"While PvP conflict is an important aspect of Dune: Awakening for some, it must be optional and incentivized rather than required for progression." That line from Funcom's April 2026 developer update is the clearest sign yet that the studio has accepted what its own data has been telling it for months.
A year of complaints finally reaches a tipping point
Dune: Awakening launched in June 2025 with a design that tied endgame progression to the Deep Desert, a zone where PvP was effectively mandatory. Want the best resources? Want to hit the Imperial Testing Stations? Better be ready to get ganked. Players who had no interest in PvP found themselves locked out of top-tier content unless they accepted that risk.
Funcom acknowledged the problem almost immediately. Just weeks after launch, the studio stated its goal was "not to force PvE players to interact with a PvP system that they may have no interest in" and quickly tested a split that made the southern half of the Deep Desert PvE-only. That helped, but not enough. Complaints continued through multiple subsequent patches as the northern PvP zone still gated meaningful rewards.
The number that finally settled the argument: over 80% of lifetime players have exclusively engaged with PvE content. At that point, building your endgame around mandatory PvP conflict isn't a design feature, it's a barrier.
What patch 1.3.20.0 actually changes
The upcoming patch restructures the Deep Desert and Hagga Basin entirely. Here's the breakdown:
- All PvP zones in Hagga Basin will be disabled across all official Worlds
- The Deep Desert will offer two separate instances players can choose between
- PvE instance: no player combat anywhere, including Shipwrecks, across all rows
- PvP instance: open-world conflict across rows B through I, with mining and spice harvesting yields multiplied by 2.5x compared to PvE areas
The key here is that 2.5x yield multiplier. Funcom isn't just separating the experiences and calling it done. Players who opt into PvP are getting a tangible reward for accepting the risk, which gives the PvP instance its own reason to exist rather than just being the old default with a toggle slapped on it.
The PvP/PvE instance split applies to official Worlds only. Self-hosted server rules will be customizable by whoever runs them.
2.5x yield in PvP zones
Self-hosted servers arrive alongside the overhaul
The PvP rework isn't the only thing in the April update. Funcom is also launching self-hosted servers, letting players run private instances with their own rules. Adjustable settings will initially cover resource harvesting rates, base building piece limits, and item durability and base decay options.
The studio is releasing this feature early specifically to gather feedback, and it's upfront that the first version is experimental and technically demanding. Running a server requires a Windows 10 Pro machine with Hyper-V enabled to run the server software inside a Linux Virtual Machine. Minimum specs for 1-4 players doing normal activity look like this:
Funcom also flagged that CPU and RAM demands "increase rapidly with number of players and number of maps," so anyone planning to run a larger community server will want to spec up considerably beyond those minimums.
What this means for where Dune: Awakening goes next
This is a meaningful course correction, not a minor balance patch. Funcom spent nearly a year trying to find a middle ground where PvP and PvE coexisted in the same space, and the data kept pointing in one direction. Separating the experiences entirely, while rewarding players who choose the harder path, is the kind of structural fix that should have been easier to reach earlier.
Self-hosted servers add another layer of long-term value, giving communities the ability to shape their own version of Arrakis without relying on official World settings.
A specific release date for patch 1.3.20.0 hasn't been confirmed, but self-hosted server testing is expected to begin soon. For everything else happening in survival and crafting games right now, browse the latest gaming news to stay current. Make sure to check out more:
