Funcom has announced that the first free story chapter for its massive multiplayer survival game, Dune: Awakening, will be out next month on September 10, 2025. Alongside the free update, Funcom is also releasing a paid DLC called The Lost Harvest, which has a standalone storyline separate from the free Chapter 2 update. And if you've yet to try Dune: Awakening but have been keen to check it out, you can do so now with a free trial on until August 24, 2025.
Chapter 2 of the story will be added as a free update for all owners of the game, and beyond more story content to dig through, it'll add a few highly-requested features, like being able to re-customize your player character, new hairstyles and tattoos, new contracts, more dynamic encounters, and new armor archetypes.
The Lost Harvest paid DLC is available separately for $12.99 USD, though if you've purchased the Season Pass, then you'll be getting The Lost Harvest as part of the pass. On top of everything else that comes in the free update, players who purchase The Lost Harvest DLC and/or purchase the Season Pass will get a new vehicle to explore Arrakis in with the Treadwheel. Three new Imperial Testing Stations to plunder, five new base decorations, four new weapon skins, two new armor skins, new Dune Man-themed building pieces for your base, and a thumper emote, on top of the separate story content that comes with The Lost Harvest.
Regarding the free trial, it's available for those wanting to test out a journey on Arrakis for themselves from now until August 24, and lets you spend 10 hours with the game running around Hagga Basin before the trial ends. There are a few areas that are unavailable in the trial, such as Harko Village, Arrakeen, and the Deep Desert, though in fairness, it would take you more than just 10 hours of gameplay to reach at least one of those areas.
You'll also be restricted to free trial servers, but if you do purchase the game, all your story progress, character level, skill and tech points, and the contents in your backpack will be carried over. The only things you'll need to rebuild are your base and vehicle, and if you managed to acquire more than 10,000 Solaris, you'll lose anything over that limit. You'll also get a few cosmetic items when you go from the free trial to the full game.
This is the first major content update for Dune: Awakening, and players who've been down on Arrakis since the game launched earlier this year will be happy for it, since anyone playing with some level of consistency has run through all the content that was included with the game at launch. What'll be more interesting for those players beyond the new content, is how Funcom re-balances the game with this new update, as there are surely going to be more tweaks coming on September 10th.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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