What role does Spice play in Dune: Awakening? And more importantly: How do you harvest the valuable spice in Funcom’s new survival MMO? MeinMMO summarizes what is known.
What is Spice? The raw material found only on the desert planet Arrakis is produced by the larvae of the iconic sandworms and is needed for space travel as well as for currency. Whoever controls the spice enjoys a powerful position within the empire.
Moreover, the Bene Gesserit need the spice to access the memories of their ancestors. All this is possible because the spice not only has life-extending properties but can also significantly enhance a person’s cognitive and mental abilities. This allows navigators to safely steer a spaceship through space.
The most efficient way to harvest is to take advantage of the spice fields created by a spice blow extensively. However, this makes a lot of noise, which in turn attracts the giant sandworms that will devour a spice harvester for breakfast. Therefore, spice harvesting is quite dangerous. Transport ornithopters must always remain nearby to pick up the harvesters in case of danger.
The spice is also important for the Bene Gesserit – here’s the class trailer for Dune Awakening:
The Spice in Dune: Awakening
What role does the spice play in the game? In Dune: Awakening, the valuable resource is, of course, present. You need spice for crafting, maintaining equipment, and the economy. Furthermore, inhaling spice can affect abilities, though it is still unclear how this will look in detail.
How do you get spice in Dune: Awakening? The aforementioned spice blows will also occur in the survival MMO, as world events in the deep desert – a high-level, very large endgame zone where you can encounter more players than the maximum of 40 players that can be online at the same time on the normal servers.
Apparently, smaller spice blows can also randomly occur anywhere there are sufficiently large sand areas.
In an interview with YouTuber Pirate Software, Creative Director Joel Bylos explained: “Harvesting a large spice field in Dune: Awakening is akin to conducting a raid – you need a coordinated team” – via YouTube.
A player must fly a transport ornithopter that brings the spice harvesters to the field and picks them up again. One or two scouts are needed to look for signs of worms. Another driver should distribute “Thumpers” with their sandbike when necessary to keep sandworms away from the actual field. And then, of course, people need to harvest the spice.
A threat system is used to determine how quickly a sandworm reaches a spice field being harvested. The noise of the harvesting contends with the aggro produced by the “Thumpers”. If the latter cease to be effective, the collectors must be picked up as quickly as possible, as the sandworm will soon devour the entire field – with all players and vehicles.
A player has created an unofficial infographic on spice harvesting on Reddit:
Can I also harvest spice alone? You can also approach a spice field, interact with it, and receive one unit of spice sand per interaction. This takes quite a while but greatly reduces the risk of a sandworm attack, and you don’t need a group of players.
Additionally, there is a tool called “Static Compactor” that you can use to more efficiently harvest a spice field. This way, you can obtain many units of spice sand at once, but it also increases the chance of a sandworm attack – use it only with an escape plan in mind!
How can you recognize a spice field? These are the typical signs after a spice blow:
- A purple dust cloud in the distance indicates that a spice vein has erupted.
- Purple sand lies on the ground at the eruption site.
What do I do with the spice? Through a spice refinery, the spice sand can be processed into spice melange. The melange can then be used in crafting weapons, armor, or tools. Similarly, you can produce special buff food with melange, complete spice quests, or trade it with other players.
Dune: Awakening will be released on June 10, 2025, with a Buy2Play model. There is no prior early access phase, but you buy the finished full version. The survival MMO will be subscription-free and aims to provide new updates and content for free. What else is important, you can find out here: Everything about the release, prices, features, and editions of Dune: Awakening
