The final Dune: Awakening newsletter for this year is online, and as one might expect, it’s mostly a retrospective of the year that was in terms of the developing survival sandbox’s reveals and progress, but it does have a couple of noteworthy tidbits for those who want to live in digital Arrakis.
Most of the insight comes in the form of the few questions answered at the bottom of the newsletter, which confirm that dying in the PvP zone of the Deep Desert will mean players will drop their materials but will not lose their equipment. “We want you to be able to recover, learn from your mistakes, and come back stronger and wiser,” Funcom notes. “If you play wisely, you’ll be able to protect the resources you carry and limit your losses. If you do not, other players will have a big payday.”
The Q&A segment also provides a vague bit of insight into the benefits for guilds engaging in the Landsraad: While hard information isn’t handed out since the feature is still being iterated on in closed beta testing, players can expect guilds aligned with major houses to compete in faction vs. faction activities for the chance to vote in game world-wide decrees that may include higher tax rates at Deep Desert settlements or lowered build costs for a week as given examples. The section also confirmed that there will be in-game voice chat and the ability to form small parties.
Speaking of closed beta, the post shares several statistics during testing, like how 68% of player deaths have been at the hands of NPCs and how 1.5M liters of blood was extracted from defeated enemies and living creatures. Yummy. The stat that’s not available is when early access will begin, as Funcom just continues to lean on early 2025 for launch timing.
