The survival genre has long been a haven for gamers who enjoy the slow burn of resource gathering and base building, but Dune: Awakening takes that grind to a whole new level. In a hands-on experience during the game's early access period, one seasoned survivor cranked through the desert of Arrakis with thousands of hours already logged in titles like Enshrouded, Valheim, and Rust. Yet nothing could have prepared them for the sheer volume of resources required to simply stay alive, let alone thrive. From copper and iron to blood and water, the requirements are staggering—and solo players may find themselves drowning in a sandstorm of tedium.
The grind is real, and it starts early. Dune: Awakening locks players into a rigid tutorial that can stretch for several hours, serving up a steady stream of item unlocks that only lead to yet another tier of nearly identical tools. Copper gives way to iron, iron to steel, and the cycle repeats with each step feeling less like an achievement and more like a chore. The problem isn't the tiered progression itself—most survival games lean on this blueprint—but rather the painstaking length of each tier and the lack of variety in how one acquires resources. You're essentially clearing the same raider camps and smashing the same rocks over and over, just to get a slightly better pickaxe that looks suspiciously like the old one.
Making matters worse, the path to efficiency often backfires. The trading post dangles the promise of fast-tracking the grind by letting players purchase critical materials, but that requires currency. And where does that currency come from? You guessed it—traipsing back to the very same locations where those resources spawn. It's a loop that feels less like clever design and more like a hamster wheel with a fresh coat of sand paint.
Then there’s the base-building fiasco. A tragic number of players, including the aforementioned veteran, discovered the hard way that positioning matters. Build too far from a trading hub, and you’ll be commuting across the dune sea like a Fremen without a thumper. The game does offer a quick copy-and-paste mechanic to relocate, but here's the hitch: every wall, every machine, every scrap of your former base must be rebuilt from scratch using the exact same resources. It's a one-way ticket to Frustration City, and the lesson stings as much as a Harkonnen blade.
For those flying solo, the experience can quickly turn into a second job. But bring a crew, and the whole equation shifts. Drawing a direct line to Rust, another infamously group-oriented survival title, Dune: Awakening is practically designed for team play. A well-coordinated squad of friends can blitz through the early game in a couple of hours, splitting resource duties and turning the grind into a well-oiled operation. The game’s sandbox design practically shouts “the more, the merrier”—or, as the old saying goes, "many hands make light work."
This group advantage bleeds directly into the competitive endgame. With the late-stage zones locked behind early progression, those who rush through the survival stages with a full guild will be first in line to harvest the precious Spice and claim planetary dominance. It’s a classic “rich get richer” scenario, and while rewarding dedicated players makes sense, the potential for a few dominant guilds to lock down the entire server week after week raises serious balance concerns. The game does plan weekly wipes for the endgame zone, but the advantages earned from controlling the Spice flow might cascade into an insurmountable head start. Without careful tweaking, casual groups and solo survivors could be left eating dust.
That’s not to say lone wolves can’t have a good time. Dune: Awakening still offers a rich, atmospheric world and plenty of tense moments for those who prefer to go it alone. But consider this a public service announcement: you’re going to want backup. Whether it’s a couple of reliable friends or a full-blown thirty-person guild, the desert is far less unforgiving when you’re not shouldering the entire grind by your lonesome. So gear up, find your tribe, and maybe—just maybe—you’ll avoid rebuilding that base for a fourth time.