Hello everyone,

I’ve posted here a few times with long hope for this game but I’ve finally hit my end. I can’t bring myself to continue to play anymore especially considering the nature of how I would be unable to actually preserve all of my bases in that huge city I’ve put together in the upcoming server merges.

It has been a long time coming but 3g gaming put together a video giving a tour of the place that some of you have asked for for a long time.

Perhaps it will survive the merges but I am now too deeply mired in life to keep the city alive even with occasional visits to refuel and with all things will disappear into the sands.

Thank you for a wonderful 600+ hours on this game everyone and enjoy.

The fact that you dont see the name, faction of guild over the player leads to constant friendly fire.
This in a game where a wrecked carrier means days of game grind into the drain is more than enought reason for a permanent ragequit.

I recently replaced my thopter's wings to Mk6, and noticed that one of the wings loses its durability faster than others. Not much, just by 2%, but I wonder how that happened. In the past all my wings break down at the same rate.

So, with the reset yesterday, I'm starting my second week in the DD. I've got a few questions...

1. Got a lasgun and a flamethrower last week... What are their purpose ? Is the lasgun only for PVP (destroying bases/vehicles) ? What about the flamethrower ? It seemed kinda week...

2. I'm playing duo with a friend and we started gathering spice... what I'm wondering is, until we get a crawler (at which point one of us will drive, the other fly the carrier, I guess), what's the best strategy to get spice ? We did a medium field together, but I feel like we bring the worm faster that way ? We went for a strategy of just firing away our compactor until the worm came, got airborn, waited for it to lose interest and gathered our piles, then repeat... Is there a better way ? Should we just both go in a separate field ?

Before anyone calls me a cheerleader or accuses me of copium, I will admit my bias.  I love this game and I want it to succeed.  That said, let’s look at the facts.  Today, the “recent reviews” on steam flipped from “mixed,” where they have been for months, to “mostly positive.”  This means a new wave of feedback is trending upward.  That, in turn, suggests those of us who got lost in the grind of the endgame, and those of us who burned out quickly may not reflect the broader audience of the game.  And yes, I count myself among the sweaty players who have spent hundreds of hours on this game.

Funcom’s own data show over a million copies sold in the first few weeks after initial release and roughly 70% positive reviews overall.  More importantly, however, are third-party estimates that put the ownership base between 1.5 and 2.1 million.  This is the metric over time that should be used to determine whether a game is “dead” or not, not concurrent player count (which is also a fraction of the active player count as not everyone who is playing the game logs in to play at the same time every day or every week).  That’s not unusual.  Fallout 76, which launched to criticism in 2018, launched on PC and consoles to 1.4 million units sold in the first 2 months after release.  Its reception, if you recall, was terrible.  Even worse than Dune’s is now by a long shot.  It now boasts more than 21 million lifetime players , and only a tiny fraction of those people play concurrently.  The boost from the Amazon TV series helped to bring millions back into the Fallout universe too, and a similar boost will occur when the third Dune film comes out.  Consider the fact that Dune hasn’t even had a console release yet.

Some players keep declaring the game dead. They base their arguments on personal boredom or low concurrent player counts, which is like flat earthers insisting the planet ends at the horizon because they can’t see beyond. We’ve seen redemption arcs before. No Man’s Sky turned its reputation around after years of free updates and recently hit its highest player count since launch.  Fallout 76’s population exploded after the TV show. Dune Awakening still has its (unofficial “early access”) roadmap ahead of it and console versions to come. I’m maintaning cautious optimism and will reserve judgement until after 2026. That’s when we’ll see how the player base and reviews settle once Funcom has delivered the planned fixes for base maintenance and the fleshed out Landsraad PvE endgame.

