Dune: Awakening World, Factions & Threats Glossary
Dune: Awakening is a survival game set on Arrakis, and most searches about it are about what a name means or where something is. This page covers the game itself, the regions and settlements you pass through, the main hazards (sandstorms and sandworms) and the Smugglers. Some popular terms (the laser designator, the sandcloak, the walker drone and Sietch Jacurutu) come from the Dune novels or from other games rather than from Dune: Awakening, so those entries explain where the name comes from and what the game offers instead.
Status on 1 November 2026: the current major update is 1.5 (Steam 17 September, consoles 22 September 2026). The newest patch is 1.5.15.0 from 19 October 2026, followed by hotfixes up to 1.5.15.3 on 28 October.
| Term | In the game? | Short answer |
|---|---|---|
| Sandstorm | Yes | Random edge-to-edge storm, hurts players, vehicles and buildings |
| Smugglers | Yes, as one faction | "Free Traders" with a hideout called Fallen Light |
| Carthag | Ruins and a rebuilding city | Harko Village is the Harkonnen hub |
| Laser designator, sandcloak, walker drone | No | See the entries for the real alternatives |
| Sietch Jacurutu | No, a novel location | Hidden Fremen sietches exist in the setting |
The game and the map
What is Dune: Awakening
Dune: Awakening is a survival game from Funcom set in Frank Herbert's universe. It launched on 10 June 2025 on PC, after a head start on 5 June for Deluxe and Ultimate owners. The story starts from the question of what if Paul Atreides was never born: the Atreides and Harkonnens fight a War of Assassins on Arrakis, and you join one of the two houses and investigate the disappearance of the Fremen.
Update 1.5 is the version that brought the game to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Pro and Xbox Series X|S (22 September 2026, with Game Pass support). It added a full single-player mode with three difficulty presets or custom settings (in it, Coriolis storms no longer wipe the Deep Desert), the final chapter of the Book One story, and a rebuilt endgame in which everything can be played as PvE. The Deep Desert has separate PvE and PvP instances; the PvP one pays 2.5 times as much for mining and spice harvesting. Hagga Basin is fully PvE. Cross-play was not available at the console launch and is confirmed for later. The Polar Cap, a free cold-climate survival map with its own storyline, was first teased on 7 May 2026 and is slated for late 2026; it had not been released by 1 November 2026.
Carthag Settlement
Carthag was the Harkonnen capital. Its ruins are a story location tied to the journeys Searching for Answers and A Deadly Poison, and since update 1.3 (3 February 2026) Old Carthag can be revisited from the overland map. In the lore it was destroyed when a lasgun struck a defensive shield during the War of Assassins. The Harkonnens are building Neo Carthag, and until it is finished their interim capital and your hub is Harko Village, a village that House Richese built about two hundred years ago as Korona Village. Glossu Rabban governs from there, and you go to access vendors, manage faction reputation and pick up assignments under Guild Peace.
The Atreides equivalent is Arrakeen, where vendors, contracts and faction reputation work in the same way. Update 1.3 (3 February 2026) added the Neo Carthag Duelling ring to the story. For bases and spice processing, see the base building and spice glossary.
Sietch Jacurutu
Jacurutu comes from Frank Herbert's Children of Dune: a legendary deep-desert sietch whose people killed other Fremen for their water. The other tribes joined forces and wiped it out, the name became taboo, and the survivors later rebuilt it in secret as Fondak, a smuggler camp. Dune: Awakening has no Sietch Jacurutu location, so there are no Jacurutu exploration rewards or resource caches to find. The game's Hagga Basin refers to hidden Fremen sietches in general, and the disappearance of the Fremen is part of the main story.
If you want an overview of what exists, the overland map has two settlements (Arrakeen and Harko Village), two playable regions (Hagga Basin and the Deep Desert, with the Polar Cap still to come), story locations such as Fallen Light and the Neo Carthag Arena, landmarks like the Wind Pass and Smuggler's Run, and dungeons such as the Testing Stations and the Old Quarry.
Hazards
Sandstorm Event
A sandstorm starts at a random edge of the map and moves in a straight line to the opposite edge. The weather radio announces it and a text notice appears on screen; how much warning you get depends on how close you are to the starting edge. Players, vehicles and unshielded buildings in its path take damage over time, and visibility drops sharply. NPCs are currently not affected.
