Mastering Your Arsenal: A Comprehensive Guide to Masterworking Weapons

Masterworking weapons in games, like Destiny 2, is a crucial step in optimizing your character’s power and effectiveness. It’s a system designed to enhance your favorite gear, pushing them beyond their base capabilities. But the process isn’t always straightforward, as different weapon types follow distinct paths to mastery. Let’s dive into how you can masterwork your weapons, including Legendary, Exotic, and Crafted variants.

Understanding Masterworking Fundamentals

The core concept of masterworking is to take an already powerful weapon and elevate it further, granting it additional benefits. These enhancements typically include stat boosts, extra perks, a stylish golden border, and often, a kill tracker to show off your prowess. The process varies depending on the weapon’s type, but the goal remains the same: maximizing its potential.

Masterworking Legendary Weapons

For Legendary weapons, the process involves a tiered upgrade system. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Inspect the Legendary Weapon: Open your inventory and select the weapon you wish to masterwork.
2. Hover Over the Tier Slot: Locate the tier slot on the weapon’s details panel.
3. Upgrade: Select the next upgrade tier from the menu. This increases the weapon’s tier by 1.
4. Repeat: Continue upgrading the weapon tier by tier until you reach Tier 10. Upon reaching Tier 10, your Legendary weapon is considered masterworked.

This upgrade process requires resources, specifically Masterwork Cores and Legendary Shards. It typically takes 10 Masterwork Cores and 25 Legendary Shards to fully masterwork a Legendary weapon.

Masterworking Exotic Weapons

Exotic weapons follow a different path to masterworking, primarily revolving around the acquisition and application of their specific Catalysts. Here’s how:

1. Catalyst Acquisition: The first step is obtaining the weapon’s unique Catalyst. This usually involves completing specific in-game activities or challenges, like getting a certain number of kills with that weapon. The most common quest asks for 500 kills.
2. Complete the Catalyst Objective: Complete the objective required by the catalyst.
3. Apply the Catalyst: Once the objective is met, inspect the weapon again. Hover over the Exotic Catalyst slot. Hold the interact button to “apply” the Catalyst.
4. Masterworked Exotic: Applying the Catalyst officially masterworks the Exotic weapon, granting it additional stats or perks.

It’s important to note that Exotic Catalysts are unique to each weapon, and their effects vary significantly. This makes masterworking Exotics a crucial step in maximizing their unique potential.

Masterworking Crafted Weapons

Crafted weapons offer a different layer of customization and masterworking. You can choose the masterwork perk at weapon level 7 when you choose the weapon frame. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Weapon Level: You need to level up your crafted weapon by using it in combat.
2. Unlock Masterwork Slot: At weapon level 7, the option to select a Masterwork perk becomes available.
3. Stat Bonus: Once you reach level 20 with the weapon, it receives +2 to all other stats.
4. Enhanced Perks: Masterworking crafted weapons unlocks enhanced versions of their perks, boosting their effectiveness further.

This system rewards players for using their crafted weapons frequently, turning them into formidable tools with personalized enhancements. It makes them comparable to Adept weapons and their stat boosts when masterworked.

The Benefits of Masterworking

Masterworking isn’t just about bragging rights; it offers tangible benefits that significantly impact your gameplay experience. Here are the key advantages:

• Stat Boosts: Masterworked weapons receive increased stats, improving their damage output, handling, stability, and more.
• Enhanced Perks: Crafted weapons gain access to enhanced versions of their perks, increasing their functionality.
• Kill Tracker: Show off your mastery with a kill tracker that tallies your eliminations.
• Orb Generation (Context Dependent): While masterworked weapons no longer generate Orbs of Power by default, you can use weapon mods that serve a similar purpose.
• Golden Border: A purely cosmetic upgrade, but a cool indicator of your hard work.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What materials do I need to masterwork weapons in Destiny 2?

Masterworking Legendary weapons typically requires 10 Masterwork Cores and 25 Legendary Shards. Masterworking Exotic armor costs 24,000 Glimmer, 5 Enhancement Cores and Prisms, and 3 Ascendant Shards.

2. Do all masterwork weapons drop orbs?

Masterwork weapons do not inherently generate Orbs of Power in Destiny 2. You can equip specific mods to achieve a similar effect.

3. Can you masterwork armor?

Yes, in addition to weapons, you can masterwork armor. Masterworked armor gives +2 points to each stat, adding up to a significant boost.

4. Is it worth it to masterwork weapons?

Absolutely. Masterworking provides significant stat boosts, enhanced perks (on crafted weapons), and a kill tracker, substantially enhancing your weapon’s performance.

5. How do you get Ascendant Shards?

Ascendant Shards can be acquired through various activities, such as completing Nightfall Strikes, or by completing specific quests and bounties.

6. What’s the fastest way to level up a crafted weapon in Destiny 2?

One of the fastest methods for gaining weapon experience is Shuro-Chi, a boss in the Last Wish Raid. It allows for quick access and endless enemies.

7. What happens if I infuse a masterwork weapon?

If you infuse a masterworked weapon into another weapon of the same type, the new weapon will become masterworked as well.

8. What is the best weapon for a masterwork?

There isn’t a single “best” weapon for masterworking. It depends on your preferred playstyle and build. Masterworking turns any weapon into a more powerful tool.

9. Can you masterwork a legendary weapon?

Yes. Legendary weapons can be upgraded to Masterworks by progressing through tiers using Masterwork Cores and Legendary Shards.

10. How do you put a masterwork on a crafted weapon?

Crafted weapons gain a masterwork slot at level 7. The perks are chosen when crafting. They gain a +2 stat bonus to each stat at level 20.

11. What do you get if you dismantle a masterwork legendary?

Dismantling a masterwork legendary weapon or armor provides 6 enhancement prisms, as well as other materials.

12. Do masterwork weapons have a golden border?

Yes, one of the cosmetic rewards of masterworking is a golden border around the weapon’s icon.

13. Is exotic gear better than legendary gear?

Not always. Exotic gear is more specialized and beneficial to certain builds, while legendary gear is more general. Each has a specific purpose within the game.

14. Can you get triple 100 stats with masterwork armor?

Yes, masterworked armor can help you achieve triple 100 stats. Focus on armor with high stat spikes, especially in your preferred stats like discipline.

15. Can you repair masterwork armor?

While masterwork armor doesn’t “break” it does degrade over time, and if it reaches broken it will need to be repaired, which costs coins.

Conclusion

Masterworking weapons is a vital part of enhancing your Guardian’s strength in games like Destiny 2. Whether you’re upgrading a Legendary, completing a catalyst for an Exotic, or customizing a Crafted weapon, the rewards are well worth the effort. By understanding the mechanics of masterworking and optimizing your resources, you can push your favorite weapons to new heights, making you a truly formidable force.