As a tribute to Rafal Broda and as a celebration of his sixtieth birthday, this short review examines the progress in techniques for in-beam nuclear spectroscopy of weak channels. Illustrative examples will be taken from studies of heavy octupole nuclei and deformed superheavy nuclei, in which various reaction mechanisms have been employed. Future perspectives will also be presented.

PACS numbers: 21.10.-k, 23.20.Lv, 23.20.Nx, 23.60.+e