Shelter levels are Unsheltered, Sheltered (cliffs, overhangs, partial structures), Enclosed (caves or mostly complete structures) and Watersealed (complete structures); higher levels slow hydration loss. A Hagga Basin storm can strip up to a third of a vehicle component's durability. Deep Desert storms are much larger, and the Coriolis storm is separate: it comes weekly and destroys everything in the Deep Desert, which is why Deep Desert bases and loot reset. Unshielded buildings in the Hagga Basin degrade slowly, and abandoned ones take over a week to fully degrade.
Sandcloak
Dune: Awakening has no sandcloak or camouflage item that hides you from worms. In the novels the Fremen hide with stillsuits, cloaks and the sandwalk, an irregular step that does not draw a worm. In the game, what reduces how often sandworms bother you is behavior: worms are drawn to walking on open sand, ground vehicles, flying vehicles, any Holtzman technology (suspensors and shields), tools such as Cutterays and Static Compactors, and placed Thumpers. The more vibration you make, the higher the worm threat.
For safe movement, stay on rock where you can, and treat any shield as a worm magnet on open dunes.
Walker Drone
Dune: Awakening has no walker drone or any other deployable drone that scouts for you. The real "Walker" is the Walker Sandcrawler Engine Mk6, an engine module for the Sandcrawler that trades slower acceleration for a higher top speed. If you are looking for scouting, the game gives you the overland map, Testing Stations and ornithopters, including the Scout Ornithopter. Patch 1.5.15.0 also reduced the glide speed penalty of a scout ornithopter with a rocket pod from 20% to 10%.
Laser Designator
A laser designator, a pointer that marks targets for an airstrike, belongs to modern military shooters; Dune: Awakening has no designator and no called-in strikes. The laser weapon in the game is the lasgun. Lasguns normally carry safety mechanisms imposed by the Landsraad council, while the Smugglers' offworld lasguns lack them; the Black Market K-28 Lasgun is the exception, a regular lasgun with the safety intact. A lasgun hitting a shield is also the lore explanation for the destruction of Old Carthag.
For ranged fire support from the air, the closest real option is the Scout Ornithopter with a rocket pod module.
Factions
Smuggler Clan
The Smugglers are one faction, who call themselves Free Traders: a family of criminals who trade spice, weapons and drugs, and take work from whoever pays best. Named members include Esmar Tuek, Elara Tuek, Staban Tuek, Asmara Efendi, Zoe and Valentin, and their hideout is Fallen Light, a crashed ship turned desert base. There is no set of separate smuggler clans with their own reputation tracks or alliances to join; the two houses you can join are the Atreides and the Harkonnens.
Smuggler's Run is a different thing: a rock island landmark with a challenging road for ground vehicles, accessible only with an active Landsraad mission, such as The Smuggler's Run or Clear the Run. The paid Raiders of the Broken Lands DLC, released with update 1.3 on 3 February 2026, adds Smuggler-themed cosmetics: the Smuggler Building Set, Smuggler decorations, Contraband skins for the Scout and Assault Ornithopters, and weapon variants such as the Smuggler Karpov-38 and the Smuggler Kindjal.
Sandworms
Sandworms are the main environmental threat and have their own standalone page, Sandworm signs. The facts worth knowing here: the Hagga Basin has around 10 "small" worms of about 377.5 metres each, while the Deep Desert has up to 50 smaller worms plus a few Grandfather worms. A Grandfather worm can only be summoned in a large crater spice field with at least 2 to 4 players, at least 1,000 metres from a server border, after at least 1,000 Spice Sand has been gathered, with roughly a 1 to 2 hour cooldown per server. These are community-tested conditions and are described as somewhat fluid.
Guides and services
Onlyfarms offers Dune: Awakening leveling, farming and Solari services.
Related terms
- Dune: Awakening base building and spice glossary
- Sandworm signs
- Online play, lag and connection glossary
FAQ
Is Dune: Awakening playable alone?
Yes. Update 1.5 added a full single-player mode with difficulty presets and fully customizable settings. Multiplayer can also be played entirely as PvE.
How often do sandstorms happen?
Sandstorms cross the Hagga Basin and the Deep Desert at random, with no fixed interval. The Coriolis storm is the weekly one, and it destroys everything in the Deep Desert.
Where is Carthag?
The ruins of Old Carthag are a story location you visit during certain journeys. The playable hub is Harko Village, near the unfinished Neo Carthag, and the Atreides hub is Arrakeen.
Does the game have PvP?
It is optional. The Deep Desert has both PvE and PvP instances, and the PvP version pays 2.5 times as much for mining and spice harvesting. The Hagga Basin is fully PvE.
