Destiny 2 guide: How to defeat Barrier, Unstoppable, and Overload champions (2024)

In Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, there are three new types of enemies: Barrier Champions, Unstoppable Champions, and Overload Champions. You’ll find them scattered around the world or in the Nightfall: The Ordeal.

To kill these guys, you’ll need a special kind of weapon or a special kind of mod. It requires very specific preparation on the part of you and your Fireteam.

Here’s how to get the mods and weapons you need to defeat these difficult champions.

Barrier Champions

Destiny 2 guide: How to defeat Barrier, Unstoppable, and Overload champions (1) Bungie via Polygon

Barrier Champions function like any other enemy in Destiny 2 — you shoot them, and they take normal amounts of damage. But when a Barrier Champion reaches about half health, it will stop and spawn a shield around itself.

You cannot break this barrier with conventional weapons, and it will continually heal the enemy inside. To pierce the shield, you need Shield-Piercing weapons. Without a weapon with this ability, you cannot kill a Barrier Champion.

There are weapon mods like Anti-Barrier Rounds and Anti-Barrier Hand Cannon that allow some guns to Shield-Pierce — you can get them from your Artifact. The new Eriana’s Vow Exotic is inherently a Shield-Piercing weapon.

Overload Champions

Destiny 2 guide: How to defeat Barrier, Unstoppable, and Overload champions (2) Bungie via Polygon

Overload Champions are extremely aggressive. Their whole shtick is they track you down, deal large amounts of damage, and refuse to relent until you kill them.

You’ll need weapons or abilities that can Disrupt to handle these. When you Disrupt an Overload Champion, it will shut down for a moment, opening itself up to attack. Keep Disrupting them until they’re dead.

You can Disrupt enemies with a number of mods from your Artifact. Disrupt mods usually go on fast firing weapons like auto rifles — like Overload Rounds. You’ll need to hold down the trigger for a while before the mod activates. You can also empower Void grenades to Disrupt enemies with Overload Grenades.

Unstoppable Champions

Destiny 2 guide: How to defeat Barrier, Unstoppable, and Overload champions (3) Bungie via Polygon

Unstoppable Champions have tons of health and take very little damage from your weapons.

To stop these enemies, you’ll need a weapon that can Stagger the enemy. You can get mods from your Artifact that Stagger after you aim down sight for a brief moment — like Unstoppable Hand Cannon. You can also apply a mod called Unstoppable Melee to make your Arc melee abilities Stagger enemies.

Destiny 2 guide: How to defeat Barrier, Unstoppable, and Overload champions (2024)

FAQs

What's good against barrier champions? ›

Weapons Against Champs
  • Anti-Barrier Weapons Destiny 2: Arbalest, Wishender, Revision Zero, Eriana's Bow, Lament.
  • Overload: Divinity, Le Monarque, Thunderlord. D.A.R.C.I and Delicate Tomb (Jolt) ...
  • Destiny 2 Unstoppable Weapons: Malfeasance, Leviathan's Breath, Bastion, Devil's Ruin.
Nov 1, 2023

What works against Unstoppable Champions? ›

The best weapon you can use against Unstoppable Champions is arguably the Malfeasance Hand Cannon.

What exotic is strong against Unstoppable Champions? ›

Exotic Weapons With Stagger for Unstoppable Champions
  • Bastion (Exotic Fusion Rifle)
  • Devil's Ruin (Exotic Sidearm)
  • Leviathan's Breath (Exotic Combat Bow)
  • Malfeasance (Exotic Hand Cannon)
Mar 8, 2023

What kills overload champions? ›

Elemental verbs like Jolt, Suppression, and Slow will all stun overload champs. In addition, you have weapons like Divinity, Le Monarque, and Thunderlord all come with Overload rounds by default. That's not even going into the seasonal artifact.

What weapons work on barrier champions? ›

Destiny 2 Anti-Barrier Exotics in Season 23
WeaponTypeIn loot pool?
Wish-EnderCombat BowYes
ArbalestLinear Fusion RifleYes
Revision ZeroPulse RifleYes
The LamentSwordYes
Jan 31, 2024

Where to farm Unstoppable Champions? ›

Run some Nightfalls. Or do some Legendary Lost Sectors. The nightfall is set for the week, it either has them or not and you can tell by looking at the line of modifiers on the screen before launching one. The lost sector rotates daily, and unstoppables will turn up soon enough.

Do armor piercing rounds stun barrier champions? ›

That being said, perks like armor piercing rounds or adaptive munitions do effect shield damage to barrier champions. Sweet Business's armor piercing rounds ordinarily can't effect champion shields, but once the mod is applied to give it that functionality it will do increased damage due to AP rounds.

Why can't I stun Unstoppable Champions? ›

There is an internal cooldown between stuns on champions. You can't chain stun Unstoppable or Overloads. Also, if the "stun" is applied while they are in some sort of uninterruptible animation, they won't actually get stunned, but the cooldown will still apply.

Does arbalest work on Unstoppable Champions? ›

Strong against [Stagger] Unstoppable Champions. They gave arbalest a built in anti-barrier mod, so any other anti-champion mod will not work on it, only the anti-barrier. Arbalest is a linear fusion, not a fusion.

How to stun barrier enemies? ›

Since Pulse Rifles are one of the barrier metas for the seasonal artifact this season, I've gotten it down to:
  1. use the seasonal artifact anti barrier pulse mod.
  2. get any pulse rifle.
  3. aim at the barrier champion.
  4. pull the trigger 10 times.
  5. force a reload.
  6. repeat steps 4 then 5 over and over until target is dead.
Mar 25, 2023

Do volatile rounds pierce barrier champions? ›

Volatile Rounds (Void Keyword): While you have volatile rounds, your Void weapons now also pierce Barrier Champion shields and stuns them.

Does chill clip stun Unstoppable Champions? ›

Unstoppable champions can be slowed by being frozen and then shattered with stasis. Hit an enemy twice with a Chill Clip Riptide and then shatter it, and bam, you are stunning unstoppable champions too.

Are overload champions overpowered? ›

Overload champions are overpowered with the difficulty increase. With the new difficult increase making enemies tankier and hit harder, overload champions have become ridiculously hard to deal with.

Where to farm overload champions in Destiny 2? ›

Best Places to find Overload Champions:
  • Legend Lost Sectors are the best source of Overload Champions. Source: Shacknews.
  • Nightfalls often have a decent supply of Overload Champions. ...
  • One Overload Champion spawns in The Summoning Pits below the Hellmouth, the same area you fight Phogoth in the Strike of the same name.
Feb 26, 2024

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Rueben Jacobs

Last Updated:

Views: 6028

Rating: 4.7 / 5 (77 voted)

Reviews: 92% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Rueben Jacobs

Birthday: 1999-03-14

Address: 951 Caterina Walk, Schambergerside, CA 67667-0896

Phone: +6881806848632

Job: Internal Education Planner

Hobby: Candle making, Cabaret, Poi, Gambling, Rock climbing, Wood carving, Computer programming

Introduction: My name is Rueben Jacobs, I am a cooperative, beautiful, kind, comfortable, glamorous, open, magnificent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.