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Destiny 2 introduced weapon crafting with The Witch Queen expansion, giving players a deterministic avenue of chasing god rolls for some of their favorite weapons. While not all weapons can be crafted, all weapons can drop as Resonance weapons—referred to by some as "red box" weapons.
To craft the perfect weapon, you'll need to level Resonance weapons to extract their essence and the crafted weapon itself to unlock new crafting options. In this short guide, we'll go over how to earn weapon XP, the best weapon XP farm currently, and we'll give a few tips on how to level your Resonance and crafted weapons more quickly.
Updated February 8, 2023, by Charles Burgar: With Lightfall right around the corner, now is the perfect time to get your hands on some craftable weapons and start leveling your favorite guns. We've updated this guide to include accurate XP values for all of Destiny 2's notable activities, how much weapon XP you earn from kills in PvE and PvP, updated our Shuro Chi farm to include some additional tips, and we've added two new XP farms for players that don't own the Forsaken Pack DLC.
How To Earn Weapon XP
Weapon XP is predominately earned by defeating enemies, although it can also be earned by completing activities. XP rates are different between Resonance (red box) weapons and crafted weapons from The Enclave. In general, it'll take longer to level a crafted weapon than a Resonance weapon.
As for XP rates, we have a comprehensive breakdown below. Credit to Reddit user u/Phaazed for finding most of these values:
Free To Play Weapon XP Farming Method: Dares Of Eternity
- Location: Eternity
If you don't own any Destiny 2 DLC and want to level a crafted weapon, you can't beat Dares of Eternity. Dares is a six-player matchmade activity found in the Eternity section in the Director. This activity is packed with dozens of enemies, plentiful powerups, and technically counts as three encounters. Each section of Dares you clear will grant a massive chunk of weapon XP, making it quite easy to level crafted weapons here. Paired with Dares' rotating loot pool, this is a great multipurpose farm for newcomers and veteran players alike.
Casual Weapon XP Farming Method: Grasp Of Avarice
- Encounter: Loot Cave (Grasp of Avarice)
- DLC: Bungie 30th Anniversary
The infamous loot cave is a surprisingly great place to farm kills for crafted and red border weapons, giving you a solid chunk of XP if you don't mind shooting at a cave for minutes at a time. You don't need Rally Banners or any specific subclass here; boot up Grasp of Avarice, clear the surrounding adds, and kill anything that spawns inside the loot cave. Be sure not to grab any Engrams to prevent blowing yourself up.
Compared to Shuro Chi, this is definitely a slower grind but much easier to optimize. Shooting targets inside a cave shouldn't be a large ask for any Destiny 2 player. If you're trying to level a Special or Heavy weapon, you'll want to bring some ammo finder mods and potentially an Exotic Primary to buff ammo drop rates, seeing as this encounter doesn't have Rally Banners available. We recommend this farm if you want to slam out some red border weapons before you go on a crafting spree. For leveling crafted weapons, we find Shuro Chi to be more efficient.
The Fastest Weapon XP Farming Method: Shuro Chi
- Encounter: Shuro Chi (Last Wish)
- DLC: Forsaken Pack
For most players, the fastest weapon XP farm is the Shuro Chi encounter in the Last Wish raid. Despite being tied to a raid, solo players can access this encounter through the raid's "wishing wall" room. Enter the encounter, place a Rally Flag if you're leveling a Special or Heavy, and farm as many kills as possible. Roughly 60-80 enemies spawn in a single run, allowing you to finish a Resonance weapon in a few seconds. Crafted weapons will take roughly one run. Clear the adds near Shuro until enemies stop spawning, then reset the encounter. Rinse and repeat.
If you want to speed this farm up, we highly recommend you play as a Nightstalker Hunter. The Shadowshot: Deadfall Super will tether enemies together and grants weapon XP for each tethered enemy killed. You can clear entire waves from this encounter by landing a tether and firing a few bullets, greatly speeding up leveling. Equip Orpheus Rig and Intellect mods to minimize the downtime of your Super.
How To Access Shuro Chi
Boot up the Last Wish raid. Upon entering the building, you'll hear some dialogue from Riven. When she's done speaking, a pillar on the left-hand wall will open up. Follow the path until you reach an opened door. Instead of going through that door, turn left and follow the path shown in the image gallery above. At the end of the path is a hidden wishing room. Enter the code shown above and step on the central plate to reach Shuro Chi. You'll retain a checkpoint to this encounter until the next weekly reset.
Weapon Leveling Tips
- Defeating tethered targets will grant weapon progress. Consider playing as or with a Nightstalker for faster weapon progress.
- If you're farming playlist activities, equip some Resonance weapons. Each activity clear will grant progress for each Resonance weapon equipped.
- Crafted weapons take quite some time to reach level 20. Farm the Shuro Chi checkpoint or Dares of Eternity to unlock the perks you want quickly, then passively use your weapon until you've unlocked all enhanced trait options.