Dune: Awakening Base-Building: A Home on Arrakis, Sandworms Included

Somewhere on Arrakis — the digital one, the one that runs on servers rather than in Frank Herbert's imagination — a player is bolting together a base out of scavenged metal and sheer stubbornness while something enormous rumbles beneath the dunes like a very large, very irritated subway train. That, in a nutshell, is Dune: Awakening, Funcom's survival MMO, and by 2026 it is no longer a promise whispered over a cinematic trailer. It's a place people genuinely live. Sort of. When the worms don't eat them first. 🪱

Funcom's early first look at the game's base-building set the tone for everything that followed. The pitch was simple enough: claim a patch of land in the open world, hammer together a first base, and then slowly turn that desperate little hovel into something that says "I have water, and I'm not afraid to use it."

Claiming Your Slice of Extremely Hot Real Estate

In the early game, players snag a spot of land out in the open world and craft their first base. More advanced upgrades unlock as they progress, and there are plenty of options for decorating the interior — with "distinct visual styles" arriving later for anyone who fancies themselves a Fremen-flavoured interior designer.

Who knew that colonising a death world would come with a soft-furnishings phase? 🛋️

The progression ladder is less about building a palace and more about building something that survives the week. Or the hour, depending on how confident a player is feeling.

Shields Up, Sandworms Down

If living out in the deep desert were easy, everyone would do it. It isn't. Deadly sandstorms roll through, and giant sandworms patrol the sand like bouncers at the galaxy's worst nightclub. Defences — shields very much included — are not optional extras. They are the difference between a thriving homestead and a very expensive pile of sand.

Funcom has stressed repeatedly that Dune: Awakening is a survival game first, which means players spend an uncomfortable amount of time hunting for water, hiding from the sun, and chasing the most valuable substance in the universe: spice. Thriving, it turns out, is a group project.

Water Is Money, Spice Is Better Money

Thousands of players share a single server, collaborating and competing for dominance. That mixture has produced the usual MMO chemistry: alliances, betrayals, trade deals signed over voice chat at 2 a.m., and at least one guild that has definitely built its base in a terrible spot on purpose just to make a point.

So what actually keeps a desert settlement alive? A short and slightly grim checklist:

• 💧 Water — harvest it, hoard it, and never mention how much you have

• 🌡️ Shelter — because the sun on Arrakis has opinions

• 🌶️ Spice — the currency, the obsession, the reason everyone is here

• 🛡️ Shields — for storms, worms, and other players with ambition

• 🏠 Walls — ideally ones that stay up when the sand starts moving

An Alternate Timeline Where Some People Live Longer

Funcom made a clever narrative choice: Dune: Awakening unfolds in an alternate timeline rather than following the novels beat for beat. That means players can team up with major characters such as Leto Atreides — a man who dies in the first half of the original novel — and swear allegiance to the universe's various political factions. It's fan service with a straight face, and honestly, it works.

Visually, the game leans heavily on the look established by Denis Villeneuve's recent Dune films, all bleached horizons and brutal architecture. It is a very handsome apocalypse.

From Closed Beta to a Desert Full of Neighbours

Back when the base-building reveal landed, Funcom had just wrapped the game's first closed beta in December 2023, with more tests promised for early 2024. Nobody knew the release date. Fast-forward to 2026, and the picture is rather different: the game launched, servers filled up, and the conversation shifted from "when?" to "why is my neighbour's shield generator blocking my view?"

The wider Dune universe has been busy too. Dune: Spice Wars left early access and carved out its own strategic niche, Paul Atreides and Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen turned up as guest operators in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone, and Dune: Part Two hit cinemas in March 2024 before Villeneuve started circling a third film adapting Dune: Messiah. The spice, as ever, flows everywhere.

Which raises the obvious question: does anyone actually enjoy living on Arrakis? The sand tries to kill you, the wildlife tries to eat you, and the neighbours are absolutely watching your water supply. And yet players keep logging in, keep rebuilding after every storm, and keep decorating their bunkers like they're expecting guests.

Maybe that's the point. Surviving somewhere hostile is only half the story — making it feel like home is the other half. Funcom simply handed everyone a shovel, a shield generator, and a very large desert. 🌵