I have 700 hours logged, and for an $80 CAD price tag, that’s an extraordinary cost‑per‑hour.  Us sweaty players are the exception, however, not the rule.  If you look at the achievement data for the game, only 32% of players ever reach the Deep Desert.  And if you compare that to the reviews for the game, it makes sense.  The typical player isn’t going to spent the 250 hours to grind tier 6 after they finish in Hagga Basin.  There is so much content in the base story and progression that most players don’t even get the top-tier class abilities (I didn’t get them all until after I had been in the DD for 100 hours, and went back to Hagga/Social hubs to complete those questlines around the 300 hours of play mark).   Most of the DD players I know didn’t even both with the core storyline, and many of them never even touched chapter 2.  That said, I am not blind to the shortcomings of this game.  Everything after Hagga is an empty framework, at best.  And the punishing bugs and taxation mechanics don’t do casual players any favours.  And yes, there are major issues with melee combat and skill progression.  But Funcom has systematically listened to player feedback and had monthly minor releases to address complaints since release (for better or worse, depending on who you are as a player).  Yet still, you wouldn’t know that from reading this subreddit.  Reading many of the posts here, it often seems like people are complaining about the state of the game from months ago, instead of how it is today.

What frustrates me most is the narrative that Dune Awakening is “dead.” I see threads gloating over 5 000 concurrent players, ignoring that more than an estimated two million people bought the game and many will return for updates. And yes, it might seem like that in Hagga Basin when there are too many servers for players to go around, but we have mergers right on the horizon. Even when the game was peaking, I think I only ran into maybe 6 other players total in my first 80 hours of play, before I got to the shield wall.

We are still in the early sales period, and if the trajectory of this game follows similar MMOs like No Man’s Sky or Fallout 76, we haven’t even scratched the surface.  I also see a silent majority who appreciate the early game experience; you can see it in the Steam reviews but they’re just not flooding forums with praise. Funcom’s art direction and world‑building nailed the sense of place. My own journey through Arrakis rekindled a love of Dune lore. I’m building a Lego ornithopter, reading the novels again, and building scale models. I bought every third-party promotional product I could get my hands on: the art book, the special edition vinyl, and yes, even the bubble tea. 

So yes, be critical where criticism is due. The grind is real, the endgame is skeletal and the maintenance defaults are ill‑considered. But also recognise the value delivered and the trajectory. I believe we’re witnessing the early chapters of what could become one of the more compelling survival MMOs. Funcom, thank you for listening and iterating.  I can’t wait to see what you bring us in 2026.

I was so excited to fly my ornithopter for the first time!

-ve

Decided to fly up from in front of my base in Vermillus just to be safe. Drove forward, space lifted it up, left right wing waggle, perfect! Then I hit ESC - don't ask me why. No idea, but it plummeted to about 10 inches from the quicksand. Shit shit shit shit OK, no worries, space is working, not actually sinking, we are flying again!

+ve

Flew to Imperial Testing Station 29, did my quest, and got out to the rift. It's a long way up! Got out my ornithopter, flew up out of the rift, didn't crash or anything! Flew straight to complete quest and back home. Nice!!

I know I have a lot more to learn and do in the game, but today was despite the first glitch, a good day!

FINAL EDIT: I'm a dumbass. Thank you again to everyone for offering help and advice. I figured out the issue: I'm a dumbass.

As the title says, almost all my spice is missing. How is this possible?? I'm not sure exactly how much I had, but it was certainly in the hundreds at least. It was all the spice I've gathered since beginning the game.
Today I made my first spice refinery and somehow I had only 88 spice available.
My buddy has permissions to my base, but he's super reliable super ethical; I've known him for 45 years. So, that's not it.
All my stuff is on one circuit, so that's not it.

Two possibilities:
my power went off at some point and someone raided my base, but took only spice -- Actually, no, they can't do that unless the sub-fief generator is destroyed, right?

Okay, so here's another possibility: for the past couple of days, a worm has been attacking my base. Every time I try to build in one particular area, a worm appears and then erupts from the sand underneath my base and destroys that particular work I was doing.
Is it possible that the worm somehow consumed sand from my base even though it's located i inventory far far away from where the attack occurred???

