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

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 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 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 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.