine. Bungie likes a slow burn build up, and with the holidays imminent I wouldn't expect anything for a while, possibly not until next season starts in March. 

Could Saint even be the new Trials vendor, rather than Osiris? It's possible. For now the quests he has for us involve building some sort of beacon to rally humanity to the tower. Here are the three missions he gave me:

A Guardian's Duty: Complete 8 Bounties (Crucible, Gambit, or Vanguard).

Cornerstone:  Gather 10 components from Fallen, Vex, and Cabal.

Tribute to the Colonies: Defeat 100 enemies on Titan.

No doubt that won't be the end of any of these quests, and I foresee quite a bit of busywork in my future building whatever monument Saint has in mind. Which is exactly as I like it. I'm slightly less hyped about Trials largely because I'm appalling at PvP, but for those who've been desperately hoping for its return, I am happy that your are happy. Now please stop shoulder-charging me in the face.

What are the best Destiny 2 mods to suit your playstyle? After years of playing Destiny 2 many of us have amassed a strong collection of armour, it’s about time I dived deep into the mods scene. 

Following the Destiny 2 armor 2.0 update that landed with Shadowkeep in 2019, mods got an overhaul and stats-based Guardian protection returned in a big way. This guide covers everything, from where to get Destiny 2 armor mods, how they work, and the armour sets with which they work. 

How do mods work?

Mods offer bonuses such as reload speed increases, better stats, boons against specific enemies. Then there are season-specific mods that can change how your grenades operate or add an extra overshield to your character, for example. Mods also have an energy cost from one to six, which is based on their power and application. 

Mods also have energy types and will only work in specific types of armour. This means your chosen armour must match the energy type of the mod you’d like to use. Then it must have enough energy to power the mod. Regardless of armour type, all legendaries have three mod slots: one universal slot and two armour-specific mods (Arms, Legs, Helmet, Chest, and Class Item).

Then there are specific armour sets with a fourth seasonal or activity-based slot, like the Dreambane armour set that has slot for an Undying Armor mod.

What are the best Destiny 2 mods?

There’s no straight answer to this: every season a significant number rotate, some of which are crucial in completing endgame activities. Some are activity specific, too, like the advanced relay defender mods that work exceptionally well for boss damage in the Garden of Salvation, but little else. 

It all comes down to the class you’re playing, the weapons you're using, and your build. In other words, it’s better to pick up all the mods you can instead of pursuing specific ones. Also make sure that no matter what you choose, it complements your style of play and equipment.

All Destiny 2 mods by slot

Now that I've covered the basics of mods, the table below will tell you how to get them all, how much they cost, and where to slot 'em.

Many of my favourite moments in Destiny 2 have come whilst shooting the shit with friends. But there are also times when, as Greta Garbo noted, you just want to grind alone. Maybe you’re sick of dealing with random blueberry players who still won’t pass the ball in The Corrupted strike. Or perhaps you’re dealing with the weird instancing glitch in the EDZ which is stopping some people from being able to interact with the Obelisk. Happily, a solution to playing Destiny 2 solo is at hand. It was shared with me by one of my in-game pals, and comes in the form of a script which blocks network ports to stop you matching with other players.

Before we get into detail, a couple of caveats. 1) I haven’t waded through Bungie’s Terms of Service, but it’s fair to assume the developer could choose to see this as a form of network manipulation, so use it at your own risk. The reason I’m sharing is that I think that because you’re only altering your own play experience, and not impacting anyone else, there’s a good chance it’ll be viewed as benign. 2) I don’t know who originally created the script, but if you do please let me know in the comments (with sourcing) and I’ll credit correctly.

There are several good reasons to want to play solo. Many bounties require racking up a certain number of kills with a specific weapon type, so being alone in an area with the correct kind of enemies means you don’t have to worry about having your kills stolen. Plus it can be fun to challenge yourself by doing strikes alone and at your own pace. Here’s how you activate solo mode.

Step 1: Paste the bolded text below into a notepad file and then save it as destiny2-solo.ps1

if (!([Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal][Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole] "Administrator")) { Start-Process powershell.exe "-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File `"$PSCommandPath`"" -Verb RunAs; exit }

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Destiny2-Solo-1" -Direction Outbound -LocalPort 1935,3097,3478-3480 -Protocol TCP -Action Block

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Destiny2-Solo-2" -Direction Outbound -LocalPort 1935,3097,3478-3480 -Protocol UDP -Action Block

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Destiny2-Solo-3" -Direction Inbound -LocalPort 1935,3097,3478-3480 -Protocol TCP -Action Block

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Destiny2-Solo-4" -Direction Inbound -LocalPort 1935,3097,3478-3480 -Protocol UDP -Action Block

Write-Host "Destiny 2 Solo mode activated.  Press Enter to deactivate solo mode."

