Changes to how Champions work in Destiny 2: Lightfall

Destiny 2 Lightfall brings massive changes to how Champions work. The game has had an issue with these enemies for a while, with many in the community feeling that the Barrier/Overload/Unstoppable loop was getting a bit stale.

Champions can be tackled in a wider variety of ways now, thanks to a diversification of abilities.

Anti-champion perks

Until now, the primary way to deal with Champions was to equip anti-Champion mods as and when they were relevant. This is still a thing, but the way artefact mods work has completely changed.

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Where before you would have to swap out Champion mods in your armour based on what you needed, now artefact mods are, well, they are no longer mods. From Season of Defiance onward, the artefact no longer grants armor mods, and instead grants perks that do not need to be equipped.

To activate Anti-Barrier Pulse Rifle rounds, you simply need to unlock the perk on the seasonal artefact and it will apply to all Pulse Rifles from then on. Nothing else needs to be done, making life much simpler while also freeing up some much-needed mod slots.

Anti-champion weapons

The first steps toward democratizing the methods of countering Champions came last year when a handful of weapons were given intrinsic anti-Champion qualities. These weapons each got anti-Barrier, anti-overload, or anti-Unstoppable rounds built in.

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For Barrier Champions, the weapons you want to use are Revision Zero, Wish-Ender, Arbalest, Eriana's Vow, Collective Obligation, and The Lament. For Overload Champions, you want Tractor Canon, Delicate Tomb, Wavespliiter, Ager's Scepter, D.A.R.C.I., Le Monarque, Divinity, and Thunderlord.

To stop some Unstoppable Champions, the weapons you will need are Ager's Scepter, Cryostesia, Salvation's Grip, Skyburner's Oath, Jotunn, Grand Overture, Malfeasance, Devil's Ruin, and Leviathan's Breath.

Something to note is that not all of those weapons truly have intrinsic anti-Champion capabilities, but rather they can use other effects that, starting from Lightfall, now counter Champions due to changes in how elemental effects work.

Anti-champion abilities

This brings us to anti-Champion abilities. The 3.0 updates to Solar, Arc, and Void, brought them all in step with Stasis and they are now joined by Strand. Each subclass and its defining element now has several buffs, debuffs, and general status effects that interact with enemies in various ways.

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These status effects can now counter Champions, with each effect countering a particular kind of Champion. Here is a rundown of which effects counter which kind of Champion:

Many of these effects are caused by subclass abilities, but also by weapons, grenades, melee abilities, and even using certain exotics. There are many ways to utilize these effects against Champions in order to take them down, massively opening up the possibilities for how you approach them.

For more on the game, check out our rundown of all the new weapons in Destiny 2 Lightfall.