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Since the introduction of craftable weapons in Destiny 2, players have something new to endlessly grind for. First, they need to unlock enough patterns by using Deepsight versions of the weapon they wish to craft, and only then can they craft the weapon at the Relic located in the Enclave. This alone, to find enough Deepsight weapons, can be a long process.
And yet, once players have their crafted weapon, the grind only starts. In order to access all perks on a weapon, they will need to level it up until level 16, which unlocks the highly coveted Enhanced perks. These will give a moderate boost to the weapon itself. Given how much grinding this entails, here are a few tips on leveling crafted weapons in Destiny 2.
Know The Leveling Speed For Each Weapon Type
As one would expect, crafted weapons don't all level at the same rate. Depending on the type of ammo the weapon uses, the process will either be slower or faster. Any crafted weapons using primary ammo will always be the toughest and take the longest to level since players won't need to worry about gathering ammo for them.
After that, the second slowest is anything using Special ammo. This makes leveling sniper rifles like Thoughtless and Beloved particularly tough, as they feel quite slow compared to heavy weapons to level up and they require Special ammo continuously.
Finally, the fastest weapon type to level up is anything using Heavy ammo. Now, don't be fooled: this grind is still extremely long and arduous, but when the same amount of kills are scored with a heavy weapon as with a primary weapon, players will notice their heavy weapon gain more level progress. This is somewhat balanced out with heavy ammo's scarcity, but not entirely.
Masterwork, Enhanced Perk Levels, And Mementos
Screenshot by TheLastJoaquin
Before players start leveling up a weapon, they'll have to know how much leveling they need to do in the first place. Most weapons need to be only leveled up from level 1 to level 16, which is where Enhanced perks are unlocked. When two Enhanced perks are applied to a crafted weapon, it gains the Masterworked golden border.
However, the grind doesn't stop there. After level 20, the Masterworked weapon will also gain a small stat boost on whichever stat the player chose to specialize in while first crafting the weapon. Moreover, if players applied any mementos during the crafting process, they will unlock the memento's shader once the weapon reaches level 30. In other words, players coveting that sweet golden Trials memento have a long grind ahead of them.
To unlock activity trackers on crafted weapons, players will also need to level the weapon until level 20.
Use Mods To Make Leveling Faster
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This one might seem like a no-brainer to some, but it's easy to forget in the grand scheme of things. When players set out to level up their weapon of choice, they can either focus on one or two weapons at a time, which is the easiest as it saves space for mods, or they can level three weapons at a time.
Choosing just one, however, just might be the way. This allows players to specialize all their mods towards that weapon. If, for example, players are leveling up their Forbearance grenade launcher, they can apply a Grenade Launcher ammo finder mod, Grenade Launcher reserves mod, and Grenade Launcher reload mod to make the grinding process a much easier and enjoyable process overall.
Also, if the player is leveling heavy or special crafted weapons, having an Exotic primary in the Kinetic slot like Outbreak Perfected is great as kills with it increase the chance of dropping ammo bricks if the player runs out of ammo.
Complete Activities With Weapons Equipped
One method of earning progress with a weapon is actually not getting kills with a weapon but completing activities. Sure, getting kills will significantly speed up the grind, but if players are looking to level up multiple weapons at a time, simply having a crafted weapon equipped without actually using it is enough.
Whenever they complete an activity with a crafted weapon equipped, whether it was used or not, the weapon will gain a small progress boost towards the next level. This activity could be anything: public events, strikes, gambit, crucible, raids, seasonal activities, dungeons, and so on.
Best Activities To Earn Kills With Crafted Weapons
On top of activity completions, players can speed up the leveling by getting kills with their crafted weapons. For heavy and special weapons, this is probably the fastest way to level them up and there are some community-favorite places to farm for these weapons.
- Shuro-Chi checkpoint in the Last Wish raid: Players have limited time, but this is the ideal place for heavy weapon leveling. Buy a bunch of rally banners and kill all the ads inside with heavy final blows until Shuro-Chi's wipe mechanic. Rinse and repeat.
- Grasp of Avarice loot cave: The opening encounter of the dungeon is perfect for infinite enemy spawns, so long as the player doesn't pick up the engrams on the ground, as they have a timer that can kill them.
- Altars of Sorrow on the Moon: A bit less efficient and mind-numbing, but for those who can't afford rally banners or have no access to Grasp of Avarice, the Altars of Sorrow are a solid place to level up crafted weapons and even catalysts at the same time, thanks to a large number of enemy waves.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Stadia.