Destiny 2 Champions: Full Guide
Table of Contents
At one point in Destiny 2, Guardians encounter a new type of enemy called Champions. Destiny 2 developers, for a long time, contemplated a challenge for Guardians that would make them strategically choose builds and weapons for activities rather than relying on personal preferences. Thus, Champs were introduced, challenging even the game’s directors and making it especially tough for newcomers to battle them.
We are often asked about how to kill Champions and what is needed for this. That’s why we decided to create a guide to assist you in understanding how to stun Champions in Destiny 2, how to combat these opponents, and what might be helpful against them. Get comfortable, and let’s get started!
Champion Types
Destiny 2 has three different types of Champions (Champs), each with unique attacks. They can be stunned, preventing them from moving and using their abilities. Let’s take a closer look at every individual type.
Barrier Champions
- Enemy race types: Cabal Colossus, Vex Hobgoblin, Hive Knight and Fallen Servitor
In Destiny 2, Barrier Champions are very unique opponents. When a certain amount of HP is depleted, Barrier Champion creates a bubble shield that can’t be broken with regular weapons, and they start to regenerate health up to 100%. You have to destroy their shield to stun them.
Overload Champions
- Enemy race types: Taken Champion Destiny Hobgoblin, Vex Minotaur, Scorn Chieftain and Fallen Captain
Overload Champion constantly regenerates its health. To stop the HP regen, you need to make them vulnerable. After some time post-stun, the Overload will start restoring health again unless they have a Disruption debuff, which can be applied using Overload Perks from the Artifact (we’ll discuss this later). We suggest applying this debuff whenever possible or finishing them off immediately. Moreover, in Destiny 2, Overload weapons are beneficial and quickly deal with them, so you should get them, but we talk about them in more detail in another segment.
Unstoppable Champions
- Enemy race types: Cabal Incendior, Taken Phalanx, Hive Ogre and Scorn Abomination
Unstoppable Champion is extremely aggressive and has a 70% Damage Resistance (DR). Stun them to remove the DR. Once the Unstoppable enemies recover, they regain their Damage Resistance. We suggest not attacking while their DR is active, as it’ll only result in wasting a lot of ammo with no real impact.
Abilities
After Lightfall’s release, Bungie decided to make Subclass Verbs even more potent, allowing some to stun Destiny Champions. We’ll examine them individually in detail, discussing how to stun Unstoppable Champions and others.
Arc
Following its revamp, the Arc Subclass became quite strong in PvE. While using it, you can spam abilities, equip powerful Supers, and, of course, utilize Jolt. When you deal damage to a target with this debuff, a chain of lightning will release, damaging everyone around the enemy. Jolt is still considered the strongest among all Subclasses, perfect in single-target damage and Ad-clear. After Lightfall, it became even more potent, now capable of stunning Overload Champions Destiny 2. If you want to avoid playing Arc, weapons with Voltshot (like IKELOS_SMG_V1.0.3) are an ideal choice for you.
Arc Verbs has more to offer than just Jolt. There is also Blind, which is not as strong on its own. Bungie added the capability to stun Unstoppable Enemies to make it more effective. However, this hasn’t made it a popular choice.
Solar
Next up is Solar, which also has its tricks up the sleeve. Everyone knows that Radiant is an excellent buff, improving your weapons’ damage by a whopping 25%! Additionally, all of your guns receive Anti-Barrier Rounds when you have that buff, so this subclass could be your answer on how to stun Barrier Champions. It’s also worth noting the benefits of the Well of Radiance, which grants you the same bonus as long as you remain within its confines.
We all love explosions, especially Solar Ignition, but it’s not always valuable for Endgame content. Apparently, Bungie realized this and, after some consideration, gave this effect an advantage against Unstoppable Champs. You shouldn’t have problems acquiring Ignition, as the game now has many ways to apply Scorch to enemies, like Solar abilities and some Exotics.
Void
Void has always been considered ideal not only for beginners but also for veterans in Endgame. Despite this, this Subclass has issues with Anti-Champion abilities. The only options are Volatile Rounds and Suppression, which will help you against Barrier and Overload Enemies, respectively. So what’s the issue? Both these abilities are not very accessible, so you’ll hardly be able to stun Champs using these effects consistently. Take, for example, Volatile Rounds — you’ll have only one Fragment and Exotic for Hunter, not to mention that it only works on Void Weapons.
Stasis
With Stasis, the situation is quite the opposite because all its Verbs are pretty accessible. Let us immediately remind you of how Slow and Freeze work, as they play a crucial role here. Upon reaching 100x Slow Stacks, the enemy gets frozen and can be shattered, dealing additional damage both to the enemy itself and those around it. You can also Shutter Stasis Crystals, which will also damage enemies within a small radius.
