Onslaught Horde Mode Guide - Destiny 2 Guide - IGN (2024)

As The Final Shape expansion approaches in June, when Destiny 2 Guardians will follow Crow inside the Traveler to confront the Witness, the forces of Darkness are converging on the Last City. And it's up to Guardians to establish a defensive bulkhead to repel the forces of the Witness. Enter Onslaught, a brand-new horde mode activity added with the Into the Light update where teams of three defend sections of the Last City. Here's a comprehensive breakdown of the activity with tips, tricks, and builds to help.

Onslaught Core Mechanics

"To begin Onslaught, you’ll be dropped onto a map and tasked with defending one of three possible locations," Bungie's official description reads. "Your mission will be to defend your Advanced Defense Unit (ADU) from attacking enemy waves and make your way onto the Pyramid ship to defeat the boss onboard. If at any point your ADU is destroyed, your match will end." The match will also end if you get a full squad wipe, however.

When the match begins, you're dropped onto a map and, after clearing out a few enemies, the ADU deploys in one of three possible locations. You must defend the ADU from attacking enemy waves of escalating difficulty. In the tenth round, you make your way onto the Pyramid ship to defeat the boss onboard. The standard "Playlist" version of this activity lasts only 10 total waves, but the other version goes up to 50 waves.

Scrap and Defenses

By defeating enemies, your Fireteam earns the Scrap currency. Everyone accrues the same amount, similar to Wishing Glass in Riven's Lair, but each player spends them separately. In between waves, players have 30 seconds to spend Scrap on purchasing and upgrading three kinds of defenses: Sweeper Bot Decoys,Trip Mine, andTurrets. These are all in fixed positions oriented around the three possible ADU spawn points. You start each match with around 2,000 Scrap, which is enough to get two Level 1 Trip Miness, one Level 1 Turret, or one Level 1 Decoy. If possible, coordinate with your Fireteam to deploy defense on both sides of the ADU with a focus on Turrets.

Turrets

These stationary turrets shoot targets within their line of sight, but enemies will attack and break them. Upgrades increase HP and damage output.

• Level 1 - 2,000 Scrap
• Level 2 - 4,000 Scrap
• Level 3 - 6,000 Scrap

Trip Mines

Trip Mines detonate when enemies approach the laser causing massive explosive damage, but they break once all of the charges are used. Upgrades increase damage and the number of charges.

• Level 1 - 1,000 Scrap
• Level 2 - 1,500 Scrap
• Level 3 - 2,000 Scrap

Sweeper Bot Decoy

Enemies will attack these decoys as they approach rather than players or the ADU and can create a bottleneck.

• Level 1 - 2,000 Scrap
• Level 2 - 4,000 Scrap
• Level 3 - 6,000 Scrap

ADU Batteries

Saboteurs and other special units (usually yellow bars) will drop ADU Batteries upon defeat. These orbs can be carried like relics and thrown at the ADU to restore a bit of health. Using batteries also earns a modest amount of Scrap, and you'll get more if thrown at an ADU with full health. Batteries persist for a 30 second timer and disappear once the timer is up. Especially if your ADU has any health missing, keeping its HP topped off needs to be a priority at all times.

Be mindful of enemy locations when you eliminate them, it hardly helps to snipe Saboteur from far away when they're just going to drop an ADU Battery at an enemy spawn point that's hard for your team to reach. Instead, let them get close and burn them down with close-range weaponry and/or rely on your defenses to assist.

Bonus Objectives

Occasionally, bonus objectives will trigger at the start of a round. Completing them will trigger a heavy ammo stash to spawn next to the ADU. They're often straightforward but shift player focus away from the ADU. Here are some examples:

• Disarm three mines located at a Brig spawn point
• Complete the round within the alotted time
• Collect 20 triangle-shaped motes of Darkness Fragments dropped by enemies
• Destroy three hidden Darkness objects

If the objective is the mines or hidden Darkness objects, it's best to assign one player to that task, preferably a Hunter with an emphasis on invisibility. That way they can sneak around to quickly take care of the task. The Darkness Fragments is quite simple, and you often wind up with more than enough on the ground.

