Dune: Awakening Flips Half of the Deep Desert to PvE on Public Test Client

Here is a sentence few Dune: Awakening survivalists ever expected to read in 2026: a player can now stroll through large chunks of the Deep Desert and grab rare resources without being flattened, sniped, or chased by an ornithopter piloted by someone with a grudge. Is that the sound of a thousand PvE players weeping with joy? Possibly. Funcom has just dropped a surprise update to its Public Test Client, and the headline change is genuinely radical—half of the once cutthroat Deep Desert is now flagged for PvE.

Let’s rewind for anyone who spent the last year hiding in a stilltent. When Dune: Awakening launched in June 2025, the Deep Desert was pitched as the ultimate high-risk, high-reward endgame loop: every week the sands reset, rare loot respawned, and players were supposed to form guilds, scan the horizon, and embrace the most dangerous part of the most dangerous planet in the universe. Sounds thrilling, right? In practice, a lot of players found it less “spice opera” and more “spice-themed griefing buffet.” Funcom even had to patch out the ability for players to squish other humans with their ornithopters—a sentence that still feels like it belongs in a Looney Tunes script.

Creative director Joel Bylos was refreshingly candid about the problem. He admitted the “extremely competitive nature” of the Deep Desert was shoving PvE-curious players into fights they never wanted. His stated goal? “We want PvE players to be able to play the endgame and have access to the content of the endgame.” And, in a rare moment of MMO honesty, he added that the studio was not trying to force PvE players into a PvP system they had no interest in. Bold words. But would the action match the promise?

Enter the Public Test Client. The latest test build expands the PvE area near the shield wall from the old single row A to rows A, B, C, D, and half of E. Let that sink in. The previous live balance allowed only row A to be safe, which was roughly the size of a postage stamp on Arrakis. Now, the test build effectively converts half of the Deep Desert from PvP to PvE. A desert that once demanded a head on a swivel now offers something previously unthinkable: a picnic spot.

Of course, before anyone rage-quits over the death of open-world carnage, a few details matter. The biggest spice fields, the juiciest shipwrecks, and the Landsraad control points remain “War of Assassins” PvP areas. Those are still high reward, high risk, and will keep the murder hobos happily occupied. The expanded “Partial Warfare (PvE)” zones are for players who want rare resources without needing a 12-person security detail. Will this kill PvP? Unlikely. Will it stop some of the toxicity? That is the thousand-spice question.

Funcom has been careful to note this is a test server idea, not necessarily a done deal. Buggy builds, unstable servers, and wildly overtuned changes are what the Public Test Client is for. But the fact that the studio is willing to flip half the endgame to PvE just two days after saying it would improve the experience says something. Could this be the first step toward a friendlier Arrakis? Or a temporary experiment that gets rolled back before players can finish singing the litany against fear? Nobody outside the dev team knows yet.

Dune: Awakening has earned the right to experiment. At its June 2025 launch it racked up more than 142,000 concurrent players on Steam within hours, later peaking at 189,333. It blew past one million players and became Funcom’s fastest-selling game ever. Its Steam rating sits at “very positive,” and reviewer verdicts were mostly glowing—one 8/10 review called the climb from dehydrated peasant to powerful warlord of Arrakis “a joy almost every step of the way,” while also noting the endgame was “a bit of a chaotic mess not worth the effort.” That last part feels relevant, does it not?

None of this means the final game will suddenly become a completely peaceful sandbox. PvP diehards can still fight over the most valuable spice fields, and the weekly reset loop remains intact. But for PvE players who have spent literal months avoiding the Deep Desert like it was a sandworm-themed haunted house, the Public Test Client offers a glimpse of a better future. Whether that future survives contact with balance patches, player feedback, and the occasional ornithopter-shaped bug remains to be seen.

In the meantime, anyone tempted to test the new layout should remember three things. First, the PvE expansion is currently live only on the Public Test Client, not the main game. Second, test builds may be buggy—if your character suddenly achieves orbit, take a screenshot. Third, if you plan to visit the remaining PvP zones, pack water, bring friends, and accept that someone out there is absolutely waiting behind a dune with a rocket launcher.

Still on the fence about diving back into Arrakis? The game’s class system, story walkthroughs, resource guides, and trainer locations are all worth reviewing before setting out. After all, the desert does not care whether you are PvE or PvP—only that you are prepared. And in 2026, being prepared may finally mean you can enjoy the endgame without becoming someone else’s content.