A Complete Guide to Reshaping Weapons in Destiny 2
Whether you’re a seasoned Guardian or just starting your journey, reshaping weapons is an important part of progressing your arsenal in Destiny 2. In this article, I’ll provide a detailed overview of how to reshape weapons, what materials you’ll need, and tips from my own experiences in the field.
What is Weapon Reshaping?
Weapon reshaping, also called weapon crafting, allows you to customize certain weapons by changing their appearance, perks, and stats. This process lets you tailor guns to your preferred playstyle. By spending resources at the Enclave on the H.E.L.M., you can reshape a weapon to gain better perks or aesthetic upgrades.
Which Weapons Can Be Reshaped?
Only a select few weapons introduced in The Witch Queen and Season of the Haunted can currently be reshaped. These include weapons from the Calus Mini-Tool, Tarnished Mettle, and Austringer weapon families. Bungie intends to expand the list of craftable weapons over time, so check back if your favorite gun isn’t listed yet. The weapon must also be level 16 or higher to start reshaping.
Materials Needed for Reshaping
Several materials are required to progress through the reshaping process:
- Weapon Parts – Dropped from dismantling any weapons. Needed for the initial extraction.
- Resonant Alloy – Obtained from certain playlist activities like Gambit.
- Ascendant Alloy – Rare material gained from weapon leveling, Deepsight resonances, and Rank 16+ seasonal reputation.
- red borders/Deepsight resonances – Complete red-border weapon objectives to level the weapon and unlock perks.
Farming these can take time, so focus on targeted playlists and make sure to pop bounties for mats whenever possible. Having a stockpile makes leveling weapons much smoother.
The Reshaping Process
Here are the basic steps to reshape a weapon:
- Select the weapon you want to reshape from your inventory and extract its pattern at the Enclave.
- Use Deepsight Resonances and gameplay to level the weapon, unlocking perks along the way.
- Once fully leveled, focus Resonant Alloys at the Enclave to unlock origin perks.
- Relevel the weapon to unlock new perk combinations.
- Craft enhanced versions by focusing Ascendant Alloys on forging better stats.
It takes a good bit of grinding, but getting the perfect perk rolls makes the effort well worth it, in my opinion. With practice, you’ll get the hang of efficient material farming.
Some Reshaping Tips and Tricks
Here are a few suggestions from my own experience getting weapons reshaped:
- Prioritize weapons frequently used in endgame activities like raids.
- Aim to craft weapons for both PvE and PvP to maximize usefulness.
- Save your best red-border/deepsight weapon rolls for later just in case you want to craft more than one.
- Always grab bounties from Rahool that reward Resonant Alloy or other crafting mats.
- Play most of the campaign missions on an alt character for extra powerful red-border weapons.
- Explore every avenue like seasonal ranks, season pass ranks, and triumphs for Ascendant Alloys.
One time, I scrapped over 20 Austringers before crazily realizing I could have just extracted multiple patterns! Whoops. But don’t stress – have fun experimenting along the way.
A Case Study: Crafting a God Roll Calus Mini-Tool
Now for a real-world example of my own experience reshaping the Mini-Tool SMG. After grinding well over 50 Deepsight versions of this gun and leveling multiple crafted rolls, I finally got what I consider to be the perfect combo:
Barrel: Smallbore – Increases range and stability. Kind of a no-brainer for SMGs.
Magazine: Flared Magwell – Increases stability and handling for a smooth feel. Reloads also get a boost.
Origin Trait: Sympathetic Arsenal – Generating Orbs of Power on quick final blows. Super helpful for supporting teammates in dungeons or raids.
Perk 1: Ensemble – Increased stability, handling, and reload when near allies. Boosts are very noticeable and it’s easy to stick together.
Perk 2: Frenzy – Damage buff after Kill Clip-style activation from combat. Absolutely shreds in endgame content.
Basically, it turned the Mini-Tool into a laser beam with great uptime on damage buffs. Over a hundred runs later, it’s still my go-to for most activities. The grind was kind of a slog NGL, but totally worth it to land such a sick roll,IMO.
Wrapping It Up
And there you have it – everything you need to know about unlocking your weapon’s full potential through reshaping in Destiny 2! Let me know if you have any other questions. With practice and patience, you’ll be crafting your own god rolls in no time. Happy hunting out there, Guardian!
