Destiny 2 Weapon Crafting Guide: The Relic, Resonant Elements, Alloys, And More

The Witch Queen expansion introduces revolutionary weapon customization capabilities that transform how Guardians approach their arsenal. This deep crafting system enables unprecedented control over weapon performance and characteristics.

Shape or reshape your weapons for Destiny 2.

Weapon crafting represents one of the most significant gameplay innovations in Destiny 2’s history, providing tools to create personalized instruments of destruction through the mysterious Relic interface. While accessible early in the campaign, mastering this system requires understanding several interconnected mechanics.

Your journey begins on Mars during The Witch Queen storyline, where you’ll encounter Ikora Rey and gain access to the Enclave’s Relic. This serves as your primary workshop for all crafting activities, but requires specific preparations before you can begin modifying your favorite firearms.

The essential first step involves acquiring the Deepsight ability—a Darkness-powered capability that reveals hidden potential within weapons. This crucial tool unlocks during the initial missions and remains available to all players regardless of expansion ownership. Once obtained, Deepsight enables identification of special weapons marked by distinctive red borders in your inventory, signaling their Deepsight Resonance properties.

Pattern acquisition forms the foundation of weapon crafting, with red-border weapons serving as your primary source. These special items contain latent blueprints that become accessible through a process called attunement, where you extract their inherent patterns by fulfilling specific usage requirements.

This SMG is great, but it can be better.

Attunement involves utilizing red-border weapons extensively in combat until they reach resonance completion. This process typically requires achieving a certain number of kills or completing specific objectives, after which you can extract both the pattern and valuable resonant materials.

Beyond random drops, certain quest lines provide guaranteed pattern unlocks as rewards. The Enigma glaive pattern, for instance, serves as an introductory tutorial reward that familiarizes players with the Relic’s capabilities.

To monitor your pattern collection progress, navigate to the Triumphs section in your menu and select Patterns & Catalysts. This interface provides comprehensive tracking of discovered patterns, progression status on partially completed ones, and catalysts available for crafted weapons.

Common mistake: Many players dismantle red-border weapons before completing attunement, permanently losing pattern progression. Always check attunement requirements in the weapon details screen before deciding to dismantle.

Initial weapon creation—referred to as “shaping”—occurs at the Enclave Relic where you select from unlocked blueprints. The shaping process involves configuring multiple weapon attributes including intrinsic traits, two minor perks, and two major traits before finalizing your design.

Kills for skills, Guardian.

Your customization options initially appear limited but expand significantly as you level crafted weapons through combat usage. Each level milestone unlocks additional perk choices, enhanced traits, and eventually the ability to reshape your weapon entirely.

Reshaping represents one of the system’s most powerful features, allowing you to reconfigure already-crafted weapons without starting over. This flexibility enables adaptation to evolving gameplay needs and meta changes.

Advanced strategy: Focus on leveling weapons in high-density combat scenarios like Altars of Sorrow or Wellspring activities for maximum efficiency. Weapon experience gains scale with enemy difficulty, making endgame content particularly valuable for rapid progression.

Time estimate: Reaching level 20 on a crafted weapon typically requires 4-6 hours of active use in appropriate content.

Resonant materials constitute the essential resources required for both shaping and reshaping operations. These specialized components primarily originate from attuned red-border weapons but also appear as rewards from various activities and quests.

Resonant Materials

Material extraction efficiency varies significantly based on weapon type and source. Legendary red-border weapons typically provide substantially more materials than their rare counterparts, making them priority targets for farming.

Optimization tip: Prioritize completing attunement on weapons whose patterns you haven’t yet unlocked, as this provides both the blueprint and materials simultaneously.

Strategic approach: Reserve your highest-value resonant materials for weapons you plan to use extensively in endgame content, while utilizing common materials for experimental builds.

Common pitfall: Many players exhaust their material reserves on marginal weapon improvements rather than saving for truly transformative perk combinations. Always evaluate the practical impact of potential upgrades before committing resources.

Weapon leveling represents the gateway to enhanced customization, with each milestone unlocking progressively more powerful options. Understanding the experience gain mechanics can dramatically reduce the time investment required for optimization.

Experience acceleration: Weapons gain bonus experience when used in activities matching their elemental burn or during double experience events. Planning your leveling sessions around these opportunities maximizes efficiency.

Perk combination strategy: Focus on creating synergistic perk packages that complement your playstyle rather than simply selecting statistically superior options individually.

Endgame optimization: For weapons intended for high-level content like Grandmaster Nightfalls or raids, prioritize consistency and reliability over situational power spikes.

Future planning: While not every weapon currently supports pattern extraction, Bungie has committed to expanding the craftable arsenal over time. Consider reserving resources for future additions that may better suit your preferred combat approach.

As you master the weapon crafting system, you’ll discover that the true power lies not just in creating powerful weapons, but in creating weapons perfectly tailored to your unique Guardian identity and combat methodology.

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