How to Upgrade Crafted Weapons to Tier 5 in Destiny 2

Checked October 21, 2026.

If your favourite crafted weapon has been sitting in the vault, you don’t need to make it again to bring it up to Tier 5. Older crafted Legendaries can use the upgrade system too. Keep the copy you already have.

There are two parts to the job: upgrade its Gear Tier in the weapon’s inventory screen, then return to the Relic to choose the enhanced components. Leveling the weapon prepares it for those steps. The final milestone is Weapon Level 30.

In this guide

• Get your weapon ready
• Apply the Gear Tier upgrades
• Finish the weapon at the Relic
• Where you’ll spend materials
• If something is still missing
• If you haven’t crafted the weapon yet

Get your weapon ready

Take the crafted copy you want to upgrade and work toward Level 30. You can earn levels by using it and completing activities with it equipped, or spend materials on Weapon Level Boost. Already past Level 30? You can skip the leveling and go straight to the tier upgrades.

You don’t have to save every upgrade for the end. Earlier tiers open along the way, so a weapon you’re still leveling can gain enhanced options before it reaches 30. These milestones use the weapon’s own level, not your Guardian’s Power:

Apply the Gear Tier upgrades

Open your crafted weapon and go to Weapon Level Boost. Apply the available Gear Tier upgrades as you meet their requirements, continuing until the weapon reaches Tier 5.

The slightly confusing part is that weapon level and Gear Tier aren’t the same number. Level 30 gets the weapon ready; applying the upgrades raises its tier.

Once the tiers are applied, head to the Relic. That’s where you choose what goes on the weapon.

Finish the weapon at the Relic

At the Relic in the Enclave, choose Reshape and select your existing weapon. Shape would make a new copy, which isn’t what you came here to do.

Pick the enhanced traits in the left and right perk columns, the components such as barrels and magazines, and the Origin Trait you want from the available options. Unlocking them doesn’t automatically replace the ones you had selected. You can also use this visit to change to another perk combination offered by the weapon’s crafting menu.

One detail is easy to miss: the extra tier-based stat bonus needs an Enhanced Intrinsic. Select that too.

Before confirming, review the perks and material costs. If you want to preserve most of your old setup, a screenshot of it before reshaping can save you from changing something you meant to keep. Afterward, open the weapon once more to see that your chosen components are equipped. You’ve upgraded the copy you started with, without rebuilding it from scratch.

Where you’ll spend materials

The crafted Gear Tier upgrades have no material charge listed in the current item data. You still need to meet their weapon-level requirements before applying them.

Level boosts and Reshape can still cost materials, so read those costs before confirming. The amount of work left depends on your starting point: a Level 30 copy already meets the last level requirement, while a freshly shaped weapon still needs levels. Playing with the weapon lets you earn those levels instead of buying them.

There isn’t one useful total to quote for every weapon and setup. Your starting level and the components you choose matter more than a blanket claim that the whole upgrade is “free.”

If something is still missing

Tier 5 is showing, but your barrel or Origin Trait is unchanged. Go back to Reshape and look at the selected component. The inventory upgrade opened the enhanced options; the Relic is where you equip them. You don’t need another copy just because an ordinary component is still selected.

The extra stat bonus isn’t there. Look at the Intrinsic before changing the rest of the build. The tier-based bonus requires an Enhanced Intrinsic, even when you’ve already taken care of the other components.

You can’t find the expected upgrade at all. First make sure you opened your crafted copy rather than a random drop with the same name. Then look at the requirement shown for the upgrade. If it still won’t appear or apply, note the weapon name, level, tier, and exact message before seeking help. Dismantling the weapon isn’t a useful first fix: its age alone doesn’t disqualify it.

For a Raid Adept, first check whether it supports Reshape. The comparable Adept route is limited to those weapons; the Adept name by itself isn’t enough.

If you haven’t crafted the weapon yet

The route above starts with an existing crafted Legendary. If you’ve unlocked its Pattern but never made it, choose Shape at the Relic, then level that new copy.

Still collecting the Pattern? That comes first. Claiming Deepsight from an eligible red-border weapon, or dismantling it, grants Pattern progress. It doesn’t turn that particular drop into a crafted weapon. For raid Patterns, a raid run with a Deepsight Chest is one way to get help collecting drops, where that add-on is available for your chosen raid. An existing crafted copy skips this part entirely. If crafting itself is new to you, The Witch Queen’s free introductory missions introduce the system.

A random-roll weapon is a different project. For eligible weapons already in the Gear Tier system, raising the tier does not add extra perk choices to the columns, so it won’t supply a missing perk you were hoping to roll.