With Destiny 2’s The Witch Queen came weapon crafting at the Mars Enclave. This guide explains how weapon crafting works, from collecting weapon Patterns and crafting traits, and lists what materials you need.
How to Unlock Weapon Crafting in Destiny 2
Weapon crafting is unlocked early on in The Witch Queen campaign, but it requires a few steps:
- If you’re just starting the campaign, complete The Arrival, which is the introductory quest.
- Once you’re done, talk to Ikora Rey to start The Relic.
- This is a straightforward quest that doesn’t take too much time, guiding you through the creation of your first glaive.
All set? It’s time to go over the Destiny 2 Witch Queen weapon crafting steps, as well as its many layers, from Reshaping to all the materials you need.
How to Craft Weapons – Shaping
The steps to craft a weapon in Destiny 2 are the following:
- Obtain the Pattern (fancy word for blueprint) of a weapon.
- Head over to The Enclave on Mars and interact with the Relic.
- Choose Shape to create a new weapon.
- Select the Pattern from the Primary, Special, or Heavy categories.
- The first slot asks you to select a Frame. By default, you can only choose an Intrinsic Frame at first, but it may vary depending on the weapon. Enhanced Intrinsic become available after meeting the corresponding weapon level requirement.
- Then, you get your four trait slots to tweak. You usually get two options for each slot by default, while the rest are locked behind weapon level requirements.
- Lastly, the final slot is for Mementos, which are optional consumables that change your weapon’s appearance and can add trackers.
- Once you’ve finished selecting both the Frame and traits, you can use the slot with the weapon icon on the far right to Finalize Shape.
It’s worth mentioning that materials aren’t consumed until you Finalize Shape, so you’re free to toggle different options without worrying about losing materials along the way. Everything is then added together so you can see how many materials you’re about to spend.
Those are the basic steps, but let’s dive into Destiny 2 weapon crafting in detail.
How to Unlock Weapon Patterns
Finding Patterns can be time consuming as they aren’t exactly a frequent occurrence. Some Patterns may require two Pattern progress, while others require five to fully unlock the shapeable Pattern.
There are two ways to unlock weapon Patterns in Destiny 2:
- Finding a weapon with Deepsight Resonance, which are always marked with a red outline around the icon in your character screen. You then have to extract the weapon pattern from it.
- You can also get Patterns as rewards for specific quests.
- On the other hand, using a Deepsight Harmonizer on craftable weapons without Deepsight unlocks weapon Pattern progress. However, raid weapons also require Spoils of Conquest.
Always keep an eye out for any weapons with Deepsight Resonance, and hold onto them instead of dismantling right away. It’s the best method so far, as it allows you to unlock the Pattern in your collection so you can create your own version from it.
When in doubt, you can check the Patterns & Catalysts section in your Triumphs menu, which always indicate the progress toward a Pattern unlock, as well as showcasing the current Pattern list.
Got your hands on a Pattern and finished crafting the weapon? Then let’s see what comes next.
How to Farm Weapon Level Progress
When you craft your weapon, you can use the weapon in combat to level it up and upgrade traits at the Relic. To farm your weapon level, here are some tips:
- Farm Shuro-Chi level in the Last Wish raid or the opening to Grasp of Avarice dungeon. Any area with tons of enemies that you can easily repeat works well.
- In Season 22, Bungie increased weapon level progression in PVE and PVP. Modes getting getting a boost are: Crucible, Trials of Osiris, Dares of Eternity, Wellspring, Gambit, and Legend and Master Solo Lost Sectors.
- You can spend Glimmer and Enhancement Cores on crafted and enhanced weapons to level them up; the cost of boosting will increase accordingly.
How to Reshape Weapons
To upgrade a crafted weapon, you'll need to reshape it. Reshaping in weapon crafting allows you to customize a weapon you’ve already crafted.
The steps to Reshape a weapon in Destiny 2 are:
- Craft a weapon using its Pattern.
- Use the Relic in The Enclave and choose Reshape.
- Make sure to unequip the weapon you want to Reshape, otherwise you won’t be able to select it.
- You can now select an Enhanced Intrinsic (if you’ve met the required Power Level) as well as different traits and/or a Memento for it.
- When ready, go ahead and Finalize Shape (with the note that trait costs won’t be refunded if replaced.)
As you may have expected, you’re going to need different materials to craft weapons and Reshape them. Quantities and types vary greatly depending on the weapon and the trait requirements.
How to Get Weapon Crafting Materials in Destiny 2
Below are all the weapon crafting materials and how to get each one of them:
- Ascendant Alloy: You can obtain Ascendant Alloy by reaching Rank 16 at the Gunsmith, purchasing one a week at the Tower Cryptarch Master Rahool, completing The Relic for the first time, and as possible rewards for completing Weekly Campaign missions in the Throne World and The Witch Queen Offensives. Bungie increased the chances of receiving the material through Master Wellspring completions — based not only on difficulty, but also completion level (Gold and Platinum being the highest.)
- Resonant Alloy: You can only obtain Resonant Alloy by dismantling Legendary weapons or as a reward from activities. (Bungie is deprecating the material starting in Season 22)
- Harmonic Alloy: These are for raid-exclusive Intrinsic traits for crafted raid weapons. However, you can get this by dismantling Resonant raid weapons from Vow of the Disciple and King's Fall. (Bungie is deprecating the material starting in Season 22)
- Deepsight Harmonizer: These are season pass rewards, and you can hold one Deepsight Harmonizer at a time.
Have fun tinkering with all the Destiny 2 weapon crafting possibilities!
