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Destiny 2: The Witch Queen weapon crafting guide

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Destiny 2: The Witch Queen brought with it a long-running feature of traditional RPGs: Weapon crafting. Players will no longer be purely at the mercy of RNG. Guardians can now create certain weapons and select perks to suit their playstyles. It’s a layered system with a few interesting quirks. Fortunately, we are here to teach you in our guide to Destiny 2 weapon crafting.

Further reading

Crafting overview

A guardian poses on the inventory screen, with the stats of a gun in Destiny 2.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Shaping, the Destiny 2 name for weapon crafting, is unlocked shortly after completing the mission The Arrival.

Crafting always follows the same pattern:

  • Gather blueprints, called Patterns
  • Visit the Relic near The Enclave on Mars
  • Select Shape from the Relic menu
  • Choose a Pattern to craft
  • Insert an Intrinsic and Perks
  • Shape your weapon
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There are some material costs along the way, and weapons can be reshaped to alter perks and stats in the future.

Patterns

The deepsight resonance progress on a gun in Destiny 2.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Weapon crafting starts with Patterns. These are the blueprints that form the basis of weapons. The first pattern you acquire comes from The Enigma, a Glaive you are tasked with creating shortly after the introductory mission. Completing this tutorial quest also awards you Deepsight, the ability to see the memories of a weapon, which in turn allows you to identify other weapons you collect that can be used for shaping. These weapons will be marked with a telltale red border.

Each of these weapons will have an Attunement object. These are done by completing specific goals outlined by the weapon, but all the objectives more or less all boil down to “use this weapon while you play.” Attuning the weapon has two functions: It permanently unlocks the pattern for your crafting use, and it also allows you to collect a small bounty of crafting materials directly from the weapon.

Crafting materials

The list of selectable perks on a craftable shotgun in Destiny 2.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Once you have a weapon blueprint, head to the Relic. You will have the choice to shape or reshape. Select Shape to craft a new item. Once you do so, select the Pattern you wish to use. This will load it into the artifact, and you can start selecting components.

To shape a weapon, you must choose an Intrinsic, two perks, and two traits. These set the base stats of the weapon, and confer bonuses to things like reload speed, damage under certain conditions, etc. Different weapons will have different options for perks and traits, so be sure to look over them each to find the combinations you like.

Crafting weapons does require some raw materials in the form of alloys and elements.

Alloys come in two varieties:

  • Resonant Alloys: Required to insert an Intrinsic; earned by dismantling Legendary Weapons.
  • Ascendant Alloys: Required to insert an Enhanced Intrinsic; earned as drops in the Wellspring and campaign missions or purchased from Rahool or Banchee-44 once per week for 400 Legendary Shards.

Alloys come in more flavors and are earned by Attuning weapons:

  • Neutral Element: Used in all types of perk crafting.
  • Ruinous Element: Damage or projectile modification-related perks.
  • Adroit Element: Weapon performance-related trait perks (handling, stability, etc.).
  • Mutable Element: Ability modification-related trait perks.
  • Energetic Element: Ammo or Reload-related trait perks.
  • Drowned Elements: Raid-exclusive trait perks.

Finally, there are Mementos. These are optional vanity items. They drop from Gambit, Nightfall Strikes, and Trials of Osiris and act as a shader and stat tracker based on their source activity.

Leveling

Crafted weapons have levels, just like players. They earn levels through usage. Increasing a weapon’s level unlocks more power options for Intrinsics, Perks, and Traits.

Once you’ve increased a weapon’s level, return to the Relic. Select the option Reshape. You can reassign any of the parts of the weapon, assuming you have the materials to cover the costs. Doing so will replace the existing bonuses with whatever new options you select.

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Justin Koreis
Justin Koreis
Justin is a freelance writer with a lifelong love of video games and technology. He loves writing about games, especially…
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