Absorption Shield

Absorption Shields are a form of defensive barrier employed by various enemies during combat.

Overview
In battle, it manifests as a transparent bubble that surrounds the wielder. Elemental damage does inflict damage against certain types of Absorption shields. The most obvious way to tell if a shield is weakened by a certain damage type is to see what color it is; for example, Fallen Captains with blue shields are susceptible to Arc attacks. Likewise a Vex Minotaur is susceptible to Void damage, and Wizards and Centurions respectively are vulnerable to Solar damage.

Destiny 1
If one inflicts enough damage into a shield regardless of the color, it will deactivate, though this method takes longer, and may waste precious resources and ammo. A high impact weapon of sufficient destructive capacity can deactivate absorption shields in a single hit regardless of its elemental type.

Elemental grenades can take down shields of their respective element by simply detonating next to the target.

Destiny 2
Shields gain a new appearance that varies between the enemy races: Fallen are unchanged, Cabal shields are spherical with glowing angular patterns, Vex shields are cylindrical grids, and Taken shields are blackened and "corrupted." Deactivating a shield with a weapon of its corresponding elemental type now triggers an area-of-effect explosion that damages nearby enemies.

Fallen

 * Captain—Arc
 * Shank (Noble and higher)—Solar

Hive

 * Knight (Anointed and higher)—Arc
 * Wizard—Solar

Vex

 * Harpy (Zealot and higher)—Arc
 * Minotaur—Void
 * Hobgoblin—Solar
 * Hydra—Arc

Cabal

 * Centurion—Solar
 * Bloodguard Legionary—Arc
 * Bloodguard Incendior—Solar
 * Bloodguard Centurion—Void
 * Elite Psion—Void
 * Psion Flayer—Arc; Solar; Void

Taken

 * Taken Acolyte—Void (on higher difficulty in Strike playlists)
 * Taken Captain—Solar
 * Taken Centurion—Arc
 * Taken Goblin—Arc (projected toward Taken allies)
 * Taken Wizard—Void

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * Destiny 2