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Destiny 2: The Witch Queen allows Guardians to craft their own weapons for the first time in franchise history. While Menagerie and other seasonal activities have let players force certain weapons to spawn, The Witch Queen's weapon crafting system allows for a level of control never before seen in Destiny 2.
Players can make weapons with the exact barrels, magazine perks, main traits, and even the Masterwork they wish. Crafted weapons have also introduced enhanced perks, Weapon Patterns, and a new resource economy that will take some getting used to. For those looking to craft their own god rolls to slay Savathun's Lucent Brood, here is a complete guide to weapon crafting in Destiny 2.
Updated April 21st, 2022, by Charles Burgar: Weapon crafting is slated to receive a few changes next season, notably the removal of most Resonance Element types. We've updated this article to showcase how you can earn each element type, the caps for each, and how you can view your current Resonance Element stacks. We've also fixed some small issues with the guide and clarified a few mechanics to make crafting as easy to understand as possible.
What Is Weapon Crafting?
Weapon crafting is a system introduced in The Witch Queen expansion that allows you to create weapons with the exact perks you want. Instead of relying on the RNG nature of weapon drops, you can instead earn materials and use various weapons to craft your own god roll. Just about every aspect of your gun can be tweaked with this system, right down to your Masterwork.
Can You Make God Rolls With Weapon Crafting?
Yes. You can customize a weapon's barrel, magazine perks, two main perks, and its Masterwork bonus. If you're looking for a very specific roll on your favorite gun, you can make it with enough time and resources.
Are There Any Limits To Weapon Crafting?
Not all weapons can be crafted. Most of the weapons added in The Witch Queen can be crafted, but you're unable to craft weapons from specific playlists, most raids (excluding Vow of the Disciple), or make Adept gear.
If I Can Craft Weapons, Why Farm For Guns At All?
Weapons found in the wild are needed to craft certain perks, and certain weapons cannot be crafted. This system just ensures that obtaining a good roll for most of Destiny 2's general weapons is a straightforward and deterministic process. The activities that lack craftable weapons typically have Umbral Focusing options or have small perk pools to roll from.
Can You Craft Exotic Weapons?
Some of them, yes. You'll craft class-exclusive Glaives as you progress through The Witch Queen campaign. Osteo Striga can also be crafted, allowing you to alter their barrel, magazine, and stock perks. You cannot change an Exotic's main or intrinsic traits, nor can you change Exotics that were introduced before The Witch Queen expansion.
How To Unlock Weapon Crafting
Upon completing the first mission of The Witch Queen campaign, you'll unlock the Deep Sight ability and access to the Enclave, a secluded area on Mars that acts as a weapon forge for Guardians. An introductory quest named "The Relic" will guide you through the very basics of weapons crafting and unlock all of the Enclave's features.
The missions required to access the Enclave are free to all players. You do not need to own The Witch Queen expansion to access weapon crafting.
Unlocking Patterns And Perks
Before you can craft any weapon, you're going to need a Pattern. Patterns are obtained through certain questlines and by completing The Witch Queen's various activities. By default, you'll have access to a Legendary Glaive Pattern, allowing you to experiment with this new weapon type.
You might have a Pattern for your weapon, but what good is a weapon without perks? Crafting a weapon requires certain materials harvested from Resonance (red box) weapons. These weapons have a red border around their UI icon to denote their unique property. Inspecting any weapon with Deepsight Resonance will showcase an objective you'll need to complete, similar to Exotic Catalysts. When you've completed this mini-quest, you'll extract the essence of one of the weapon's perks, as specified in the Deepsight Resonance on that weapon. We'll cover each crafting material later in the guide. But for now, let's talk about how you'll be making weapons.
Resonance extraction does not destroy your weapon.
Crafting Your Weapon
You now have the basic components for making a weapon. Head to Mars' Enclave to start the crafting process. Interacting with the central device will display a UI with two options:
- Shape: Craft a new weapon using the Patterns, Deepsight Resonance, and other materials you've gathered.
- Reshape: Change the perks on a pre-existing weapon you've crafted.
Reshaping is much simpler than creating a new weapon, so let's talk about making weapons first.
Shaping A Weapon
You'll be asked to select a Weapon Pattern before proceeding. This is just selecting the weapon you want to make, like a certain SMG model or Rocket Launcher. If you don't have the specific Pattern for a weapon you wish to craft, you'll need to unlock it. You can find the unlock requirements for each Weapon Pattern on the Triumphs page.
You'll now need to select the perks on your weapon. You have quite a few options:
- Intrinsic Trait: This acts as your Masterwork bonus for the weapon.
- When your weapon reaches level 20, you'll gain a +2 bonus to all non-Masterworked stats, similar to an Adept weapon.