Reshaping Weapons in Destiny 2
| Weapon Type | Example Perks | When to Reshape |
|---|---|---|
| Auto Rifle | Dynamic Sway Reduction,Snapshot Sights | When you get perks focused on stability and target acquisition |
| Hand Cannon | Outlaw,Kill Clip | When you get perks that boost reload speed and damage on kills |
| Pulse Rifle | desperado,Successful Warm-Up | When you get perks that boost stability and damage on rapid precision hits |
| Scout Rifle | Explosive Payload, Firefly | When you get perks that boost area of effect damage |
| Sniper Rifle | No Distractions,Vorpal Weapon | When you get perks that boost accuracy and damage to bosses and vehicles |
FAQ
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How can I reshape weapons in Destiny 2?
There are basically two main ways to reshape weapons in Destiny 2. You can extract their ornament socket using the ornament extraction system, which lets you change their appearance by applying a new ornament. Alternatively, you can reshape their stats and perks by using an Ascendant Alloy at the Enclave on Mars to focus an Umbral Engram into a weapon with a different set of perks.
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What materials do I need to extract weapon ornaments?
To extract an ornament socket from a weapon, you’ll need an Ornament Extractor item. You can get these by dismantling legendary ornaments you don’t need anymore, or sometimes from activities like strikes or gambit. You’ll then need to take your extractor and the weapon to the Enclave on Mars. However, extracting the socket will consume the weapon, so choose carefully!
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Can I reshape my favorite weapons?
It appears you can reshape pretty much any legendary or exotic weapon using the methods above. The only kinds that can’t be changed are adept weapons from the legendary campaign or raid weapons with fixed perks. So if it’s a normal legendary or exotic, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to extract its ornament socket or focus a new version from Umbrals.
What’s the best way to get new perks on my weapons?
Without a doubt, focusing Umbral Engrams at the Enclave is the easiest way to randomly reshaping weapons and try different perk combinations. You’ll need an Ascendant Alloy to narrow the focus, but afterwards you can keep rerolling weapons over and over until you get a roll you like. It beats grinding the same activity thousands of times hoping for a god roll to drop.
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Can you change the element type when reshaping weapons?
Unfortunately, when extracting ornaments or focusing Umbrals, the element – whether it’s kinetic, solar, void or arc – will stay the same on any given weapon. The one exception is when you use the focusing effect of an Ascendant Shard, which will change the weapon to a random new element in addition to giving new perks. But it’s a real gamble unless you have tons of those shards lying around!
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How long will it take to get the materials I need?
Grinding for extraction components and focusing materials can take a good while. On average, you might collect enough Ornament Extractors for one weapon per week through normal gameplay. And each Ascendant Alloy to focus a single Umbral will require about 3-4 runs of wellspring, containment, or other pinnacle activities each. So it could take 15-30 hours to save up enough to continuously re-roll many weapons from your stockpile of Umbrals.
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What if I don’t like the new perks I focused?
If you focus an Umbral Engram and don’t like the new perk combo it gives you, then unfortunately you’re out of luck – unless you have more Ascendant Alloys. The gunsmith Rahool won’t let you reroll it again for free. You’ll need to get back out there and grind some more pinnacle activities to earn another Alloy if you want to try for a different roll. It can be frustrating, but that’s part of the gamble with the focusing system!
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Should I extract an ornament or focus for new perks?
It really depends on what you’re trying to achieve. If you just want a new aesthetic look, then ornament extraction is the way to go. But if you’re hoping for different functionality through new perks, focusing Umbrals with an Alloy will give you that instead of just a cosmetic change. The best approach is usually to do a bit of both – swap ornaments for style preferences, while focusing helps optimise weapons for endgame builds.
At the same time, there are a few tricks players use that may help reduce the grind. Some swear by saving extractor parts and Alloys for special occasions, like when a new season launches with different perk pools. Others in similar clans or discord groups lend each other materials too. And who knows, one of those rerolled guns could become your new favorite – or maybe you’ll discover a fresh meta in the process! No matter what approach you try, I hope these answers helped provide some clarity on how to reshape weapons in Destiny 2. Let me know if any other questions come to mind.
