The Soul Trials game mode began as an experiment for the Brimstone Sands launch in 2022. The goal was to establish a new gameplay pillar that served solo players with focused, high intensity boss encounters. We wanted fights that felt intimate and deliberate, closer in spirit to Souls style duels than to traditional open world skirmishes.
Soul Trials also carried a secondary meaning internally. They were a mnemonic device for Solo Trials, which made their purpose clear across teams and stakeholders.
The Experiment
The first Solo Trial was The Necropolis of Sutekh, a mechanical proof of concept for a new solo encounter format. We harvested encounter and instancing capabilities from Expedition systems and adapted them into a singular, story driven MSQ beat in the Brimstone expansion.
The format landed. It landed well enough that Soul Trials became a foundation for a broader MSQ redesign. Necropolis of Sutekh became the catalyst for scaling the concept rapidly. That expansion ultimately produced a suite of solo boss fights that punctuated major story moments and defined a new expectation for MSQ pacing.
Establishing the Quality Bar
Two early pillars helped set the standard:
The Necropolis of Sutekh was the first and most foundational Soul Trial. The player is positioned atop a grand tomb set into a mountain, overlooking the Pyramid of Akhet. The encounter against Apophis established what the mode needed to feel like. A strong arena read, a clear solo pacing loop, and mechanics that showcased the creature’s identity. Sand summoning, burrowing, and pressure patterns that forced the player to stay engaged.
The Curse of Caer Dun became the premiere and most polished reference implementation. It was intentionally developed to set a quality standard for all subsequent Soul Trials. It defined the expectation for cinematic storytelling inside an encounter, not just around it. I worked very closely, and credit a lot of its success to Krishna Thiruvengadam.
Building a Pipeline for Scale
At this point Soul Trials shifted from an experiment into a repeatable production model. Each subsequent trial built on an established template, and our teams tightened the process. We prioritized onboarding, mentorship, and training so we could deliver more trials per season at lower cost, without sacrificing quality whether internal, sister teams, or 3rd party vendors.
Once we committed to Soul Trials as an MSQ pillar, we expanded the mode across the main story progression. The effort was substantial. It required consistent design patterns, clear documentation, and a production process that could scale across internal teams and vendors.
Timeline
Below is the timeline for shipped Soul Trials.
The contributions I made range from direct feature design, to cinematic integration, to oversight, review, and implementation support.
In 2022 we shipped the first two MSQ solo trials
- Necropolis of Sutekh
- The Curse of Caer Dun
In 2023 we trained our vendors to ship three brand-new MSQ solo trials for the Elysian Wilds expansion:
- Mahantaram’s Court
- The Petrified Throne
- The End of New Eden
In 2024 we shipped nine MSQ solo trials ever for Console, a combination of internal and vendor teams:
- Fall of the True Heir
- The Path of Thorns
- A Guardian’s Trial
- The Last Soulwarden
- Trespassing in the Motherwell
- Beyond the Gates
- The Tormented Prince
- A Mother’s Dream
- Tempest’s Mind
And in 2025, we shipped an additional eight solo trials for the Nighthaven expansion under our most aggressive schedule:
- Invasion of Varlaam
- The Wolf’s Den
- Feral Morgaine
- Lilith’s Dream
- Monastery Isle: Part I
- Monastery Isle: Part II
- Monastery Isle: Part III
- Monastery Isle: Part IV
Over the years, we also shipped four Seasonal Soul Trials in collaboration with a sister team:
- Legacy of the Sands
- Daichi Sato
- Eternal Frost
- The Hatchery
From Prototype to Feature
Over time, Soul Trials became a distinct game mode and a defining component of the MSQ. They were widely regarded as peak, pivotal content because they created clear punctuation points. They also let narrative, combat, and spectacle converge in a controlled solo space.
A major part of scaling the mode was documentation. I invested significant effort into building templates and guidance that enabled both internal teams and external vendors to produce Soul Trials reliably. That process expansion multiplied our output. We moved from roughly one major trial per year to delivering four or more per year.
The Result
26 single player experiences, all complete with a combination of unique features:
- collectibles such as Ancient Glyphs, Beast Signets, and Spyglass Vistas
- interactive storytelling that puts the player into the narrative through personalized moments
- bespoke gameplay and new mechanics that go beyond hack-and-slash
- cinematic cutscenes including their integration, artistic direction, and playspace continuity
- in-game cutscenes directly scripted and authored so the player can witness the plot while still maintaining control
- the most important stories ranging from the death of major characters, metaphysical and mental challenges to showcasing fantastic creatures like Lovecraftian horrors and Greek gods
They were fully integrated into the quest system, the server hub, and the narrative through constant collaboration, direct integration, and scripted events. And then converted to a repeatable, endgame daily activity for solo players to compete with other group-based player styles.
Soul Trials started as an attempt to serve solo players better. They ended up reshaping the MSQ structure and establishing a new standard for how story beats could be delivered through gameplay. They spawned a distinct, new style of game mode and directly impacted how the main story was told.