Surviving Your First Week on Arrakis: The Dune: Awakening Starter Guide for New and Console Players

A lot of new faces landed on Arrakis this week. Dune: Awakening hit PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on September 22, and Update 1.5 made the whole game friendlier for new players. This is the guide we wish we had on day one.

Decision one: single-player or a server?

Make this call before you get attached to a character, because it matters:

Single-player characters stay in single-player. They can't move to a server later.
Official server characters can play on any official server and can be moved to a private or self-hosted server, but not back.
Private server characters can move to self-hosted servers, but not back.
Bases and vehicles you've backed up come with you when you move.
If you want to play with the CNC crew, make your character on a server. If you just want to learn at your own pace, single-player is great: three difficulty presets or full custom settings for storms, harvest rates, XP, durability, base decay and how often sandworms show up. You can change them any time.

Cross-play isn't in yet. Funcom has confirmed it's coming after launch, with no date. For now, console and Steam players are on separate servers. Xbox and Microsoft Store PC players can play together through Xbox Play Anywhere.

Your first hours

Stay on rock. Running and jumping on open sand draws worms. Hop from rock to rock.
Travel when it's cool. Sun exposure is a real threat.
Grab plant fiber for healkits, scrap metal, and power and fuel cells as you go.
Collect Intel at outposts. It's how you research new tech.
Update 1.5 improved the tutorials, including a new one explaining what happens when you die. Don't skip them.

Water is life

Water management is the whole game early on:

Dew Reaper: harvest the blue-glowing plants in rocky, shaded areas. The best time is just before dawn, when the clock turns blue. Store it in Literjons.
Blood Extractor and Blood Purifier: pull blood from corpses and purify it into water. Carry at least two blood sacks.
Windtrap: your first passive water source for the base. It needs filters and power.
Stillsuit: passive moisture while you move. Stilltents collect while you rest.
The exact numbers on these predate Update 1.5, so check the in-game tooltips.

Your first base

Keep it small. A 2x3 footprint on rock is plenty to start. You need a Sub-Fief Console (claims the land), a Fabricator, a Blood Purifier, a generator and storage.

For power, the Fuel-Powered Generator gets you going, then move up to Wind Turbines, and eventually the Spice-Powered Generator late game. Update 1.5 bumped Medium Storage Containers from 3,500 to 4,000 capacity and pulled Spice Melange out of the build cost for the advanced fabricators, chemical refinery and augmentation station.

Back it up. The Base Reconstruction Tool saves your whole base, including storage contents, and lets you rebuild it. In Hagga Basin South the cooldown is now zero. Pieces placed on natural rock aren't saved, so keep that in mind. The Vehicle Backup Tool does the same for one vehicle.

Crafting tiers

You'll work up through Salvage, Copper, Iron, Steel, Aluminum, Duraluminum and Plastanium. Steel needs carbon ore, Aluminum and Duraluminum need a Medium Ore Refinery, and Plastanium comes from Deep Desert materials. Update 1.5 cut crafting and building costs for Aluminum through Plastanium tiers by 10 to 25 percent.

Vehicles

Sandbike: unlocked through the "Across the Gap" journey. Your first ride.
Buggy: Steel tier, 15 Intel, seats four.
Treadwheel: Aluminum tier, draws less worm attention.
Scout Ornithopter: Aluminum tier, 30 Intel.
Assault Ornithopter: Duraluminum tier, 45 Intel.
Sandcrawler and Carrier Ornithopter: Plastanium tier, 60 Intel.
You assemble every vehicle with a welding torch.

Don't get eaten

Worms are attracted by walking on sand, vehicles (ornithopters included), shields and suspensors, cutterays, combat and thumpers. Watch the vibration meter: white or yellow is fine, orange means a worm knows you're there, red means get off the sand now. In an ornithopter, climb.

If you do get eaten, you lose everything you're carrying. Your Vehicle Backup Tool and quest items are safe, and the first time it happens you get a free replacement sandbike.

The endgame, briefly

Hagga Basin is fully PvE, shipwrecks included.
The Deep Desert runs as both a PvE and a PvP instance on every official world. The PvP side pays 2.5 times the mining and harvesting yield. Building in the Deep Desert costs 50 percent less.
The Landsraad now runs on missions across crafting, gathering, exploration, combat and sabotage, so you can compete in the endgame without ever fighting another player. It unlocks at Faction Rank 5.
Taxis are now 500 Solari to social hubs and 150 to tradeposts.

Console setup

On PS5 and Series X you get Performance (60fps, dynamic 4K) or Quality (30fps, dynamic 4K). PS5 Pro and Series X push a higher native resolution in Quality. Series S has one 60fps mode. The Standard edition is $49.99, Deluxe $69.99 and Ultimate $89.99, and it's on Game Pass.

Free stuff right now

Matron's Décor: log in before October 22 for a free set of base decorations.
El Sayldam, The Rain of Blood: a community challenge through October 5. Every NPC kill counts toward 80 million, unlocking CHOAM Extension building pieces for everyone.
Steam has the game 50 percent off until October 8.

Coming later this year

The Polar Cap, a free update with a new icy survival map, new cold-weather mechanics, resources and its own storyline.

Find your crew

Arrakis is brutal alone. If you're new, say so in the Discord and check the ops board for Dune runs. Somebody will help you find a base spot, show you where the water is, and keep you off the open sand.

By CNC Gaming

Sources: Funcom: The New Dune: Awakening Is Here; Funcom: Console Release Patch Notes; Funcom: Console launch and Filmic Archive DLC; Funcom: El Sayldam challenge; Funcom: Base Reconstruction Tool blog; Level Infinite console launch; MMORPG.com: console specs; awakening.wiki: Sandworm; awakening.wiki: Landsraad Missions; KeenGamer beginner's guide; Method.gg water guide; Method.gg power guide; GamesRadar vehicles guide. Game content © Funcom.