Today, Funcom has unveiled Dune Awakening Chapter 3, an upcoming update for its survival crafting game set in the world based on Frank Herbert's novels and Denis Villeneuve's movies.
Dune Awakening launched in June 2025 on PC, selling one million copies in a couple of weeks and becoming Funcom's fastest-selling game release to date. However, it was quickly evident that there wasn't enough content, and a lot of players left the game after a short while.
At Gamescom 2025, Game Director Joel Bylos told me the team wasn't worried, as the core is among the best games in the genre and it just needed more content and fixes. Despite recent layoffs, that's exactly what Funcom plans to add to Dune Awakening, starting with Chapter 3.
First and foremost, the developers aim to deliver a 'bigger, better' endgame, powered by a comprehensive redesign of the Tier 6 experience. Players will find deeper progression choices and more meaningful advancement paths, thanks to specializations dedicated to Crafting, Gathering, Exploring, Combat, and Sabotage. This will allow non‑combat focused players to progress endgame content without forced PvP or dungeon raiding.
The Landraad system, Dune Awakening's server-wide political system where player guilds align with the Great Houses (Atreides, Harkonnen), complete weekly tasks, and vote on decrees that affect everyone on the server, has reportedly been remade from scratch and now features new repeatable missions, expanded reward tiers, and stronger incentives for participation. The Faction ranks progression has been extended, too. There will be new contracts specific to each faction's objectives (Atreides, Harkonnen, independent groups).
A completely new Augmentation Station is being introduced as an upgrade path for late‑game gear customization. Players will be able to attach powerful augments to Unique Tier 6 gear to customize their playstyle further. On the PvE side, Funcom is adding five brand-new overland 'challenge sites', including 'The Broodworks'. Completing these areas provides faction progress, increases Landsraad contribution, and grants Specialization XP. Furthermore, Dune Awakening Chapter 3 will introduce five new Testing Stations. These are repeatable, dungeon-like content featuring boss fights, increasing difficulty and appropriately valuable rewards.
The story is going forward, too. The player's narrative journey will continue with the introduction of unexpected allies, fighting through the Neo Carthag dueling ring, and delving deeper into the mystery of the player character's origins. When it comes to combat, the Rapier is being fully reworked, and a new 'Pyrocket' melee weapon (dual-wielded knives) will be available with the update.
Alongside Dune Awakening Chapter 3, Funcom will launch the paid Raiders of the Broken Lands DLC, which can be purchased for $9.99 (but is included with the $24.99 Season Pass). Its additions are cosmetic-only: 73 new building pieces and 17 decorations inspired by the Imperium's Smugglers, a dedicated stillsuit set, a light and heavy armor set, weapon variants, swatches, and emotes.
The game is available at a 35% discount, the largest one yet since launch, in the Steam Winter Sale that starts today. Funcom did not share a timeframe for Chapter 3 and the Raiders of the Broken Lands DLC, but more details should be released in early 2026. Later next year, the game is supposed to launch on consoles as well.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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