Pyramid Rounds

For every round number ending in 6 (aka, 6, 16, 26, 26, and 46), a portal will spawn, allowing your Fireteam to invade a Pyramid ship. The first time, you must defeat a few enemies to charge a Spark Charge, then escort it to a heavily defended point at the end of a long hallway. The mechanic is pulled straight out of Rift, but an invulnerable mini-boss tier enemy is guarding the delivery point, so it's best to have your carrier deliver it as quickly as possible to wipe out all enemies in one fell swoop. If you can, use Voidstalker Smoke Bombs to turn them invisible as they get close.

Every tenth round is a boss fight within the Pyramid ship. In most cases, it's best to hang back near the spawn point focus fire and burn the boss down as quickly as possible so all of the lesser enemies despawn. Just be careful not to get a full wipe. In the Playlist version of Onslaught, the match ends once the boss is slain and you claim the rewards chest. In the other version, after claiming your rewards, you return to a new ADU spawn point, set up defenses there, and continue your run at a more difficult tier. If you complete Wave 50, that's the end.

Onslaught Tips

Power Is Fixed

Don't worry about your power level! Per the activity modifiers, "power is fixed and starts at 10 below opponents" then "power decreases by 5 with each set." In other words, you don't need to keep your power level as high as possible. Your level and the overall difficulty scales accordingly.

Always Deposit ADU Batteries

Even if the ADU is in full health, depositing Batteries still generates Scrap, so be sure never to let one go to waste. You can also throw them with a tracking lob, so if you hurl them higher up in the air, they'll gently track toward the ADU. And if you miss the ADU, they'll just drop in place and can be picked up again.

Always Do Bonus Objectives

You technically don't have to complete bonus objectives during Onslaught, but they're very easy to accomplish, especially in earlier waves. The heavy ammo reward is always helpful. If you're feeling the pressure in later rounds, however, that's when you can consider skipping.

Don't Hoard Heavy Ammo

Heavy ammo still drops from typical sources. While it may be tempting to hoard it for larger enemies and the bosses, there's a rally point right before every boss in the tenth round. You're far better off using your heavy ammo rather than letting purple bricks go to waste, and you're even better off using it in a pinch to protect the ADU from taking any damage.

Focus on Turret Defenses

It may cost a whopping 12,000 Scrap to deploy and fully upgrade a single turret, but they're easily the best investment in your defense. Enemies will attack them, so they're already basically a decoy anyway. If you take up a defensive position and focus on protecting the ADU and the turret, then it'll do a lot of consistent damage — even to larger enemies.

Use the Modifiers

Onslaught has a rotating assortment of modifiers that increase enemy damage of a certain element or your outgoing damage with specific weapon types. Use these to your advantage! Overcharged Machine Gun boosts machine gun damage by 25%, so if you're rocking a Thunderlord, it's going to devastate hordes of enemies and bosses alike. In fact, it's best to use your exotic slot on an overcharged weapon type.

Spec for Champions

Onslaught has Barrier, Overload, and Unstoppable Champions that spawn infrequently, but if you're not ready for them, they can ruin your day. Thankfully, Onslaught does not lock your loadout, so you don't necessarily have to make sure you can handle all of them with your active loadout. Here's a look at the weapon types and specific exotics that are effective against each type of Champion.

• Barrier - Sidearms, Wish-ender, Arbalest, Revision Zero, Eriana's Vow, The Lament
• Unstoppable - Hand Cannon, Bow, Malfeasance, Bastion, Devil's Ruin, The Queenbreaker, Leviathan’s Breath
• Overload - Auto Rifle, Pulse Rifle, Le Monarque, Divinity, Tractor Cannon, Two-Tailed Fox, Thunderlord

This list omits a few exotics that apply elemental subclass effects and stun some champion types. For example, Scorch builds up to an Ignition, which can stun Unstoppable Champions, so weapons that trigger Scorch effects can help.