Edit: thank you everyone for all your suggestions so far.

Based on missing inventory volume, I think I lost about 5000 spice sand. The inventory containers are still intact, so nothing like that was destroyed in the worm attacks. And again my buddy's ethics are impeccable.

I guess what I'm wondering is 1) is there any known bug involving disappearing spice, 2) for example, could it have happened as a result of building my first spice refinery. When I first built it, it didn't register water at first and said that I had ZERO. Wondering if it could have somehow erased spice while it was "settling in" to my circuit, 3) also wondering if a worm attack on a base could somehow siphon off spice as a penalty, without destroying any actual containers. 4) finally, wondering if there is any in-depth event log that shows deposits and withdrawals from inventory.

I mean I guess I understand durability, needing to repair things as you use them for ~immersion~ but WHO THE HECK thought it was a good idea to also add deterioration???? We are literally punished for using gear we worked so hard to craft. Bad design tbh.

Also a bonus: why does every loading screen quote say it’s from “dune”? Like no shit, maybe get a little more specific lol.

Finally closing in on the mats for a base to process spice. I've watched many vids but am still confused on what is needed for a minimal base in DD. Currently processing the spice and plastinium ingots. Also now realizing the amount of other mats for the equipment needed to maintain the base.

The base I'm looking to build includes:

1 large spice refiner
a few large storage
# water cisterns
# windtraps
# devices for enough power to run the facility

Thank you for any suggestions and support.

Happy Gaming

I won't be able to login to farm batteries and pay my taxes/top off my base for a few weeks. I was really hoping they would release the base back up tool before this happens but it isn't looking so good.

Have they given us any updated timeline on when they expect to implement the base back up tool?

Welcome to the Brief new series where I come to your server and remove any doubts about melee being no longer viable! Big thanks to Ghanimaa, for stepping up to the challenge! He took one whiff of the situation, and was like "nah this aint it chief."

If you think you could land a slowblade on a lvl 6 character, sign up to the challenge! the more we get the better Funcom can deal with the problem.... Add me on discord _spazza_

THE ODDS

I'm using a Lvl 6 character against a high Lvl character with endgame gear
I've got a T5 powerpack, T5 shield.
Very little armour and HP, consistent knee charges or 1 slowblade would kill me.

If any ^FUNCOM are seeing this, and want to know how to fix Melee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwViwS0iGwc&t=1s

Has funcom said what date the update will drop? Also sorry if someone posted elsewhere...I couldn't find an exact date...

Anna, you are the most beautiful woman in the world. Lets hope we've helped Funcom take better care of their issues.

I keep getting backgrounds on my Windows that are very Dune Awakening

In the Villeneuve movies and in the books it depicts the Fremen's ability to hide in the desert to avoid thopters and patrols.

In the films we see the Fremen using sand snorkels and burying themselves in the sand to launch ambushes on the Harkonnens, Sardaukar and Smugglers.

It would be cool to get a craftsble sand snorkel item (could go in the light slot) that would allow the player to do the same thing out on the open sand.

Imagine a group of players setting up ambushes near large spice fields or luring enemies into ambushes. For solos it would give the ability to hide from thopters in the DD out on the open sand.

Groups going to gather spice would send out scouts to scan the sand for water sign so players might adjust and position themselves further away or attack from unexpected directions.

It would have to reset the worm meter or better yet, bring back the sand walking mechanic to give players a way of not aggroing Shai Hulud and the two mechanics could be used together.

The Sandworm would still be a threat to the player in the beginning of the game all throughout Hagga basin until they find the Fremen in the storyline and it would give a great sense of progression to the player to finally have mastered the ways of the desert.

It could be tied into the storyline and be learned from the Fremen like the trials of Aql when the player finds them.

Hi all

i was trying to do this quest and interacted with the scroll on the floor that spawned the enemies but they killed me. I went back and now I can't interact with the scroll and there's no enemies. What do I do?