First, we’ll start with Slow because, with it, you’ll know how to stun Overload Champions. As soon as the Overload Champ gets this debuff, you immediately stun it. The Shutter, which can be performed using Freeze and Crystals, in addition to dealing good damage, stuns the Unstoppable ones.
If you’re not particularly fond of Stasis but want to deal with these types of enemies effectively, you can use either certain Stasis Exotics (more on them later) or Weapons with Chill Clip (Slow and Freeze) or Headstone (Crystals) Perks.
Strand
Of course, we cannot forget the latest Subclass — Strand. Everyone knows how powerful Suspend is, and there are reasons for it. Not only does it immobilize the enemy entirely for a few seconds, but it also stuns Unstoppable Champions, removing their Damage Resistance. However, this Verb can also be considered an excellent tool against Barrier Champs because, during immobilization, they cannot deploy their shield.
The situation with Unravel Rounds is quite disappointing. Yes, it can easily be obtained using Thread of Propagation, and it destroys the Shield of Barrier Champs, but that’s where its advantages end. This buff has no other sources and provides Anti-Barrier only to Strand Weapons. Ironically, Suspend handles this task better than Unravel Rounds.
Exotics
The considerable portions of Exotics have intrinsic Anti Champion capabilities and interactions with Subclass Verbs, making them perfect against specific enemies. We have prepared a list of all Weapons and Armor competent in making Champs vulnerable. Exotics that perform their task exceptionally well will be highlighted in bold.
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)
- Tractor Cannon, Collective Obligation and Wavesplitter (Suppression)
- Two-Tailed Fox (Suppression and Jolt)
- Ager’s Scepter, Wicked Implement and Winterbite (Slow)
- Destiny 2 Unstoppable Weapons:
- Malfeasance, Leviathan’s Breath, Bastion, Devil’s Ruin
- One Thousand Voices, Polaris Lance, Skyburner’s Oath, Tommy’s Matchbook, Prometheus Lens (Ignition)
- Cryosthesia 77K, Verglas Curve, Salvation’s Grip, Wicked Implement and Winterbite (Shatter)
- Conditional Finality (Ignition and Shatter)
- Centrifuse, Touch of Malice, Ex Diris, The Queenbreaker and Grand Overture (Blind)
Armor
- Barrier:
- Second Chance
- Rain of Fire (Radiant)
- Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk (Volatile Rounds)
- Overload:
- Lucky Raspberry and Secant Filaments
- Point-Contact Cannon Brace and ACD/0 Feedback Fence (Jolt)
- Icefall Mantle, Hoarfrost-Z and Chromatic Fire (Slow)
- Unstoppable:
- Athrys Embrace
- Chromatic Fire, Vesper of Radius, Raiju’s Harness and Mothkeeper’s Wraps (Blind)
- Hoarfrost-Z and Cadmus Ridge Lancecap (Shatter)
- Caliban’s Hand, Dawn Chorus, Pyrogale Gauntlets (Ignition)
Seasonal Artifact Mods
The easiest way to get a counter against Champions is through an Artifact, specifically some Champion mods from it. You’ll mainly find them in the first column, but sometimes they can appear in others. Each Mod gives a specific type of Weapon one of the three Anti-Champion properties, for example, the Destiny 2 Anti Barrier mod. You can determine which one you need based on its name and icon:
Be warned that they will not work with Exotic Weapons that already have an integrated Anti-Champion Perk. For example, if you activate Piercing Bowstring, it will not work on Le Monarque. It’s also essential to know that certain mods have activation conditions. Some Overload requires continuous damage over some time, and for some Unstoppable ones, you need to Aiming-Down-Sights without shooting for one second.
Final Words
Now you understand Champions better than even the game’s creators and can defeat them without any problems. With the mentioned abilities and Barrier, Overload, and Unstoppable Exotics in Destiny 2, they will not have a single chance to survive the meeting with you. Remember everything we told you about these enemies. Weapons are not the only thing that can help you in defeating them, so we recommend preparing yourself with the Destiny 2 mods guide, where you’ll learn how your Guardian could be even more powerful on Master difficulty or even on Grandmaster.
Thanks for Reading! Owl is Flying Away.
Comments
THANK you for this. I’ve been playing D2 since 2019, took a break after Season of the Lost and just came back a month ago (when this article was written, actually—but didn’t see the article till now).
There are a *lot* of “How to Beat Champions” guides on the Web, so you’d think it’d be easy to learn how to beat them. And they all do help in a general sense, but *this* article is the *only* one I’ve read so far that is well written (has an intro, body and summary), uses actual English language instead of D2 jargon (for the total newbs) and explains the mechanics of champions in a detailed yet concise way.
I just wanted to say thank you very much, and that I hope you keep writing! <3 =) o7