- Barrel: Grants a bump to your weapon's core stats (stability, handling, range, and reload speed).
- Magazine: Magazine perks alter magazine capacity, reload speed, range, and other base stats.
- Trait #1: One of your weapon's main perks (Rapid Hit, Outlaw, et cetera).
- Trait #2: One of your weapon's main perks (Rampage, Kill Clip, et cetera).
- Memento: Adds visual flair or a unique tracker to your weapon. These are consumed once the weapon is forged.
- Rank 10: Unlocks a unique tracker.
- Rank 20: Your weapon has a title shown in the inspection UI.
- Rank 30: Unlocks an animated shader only that weapon can use.
Not all options will be unlocked when you start the weapon crafting process. To unlock additional perk options, you must increase your weapon level (explained in the next section).
Reshaping
At any time, you can return to the Enclave to reforge the perks on your weapon. This will cost crafting resources for each reshape. You can reforge a crafted weapon as much as you'd like, but you cannot reforge weapons found in the wild. Certain perks can only be applied to your weapons through the reshaping process, so come back to the Enclave whenever you've leveled your weapon to see what new options are available to you.
You will not be refunded materials for reforging a weapon. Choose your perks carefully, especially enhanced traits.
How To Obtain Resonant Elements For Crafting
Starting next season, all Resonant Elements except Neutral Element will be removed from Destiny 2. We'll update this section once the season releases.
The Witch Queen expansion has introduced a new suite of materials tied exclusively to weapon crafting. There are two notable resources: Ascendant Alloys and Resonance Elements. Ascendant Alloys are earned by completing Witch Queen weekly campaign missions. Resonance Elements are earned by using Resonance (red box) weapons. Neutral Element can also be used by leveling crafted weapons, yet the amount granted is insignificant.
There are currently six Resonant Element types that can be harvested:
| Element | Source |
|---|---|
| Neutral | All weapons |
| Adroit | Stat-boosting perks |
| Drowned | Raid-exclusive perks |
| Energetic | Reload perks |
| Mutable | Ability gen and misc. perks |
| Ruinous | Damage perks |
These resources are obtained by completing the Resonance harvest objective on all red box weapons. The perks that rolled on the weapon determine which resources you can get, Neutral Element always being an option. For example, if you obtained a Resonance weapon with Rampage, you'll be able to harvest Ruinous Element from the weapon once its objective is complete. You can only harvest one element type per weapon, although all options give a varying amount of Neutral Element.
How Can I View My Crafting Resources?
Head to The Enclave social space. Interact with the Relic Conduit (left of where you craft weapons) to receive a free consumable item. Hover over this item in your consumables menu at any time to see how much of a particular resource you have. You can only have up to 1,000 of a given element at a time—10,000 for Neutral Element.
Increasing Weapon Level
Crafted weapons in Destiny 2 have a weapon level attached to them, separate from the item's Power Level. Defeating enemies and completing objectives with that weapon will grant XP towards its next level. When the weapon levels up, additional crafting options become available for use at the Enclave through the reshaping process. Weapons don't seem to have a level cap, although you unlock all weapon crafting options at around level 20. All Memento vanity options are unlocked at weapon level 30.
Fast Weapon Level Farm
Kill farms are an excellent way to quickly level your weapons. Last Wish's Shuro Chi encounter and Shattered Throne's Thrall hallway encounters have plentiful Taken enemies you can kill to level your weapons quickly. Both encounters can be farmed solo. Objective completions also give a large chunk of XP, so any activities that have nested objectives (like campaign missions) should also be a great XP farm for crafted weapons.
Enhanced Perks
Unique to crafted weapons, players can create enhanced versions of Destiny 2's iconic perks to give them an edge over their non-enhanced counterparts. Just about every main trait available in weapon crafting can be enhanced. Enhanced perks unlock rather late in a weapon's leveling progression, and each enhanced perk requires an Ascendant Alloy to craft, a new currency type available for purchase from Master Rahool and Banshee-44. You can also earn Ascendant Alloys from weekly campaign missions in the Throne World and The Wellspring activity.
Every Enhanced Perk
Crafting Tips
- While leveling, equip any Resonance weapons you get. Their crafting resources will prove useful when you start to use this system.
- If you haven't cleaned out your Vault yet, do so. Dismantled Legendary weapons grant crafting resources and Gunsmith reputation.
- View the Triumphs tab to learn the acquisition method for each Weapon Pattern.
- You can obtain Ascendant Alloys from the Witch Queen campaign (weekly playlist) and The Wellspring activity. Clear those first before purchasing any from Rahool or Banshee.
- Check out light.gg and D2Gunsmith to look at potential perk combinations for all craftable weapons.
