Dune: Awakening Base Building & Spice Glossary
Spice is the reason to leave your base in Dune: Awakening, and your base is where it becomes useful. This page explains how spice, water, power and storage work, with numbers for the current version. Some common search terms (turrets, solar arrays, force field emitters, spice silos, radiation blockers) are generic survival-game words rather than items in Dune: Awakening, so those entries explain what the game uses instead.
Status on 1 November 2026: the current major update is 1.5, released on Steam on 17 September 2026 and on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on 22 September 2026. The latest patch is 1.5.15.0 (19 October 2026), with hotfixes up to 1.5.15.3 (28 October 2026). The game launched on 10 June 2025.
| Need | What to build or use | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Spice Sand | Static Compactor or Sandcrawler | Hand harvesting works but is slow |
| Melange Spice | Spice Refinery (small, medium, large) | Needs sand, water and power |
| Water | Windtrap or Large Windtrap | Needs filters and power |
| Power | Fuel-Powered, Wind Turbine or Spice-Powered Generator | 75, 350 and 1000 power respectively |
| Storage | Storage Container, water cisterns | No dedicated spice silo |
Spice
Spice Blow
A spice blow is an event that creates a Spice Field, a patch of Spice Sand on open dunes. It begins as pink, bubbling sand; after an incubation period it erupts with a dust cloud and a loud explosion, and a gas spout fades before the field becomes visible. Blows appear semi-randomly in the Hagga Basin and the Deep Desert.
Field size decides the yield, without harvesting-efficiency skills: a small field holds 500 Spice Sand, a medium field 15,000 and a large field 250,000. Small fields appear in places such as Vermillius Gap, Mysa Tarill and Sheol, and across most of the Deep Desert. Medium fields start at row D of the Deep Desert and extend north; large fields start at row F, with only one active at a time. You can harvest by hand (slow, with little worm threat), with Static Compactors, or with a Sandcrawler, which is the most efficient. Sandworms patrol wherever a field appears, so the real cost of a blow is the worm risk.
The Static Compactor is the in-between option. It is a hand tool that you point at Spice Sand or Flour Sand to press it into a clump you can pick up; each use drains your Power Pack. It is crafted at a Fabricator or Survival Fabricator from 10 Iron Ingots and 7 EMF Generators, so it is available long before the Plastanium-tier Sandcrawler.
Harvester Vehicle
The game's spice harvester is the Sandcrawler, a two-seat ground vehicle that needs the Plastanium tier. It collects Spice Sand only (not Flour Sand) and works only with both its optional modules fitted: the Vacuum, which pulls sand from the ground, and the Centrifuge, which stores it. Three unique modules exist: Dampened Treads (lower vibration, giving more time before a worm arrives), the Upgraded Regis Spice Container (more storage) and the Walker Engine (slower acceleration, higher top speed).
It cannot be used for overland travel or Vehicle Backup, so players carry it to a field with a carrier ornithopter. It is not an autonomous machine that you deploy and leave running: a player drives the Sandcrawler the whole time, and its vibration is what draws the worm.
Spice Refinery
A refinery turns Spice Sand into Melange Spice and Spice Residue. It needs water and power, so it lives inside your base next to your power and water sources. There are three sizes:
| Size | Input per cycle | Output per cycle | Time | Power cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 100 Spice Sand, 750 mL water | 1 Melange, 5 Residue | 180 s | 200 |
| Medium | 750 Spice Sand, 7,000 mL water | 10 Melange, 75 Residue | 450 s | 350 |
| Large | 10,000 Spice Sand, 75,000 mL water | 200 Melange, 1,000 Residue | 2,700 s | 500 |
Bigger refineries are more efficient: the conversion rate is 1% for the small one, about 1.33% for the medium one and 2% for the large one. The small refinery has a build cost of Duraluminum Rods, Silicone, Cobalt Bars and a T2 Machine Component. Every size has only 5 inventory slots, so a refinery is a processing station, not storage. The large refinery is the sturdiest base piece in this list, with 20,000 health, and it accepts vehicle deposits, so a loaded Sandcrawler can unload straight into it.
Spice Silo
Dune: Awakening has no dedicated spice silo. Spice Sand and Melange go into ordinary storage. A Storage Container holds 45 slots and 1,750 volume and can be reached by other base devices through storage circuits. Refineries have their own 5 slots. In the field, the Sandcrawler's Centrifuge stores what the Vacuum collects, and the Upgraded Regis Spice Container expands it.
The practical advice is to place storage near your Sub-Fief Console and the refinery so the circuits connect them, and to move refined Melange out of the refinery instead of letting it fill the five slots.
