Destiny 2 Champions: How To Defeat Barrier, Overload, And Unstoppable Champions

Some of Destiny 2’s best PvE content can be found in high-level Lost Sectors, Master Raids, and Nightfall Strikes that offer a more challenging experience. Within these activities you’re also likely to run into Champions, tough opponents who can easily wipe you out if you bring the wrong gear to a fight. Barrier, Overload, and Unstoppable Champions can be found in Destiny 2, and each one is a unique adversary that can melt through your defenses before you have a chance to realize that you’re horribly outgunned.

Champions aren’t invincible though, and once you know what to equip your Guardian with, they can be decisively dealt with. Here’s how you can turn the tables on some of the deadliest foes in Destiny 2.

What to equip

Defeating Champions requires either specific Exotic weapons or special armor mods, which change every season. These can be acquired from the seasonal artifact, and you’ll need to level up this item to unlock the Champion-killing mods in the first column.

Each mod is designed to combat the special abilities of a specific Champion with a certain weapon type, such as auto rifles for Barrier Champions in Season of Plunder. Once you have these mods equipped on your arms armor, your weapons will automatically load anti-Champion rounds that can stop these enemies in their tracks. For example, anti-barrier rounds will pierce a Barrier Champion’s shields and anti-Overload rounds will prevent these cunning foes from teleporting around you constantly.

Once you’ve done enough damage, Champions will be left in a brief stun-lock state and you can start focusing on cutting them down to size.

How to defeat Unstoppable Champions

The juggernauts of Destiny 2, Unstoppable Champions can soak up a ridiculous amount of damage, won’t flinch when you throw everything that you have at them, and will chase you to the ends of a map. You can expect the beefiest enemy-types in Destiny 2 to designated as a durable Unstoppable Champion, including the Cabal Incendior, Hive Ogre, Scorn Abomination, and Taken Phalanx. To stop them, you’ll need to equip a seasonal Unstoppable Champion stagger mod, which stuns these enemies and lowers their damage output.

The weapons that can take advantage of these mods will change every season, but there are a few Exotic weapons that have intrinsic anti-Unstoppable capabilities built into them:

• Bastion — Fusion rifle
• Devil’s Ruin — Sidearm
• Leviathan’s Breath — Bow
• Malfeasance — Hand cannon

For season 19, you’ll be able to use shotguns and pulse rifles to eliminate these champions:

• Anti-Unstoppable Shotguns — Arms mod
• Anti-Unstoppable Pulse Rifles — Arms mod

Additionally, Hunters can equip the Exotic gauntlets Athrys’s Embrace, which can grant stagger Unstoppable Champions with an empowered Weighted Knife.

How to defeat Overload Champions

Tenacious is one family-friendly word that can be used to describe Overload Champions, as these foes can be a nightmare to deal with if you’re ill-prepared for them. Constantly regenerating health, teleporting around the battlefield, and unleashing a volley of gunfire at any given time, Overload Champions are an agile menace. You’ll need to stagger them with the appropriate mod that’s unlocked on the seasonal artifact as you level up, and you can expect to run into several varieties of these Champions.

Expect heavy resistance from Fallen Captains, Scorn Chieftains, Taken Hobgoblins, and Vex Minotaurs who display highly aggressive behavior. To make the hunt easier, you can also equip these Exotic weapons which have anti-Overload Champion intrinsic perks:

• Divinity — Trace rifle
• Le Monarque — Heavy bow
• Thunderlord — Machine gun

Warlocks can equip the Exotic boots Secant Filaments, which will disrupt Overload Champions so long as you and your allies stand within an Empowering Rift.

Bows and machine guns are the weapons of choice for season 19 if you’re looking to stop Overload Champions in their tracks:

• Anti-Overload Bows — Arms mod
• Anti-Overload Machine Gun — Arms mod

How to defeat Barrier Champions

One of the more annoying enemies–especially if you’re facing a Servitor–Barrier Champions won’t waste any time in popping an almost-impenetrable shield once you knock their health bars down. The only way to get through that defense is with the proper seasonal mod, granting a specific weapon shield-piercing rounds. You’ll want to quickly swap to that anti-shield weapon as well because once a Barrier Champion activates its defense, it’ll start regenerating health. The anti-Champion mods only works on them once they activate their shield, and popping it will leave this enemy briefly stunned.

In addition to Servitors who have a nasty habit of constantly shielding their allies around them, you can also expect to run into a Cabal Colossus, Hive Knight, and Vex Hobgoblin who all bear the Barrier title. For Exotics, you can use these weapons which have built-in shield-piercing rounds:

• Arbalest — Linear fusion rifle
• Eriana’s Vow — Hand cannon
• The Lament — Sword
• Wish–Ender — Bow

Titans can equip the Exotic gauntlets Second Chance, which grants a second charge of the Shield Throw melee and adds a shield-piercing stun effect on Barrier Champions.

As for seasonal mods, you’ll be able to use mid and long-range weapons when dealing with these tough enemies:

• Anti-Barrier Scout Rifles — Arms mod
• Anti-Barrier Auto Rifles — Arms mod
• Anti-Barrier Sniper Rifle — Arms mod