One of the big gripes players have with Dune: Awakening, the new open-world survival crafting game set to the backdrop of the dusty Arrakis dunes, is PvP. The most iconic scenery, the vast open desert, is plagued by seemingly indestructible ornithopters used to crush opponents, turning the endgame into “a flight simular with views of nothing but sand”.
Funcom has promised that it has “people working on fixing the goomba stomping”, making on-foot combat more viable, but some players want an option to avoid PvP altogether. “How about releasing a few servers designated as PvP, and a few [servers] designated as PvE only?” u/PhynixGaming posted to the game’s subreddit. “I had my taste of the Deep Desert yesterday and I am happy to NOT RETURN for Tier 6 materials.”
They suggest that, on PvE servers, the player-filled wastes be replaced by public events, such as a “spice explosion” whjere you can harvest materials to dump into an NPC container. “The player/group/guild that deposits the most in that 10 minutes will be rewarded [double] the spice back,” they elaborated. “Shai-Hulud (the big sandworms) will still be a threat to all players.”
“I Have Not Been Back Since […] The Game For Me Is Effectively Over”
There’s always been a divide in the survival genre between PvE and PvP fans, so it’s hardly surprising that these suggestions are proving popular. Some players have sworn off returning to the desert because of the “no life campers” and the “flier ganker heaven” (though others maintain that this is blown out of proportion, and will only scare away new players), making the prospect of PvE-exclusive worlds an enticing one.
“Considering the Deep Desert is the one place to get the movie aesthetic of an endless desert and really feel the danger without any rocks a jump away, ruining it behind forced PvP is a massive design failure,” u/Fiberotter argued.
I’m someone who would drop my 100 hour save and start over for this.
“I’ve been to the DD twice,” u/No_Mud_6881 said. “Once for the stations in the PvE area and once to try and get some T6 mats in the PvP area. First time in the PvE area there were 3 [ornithopters] constantly following me, waiting for me to go into the PvP area. And the second time I tried to get some titanium I was zerged by a group of 10. I have not been back since, I have never liked PvP and I never will so once T5 is reached and I’ve built my base, main story done, etc., the game for me is effectively over.”
Not everyone is convinced though, with some commenters, like u/QBall1442, contend that the endgame is “designed around Landsraad and Deep Desert” and that this suggestion “goes against what the devs intended the game to be”. Some commenters, like u/StrikingValuable3686, echoed that sentiment, arguing that “There’s no point in making a PvE server with Deep Desert, since the desert is already a pretty empty location where you might not even run into another player […] Plus, there’s no new PvE content there”.
Regardless, PvE-only servers are a popular suggestion, cropping up again and again on the subreddit and Steam forums, so it’s clear that not everyone is in the mood to get swarmed by ornithopters. But for now, they’ll just have to tough it out and try to sneak their way through the desert for mats.
Dune: Awakening
- Released
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June 10, 2025
- Developer(s)
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Funcom
- Publisher(s)
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Funcom
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 5
- PC Release Date
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June 10, 2025
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
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May 20, 2025