Water, power and defence
Windtrap Camp
"Windtrap camp" is not a game term; the building is the Windtrap, and a larger Large Windtrap. A windtrap collects water from the air. It must be placed unsheltered, near a Sub-Fief Console, and it needs a filter. The standard Windtrap gathers water at a rate of 0.75 with a capacity of 500, draws 75 power and burns a Makeshift Filter in 3 hours or a Standard Filter in 8 hours. Its build cost is 90 Steel Bars, 30 Silicone Blocks and 20 Calibrated Servoks.
The Large Windtrap gathers at 1.75, draws 135 power, uses Particulate Filters (12 hours) or Advanced Particulate Filters (1 day), and costs 180 Duraluminum Ingots, 195 Silicone Blocks, 40 Calibrated Servoks and 4 Spice Melange. Both hold 3,500 health and are destroyable.
Solar Array
Dune: Awakening has no solar panels or solar arrays. Base power comes from three generator types, each with its own fuel:
- Fuel-Powered Generator: generates 75 power and runs on Fuel Cells.
- Wind Turbine: the directional model generates 350 power, needs an unsheltered spot and Lubricant, which burns for 1 hour 30 minutes. An omnidirectional model also exists.
- Spice-Powered Generator: generates 1,000 power and burns a Spice-Infused Fuel Cell every 1 hour 30 minutes; its build cost includes 270 Spice Melange.
Devices draw power from this pool: the Sub-Fief Console 15, a Windtrap 75, a Large Windtrap 135, a small Spice Refinery 200 and a medium one 350. For example, one directional wind turbine (350) covers one medium refinery (350) and nothing else.
Automated Turret
Dune: Awakening has no automated turrets or other placeable gun defences as of update 1.5. Protecting a base comes down to where you build, what you build it from, and keeping it powered. The Shield Wall mountain range shelters part of the Hagga Basin. The miscellaneous placeables list does include Pentashield Surface pieces (horizontal and vertical), and your Sub-Fief Console claims the land you can build on. Update 1.5 also added the Base Reconstruction Tool, which saves a snapshot of your base so you can rebuild it elsewhere, a more useful protection against loss than any wall.
Weather is the base-defence problem you will really meet: a sandstorm damages unshielded buildings, and in the Deep Desert the weekly Coriolis storm destroys everything. Both are described in the world, factions and threats glossary.
Force Field Emitter
A force field emitter is a base item in other survival games; Dune: Awakening has no placeable one. The nearest real things work differently. A Holtzman Shield is personal equipment: it needs a power pack, deflects most small projectiles and fast attacks, switches off when you fire, and attracts sandworms strongly, so wearing one on open sand is a bad idea. The Shield Wall is a mountain range that partly protects the Hagga Basin, and Pentashield Surface pieces are placeable base items.
A shield dome that protects a base perimeter and absorbs damage is not something you can build in the current version.
Radiation Blocker
"Radiation blocker" is not an item name in Dune: Awakening. You protect yourself against radiation with a radiation suit and an Iodine Pill. A player can hold 150,000 radiation before dying, and the bar stops showing progress past about 75%. A Mk4 suit cuts radiation by 90%, a Mk5 by 92% and a Mk6 by 93%; an Iodine pill adds 3%, so Mk6 plus pill is 96%.
Time to death shows how much this matters. At radiation level 3, found in radiation pools, an unprotected player lasts 10 seconds, while Mk6 plus Iodine lasts 4 minutes 10 seconds. At level 1 the same loadout lasts 41 minutes 40 seconds. Radiation does not damage vehicles, and crashed ships may have radiation leaks.
Guides and services
Onlyfarms offers base building and farming services for Dune: Awakening, including a spice farm lot and base building.
Related terms
- Dune: Awakening world, factions and threats glossary
- Sandworm signs
- Game economy and cosmetics glossary
- Online play, lag and connection glossary
FAQ
How much Spice Sand makes one Melange?
In a small refinery 100 Spice Sand give 1 Melange and 5 Residue. A medium refinery turns 750 into 10, and a large one turns 10,000 into 200, so bigger refineries waste less sand.
Is there a solar array in Dune: Awakening?
No. Base power comes from fuel-powered, wind turbine and spice-powered generators, producing 75, 350 and 1,000 power respectively.
Can I defend my base with turrets?
No, the game has no turrets. Your options are the structure and location you choose, Pentashield Surface pieces and, in the Deep Desert, the fact that a weekly storm wipes everything.
How do I survive radiation?
Wear a Mk4, Mk5 or Mk6 radiation suit and take an Iodine pill. Leave the area at around 75% of the meter, because the bar stops showing further progress there.
