Dune: Awakening Chapter 3 Is Out Now; It’s the Biggest Update with a Focus on Endgame Revamp

Funcom has announced that Dune: Awakening Chapter 3, the game's biggest update yet, is live now. This patch continues the main story following the events of Chapter 2 and significantly revamps the previously lackluster endgame content, introducing numerous new locations, systems, and gear. Wccftech watched a remote presentation by the developer to learn the key details and features of Chapter 3; you can read our in-depth report below.

In This Article:

• New Landsraad Mission System
• New PvE Dungeons(Imperial Testing Stations)
• Story Progression, New Weapons, and QoL Tweaks
• New Raiders of the Broken Lands Paid DLC

New Landsraad Mission System

To start, the Landsraad system has been completely overhauled. It is now a contest between the Atreides and the Harkonnen to gain support from minor Houses. Previously, players gained standing by manually submitting resources, but this has been replaced by the new Landsraad Mission system, where missions are grouped into five distinct categories:

• Crafting
• Gathering
• Exploration
• Combat
• Sabotage

These missions will lead Dune: Awakening players to various maps and reward them with a new type of Experience Point (XP) specific to their category. Upon accepting a mission, players can choose which noble house will receive the standing gained from their success.

The XP earned through Landsraad missions opens a new endgame progression path called Specializations. Players can unlock and purchase various traits using a small amount of Refined Spice Melange. These Specializations serve the purpose of allowing players to customize their characters based on their preferred playstyle, such as increasing headshot damage in the combat track or yield rates in the gathering track.

These upgrade tracks go up to level 100. Upon reaching level 75, players receive a unique helmet to show off their expertise in that field. Progression is capped at 35 missions' worth of specialization XP per week, effectively allowing for up to five missions per day.

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New PvE Dungeons(Imperial Testing Stations)

Dune: Awakening Chapter 3 also expands the world of Arrakis: several new locations have been added, including the Ardent Garrison and Smuggler's Run. Another side of the endgame improvements is the long-anticipated introduction of five new Imperial Testing Stations, which function as themed PvE dungeons. Each station is centered around a specific hazard or element:

• Darkness
• Radiation
• Fire
• Electricity
• Poison

These dungeons are instance-based and can be tackled solo or in a group. The number of enemies scales with party size, and players can manually adjust the difficulty level. Higher difficulty levels scale enemy health, damage, and environmental hazards (such as increased electrical damage) while increasing drop rates for high-quality loot.

Each testing station features a unique boss with distinct mechanics. For instance, Funcom showed that the boss in the electrical dungeon uses a disruptor pistol, and the combat arena features increasingly difficult environmental puzzles as the fight progresses. Boss health bars are split into four phases; the boss becomes immune during phase transitions as the room's hazards shift.

That said, I specifically asked whether there were any group mechanics, and the developers replied that there aren't. Which makes sense, I guess, since the dungeons are soloable. It is, however, disappointing for those specifically looking to get a PvE MMORPG-style experience; since they are fundamentally designed to work with just one player, they are unlikely to pose a serious challenge to a coordinated group, even if the number of enemies scales with the group size.

PvE players who are going to be exploring these dungeons can expect to find schematics for Augmentations, a new system for improving gear. These Augments can be applied to Tier 6 (Endgame) melee weapons, ranged weapons, and armor. The ability to apply multiple augments is tied to the Crafting Specialization level. For example, a level 10 crafter can apply an augment to their armor, with more slots unlocking at higher levels. Furthermore, Augments can be traded with friends, shared within guilds, or sold on the Exchange at social hubs.

Story Progression, New Weapons, and QoL Tweaks

As briefly mentioned earlier, Dune: Awakening Chapter 3 also advances the plot as players pursue a murderer revealed to be a Face Dancer. Their investigation eventually leads to a Harkonnen Dueling Ring, where the Face Dancer is suspected of being the arena champion. Players must fight through various bosses, such as Thrax the Flamer, to reach the top of the ranks. The story will also introduce the leader of the Smugglers at their headquarters on Arrakis.

The patch also introduces two brand new weapons, the Pyrocket and the Dual Blades. The former is an area-of-effect (AoE) weapon dropped by the fire dungeon boss, while the latter is a fast melee weapon with a unique move set that consumes less stamina. Moreover, the Rapier weapon type has been completely reworked with new animations, flourishes, and a fencing-style parry-and-reposte mechanic.

The developers then highlighted that they've also introduced several quality-of-life (QoL) improvements, most of which were requested by the community. First and foremost is the complete removal of the tax system that required players to pay a tax to maintain their bases in the game. Additionally, players can now use the Base Backup Tool to store their entire base, allowing them to take a break from the game and redeploy it upon their return. Players can now also apply house swatches (color schemes) to crafting machines, containers, vehicles, and wind turbines, showing their allegiance more clearly. As a way to entice some of the lapsed players to return, the developers are also giving away the free Welcome Back Pack bundle, which provides resources, gear, and vehicles based on the player's previous research progression.

New Raiders of the Broken Lands Paid DLC

Going live with the free Dune: Awakening Chapter 3 update is the premium DLC Raiders of the Broken Lands, which is priced at $9.99 (alternatively, it's included in the Season Pass, which costs $24.99) and provides access to the following items:

• Building Set: Includes 74 industrial and natural-looking building pieces, such as rounded walls, industrial pipes, and metal or tarp roofs.
• Decorations: Features 17 new items, including benches, tables, and bookcases.
• Vehicle: The Raider Buggy, a visual variant of the existing buggy.
• Gear: Includes three new armor sets (Heavy, Light, and Stillsuit), two Smuggler weapons, and new emotes.

Additionally, the Observer building set, previously available via Twitch drops, is now available to all players for in-game purchase with the Solari currency.

During this presentation, Funcom provided no updates on the console ports, which they previously said would be released around a year after the PC launch. If that's still the case, they're only about four months away, but they could still slip a bit. We'll let you know once Funcom shares an official release date.

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