Dune: Awakening Beginner Tips

Dune: Awakening has a pretty decent onboarding system with a good tutorial system, but the sands of Arrakis are ruthless, especially if you are a solo adventurer. The Shai-hulud is prowling, water is scarce, and there are enemies around every corner.

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Not everything in Arrakis is out to kill you, though, and the game is actually really fun for solo players. Here are our best beginner tips for Dune: Awakening to assist you in braving the sands of Arrakis.

Prioritize Journeys Early

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Dune: Awakening doesn’t function exactly with the usual MMO quest scheme. There isn’t a main quest and side quests per se, instead you have Journeys and Contracts. Both can, and usually do, have story aspects tied to them, but the closest thing to a Main Story you have is the string of Trial Journeys.

These serve as a tutorial for some of the most important aspects in the game, giving you some beginner tips and teaching you the ropes. Crucially, they also unlock important Schematics to aid in your progression, and you cannot unlock them in other ways. We recommend prioritizing them until you reach the second area, or you might find the progression curve a bit weird.

Keep An Eye On “Challenge” Journeys

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They don’t really have a name, but we’re calling them “Challenge” Journeys because that is how they function. As you progress through Dune: Awakening, you will automatically start random Journeys that ask you to craft items and use them, or craft weapons and kill enemies with them. They are not given by anyone and you don’t have to contact anyone to complete them.

Not only can they be useful in helping you figure out what schematics to unlock first, they’re also a steady influx of XP that is usually quite easy to get. Open your Journey tab every once in a while to check if there are any of these Challenges that you can easily complete and you’ll level up much faster.

Don’t Invest Into Your First Base

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One thing that the game does not do well is tell you how temporary your stay is in Hagga Basin South. This area is purely a tutorial zone. We’ve been playing the game for over 20 hours, and there has been no reason to return there since we left. Yet, the game tells you to build a base, without letting you no in advance that you’ll soon be abandoning it.

So don’t make the same mistake we did by investing a ton of time and resources into creating a huge, luscious base just to abandon it a few hours later. Save those resources, time, and creativity for the later zones, which will be your home for at least some time. If you already made an impressive base, you can also craft the Solido Replicator to copy the entire blueprint, but you’ll need to look for a similar spot in the next area to make sure it isn’t clipping through rocks everywhere.

Don’t Underestimate The Shai-Hulud

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For the uninitiated (awaken…), the Shai-Hulud are the worms. You will have seen them on the horizon, or felt them shaking the ground beneath your feet as you ventured into open sand. If you’ve only interacted with them in the first area, though, you might’ve gotten too comfortable.

They get out of the sand slowly, screech for a while, and only then do they start chasing you, giving you plenty of time to escape. Keep in mind two things: they get faster in later areas, much faster; you lose all your loot when you get eaten, permanently. That includes all equipment you are wearing, you will return to Arrakis on your underwear. So don’t get cocky.

Diversify Your Skills

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Dune: Awakening does not utilize a typical class system. Yes, you choose a class to start off with, but there is no benefit in “maining” it or investing all your points into that class tree. One of the best beginner tips we can give is to diversify your skills every time you encounter a new trainer.

The good skills are locked behind advanced trainers, which you will only encounter in later areas, and who require you to complete quest chains to unlock their services. So you’ll have plenty of Skill Points to spare.

Start Saving Water Early

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You’ll start Dune: Awakening permanently dying of thirst. Then, when you equip your first Stillsuit, you’ll get comfortable and feel like you always have enough water. But don’t waste water or blood, start hoarding as much as you can, as early as possible. You’ll need it.

Once you start crafting higher level materials, namely more durable metals like Iron and Steel, you’ll need water to craft them, and a lot of it. Water isn’t exactly hard to come by, especially if you’re into fighting a ton of enemies, but you’ll always need more of it, so don’t waste any, even if you feel like you don’t really need it at the time.

Use Your Sandbike As A Parasol

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As far was we can tell, the game doesn’t explicitly tell you this, but being on a vehicle protects you from the sun, even on the sandbike that doesn’t physically cover you at all. This turns areas with zero shade into safe ones to explore, even during the day.

Simply hop onto your vehicle as soon as the sunburn meter is reaching its cap, let it reset, and keep farming or exploring. It is easier to explore and farm at night, but if you must do it during the day, always keep your sandbike close for that unexplained protection from the Sun.

Save Items You Don’t Use

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In the first hours of Dune: Awakening, you’ll be upgrading items very often. You can get rid of those freely, but don’t make it a habit. You won’t be able to do anything with unused items at first, but you’ll unlock a Recycler later on, which will give them a use.

Save any items made with even remotely useful resources, since you’ll recover part of them when you throw them onto the Recycler. As for any Uniques, keep them until you can sell them off for a decent pay. Despite their name, you can always craft them again if you regret your decision.

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