With The Witch Queen expansion Destiny 2 introduced weapon crafting and Guardians now are able to build a perfect god killing tool. You want it to have a high range? No problem. Need both Outlaw and Rampage? Can be done. However, even though building a weapon is more reliable than hoping for a god roll to drop it is still going to be an extensive process with multiple steps. Let’s go over them and learn weapon crafting in Destiny 2.
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The Enclave
During the introduction of The Witch Queen campaign that is free-to-play, you will find what is called The Enclave. It is a Darkness structure located on Mars that can reproduce weapons. The quest will guide you on building your first legendary glaive “The Enigma”, so we highly recommend completing it as it is a very fun weapon to fight with.
The Enclave has two stations: Relic and Relic Conduit. The Relic Conduit is there mainly for quest purposes, the Relic is where all the magic happens. When you access the Relic you can Shape or Reshape a weapon. To Shape means to craft a new one and to Reshape is to tweak your existing one.
You can’t craft any weapon in the game you want. In the Shape menu or in the Patterns & Catalysts tab in Triumphs, you can find the pool of weapons currently available for crafting. At the moment the pool is made of the new Witch Queen and Season of the Risen weapons but will expand in the future.
Crafting a Weapon
Now that we are familiar with the workshop let’s get to work. The process is the same for crafting any legendary weapon. The steps below are a simple guide to crafting and maintaining any new weapon, for a more detailed explanation of each step, follow our guide through each section.
How to craft a legendary weapon:
- Acquire desired’s weapon’s pattern
- Collect at least 5 Resonant Alloy, 750 Neutral Element and 10,000 Glimmer
- Shape your weapon by choosing the intrinsic, parts and traits at the Relic
- Level the weapon up
- Reshape the weapon with better intrincts, parts and traits
Note: if you decide to dismantle the weapon you made, its progress including levels and perks will be completely lost.
How to Acquire a Weapon’s Pattern?
To craft a weapon you first need a pattern. The pattern is basically a blueprint. It can be unlocked by completing the Deepsight Resonance on the weapon. Some weapons may require multiple Deepsight Resonance completions, make sure to keep track of them in the Triumphs tab Patterns & Catalysts.
Weapons with Deepsight Resonance can be identified by the red frame around them. You have to use the weapon in combat to complete the attunement process and once completed you can collect resources from it and automatically unlock its pattern.
How to Get Resources for Weapon Crafting?
Speaking of resources you will need a few kinds. For the first version of your weapon, you will only need 750 Neutral Element and 5 Resonant Alloys. All the other resources will become required once you level your weapon and gain access to more traits and parts. And you will need quite a lot of them. Highly recommend checking in advance the amounts and kinds of required resources.
Here are all the resources used for crafting and how to get them:
- Resonant Alloy: Dismantling Rare and Legendary weapons
- Ascendant Alloy: Can be bought from Banshee-44 and Rahool in the Tower. Can also be earned in weekly campaign missions in the Throne World and in the Wellspring activity
- Neutral Element: Complete Deepsight Resonance on a weapon (Constant Reward)
- Ruinous Element: Complete Deepsight Resonance on a weapon (Resource of Choice)
- Adroit Element: Complete Deepsight Resonance on a weapon (Resource of Choice)
- Mutable Element: Complete Deepsight Resonance on a weapon (Resource of Choice)
- Energetic Element: Complete Deepsight Resonance on a weapon (Resource of Choice)
What Can be Changed when Crafting a Weapon?
It’s time to build a gun that will serve you in countless fights. Head to The Enclave and open the Shape menu at the Relic. In the list, find the weapon you wish to build and click on it. It’s time to configure all the bits of your weapon. The assortment for the first craft will not be generous, but it’s just the start of your weapon’s story.
While shaping your weapon you can configure:
- Weapon’s Intrinsic/Frame: Instead of a masterwork, shaped weapons have an option of choosing a frame that will boost a certain stat
- Barrell and Magazine: Classic parts of any firearm that affect your main stats
- Traits: Perks with unique effects.
- Mementos: Themed visual customization
After making your choice, hold the weapon’s icon on the right to shape the weapon. It will also present you with a total bill for the current shaping. Shaping is always the same price as there is not much variety, but Reshaping can end up being much more expensive.
How to Level Up a Weapon and Unlock Perks?
When crafting you will notice that most of the components are locked behind the leveling system. Each crafted weapon will have its own progression bar. You increase the weapon’s level by defeating enemies with it.
Higher levels unlock new stat-specific frames, new perks, and upgraded versions of perks. Each weapon will also hold the date it was originally shaped which is a nice touch to keep track of how long you have been adventuring with it.
How to Upgrade the Weapon?
With new pieces of the weapon unlocked, it’s time to head back to The Enclave and give it an upgrade. This time around choose Reshape menu and find the weapon in the menu you want to upgrade. Make sure that it’s unequipped or else you won’t be able to select it.
Choose new intrinsics, parts, and traits, and hold the weapon’s icon to conclude the process. Now your weapon is updated and you can keep repeating this process until you have the perfect configuration.
Mementos and How to Unlock Them
Mementos are cosmetic customizations for your weapons. There is not much known about them and how to unlock them. But what we do know is that mementos are themed around a certain activity. The first one that will be available will be Gambit-themed which is nice considering Gambit’s rework. And there will be more coming our way from Trials of Osiris and Grandmaster Nightfalls.
Building a weapon is not just a process, it’s an experience. If before you would always have your trusty Ace with you and that was it, now the weapon evolves and develops with you, its owner. It feels more like a companion, just like your Ghost but with less talking. Now that you know all about weapon crafting in Destiny 2, go and build your perfect partner in crime. Crimes may include but are not limited to: getting a Seventh Column in Crucible, defeating a few ancient gods and using an exotic to infuse it.
