Enemies
Enemies are the hostile forces a Guardian fights across the Sol System and beyond. They are grouped into several distinct factions, each with its own look, technology, history, and way of fighting, and most of them are also at war with one another. This page is an overview; each faction and unit has its own page.
The Factions
- Cabal: huge, heavily armored aliens who run a vast military empire.
- Fallen: four-armed Eliksni scavengers, the broken remnant of a great spacefaring civilization.
- Hive: an ancient species that worships the Darkness and lives by the Sword Logic.
- Vex: time-manipulating machines whose true bodies are the fluid called radiolaria.
- Taken: corrupted beings, drawn from every other faction and bound to a master.
- Scorn: undead Fallen reanimated by Dark Ether.
- Dread: the Witness's own army of Darkness-wielding beings.
Combatant Tiers
Within every faction, enemies come in increasing levels of toughness, shown by the color and shape of their health bar:
- Minor: the weakest and most common enemies, marked by a red health bar. They appear everywhere and in large numbers.
- Elite: tougher troops with an orange health bar split into three segments. They hit harder and dodge more.
- Major (called Mini-Boss in Destiny 2): high-value enemies with a yellow health bar and sometimes a unique name. Some enemies only ever appear at this tier or higher.
- Boss (Ultra): the strongest enemies, marked with a skull and a large health bar, who serve as the focus of missions, Strikes, dungeons, and Raids.
Higher-tier enemies often carry a rank prefix on their name, such as Honored for the Cabal or Revenant for the Hive.
Shields
Many tougher enemies carry a regenerating elemental shield. The shield's color shows its element, and matching damage drains it far faster; in Destiny 2, breaking a shield with its own element sets off a small burst that damages nearby enemies. Shields come in Arc, Solar, Void, and Stasis (and, more recently, Strand). The "Match Game" modifier makes shields resist everything except their matching element.
Champions
Champions are special, Darkness-empowered minibosses introduced in Shadowkeep. They appear in harder activities and cannot be hurt for long until they are stunned with the right counter. There are three types:
- Barrier: drops an impenetrable shield and heals itself when low. Counter it with Anti-Barrier.
- Overload: heals while being shot and uses its abilities far more often. Counter it with Overload (disruption).
- Unstoppable: shrugs off damage, cannot be staggered, and charges in to melee. Counter it with Unstoppable (stagger).
Anti-Champion power comes from the seasonal Artifact, certain Exotic weapons, and subclass effects, for example Radiant or Volatile Rounds to pierce a Barrier, Jolt or Slow to disrupt an Overload, and Blind or Shatter to stun an Unstoppable.
Nightmares
Nightmares are apparitions of the dead, conjured by the Pyramid beneath the Moon and first seen in Shadowkeep. They take the forms of fallen enemies and lost allies to wage psychological war, and they are hunted in the Moon's Nightmare Hunts.
Other Threats
A few enemy types cross faction lines. The Taken are corrupted units from every faction, bound to a master. The Hive Lucent Brood wield the Light with their own Ghosts and must have that Ghost crushed or they resurrect. Champions and bosses appear throughout endgame content regardless of faction.