Welcome to your Dune Awakening Deep Desert Survival Guide. This comprehensive guide will tell you everything you need to know about the Deep Desert including how to prepare for it, how to obtain its rare resources and most importantly, how to stay alive.
As this guide is a bit of a beast, we've broken it down by section and provided quick links below so you can easily navigate around the sections.
Please note: this is intended to be a living guide, updated over time to ensure it includes everything you need to know.
Contents
- What Is The Deep Desert?
- How Do You Get To The Deep Desert?
- What Is In The Deep Desert?
- Preparation Checklist - What Do You Need To Take?
- Resources & Loot In The Deep Desert
- PVE Content In The Deep Desert
- The Shifting Sands Of The Deep Desert - Coriolis Storms
What Is The Deep Desert?
The Deep Desert is essentially Dune Awakening's end game. It's a vast expanse of desert (very vast actually), which contains the game's rarest resources, most challenging encounters and perhaps most importantly, lots and lots of Spice.
The Deep Desert is split up into 81 'tiles' on a 9x9 grid (A1 : I9) and comes in at a whopping 576km2. As shown in the image below (in green), the bottom row of tiles (A1 : A9) is a PVE zone. The rest of the Deep Desert is all PVP-enabled.
Generally as you go deeper into the Deep Desert (further north), you will find a higher abundance of rare resources (like Titanium Ore and Stravidium Mass) but also increasing danger as you stray further and further away from safety.
The Deep Desert is also a dynamic zone. We'll explain this further in the 'Coriolis Storm' section but the Deep Desert doesn't stay the same for long. Each week the sands shift and the Desert changes, offering new experiences.
The Deep Desert is an area that Funcom has stated they will continue to develop post-launch to add new content. As of right now, only 300 players within a server can be there at one time.
How Do You Get To The Deep Desert?
The only way to reach the Deep Desert currently is to go via the World Map. That means that to reach the Deep Desert you will indeed need an ornithopter.
Once you reach the World Map, you'll see the Deep Desert located in the northwest, but you can select it and track it on your map.
You can fly into any of the three southern zones which will affect which area of the A-tile row you enter.
What Is In The Deep Desert?
The Deep Desert contains all of the following:
- High-end PVE group content including new Testing Stations & Wrecks (can be done solo but quite challenging);
- Various points of interest, such as caves and small fallen aircrafts;
- From the above content, all of the highest tier crafting materials needed for weapons, armour, machinery and vehicles;
- Titanium Ore and Stravidium Mass, the two highest tier mining materials needed to craft Plastanium Ingots;
- The opportunity to harvest Spice from randomly occurring Spice blows (explosions) of various sizes, the largest of which are huge; and
- A huge PVP area where you can engage in combat with other players or Guilds.
When Should You Go To The Deep Desert?
You can really head to the Deep Desert whenever you have an ornithopter, however it's not advised going there before more of your items are at Mk5.
The Deep Desert is vast, so you'll ideally want Mk5 Wings and a Mk5 Engine if you are using a Scout Ornithopter in order to navigate the map much faster.
If you want to clear some of the PVE content, then unless you have a group you'll definitely want Mk5 weapons & armour. I would suggest getting the Jolt-sword before you go which can be obtained for free by completing the Swordmaster Advanced Trainer quest line.
Also, to use the resources there you will need a Spice Refinery (to refine Spice into Spice Melange) and a Medium Chemical Refinery (to refine Stravidium Mass into Stravidium Fibers) so you'll need a good Duraluminum supply first anyway.
Preparation Checklist - What Do You Need To Take?
When you are venturing out into the Deep Desert, you will need to ensure you are prepared. In addition to the Mk5 weapons & armour mentioned previously, you'll also want to ensure you have the following:
Essential
- At least 2-3x Medium Vehicle Fuel Cells (you don't want to run out of fuel half way through the Deep Desert!)
- A Literjon that has plenty of water in it (Heat Level is 5 out there, fully hydrate before you leave)
- A Welding Torch with 300+ Welding Wire (make sure you repair before you leave too)
- Ample Light or Heavy Darts (if doing PVE content) or Salvaged Metal to craft them
Nice To Have
- A Respawn Beacon (place at the end of the PVE section before you head into the PVP zone)
- A Stilltent or two (to avoid storms)
- A couple of Thumpers (can be helpful if farming Spice)
You do not want to be caught out without the proper equipment in the Deep Desert. Double check you have what you need with you before you head out.
