Live-service games always reach occasional points where their rules have to get rewritten, and for Dune: Awakening, another moment like that will be coming on August 12 with a substantial update. Funcom's ambitious open-world adaptation of Arrakis is about to undergo what are perhaps its most disruptive changes yet, and not just because of new content or quality-of-life tools. Patch 1.1.20 will essentially restructure how players interact with the world, as bases collapse, vehicles get nerfed, and zones that were once safe are made subject to the dreaded sandworm. It's a reckoning of sorts for anyone who has built around convenience instead of survival, but it feels like it's what the world and its players need.
In the end, the update is designed to be as harsh as Arrakis itself, with the goal of ensuring Dune: Awakening, as a survival MMO game, never allows players to get too comfortable. By removing previously accepted exploits and adding more risk to just about every aspect of gameplay, Dune: Awakening's August 12 patch should push the game closer to that familiar discomfort players once felt upon taking their first steps into the desert.
Dune: Awakening's August 12 Update Is Putting Structure to the Test
Pentashield Bases Are Collapsing for a Reason
One of the most significant changes coming to Dune: Awakening with August 12's 1.1.20 update is a structural penalty for players who built floating or unsupported Pentashield bases. With the new system in place, any building that lacks the proper supports will be marked as invalid and crumble to pieces the moment the patch goes live. Prior to the patch, base building was being exploited for height and safety, especially in PvP zones, but now, players will need to consider the limitations of terrain and actual engineering.
Ornithopter PvP Is Getting a Much-Needed Crash Course
For months, ornithopter griefing has been one of the most frustrating aspects of Dune: Awakening's endgame PvP. While ornithopters were once used to "goomba stomp" players, they have since been seen griefing Carrier Ornithopters by swarming them. The August 12 patch aims to resolve this by ensuring ornithopters will bounce off each other when colliding, completely eliminating the griefing problem in the process. Of course, this is going to require some players to change their approach to vehicular PvP in Dune: Awakening, but it's still one step closer to ensuring vehicles are not the most dominant forces in the Deep Desert.
Flour and Sand Farming in Hagga Basin Will Be Riskier
A necessary but perhaps controversial change coming to Dune: Awakening with the August 12 update will directly affect Flour and Spice Sand farming in Hagga Basin. Previously, farming Flour Sand and Spice Sand in Hagga Basin came with minimal risk, as sandworms were unable to reach those areas. With Patch 1.1.20, however, these areas are being moved to locations within reach of Dune: Awakening's sandworms, making farming these valuable resources as risky as they were always meant to be.
Sandworm Riding Is No More
One feature that Dune: Awakening officially lacks is the ability to ride its sandworms, as per Dune lore. However, players found that with the right gear and the right timing, they could collide with one of the beasts and ride it for a short distance, even though this was unintended by Funcom. With the release of Dune: Awakening's August 12 patch, though, this is all coming to an end, as collision with a sandworm, regardless of what the player is wearing or driving, will result in immediate death and vehicle destruction.
New UI Tools and Base Features Could Be the Patch's MVP
Beyond the biggest changes, Dune: Awakening's 1.1.20 update also includes a healthy number of quality-of-life improvements to boot. These include new "Deposit All Blood" and "Deposit/Extract All Water" buttons for blood purifiers and water cisterns in Dune Awakening, better Exchange interface navigation with added text search, and even upgraded Solido Replicator tools that can now copy placed decorations and environmental layouts. Given the major, more fundamental changes coming to Dune: Awakening on August 12, quality-of-life enhancements like these could be what wins players back.
Oh, and Patch 1.1.20 is fixing a typo on Slaver Stillsuit Golves because...they're gloves.
There are still quite a few other smaller changes, but these are the most noteworthy players should expect with the August 12 update. If nothing else, it's just a sign that Dune: Awakening is far from dead and Funcom is far from done.
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Survival, MMO
