You have just started with Dune: Awakening? MeinMMO tells you which classes, talents, and equipment pieces will make you overwhelmingly powerful as you leave the starting area of the survival MMO.
What kind of build is this? Our build recommendation for the best possible start in Dune: Awakening focuses on a mix of 3 classes that can be unlocked very early in the game and grant you access to talents that significantly improve your damage and mobility.
We also reveal which items you should acquire from the starting area to smoothly navigate through all battles. In the later regions, you can refine our starter build further with armor upgrades and the talents of the other two classes.
The release trailer for Dune Awakening:
Choosing the Starter Class
In the first region of Dune: Awakening, the “Southern Haggwa Basin”, you can find the trainers for two classes: Trooper and Planetologist. So if you want to leave the starting area with as many unlocked talent trees as possible, you should choose one of the other 3 classes Mentat, Swordmaster or Bene Gesserit during character creation.
Our recommendation: the Bene Gesserit. They have strong passive improvements that noticeably enhance your survivability and healing abilities, and provide you with the Bindu Sprint which offers a frequently usable … you guessed it … sprint.
Where exactly you can find the trainers of the classes Trooper and Planetologist is explained here: Dune: Awakening – Locations of trainers for all classes, how to unlock 12 additional skill trees
Active Skills in the Early Game
The combination of Bindu Sprint from the Bene Gesserit and Shigadraht Claw from the Trooper provides you with maximum mobility. You can also use the grappling hook in combat to stagger enemies or escape from dangerous situations.
If you need to prepare for battles in the near future, swap the Bindu Sprint for the Force of the Bene Gesserit or Grenade or Target Seeker from the Trooper. The Anti-Gravity Field from the Trooper or the Suspensor Field from the Planetologist can help situationally if you want to dive down or catapult into the air.
Important Passive Attributes and Techniques
Since you initially only meet the basic trainers, you can invest only one point in the talents of all unlocked classes. However, you will earn enough competence points through the fairly quick level-ups. Use this to unlock as many passive skills in the trees of Bene Gesserit, Trooper, and Planetologist as possible that support your playstyle.
The following 3 passive techniques are recommended for the early game:
- Trauma Recovery (Bene Gesserit)
- Combat Hardened (Trooper)
- Manipulated Instability (Bene Gesserit) or Mass Center (Trooper)
The best passive attributes for survival, mobility, and combat (improvements to certain weapon types of course only if you also use that type of weapon):
- Ranged Damage (Trooper)
- Suspensor Efficiency (Trooper)
- Disruptor Damage (Trooper)
- Scattergun Damage (Trooper)
- Damage from Heavy Weapons (Trooper)
- Recovery (Bene Gesserit)
- Sun Tolerance (Bene Gesserit)
- Toxin Tolerance (Bene Gesserit)
- Self-Healing (Bene Gesserit)
- Vitality (Bene Gesserit)
- Blade Damage (Bene Gesserit)
- Dagger Damage (Bene Gesserit)
Great passive attributes that increase your comfort:
- Field Maintenance (Trooper)
- Weaponsmith (Trooper)
- Cutteray Mining (Planetologist)
- Collection (Planetologist)
- Diverting (Planetologist)
- Deep Analysis (Planetologist)
- Densification (Planetologist)
- Climber (Planetologist)
- Vehicle Repair (Planetologist)
- Vehicle Dismantling (Planetologist)
- Efficient Driver (Planetologist)
Important: When the talent trees of the other classes are added later or when you want to enhance certain talents with two or more competence points after visiting advanced teachers, you can respec for free, once every 48 hours.
The Best Equipment from the Starting Area
Forget the regular equipment and weapons that you can create through normal exploration. The best items are obtained through unique blueprints that you find in the world. The good news: In the first section of Dune: Awakening alone, 17 unique schematics are hidden that are comparatively easy to craft.
Why comparatively? Because you need not only copper bars and other standard resources for crafting these unique items but also copper dust infused with spice. Unfortunately, this dust cannot simply be crafted but is found in the high-security containers of local storehouses and fortresses.
If you don’t want to farm these locations constantly, you need to focus on a few unique blueprints. Below we recommend what we consider to be the best parts from the starting zone:
- Aren’s Vengeance: A powerful rifle that will serve you well for a long time. You can find the blueprint in the container at the “Defective Stone Station”, in the central mountain formation of the starting area.
- Kaleff’s Drinker: This blade is significantly stronger than your starting dagger with 10.9 damage and has a special feature: hits siphon blood from the victim, which immediately lands in your blood pouch. You can find the blueprint in the large chest in the wreck of the Alcyon.
- Wings of the Emperor Type 1: This unique suspensor belt can be activated by a double jump, allowing you to hover upwards. Moreover, the state of hovering lasts significantly longer than with regular belts. You can find the item in the final area of the Imperial Test Station 2.
Also, quickly acquire a Holtzman Shield, which you can activate or deactivate with H. The shield protects you from ranged attacks and quick knife strikes. Note, however, that it is not active while you are shooting at enemies. Also, make sure the shield is deactivated on open sand, as it quickly attracts worms.
More Tips for Standard Equipment
If you want to prepare for an excursion, you need to find the balance between
- taking as little as possible to have plenty of room for loot and to minimize the risk of losing valuable equipment to a sandworm or sandstorm
- carrying everything necessary to be prepared for any situation.
From our perspective, important tools and items you should always have with you are:
- A few Solari (to pay for fast travel to a city or trading post if needed)
- Healing Kit
- Close and ranged weapon
- Ammunition for ranged weapon
- Recovered metal and plant fibers to create ammunition or healing kits when needed
- Survey Probe Launcher plus survey probe when venturing into a new region
- At least one blood pouch plus blood extractor – the pouch should always be full at the end of each trip so the blood purifier at the base has something to do
- Literjon (preferably the Hajra Literjon Type 1 from the merchant at Griffin’s Reach trading post), pack several if you want to farm water efficiently
- Vehicle repair tool (so you can take your sandbike everywhere)
- Cutteray
- Respawn beacon (if you want to venture into dangerous terrain)
- Collector (best tool for filling a Literjon with water in no time)
- Energy Cell that provides you with … well … energy
- Fuel Cell (if you plan a longer trip with the bike)
Before starting your trip, also make sure that your bike and equipment have sufficient durability. With a welding torch and copper welding wire, you’ll bring your vehicle up to speed before departure. A repair station at the base will fix your equipment (but only if you know the recipe for the item).
What recommendations do you have for anyone just starting out in Dune: Awakening? By the way: General tips and tricks for beginning in the survival MMO can be found here: 10 Tips for Beginners that will significantly ease your start in Dune: Awakening
