You probably remember where you were when the game broke. It wasn't a slow burn. It was an absolute explosion of chaos that turned the Tower upside down. If you were playing during the "Funny Guns" weekend in September 2023, you saw the shaping slab Destiny 2 interface become the most powerful tool in the history of the franchise. It wasn't just a bug. It was a total rewrite of what players thought was possible within the engine.
Honestly, it’s kinda wild looking back. Bungie usually keeps a tight lid on the crafting system, but for a few glorious, messy days, the Enclave at Mars became a mad scientist's laboratory. Players figured out that if you lagged your connection just right—usually by capping your frame rate or clogging your bandwidth—you could trick the shaping slab Destiny 2 menu. You’d click on one weapon, frame-shift to another, and suddenly your Aggressive Frame Shotgun was firing like an Auto Rifle. Or, more infamously, your Osteo Striga was shooting literal grenades.
The Mechanics of the Glitch
The community called it the "Crafting Glitch." But technically, it was a UI-to-Logic synchronization error. When you interact with the shaping slab, the game expects a linear path: pick a frame, pick your perks, pay the materials. By forcing the game to process two inputs at once, players were merging the "intrinsic" traits of weapons.
Imagine putting the soul of a high-impact shotgun into the body of an Ammit AR2.
Because the Ammit is an Auto Rifle, it has a massive magazine and a high fire rate. But because it now possessed the shotgun's "Aggressive Frame," every single bullet it fired was actually a spread of twelve pellets. It was a delete button. You could walk into a Grandmaster Nightfall and melt the boss in three seconds. It didn't matter if you were a New Light or a Godslayer; the slab made you a deity.
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Why the Enclave Broke
The Enclave was introduced in the Witch Queen expansion as a way to combat RNG. It was supposed to be the "bad luck protection" for the hardcore player. You grind the red borders, you get the pattern, you build the gun. Simple.
But the shaping slab Destiny 2 system had a fundamental flaw in how it validated weapon archetypes during the assembly process. The server didn't double-check if an "Aggressive Frame" actually belonged on a Pulse Rifle once the transaction started. It just saw a valid transaction and "forged" the weapon.
Bungie’s engineers were likely pulling their hair out.
Typically, when a game-breaking bug happens, the developers disable the problematic item. But you can't just "disable" crafting. It’s a core pillar of the game's economy. Instead, they let it ride for a weekend. It was the "wild west" era of Destiny 2. Trials of Osiris was a literal joke. You either had a "Multishot" weapon or you were dead before you could even see the glint of a sniper scope.
The Legendary "Funny Guns"
What were people actually making? The creativity was staggering.
- The Shotgun-Ammit: This was the entry-level god tier. It took the Aggressive Frame from the Ragnhild-D and slapped it onto the Ammit AR2.
- The Grenade Launcher Bow: Using the Dead Messenger’s intrinsic, people were making bows that fired waves of elemental energy.
- The Sniper-SMG: Ever wanted an SMG that hit with the impact of a 72RPM Sniper? It happened.
There was a specific feeling of dread entering a Crucible match and hearing the sound of a thousand shotguns firing at 450 rounds per minute. It sounded like the game was tearing itself apart. Because it was. The audio engine couldn't even keep up with the number of sound effects being triggered simultaneously.
How Bungie Fixed the Slab
The fix wasn't a single button press. It was a multi-stage surgery.
First, they had to implement a "kill switch" for specific perk combinations. Then, they had to go through every single player’s inventory and basically "reset" any weapon that had illegal traits. If you had an Ammit with a shotgun frame, the game would see that it was invalid and revert it to a standard frame.
Surprisingly, they didn't ban anyone.
In a rare move of solidarity with the community, Bungie acknowledged that it was their mistake. They even released a special emblem later on for everyone who was there to witness the "craftening." It showed that the developers understood the difference between malicious hacking and just having a bit of forbidden fun with a broken menu.
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The Lasting Impact on Weapon Crafting
Since the shaping slab Destiny 2 incident, the crafting system has seen significant backend overhauls. Bungie added more robust "sanity checks" to the Enclave. Now, when you select a frame, the game locks the rest of the UI until that choice is confirmed by the server.
They also shifted the meta.
Post-glitch, there was a realization that "perfect" weapons might actually be making the game too easy. We've seen a move toward "Enhancing" existing world drops rather than just crafting every single gun from scratch. The slab is still there, and it's still vital for things like the Apex Predator or the various Raid weapons, but it’s no longer the only way to get a 5/5 roll.
Shaping Your Destiny: Practical Steps
If you're looking to use the shaping slab effectively today—without the world-ending glitches—you need to be smart about your resources. Resonant Elements are gone, but you still need Glimmer, Enhancement Cores, and sometimes Ascendant Alloys.
Don't waste your Alloys on every weapon. Save them for the "God Tier" stuff. If you're building a Zaouli’s Bane (Harrowed) or an Iterative Loop, those Enhanced perks actually matter. For a random seasonal scout rifle? Just stick to the base perks. The stat bumps from leveling a crafted weapon to level 20 are nice, but they aren't going to win you a 1v3 in Trials by themselves.
Prioritize these patterns first:
- The Call (Final Shape): Currently one of the best sidearms in the game’s history.
- Apex Predator (Last Wish): The reigning king of rocket DPS.
- Commemoration (Deep Stone Crypt): Still the gold standard for Void Machine Guns.
The shaping slab Destiny 2 experience is much more stable now, but the ghost of that weekend still haunts the Enclave. Every time there’s a new patch, players head to Mars, trying to see if they can break the logic again. So far, the slab has held firm.
To maximize your efficiency at the Enclave, always ensure you have a "Deepsight Harmonizer" in your inventory if you’re missing that one final red border. These are rare—usually found in the Season Pass—so don't burn them on weapons that are easily farmable in the current ritual activities. Instead, use them on old Raid weapons or seasonal gear that has been cycled out of the active loot pool. When you finally sit down at the slab, remember that you’re engaging with a piece of Destiny history that once brought the entire game to its knees.
Check your patterns in the "Collections" tab before heading to Mars. There is nothing worse than flying to the Enclave only to realize you’re 4/5 on the progress bar for the gun you wanted to build. Plan your build, check your materials, and then craft.