In Dune: Awakening the battle between the Houses Atreides and Harkonnen is the focus of the story and various features. MeinMMO summarizes how the factions, guilds, and the Landsraad work.
Surely you have noticed that the story of Dune: Awakening will differ from the books and the movies. Paul Atreides is never born. Instead, his mother, Lady Jessica, follows the instructions of the Bene Gesserit and gives birth to a girl. As a reward, she gets further training and is able to foresee the attack on Arrakis.
This, in turn, ensures that House Atreides survives the trap of the Harkonnens and the attack on Arrakeen. For years, a war over Arrakis and the Spice rages on the desert planet, drawing all players into it.
The story trailer for Dune Awakening:
How important are the factions?
The Houses Atreides and Harkonnen play an important role in the story of the alternate timeline but not only that. Through a kind of quest line, you can join one of the two factions with your character and even pledge loyalty to one of the houses with your guild.
Keep in mind: If you belong to the Atreides and your guild joins the Harkonnen, there is no place for you in that community – the same goes for the other way around. If you want to be in a guild with friends, make sure to discuss faction choice in advance.
However: You have one chance per character in Dune: Awakening to betray your house and switch factions. You should think carefully about this, as you will make some enemies who will take your betrayal badly.
By the way, you can earn the building styles of both factions and mix them up as you like when building. However, it will be much easier for you to earn the design of your house.
What about PvP?
In certain areas of the game world and in the Deep Desert, PvP is activated. There is no obligation to visit these places or fight against other players there.
If you are still keen on resources from the endgame zone but don’t want to do PvP, each class has skills to escape from an unwanted fight if necessary. At this point, you should have been playing Dune: Awakening for about 100 hours and should know the relevant skills quite well.
Within a PvP zone, “friendly fire” is only disabled for group members. Players of your guild or faction who do not belong to your group take normal damage from your attacks.
Worlds, Servers, Sietches – how does it work in Dune: Awakening?
Each world of Dune: Awakening consists of at least 20 servers, also called Sietches. On each Sietch, a maximum of 40 players can be present simultaneously – each server will have its own waiting queue if more Dune fans want to log in there.
In large parts of the open world, you can only see the players who are playing on the same Sietch as yourself. Exceptions are the endgame zone of the Deep Desert and the social hubs (the capitals Arrakeen and Harko Village) of the game, where hundreds of players can be present at the same time.
The normal zones, the social hubs, and the Deep Desert are connected by overland maps. Travel between areas is only possible with Ornithopters: traveling on the overland map costs fuel, time, and water. While you fly around, you will also see other players flying around in your world.
Important: You do not have to be on the same Sietch as your friends to play Dune: Awakening together. However, you must be on the same world as your friends.
If that is the case, you can form a group of up to four characters with your friends, teleport to the trading post closest to your buddies, and then experience almost all the content of the survival MMO together, including the story and story missions. Forming guilds of up to 32 players is possible across Sietches.
The only thing that doesn’t work: Getting your own property on another Sietch and building there. However, you can help your friend raise his base.
What does not exist: Private or single-player servers, similar to Conan Exiles.
What is the Landsraad?
The Landsraad is a powerful political alliance of the great noble families within the Empire. In Dune: Awakening, the Landsraad consists of 25 houses, whose representatives you can meet in the game.
Each world of Dune: Awakening will have its own Landsraad, and all players within the world, who belong to a guild and one of the two factions, can contribute through endgame activities to bring the Landsraad to the side of their own faction.
To do this, they must complete the tasks of the representatives of the families and, in this way, bring as many of the 25 houses as possible to the side of the Atreides or Harkonnen for the next weekly election.
The goals change week to week, and the community must figure out each time how to charm the houses in the current cycle. Sometimes you have to manufacture and deliver certain items, sometimes collect resources, capture control points, or explore the world and find crashed ships.
The Landsraad Election – what does the victory bring?
The faction that can first win over certain houses or at the end of the week the most houses for itself can then decide which decree will be active in the following days. The larger the contribution of a guild, the greater the influence on the choice of the decree – there are always three to choose from, one of which is selected. Each guild leader votes for his guild.
Such a decree could be that the winning faction has access to one of several merchants selling special recipes as well as some of the best items in the game – including armors, weapons, tools, or vehicles.
Or you reduce repair, production, or refinement costs for a week. PvP communities may want to activate full loot in the Deep Desert, meaning that players defeated in the endgame zone can be completely looted.
In addition, all players – regardless of whether they won or not – who participated in the activities will also receive personal rewards. You can earn Solari (the currency in the game), resources, or schematics. As a reward, you will also receive the colors of your house, which you can use when creating new armors.
Dune: Awakening will be released on June 10, 2025, with a Buy2Play model. There will be no preceding early access phase, but you will buy the finished full version. The survival MMO comes without a subscription and aims to offer new updates and content for free. For more important information, you will find here: Everything about the release, prices, features, and editions of Dune: Awakening
