How To Heal Your Decoys And Turrets In Destiny 2’s Onslaught

Well, this is pretty gamechanging. The key to successful Onslaught defenses in Destiny 2 is not just your build and your skill, but your use of defenses in your zones to mow down enemies or keep them distracted. Tripmines are kind of a waste, it turns out, but the best defenses in the mode are maxed turrets or maxed decoys (Shaxxmaxxed). But to get them maxed, they need to…not die. And that can be tough.

Well, it turns out there is a player-favoring bug that I am 95% sure is not intended mechanics. I first saw this from redditor u/SAB50106 and after trying it myself, I can confirm that it not only works but absolutely can save entire runs if you are able to do it. And it’s not hard.

At this point you no doubt understand that the ADU batteries tougher enemies drop can be thrown at the ADU to heal its health and get you more scrap. This is a core mechanic of the mode. But what you almost surely do not realize is that they can also be thrown at decoys and turrets to heal them when they are damaged.

No, I don’t think this is intended behavior as it can actually heal enemies too when throw, so they just seem to be healing balls in general that were coded to heal whatever they touch. In this case, you are not actually spending the ball to heal your defenses. So that means there is no “autotracking” and you should just be point blank throwing the ball at your turrets and decoys to heal them, picking it up, and doing it again.

There are no actual health bars on turrets or decoys, but decoys will flash red when they are about to die. You can tell this process works because with a few ball throws, they will stop flashing red, and can go back to tanking enemies. In theory there is not supposed to be a way to actually heal these things. I don’t think turrets have any indicator that they’re damaged and going to die, but if you see a bunch of enemies slamming on a turret in a round, probably go heal it with a ball. Even if you can’t see it, I guarantee it is being healed.

Keep in mind you should obviously still be using most of your balls for ADU healing as that not only will save your runs but it can get you a lot of scrap. Though if you know the “pop class skill while throwing to duplicate balls” trick, there will be plenty to go around.

Now that I’m doing this, I have seen people thinking I’m trolling by bouncing balls off all our decoys, but I am writing this as a PSA that it works and more people should do it in order to save runs with stronger decoys. I have no idea if Bungie will patch this any time soon (they already know, don’t blame this post), but until then, heal those defenses.

Follow me on Twitter, Threads, YouTube, and Instagram.

Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.