Read-Host

Remove-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Destiny2-Solo-1" 

Remove-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Destiny2-Solo-2" 

Remove-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Destiny2-Solo-3" 

Remove-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Destiny2-Solo-4"

Step 2: Make sure you’re in orbit, right click on the destiny2-solo.ps1 file and then select ‘Run with PowerShell’.

Step 3: Launch your chosen activity as normal. It may take a little longer to start as the game will attempt matchmaking, fail to find anyone, and then start the activity.

Step 4: In order to resume normal play, simply tab back to the PowerShell window and hit return, which will deactivate solo mode. 

I’ve been using this method to knock out some of the Polarized Fractaline bounties and to enable me to interact with the EDZ Obelisk (which seems to bug out if there are too many players in the instance). It’s also eerie to wander around the Tower with just the vendors and you there. Time to rob Eververse while there are no witnesses.

The holiday season has officially kicked off in Bungie's shared-world shooter MMO, and that means you have some Destiny 2 Dawning recipes to bake. Not only do you have some exclusive seasonal rewards to grind for, you can get baking without any of the mess or washing up. Lovely.

Speaking of rewards, you can earn the legendary Cold Front SMG by handing in your first gift to Zavala, and the new seasonal Sparrow, Alpine Dash. The latter requires you to craft Destiny 2 Fractal Rolls, a new Dawning 2019 recipe, along with Dark Chocolate Motes, plus bake 50 treats. Once you've unlocked the SMG, which is an aggressive frame archetype (ie the same as Huckleberry), you'll also be able to get random perk rolls on subsequent drops. We'll be hunting for the Feeding Frenzy/Kill Clip combo. 

There's plenty more rewards on offer from cooking up a storm and handing the gifts out to the game's NPCs, including valuable enhancement prisms and cores. So get ready to bake yourself silly. Here's how to make all the recipes, old and new:

Destiny 2 The Dawning recipes 2019

Below you'll find tall the Destiny 2 Dawning recipes and who should receive them. Each shows you the ingredients that must be cooked in Eva's Holiday Oven 2.0 to create the tasty treats, with some handy hints as to where you can get them all at the bottom of the page.

How to get Destiny 2 Dawning recipe ingredients

It's one thing knowing what items you need to get for your fantasy kitchen and tracking down each ingredient is quite another. Here's how to get all the ingredients mentioned above:

• Essence of Dawning: complete any in-game activity (Strikes, Crucible matches etc.)
• Pinch of Light: pick up Orbs of Light
• Vex Milk: Vex kills
• Ether Cane: Fallen kills
• Cabal Oil: Cabal kills
• Chitin Powder: Hive kills
• Taken Butter: Taken kills
• Dark Ether Cane: Scorn kills
• Delicious Explosions: explosive kills
• Sharp Flavor: sword kills
• Impossible Heat: solar kills
• Electric Flavor: arc kills
• Null Taste: void kills
• Personal Touch: melee kills
• Perfect Taste: precision kills
• Flash of Inspiration: generate Orbs of Light with Masterwork weapons or Supers
• Bullet Spray: automatic weapon kills
• Finishing Touch: finisher kills
• Multifaceted Flavors: multikills
• Balanced Flavors: bow, sniper, and scout rifle kills
• Superb Flavor: super kills

Destiny 2's annual festive event, The Dawning, has returned, and with it the important holiday tradition of spending money on ornaments for your funky sci-fi guns. This year, Eververse is fit to burst with ornaments, emotes and ships. Alongside the regular offerings is a long list of event items, and collectors will need to part with a hefty sum if they want them all.

Nearly 50 items have been squeezed into Eververse for the event, and some are bundles that contain yet more items. They're not all brand new, and a few of them are class-specific, but there's still a lot to buy. For the lot, you'd be looking at around 26,000 Silver. You can currently get 6,000 Silver for £39.99/$49.99, so for everything the bill would come to around £180/$220. 

While you'll need to spend Silver for most of the event stock, you can still do some shopping just with Bright Dust. The Northlight Hunter Bundle, for instance, costs 1,500 Silver or 6,000 Bright Dust, while the Baking Cookies emote will set you back 1,000/3,250.  Some are only available for Bright Dust, like the Dawning Bauble Shell and Subitko Mk. 9, a Ghost shell and vehicle that cost 400 and 600 Bright Dust respectively. 

The Winterview Shell might be my favourite thing in the shop at the moment, as it turns your Ghost into a cute snowglobe. The Polar Vortex Sparrow is pretty snazzy, too, letting you ride around on an a flying polar bear. I've kicked my Destiny 2 habit, though, so no frivolous spending for me this year. 

If you chat to Eva Levante, you can also start baking tasty treats and eventually earn yourself a new Sparrow. To give you a leg up, here's how to make Fractal Rolls and get closer to completing the quest. This, thankfully, you can do for free.