DuneCrawl drops you into a scorched desert world where a massive walking crustacean serves as your home, your weapon, and your only reliable way across the dunes. Developed by Alientrap and released on Steam in January 2026, it supports one to four players in online and local co-op. The concept sounds wild because it is: you and your crew pilot a living war machine, raid enemy outposts, hunt buried treasure, and keep your giant crab alive long enough to see what's on the other side of the next sand sea.
What exactly is DuneCrawl?
At its core, DuneCrawl is a co-op action adventure built around a single central idea: crewing a Dune Crawler, a giant armored crustacean covered in cannons and treasure maps. Alientrap designed the game for one to four players, but the solo experience is brutal. Every system in the game assumes you have teammates, and trying to manage everything alone turns what should be a fun desert romp into a grind.
The world is rendered in hand-drawn environments where harsh desert stretches are broken up by pockets of color and life. As your crawler moves from region to region, you gradually piece together the lore behind the Dune Crawlers themselves. Towns and settlements along the route hand out quests through a cast of NPCs, and combat mixes mounted scarab sequences with full crew coordination on the crawler's weapons.
The Dune Crawler in motion
How do you get started in DuneCrawl?
The game opens with Defend Sanctuary Hill, a tutorial chapter that covers the basics before throwing you into the wider desert. This is where you learn movement, combat fundamentals, and how not to get wiped out in the opening hours. Don't rush through it. The tutorial establishes mechanics that carry through every subsequent quest, and skipping past the explanations will cost you later.
After the tutorial, the Breaking Camp quest sends you to a Vassal Outpost with one clear objective: destroy 3 Outpost Towers. This is your first real test of combat outside the safety net of the tutorial, and it sets the tone for how the game handles objectives. Locations are marked, but execution requires coordination, especially if you're running with a crew.
What are the main quests and what do they involve?
The main quest structure moves through several chapters, each with distinct objectives and challenges:
The Lute from The Melody of the Dunes quest is worth prioritizing. It heals any mounts nearby, which makes it directly useful for keeping your scarab mounts alive during the more demanding combat sections.
How does co-op actually work?
DuneCrawl supports both online and local co-op for up to four players, and the game's systems are built around shared responsibility. Managing the crawler's cannons during combat, deciding which objectives to tackle first, and coordinating mounted scarab sequences all require communication. There's no clean way to solo all of this, which is why playing alone puts you at a real disadvantage.
Think of it like Sea of Thieves but with an art style that's far easier on the eyes. Different crew members can focus on different roles: some handle weapons, others manage navigation or exploration. The game doesn't force rigid class structures, but the cooperative design naturally encourages specialization.
What should you focus on upgrading first?
The Dune Crawler itself is the central upgrade target, functioning as your home, transport, and primary combat platform simultaneously. Prioritize anything that improves crawler survivability and weapon capacity early. The mounted scarab sequences also suggest that keeping your mounts healthy matters, which is why obtaining the Lute in The Melody of the Dunes quest has practical value beyond its novelty.
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Quick tips before you head into the dunes
- Don't skip the tutorial. Defend Sanctuary Hill covers mechanics you'll rely on throughout the game.
- Get the Lute early. The mount-healing effect from The Melody of the Dunes quest is practically useful, not just a collectible.
- Explore The Burial Grounds. The Great Crawler's Path hides treasure there, and it's easy to miss if you're following objectives too strictly.
- Coordinate on weapons. During crawler combat sequences, having a dedicated gunner makes a real difference.
- Bring friends. The game launched at $19.99 (with a 15% launch discount bringing it to $16.99 at release), and the co-op experience is what the design is built around.
DuneCrawl is a genuinely unusual game, and its early quest structure does a reasonable job of easing you into the weirdness before the desert gets properly hostile. Stick with the crew, grab the Lute, and don't ignore the hidden areas in The Burial Grounds.