Dune: Awakening Update Nerfs Vehicle Exploit and Adjusts Gameplay Balance

Dune: Awakening’s 1.1.0.15 patch completely removed player damage when being hit by vehicles, thereby mitigating a vehicle exploit used to bully other players. Pilots would use an ornithopter to shoot down and crush solo players, resulting in an infinite loop exploit. The developers also adjusted respawn times while adding bug fixes to the game. The patch update was implemented on June 18. 

Here are the full Dune: Awakening 1.1.0.15 Patch Notes, according to the game’s Steam page:

CHANGES

• Respawn timeout in PvP zones was adjusted. The first respawn will take 70 seconds, second and following respawns will take 115 seconds.
• The Dvyetz Ornithopter Engine Mk5 Schematic was removed from loot tables, as it was a deprecated item.
• Players no longer receive damage when hit by vehicles.
• Since the Unstuck feature doesn’t work for vehicles and when the player is on the Overland Map, the Unstuck button won’t show when the player is on or in a vehicle or on the Overland map.
• Service messages like server restart alerts now appear at the upper central part of the screen for better visibility. (used to be in the upper-right corner)
• An additional safeguard was added when a player respawns across maps: Players now need to manually type “Respawn” into the confirmation popup field.
• When players select the Private servers tab in the Server Browser, they will receive a notification pop-up.
• Another set of changes to further improve the game server and client stability.

FIXES

• Fixed an issue where the game client could freeze when the player attempted to cross the Deep Desert server border.
• Fixed an issue where players who shared their base access with friends could not sometimes abandon their base via a map marker.
• Fixed an issue that caused the dart trails from the Maula Pistol to sometimes deviate from the intended direction.
• Fixed an issue where the Atreides Leader that the player needed to kill in The Advanced Contract – Mentat – Cataloging Defectors contact respawned immediately.
• Fixed an issue that caused a possible crash when restoring a vehicle with the Vehicle Backup Tool.
• Fixed an issue that made it possible to move Crysknifes into storage containers by swapping them with other items.
• Fixed an issue causing the Landsraad refining time reduction bonus not to apply if multiple instances of the same resource were being refined simultaneously.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the player to lose Solaris deposited in the bank.
• Fixed an issue where service alert notifications would not show due to being blocked by other notifications.
• Fixed an issue where exiting the dialogue with Anton Tolliver too soon after delivering the “Deep Extraction” contract would block the player from progressing the faction storyline.
• Fixed an exploit where players could damage other players’ bases with a cutteray.
• Fixed an issue where Research Journey steps wouldn’t get completed retroactively if the player was in a vehicle when performing research. Logging out and back into the game was needed to fix the issue.
• Fixed an exploit causing people to be able to take out water from a deathstill that did not exist in the base.
• Fixed an exploit where players could fire a salvo of projectiles.

Dune: Awakening launched on PC on June 10, 2025. The title surpassed 140,000 concurrent peak players on Steam the day of release. Prior to release, during its head start period, Dune: Awakening amassed nearly 100,000 players.