Best Onslaught Builds

Hunter

• Abilities:Shadowshot (Deadfall or Moebius Quiver), Gambler's Dodge, Triple Jump, Snare Bomb, Vortex Grenade
• Aspects:Vanishing Step, Stylish Executioner/Trapper's Ambush
• Fragments:Echo of Persistence, Echo of Obscurity, Echo of Cessation, Echo of Starvation
• Exotic:Gyrfalcon's Hauberk or Omnioculus
• Armor Mods:Heavy Ammo Finder, Special Ammo Scout, Momentum Transfer, Bolstering Detonation, Charged Up, Elemental Resistance (whatever the enemy offensive modifier is), Void Weapon Surge, Insulation, Time Dilaton, Utility Kickstart, Bomber
• Stats:Mobility, Strength, Discipline
• Weapons:Graviton Lance, Collective Obligation, Wavesplitter, and/or Void weapons with Repulsor Brace or Destabilizing Rounds

This build is all about Invisibility, giving the Hunter some great utility for securing ADU Charges or going for special objectives. Echo of Obscurity grants invis on Finisher final blows and Cessation combines with that to cause nearby enemies to become Volatile. Echo of Persistence also extends both Invisibility and also Devour, which activates every time you defeat a Volatile enemy. Echo of Starvation grants Devour when you pick up a Void Breach or Orb of Power.

If you do have Gyrfalcon's Hauberk, then Void weapons gain Volatile Rounds when using them to emerge from being invisible and finishers also boost weapon damage. If you don't have it, then Omnioculus is second-best, granting a second Smoke Bomb charge. If do you go with route, use Trapper's Ambush because it can make allies invisible with Smoke Bombs and Quickfall, which is very useful in a pinch, especially if you are on voice chat and can strategize on the fly. Gyrfalcon's Hauberk is better with Stylish Executioner, however.

Warlock

• Abilities:Well of Radiance, Balanced Glide, Incinerator Snap, Solar Grenade
• Aspects:Heat Rises, Touch of Flame
• Fragments:Ember of Torches, Ember of Singeing, Ember of Searing, Ember of Mercy
• Exotic:Boots of the Assembler
• Armor Mods:Kinetic Siphon, Dynamo, Firepower, Impact Induction, Grenade Kickstart, Charged Up, Elemental Charge, Innervation, Reaper, Bomber, Powerful Attraction
• Stats:Resilience, Recovery, Discipline
• Weapons:Lumina and Solar weapons with Incandescent

There's no better defensive Warlock build than this one. Boots of the Assembler creates Noble Seekers that seek out and heal allies when you stand inside a Healing Rift, but it also provides a boost to the airborne effectiveness of Lumina which can also heal allies and boost damage output. As an added bonus, hand cannons currently stun Unstoppable Champions during Season of the Wish thanks to the artifact mod.

All of the fragments here reinforce the core loop of Healing Rifts and Lumina since doling out Scorch boosts the effectiveness of your Healing Rift as well. There isn't a ton of room for incorporating other weapons effectively, but it's best to use those that have Incandescent for the Scorch.

Titan

• Abilities:Bladefury, Catapult Lift, Frenzied Blade, Shackle Grenade
• Aspects:Drengr's Lash, Banner of War
• Fragments:Thread of Mind, Thread of Wisdom, Thread of Continuity, Thread of Generation
• Exotic:Abeyant Leap
• Armor Mods:Hands-on, Bolstering Detonation, Charged Up, Focusing Strike, Elemental Siphon, Stacks on Stacks, Recuperation, Bomber, Heavy Handed, Utility Kickstart
• Stats:Resilience, Recovery, Strength
• Weapons: Strand Auto Rifle or Wish-Keeper, Rocket Launcher with Bait and Switch or a sword

Abeyant Leap offers a major buff to Drengr's Lash, creating even more forward-moving ripples in reality that suspend targets every time you use Barricade. Few abilities in the game are better at crowd control. Everything in this build focusing on suspending enemies, so we're going with Shackle Grenade rather than Grapple.

With Thread of Mind, defeating suspended targets grants class ability energy, and with Thread of Wisdom, doing that with precision final blows generates an Orb of Power. Naturally, Thread of Continuity fits perfectly here since it boosts the duration of suspend. Banner of War is a strong choice, especially if you use a sword since it'll periodically heal nearby allies. If you do opt for a rocket launcher rather than sword, then it's worth considering Into the Fray as your second aspect instead. It causes tangles to give Woven Mail to allies. Either way, you're supporting your fireteam.