Funcom is loosening Dune: Awakening’s endgame PvP rules

Funcom is changing course on Dune: Awakening‘s endgame PvP. In an April developer update on the game’s official site, the studio said it will disable every PvP zone in Hagga Basin and split the Deep Desert into separate PvE and PvP instances when the upcoming 1.3.20.0 patch arrives.

The move follows months of pushback over how much of the game’s best late-game loot sat behind PvP risk. Funcom said the change came after looking at player surveys, in-game data, and the game’s overall direction. The studio said more than 80% of lifetime players have stuck to PvE content, which made the old setup clash with how most people were actually playing.

For players who want the safer route, the new Deep Desert PvE instance will drop player combat entirely, including around Shipwrecks. That means exploration, spice hunting, and Imperial Testing Stations will no longer force unwanted fights. For players who want open conflict, the PvP instance will keep the classic high-risk setup across rows B through I, and mining plus spice harvesting there will pay out 2.5 times the normal yield. Funcom said the split is meant to keep both playstyles intact without forcing everyone into the same lane.

The studio said the broader endgame direction has already started changing with the repeatable loops added in Chapter 3. We covered some of those earlier Deep Desert adjustments in a recent Deep Desert hotfix, but this new pass goes much further by making PvP optional in the zones that mattered most to the debate.

Funcom also used the update to point to self-hosted servers, which will let players run private worlds with custom rules. The first version will support things like harvest rates, base-building limits, item durability, and base decay settings. It will also require a computer running Windows Pro with Hyper-V in a Linux virtual machine, and Funcom said the feature is still experimental. The minimum setup listed for one to four players includes Windows 10 64-bit Pro with Hyper-V, 20 GB of RAM, an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600, broadband internet, 100GB of storage, and an SSD.

Funcom did not give a release date for the server test or the PvP overhaul, but it said testing for self-hosted servers will begin soon and that the PvP and PvE rework will come in the 1.3.20.0 patch.

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Dune: Awakening

Developed by Funcom

Dune: Awakening is an Open World Survival RPG where you can fully immerse yourself in the epic world of Dune. Alone or with friends, explore a vast open world Arrakis, survive the sandworms, build a home, craft an ornithopter, and unravel the mystery of the missing Fremen.

• Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Adventure
• Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5
• Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative, Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
• Release: 2025-06-10
• Publisher: Funcom
• Age Rating: PEGI 16 / ESRB M / ACB R 18+
• IGDB Rating: 74.3/100

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