Weapon crafting in Destiny 2 is a free-to-play-friendly way to create your very own god-roll weapons. It requires a bit of grinding before you can fully take advantage of the weapon crafting system.
Today, we will be explaining everything there is to know about weapon crafting, including how to unlock weapon crafting, as well as some of the best methods for farming craftable weapons.
Recommended Read: Destiny 2 – Complete Leveling Guide
To craft weapons in Destiny 2, you first need to unlock The Enclave on Mars by completing missions of the Witch Queen campaign, then collect weapon patterns by Extracting Deepsight Resonance from red-bordered weapons, and finally visit The Enclave to shape the weapon.
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How to Unlock Weapon Crafting
Before you can get started crafting your favorite weapons, you will need to complete the Relic quest in the Witch Queen campaign.
This will unlock access to The Enclave on Mars, which is where we will be doing all of our weapon crafting. It is one of the earlier missions, so you won’t have to complete the entire campaign to start crafting weapons.
The quest line will have you crafting your first Glaive. Once you have done that, you will have access to weapon Patterns.
While the in-game tips explain many of the mechanics that come with weapon crafting, we will be going over them all in detail so you don’t miss out on anything.
How to Craft Weapons in Destiny 2
After unlocking weapon crafting, you’re closer to holding your very own crafted weapon, but there are still some steps to go through.
Weapon Patterns
Sadly, you won’t be able to craft any weapons right away. You will need to unlock a weapon’s Pattern by finding Deepsight Resonant weapons, AKA red-boarder versions of the weapon.
Once you get a weapon with Deepsight Resonance, you will want to Extract the Pattern from it. This will remove the Deepsight Resonance and leave you with a perfectly useable weapon. You will need to Extract five Patterns of the same weapon before you unlock the ability to craft that weapon.
To find out what weapon Patterns are available for crafting, visit the Patterns & Catalysts tab in your Collections. Here, you will also see your progress toward unlocking Patterns.
Obtaining Deepsight Resonance Weapons
Red-boarders will drop from Expansion activities, Seasonal activities, and Raids, with a few exceptions. They are on the rarer side, so it may take some time before you see one.
Heroic Public Event chests are a great source for red-boarder weapons and can easily be done while farming patrols. Each public event will have a different method for triggering the heroic modifier.
The Vex Conflux public event requires you to capture the three different plates to trigger the heroic event. The Cabal Drill will have you destroy all three vents on the drill. The Cabal Extraction will have you destroy the Thresher that flies in halfway through the event to trigger the heroic event.
Golden (heroic) Patrols are another way to farm Deepsight Resonance weapons. They are discernable from normal patrols by their golden icon. These patrols are harder than your average patrol. They have a slightly increased drop rate for red-boarder weapons. Bungie has recently nerfed the drop rates, so they are not as efficient as they used to be.
Currently, Deep Dives can award up to two Deepsight Resonance weapons upon completion if you have Deep Dive Keys for the extra chest.
You can complete the weekly Legendary Lightfall campaign mission for a chance at additional Deepsight Resonance weapons.
Every Raid encounter has a chance of dropping a Deepsight Resonance weapon. The featured Raid of the week can be farmed for fast red-boarders as well. You will want to make sure you grab any secret red-border-guaranteed chests from your Raids as well.
You can purchase one Deepsight Resonant Raid weapon per week for 20 Spoils of Conquest from the final chest in the Raid.
Deepsight Harmonizer
Deepsight Harmonizers are a newer addition to the weapon crafting system and are a welcome way to speed up the process of getting Patterns unlocked.
You can obtain six Deepsight Harmonizers per season through the Season Pass, three on the free pass and three on the paid pass.
While farming for red-boarder weapons, you will come across plenty of craftable weapons without a red-boarder. You will notice that these weapons state that Deepsight activation is available. This means that the weapon has an Empty Deepsight Socket.
You may slot a Deepsight Harmonizer into this weapon, consuming the Harmonizer and granting the weapon Deepsight Resonance. You can now Extract Pattern progress from this weapon.
Note that you can not use a Deepsight Harmonizer on a weapon that previously contained Deepsight Resonance. You may only Extract one Pattern progress per weapon instance.
Shaping a Weapon
Once you have fully unlocked a weapon Pattern, you will want to head to The Enclave on Mars. This is where all of your weapon crafting will take place.
Head on over to The Relic to get started. You will be given two options, Shape for creating new weapons and Reshape for modifying existing weapons. Choose Shape to get started.
All of your unlocked weapon Patterns will show here. Click on the weapon you want to craft to begin the Shaping process. You will be prompted to choose from a pool of Intrinsic perks, Barrels, Magazines, and Traits. Note that you will only have access to a couple of options at first, as additional options unlock later through leveling your weapon.
You will also see a slot for adding a Memento. These are acquired through various activities, such as Nightfalls, Gambit, and Trials of Osiris. Inserting a Momento into your weapon will unlock additional vanity options for it.
For now, you will want to simply craft your weapon using whatever options are available to you. This will require a fair bit of Glimmer, as well as some Enhancement Cores and Resonant Alloy.
Weapon Leveling
To unlock more Intrinsic perks, Barrels, Magazines, and Traits for your newly-crafted weapon, you will need to level it up.
To increase your Weapon Level, you simply need to defeat enemies with it and complete activities while your weapon is equipped. Every Weapon Level will grant you access to additional options when crafting.
After reaching Weapon Level 11, you will begin to unlock Enhanced Traits, which grant greater bonuses for your weapon. To slot an Enhanced Trait into your weapon, you will need Glimmer, Enhancement Prisms, and Ascendant Alloy.
Ascendant Alloy can be obtained from the weekly Campaign missions in the Throne World as well as completing The Witch Queen Offensives.
You can also obtain Ascendant Alloy from Gunsmith Reputation through Banshee-44 or by purchasing them in the tower from The Cryptarch, though at a steep price of 400 Legendary Shards per Ascendant Alloy.
That’s everything you will need to know to start crafting weapons in Destiny 2.
What weapon are you looking forward to crafting? Let me know in the comments!
