Dune: Awakening Update 1.5: Week One on Console, an 80 Million Kill Challenge, and Everything That Changed

Arrakis just got a lot more crowded.

Update 1.5 dropped September 17, consoles went live on September 22, and Funcom is calling it "the new Dune: Awakening." After a week of playing it, that's not just marketing. Single-player is in, combat feels better, the grind got cheaper, and there's a community event running right now that every one of us can help finish.

Here's what you need to know.

Consoles are live, and cross-play is coming later

Dune: Awakening is out on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S alongside PC. You get two modes on console: Performance at 60fps with dynamic 4K, or Quality at 30fps with dynamic 4K. PS5 Pro and Series X push a higher native resolution in Quality mode.

The important part for our crew: cross-play is not in yet. Funcom says it will be added after launch and they'll share details when it's ready. So for now, console players and PC players are on separate servers. If you're trying to squad up with someone on another platform, that's why you can't find them.

Single-player is the real deal

This isn't a watered down offline mode. You get three difficulty presets, or you can tune it yourself: sandstorms, harvest rates, XP, base building limits, item durability, base decay, and how often sandworms and the Coriolis storm show up.

The Deep Desert never resets in single-player, and the Coriolis storm is less destructive. It won't instantly kill you. Funcom also simulates the Landsraad competition and stocks the Exchange with NPC vendors, so the endgame still has something to push against.

One thing to plan around: single-player characters stay in single-player. Official server characters can move to private or self-hosted servers, but not back. So if you want to run with the squad on a server, make that character on a server.

Combat got better, especially if you parry

This is the change nobody's talking about enough. Update 1.5 reworked melee:

The parry window went from 0.25 seconds to 0.33 seconds.
A successful parry with a sword, dagger or dual blades gives you back 10 stamina.
Heavy melee attacks now hit as hard as shield-piercing attacks.
NPC opening attacks are slower, so you can actually read them.
Your core abilities also got three levels each, with shorter cooldowns as you rank them up. Weirding Step, Stunner, Compel, Stop and Crippling Strike all drop to 15 stamina a use, and Deflection now costs 2.5 stamina a second.

If you bounced off Dune's combat at launch because it felt stiff, give it another shot. Blade fights feel like blade fights now.

The grind got cheaper

A few quality of life changes that add up fast:

Crafting and building costs for Aluminum through Plastanium tiers dropped 10 to 25 percent.
Spice Melange is no longer part of the build cost for the Advanced Fabricator and Refinery.
Medium Storage Containers went from 3,500 to 4,000 capacity.
Taxis now cost 500 Solari from social hubs and 150 from tradeposts.
The Lost and Found Landsraad contract now rewards Buggy modules.
And if you're a PvP player, shields now cut incoming damage by 33 percent in PvP.

Launch week bumps (and the fixes)

It wasn't a spotless launch. Funcom pushed four hotfixes between September 19 and September 24. The big ones: a fix for possible progression loss, fixes for the 7X3 errors players hit after the console launch, fixes for database save failures on Steam, and a fallback so the Awakening cutscene quick-time event finishes on its own after 30 seconds if your input doesn't register.

If you hit a wall in the first few days, update and try again. There's a good chance it's already fixed.

Right now: El Sayldam, The Rain of Blood

From September 25 to October 5, Funcom is running a global community challenge. Every NPC anybody kills on any platform counts toward one shared total, and the goal is 80 million kills. Four milestones unlock CHOAM Extension building pieces for everyone:

20 million: CHOAM Extension Floor and Roof
40 million: Wall 01 and Wall 02
60 million: Passageway and Wall 03
80 million: Column and Wall Round Corner
This is a perfect squad night. Grab the crew, pick a camp, and start clearing. Every kill we put up gets the whole community closer to those pieces.

Free stuff you shouldn't miss

Matron's Décor: log in any time between September 17 and October 22 and you get a set of base decorations for free. Takes two minutes. Don't skip it.

Charity streams: from September 22 to 29, Twitch creators are competing as House Atreides or House Harkonnen, and viewers can unlock cosmetic giveaways as the houses gain influence. Funcom is guaranteeing up to $20,000 to charity: water as the milestones fall. Worth having on in the background while you farm.

If you want more cosmetics, the Filmic Archive DLC is out for $9.99, with film-inspired armor like the Caladan Stormcoat, weapons, emotes and 73 Sardaukar building pieces. Totally optional.

What's next

Funcom has a new survival map called The Polar Cap coming later in 2026, with new areas, cold-weather survival mechanics and its own standalone story. They've also said more cosmetics will line up with the release of Dune: Part Three.

What this means for CNC

Dune is one of the games our community actually plays, and this update makes it the easiest it's ever been to jump in. New players can learn in single-player without getting farmed. Returning players get better combat and a cheaper grind. And the Rain of Blood challenge gives all of us a reason to log in together this week.

Check the ops board for Dune runs, and use the Dune page here on the site for the interactive map, the item and crafting database, and the lore library. If you're new to Arrakis, say so in the Discord. Somebody will get you set up with a base spot and a crew.

The spice must flow. So must the kill count. See you in the Deep Desert.

Join the CNC Discord

By CNC Gaming

Sources: all details from Funcom's official Dune: Awakening news feed at duneawakening.com, specifically The New Dune: Awakening Is Here, Console Release Patch Notes, Dune: Awakening and the Filmic Archive DLC Out Now, El Sayldam: The Rain of Blood and Free Cosmetics and Charity Streams. Game content © Funcom.