Funcom has acknowledged that a recent update to Dune: Awakening altered enemy behavior without warning and says it will roll that change back early this week. The developer pointed to patch 1.2.20.0 as the culprit and told players in Discord that the patch included “that adjusted the behavior of the enemy NPCs, causing them to dash out of the way of attacks and abilities much more often.”
Funcom followed up with more context and kept the comment blunt and public. “While this is an intended change that aligns with our goal of making enemy NPCs behave more like players who adhere to the same combat engagement rules, we will revert it early this week.” The studio also noted it “understand[s] that some of you who enjoyed the new behavior might be disappointed” and said the dodge behavior will return later alongside other balance changes “We can’t wait to bring it back along with the rest of the balance changes we have in store…”
The core of the outrage was not only that NPCs suddenly felt harder to fight, but that the tweak arrived without any mention in patch notes. Threads on Reddit and the game forums lit up with players saying the new AI made melee combat unreliable and that the change felt untested. One player put it bluntly with the line “That’s one hell of a change to not fucking document.” Another wrote “This kind of shows that melee wasn’t even tested with the new AI changes.”
The undocumented change is the latest headache for the live survival MMO after a rocky launch and persistent technical and balance issues. Funcom has been working through several fixes and feature additions, including plans for a Base Backup Tool to protect player-built bases and a public roadmap shared when the studio returned from a quiet spell. Those moves offered some relief but the surprise AI tweak shows how a single undocumented change can quickly flip a community from mildly irritated to outright angry. The developer says it will revert the dodge-heavy AI this week and that the behavior will be reintroduced in a more considered form later, which leaves a small window for Funcom to rebuild trust by being clearer about what is being changed and when.
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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
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Age Rating:
PEGI 16 / ESRB M / ACB R 18+
- IGDB Rating: 74.3/100