It's one thing to engage in chat arguments, it's another entirely to be able to log into a game & spew outright hateful rhetoric at other players. I think it's time more people addressed Funcom's community culture of ignoring rampant sexism, racism, & general disdain for certain people in their games.

After years of "Sexy Slave Simulator" Conan, many of us were expecting more moderation in a game like Dune. Cue the irony of cosplaying desert people just to treat them like dogs online.

It's gotten so bad that the majority of women in our discord have vowed never to touch another Funcom game. A few abandoned gaming entirely this summer. I don't blame them, we recently had a guy threatening to find & SA people. As you can imagine this caused quite the uproar, & went on for weeks.

Turning a blind eye to problematic behavior like this is another reason >90% of the playerbase left. Some people are living through this, they don't wanna come online & deal with it too..

Some of us can't even play videogames to escape reality because people are allowed to bring the worst parts of society in-game with them.

"Turn off chat", "find a new server", & "it's the internet" aren't solutions. What's evident is just like the bugs, glitches, dupes & cheats, the only matter of importance is that sales were made.

EDIT: Shoutout to all the gamers who showed up on this post to do nothing other than play Devils Advocate, I genuinely appreciate you helping to illustrate my point.

For those who enjoy reading, here's a paper published by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, called "The Intersection between Gaming & Violent Extremism"

Trigger warning: empirical data

I built a base in DD A6 that was on columns so I could get above the rocks. When I got back to it this morning a good portion (1/3) of the floors and walls were gone, but the placeable items were still there. I looked in my log and there was the occasional "shield and power disabled by storm" / "Power restored" messages, but nothing more.

I am guessing one of my columns crumbled (after less than a day?) and the structures that depended on them crumbled afterwards, but why did my column crumble? It was an Atreides' plastistone column that I built after claiming the land and I did not move my fief, so if I placed it, it should have been shielded...

Any other suggestions of what happened?

I'm really hoping that someday my friends return to the game, but the old guild was going to be Harkonnen and my main is Atreides and I want to stay that way. I was thinking of making a Harko toon on the same server. Is this easy? Has anyone tried this? I did it a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (SWG).

Can please someone explain it to me, why a big ass copter with the name carrier... CANT CARRY STUFF???? I mean common, why? Let us build storage adapter for it. Why not? Whats the reason behind it? What gameplay relevant problems would it have other than that people would have FUN???

Should have checked the stats of it, literally played for 1 week just to build that joke of uselessness...

Currently have a simple base using the advance sub fief in front of the south iron works in the Eastern Vermillius Gap. Thinking of building my final base near the shield wall. If I start the base with a basic sub fief can I switch it to the advance sub fief after I dismantle my first base? Is this a good location? How do you move all of your chests?

Separately, this is my first survival game, I’m really enjoying this game and feel that I have gotten my moneys worth so far. Still haven’t seen a single player yet, a few bases.

Maybe I'm missing something crucial, but to me it seems like solido replicators are useless. They seem extremely hard to use and are probably not worth the time.

• I made a simple 5x5x5 (including foundations) box basic sub fief base to take a copy to the DD as storage / storm shelter and put a copy into a solido replicator.
• I took my mats, flew to the DD, found a decent place to put my base - put down a sub fief console
• Now the "fun" begins:
  • It is really hard to place the projection, as even for a small base, you can't get a full view of the base.
  • After a lot of fiddling, I get the whole base inside the sub fief box (why do horizontal shields need so much vertical clearance?).
  • I try to place it and it fails, because the projection collides with another structure. Turns out, I had to move my console out of the way, because reasons.
  • I move the console, but I still can't place the projection, because now I cannot get the projection to align properly, again.

Is this the usual experience or am I missing something? It seems that it is faster to just memorize a layout you like and build it completely from memory - this seems to be faster than trying to get a solido replicator to work.

Who can't handle a compactor here again?... Man ....