Perhaps the most annoying of the three types, Overload Champions are all over Destiny 2. These pesky enemies have found their way into everything from seasonal activities to raids, making the chances of spotting one in your journey relatively high.
Today, we’ll cover all there is to know regarding Overload Champions: what they are, where to find them, and most importantly, how to efficiently defeat them.
Updated as of Season of the Wish (S23).
What are Overload Champions
Champions are miniboss-like enemies that appear in a variety of PvE activities. Each of the three variants (Unstoppable, Barrier, and Overload) has a unique way of disrupting them, encouraging you to change your loadout and playstyle per activity.
Overload Champions, Destiny 2
Overload Champions naturally regenerate health, making mindlessly firing bullets at them an ineffective strategy. They also have a higher ability recharge rate compared to base enemies (typically resulting in frequent teleports or powerful attacks).
To deal with these enemies, you’ll need to stun them. Doing so is a simple process: just damage the Champion with any weapon or ability with anti-Overload capabilities attached to it. Once stunned, Overloads will stop in their tracks and no longer regenerate health. However, be aware that they will get back up after a couple of seconds, at which point they’ll begin recovering health if additional anti-Overload damage isn’t present.
All this said, what weapons and abilities can you use to stun Overload Champions? Let’s take a look, beginning with Exotics.
Destiny 2 Overload Exotics in Season 23
Some Exotics in Destiny 2 have intrinsic Champion-stunning capabilities. Here are all the Exotic weapons capable of stunning Overload Champions without the need for an external mod or buff:
| Art | Weapon | Type | Archetype | Rarity | Ammo? | Element? | Requirements | In loot pool? | Ammo | Element | Tier | Excels | Source | Craftable? | Requires | Released | Slot | Can be Crafted? | Best of? | Top Perk? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Divinity | Trace Rifle | Exotic | Exotic | Special | Arc | Shadowkeep | Yes |  Special |  Arc | Strong ❘ A | PvE | Exotic Quest |  No |  Shadowkeep | Season 8 | Energy | No | Top-tier | |
 | Le Monarque | Combat Bow | Exotic | Exotic | Primary | Void | Forsaken Pack | Yes |  Primary |  Void | Best ❘ S | PvE + PvP | Exotic Kiosk | No |  Forsaken Pack | Season 5 | Energy | No | Top-tier | |
 | Thunderlord | Machine Gun | Exotic | Exotic | Heavy | Arc | Forsaken Pack | Yes |  Heavy | Arc | Strong ❘ A | PvE + PvP | Exotic Engram | No | Forsaken Pack | Season 4 | Heavy | No | Top-tier |
A couple of important notes: first, know that these weapons cannot gain anti-Barrier or anti-Unstoppable capabilities from any source due to their intrinsic anti-Overload abilities. For instance, if the seasonal artifact offers an anti-Barrier Bow mod, Le Monarque will continue to only stun Overload Champions, regardless of the presence of the mod. Second, remember that the list above only covers Exotic weapons with Champion-stunning capabilities directly built into their perks. This means that Exotics that can stun Champions via elemental buffs and debuffs (like Supression) aren’t mentioned.
With that said, here is a list of Exotic armor that contains anti-Overload abilities:
| Armor | Class | Type | Requirements | Source | Released | Requires | Exotic Perk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Secant Filaments | Warlock | Legs | The Witch Queen | Lost Sectors | Season 16 |  The Witch Queen | Exotic Perk: "Casting an empowering rift will grant you Devour. Damage dealt by you and your allies from within your empowering rift will disrupt combatants." |
Anti-Overload Subclass Verbs
The process of stunning Champions isn’t exclusive to weapons and Exotics—some subclass verbs (Radiant, Suppression, Suspend, etc.) also have their place in this conversation. For clarification, by “verbs,” we mean the buffs and debuffs unique to each element in the game (Suppress, Freeze, Suspend, Radiant, etc.).
The following elemental debuffs can stun Overload Champions:
- Jolt (Arc)
- Suppression (Void)
- Slow (Stasis)
Overload Subclass Verbs, Destiny 2
Using any weapon or ability to apply these debuffs to Overload Champions will instantly stun them. This opens up a plethora of buildcrafting opportunities, from utilizing weapon perks like Voltshot to abilities like Duskfield Grenade.
As we hinted at earlier, this also means that more Exotics can be indirectly added to our list from earlier. From Wavesplitter to Ruinous Effigy to Ager’s Scepter, there’s an endless amount of Exotics you can build into to deal with Overload Champions.
Destiny 2 Overload Weapons/Mods in Season 23
The most direct way of stunning Champions is through mods from the seasonal artifact. In Season 23, the anti-Overload mods are:
- Overload Auto Rifle
- Overload Pulse Rifle
- Overload Rocket Launchers
Overload Mods, Destiny 2
In addition to the mods listed above, some Legendary weapon perks can stun Overload Champions through Jolt, Suppression, and Slow. Here’s a list of perks to look out for if you’re wanting to use other Legendary options for Overload stunning:
- Voltshot
- Chill Clip
- Cold Steel
Overload Perks, Destiny 2
Where to find Overload Champions in Destiny 2
Champions can be found in the majority of mid to high-level PvE activities in Destiny 2. Whether it be raids, Master dungeons, seasonal activities, or nightfalls, most activities of Legend difficulty or higher will contain Champions.
The vast majority of activities that contain Champions will say so as an activity modifier. However, do note that raids are an exception; even though their modifiers don’t reflect it, most non-boss raid encounters contain Champions.
Where to find Overload Champions, Destiny 2
Before you go…
You now know everything there is to know about Barrier Champions. If you’re interested in Unstoppable Champions, we cover all the Destiny 2 Unstoppable Exotics and Weapons here.
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