It has been exactly one month since my first Dune: Awakening blog post, and I haven’t played anything else since. So here’s part two of my adventures on Arrakis. My playtime has leapt from 45 hours to around 190, and I’ve accomplished quite a lot. I graduated from riding a Sandbike to building my very own Scout Ornithopter, which is an absolute joy to fly. It opens up the Hagga Basin, making it much easier to gather and transport resources, and it allows you to travel not only into the endgame deep desert but also to other distant locations on Arrakis.
If you’re considering playing Dune: Awakening, I’d strongly advise not rushing. The Sandbike is fun, but the pride that comes from taking your time to find and refine the necessary resources to build your first Ornithopter cannot be overstated. I was so proud of my accomplishment that I took several screenshots of it. I think this one is my favourite.
I also built an Assault Ornithopter, which has a larger hold but is more of a chore to fly. It comes with a thruster, but overall it’s slower than the Scout Ornithopter. I’ve used it in the deep desert to gather resources, but whenever possible I leave it parked and avoid using it in the Hagga Basin.
Another accomplishment is refining spice sand into spice melange, the most sought-after resource used to build endgame items, fabricators, and refineries. I discovered that the basic spice refinery is actually quite inefficient, producing just one unit of spice melange for every 100 units of spice sand. In contrast, the medium spice refinery produces 10 spice melange for every 750 spice sand, which works out at 75 spice sand per unit of melange. To reach this point, I used the inefficient refinery to produce exactly 135 spice melange from 13,500 spice sand, just enough to construct the medium refinery and move towards greater efficiency. There is also a large refinery, which yields 200 spice melange from 10,000 spice sand (50 sand per melange), but it costs 1,000 spice melange to build, which is a steep investment. And while I’d like to be as efficient as possible, I’ve chosen to spend a little melange on fabricators and equipment, while keeping some in reserve.
My base is still essentially a box, although now it’s a bigger box. In fact, at this stage it looks more like a mushroom. I’ve added a large pentashield so I can take off and land easily without exposing the base to the harsh Arrakis environment, as well as wind turbines and wind traps on the roof to provide power and generate much-needed water. If I write another post, I may include a walkthrough of the base. I’m quite proud of it, even if it looks a little odd.
I’ve also picked up some things about the lore of Dune. There are two warring factions, House Atreides and House Harkonnen, and while players are encouraged to join one of them, I don’t believe it’s strictly essential. I’ve learned that we’re searching for the Fremen, the native people of Arrakis, who may have been eradicated by the Emperor. I understand they play a central role in the original book and films, but Dune: Awakening takes a different path, imagining events as if Paul Atreides, the main character of Dune, was never born.
I still feel as though I’ve only scratched the surface of Dune canon, but I chose to side with House Atreides. To me, both factions seem equally flawed, but the Harkonnen come across as a particularly brutal and unsophisticated lot. While I’ve made some progress, I know I still have a long way to go in completing the story and exploring everything House Atreides has to offer. Until then, I don’t think I can add Dune: Awakening to my list of completed games. That said, I’ll certainly write a part three, and possibly even a part four, especially if my friends decide to join me on Arrakis someday.
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