It's a bit less spooky if your Guild has constructed a forward operating base in the Deep Desert but you'll still want to take precautions.
Resources & Loot In the Deep Desert
There are four different categories of resources that you can obtain from the Deep Desert, each discussed below.
Ores: Titanium Ore & Stravidium Mass
To fabricate, construct or produce pretty much anything in the late game you will need Plastanium Ingots. These require Titanium Ore and Stravidium Fibers. Stravidium Fibers are produced in the Medium Chemical Refinery using Stravidium Mass.
Both Titanium Ore and Stravidium Mass can be found throughout the Deep Desert, on the various rocky outcroppings throughout. You won't find many within the first couple of rows behind the Shield Wall (rows B and C) but beyond that you'll find plenty.
I believe that each week, there are two small areas within the Deep Desert which will have a huge amount of either Titanium or Stravidium nodes. If you can find these early in the week, you'll be sorted. I found the Titanium location at F3 during the first week, shown below.
Late-game Crafting Materials
From within Testing Stations and Wrecks, and from fallen aircraft (the burning aircraft you see falling out of the sky and hitting the desert), you'll be able to obtain large amounts of the highest tier of crafting materials. These are required to produce weapons, armour and other items at Mk6.
Most of these materials can only be obtained from the Deep Desert.
Unique Schematics & Spice-infused Ingots
One of the only ways to obtain Plastanium-tier schematics is from PVE content (Testing Stations & Wrecks) in the Deep Desert.
As with normal PVE content in Hagga Basin, you will be required to reach the 'Rare Loot Chest' at the end of the content in the Deep Desert which will reward you with a schematic, Spice-infused Plastanium Ingots and other rare materials.
Spice
Last but certainly not least is, of course, Spice. One of the main reasons for heading to the Deep Desert is to harvest the Spice that lays waiting amongst the dunes.
Spice can be obtained in small amounts from various other sources throughout the game but the Deep Desert is the only place you will be able to harvest any meaningful amount of Spice.
As you fly over the Deep Desert you will occasionally see 'Spice blows', which are huge explosions, leaving a patch of Spice below.
As with Flour Sand on Hagga Basin, you'll need to use a Static Compactor in order to collect the Spice into a pile that you can take. Harvesting Spice is very slow and is not recommended.
If you are with an advanced Guild, eventually you'll be looking to harvest the Spice using a Spice Harvester which also requires a Carrier Ornithopter. In the image below, you can see a squad ready to roll out and harvest some Spice.
Beware however, because the largest Spice fields sit within the maws of giant sandworms which can erupt out of the ground and consume all of the Spice, and any unfortunate adventurer trying to harvest it.
PVE Content in the Deep Desert
The most challenging PVE content in the game lies within the Deep Desert. Right now it's just Testing Stations and Wrecks, similar to those within Hagga Basin, but we're expecting additional PVE challenges & experiences to be added over time.
Deep Desert Wrecks
Wrecks in the Deep Desert function the same as Wrecks in Hagga Basin. They are always PVP Zones, and are typically short experiences that require both exploration and combat to reach the rewards at the end.
One new feature of Wrecks in the Deep Desert (or I think it's new anyway - I don't recall seeing it in Hagga Basin) is combat challenges. When you enter a room in the Wreck, the doors will be locked and you'll be forced to kill all of the enemies within before you can escape.
The layout of the Wrecks we've seen so far are the same as some of the Wrecks in Hagga Basin but as the Wrecks change each week with the Coriolis Storm, we'll hopefully see some new layouts and challenges soon.
Deep Desert Testing Stations
Again, similar to Hagga Basin, the Testing Stations in the Deep Desert follow the same format - they are small-medium sized 'dungeons' but they are actually much harder than Hagga Basin Testing Stations with much greater rewards.
If you are going solo, expect a major challenge. For example, one new challenge within the Testing Stations is the introduction of 'waves' where you will be required to eliminate a number of enemy waves before you can escape.
Once you complete the Testing Station though, the rewards are roughly 3-5x better than that of a Wreck. Expect multiple Unique Schematics and a tonne of end-game crafting materials.
The Shifting Sands of the Deep Desert - Coriolis Storms
As mentioned at the start of this guide, the Deep Desert is a dynamic zone, effectively receiving an entire new map each week. Every week when the Coriolis Storm will arrive every Tuesday Morning during the server restart and the following will happen:
- All bases, vehicles or other items within the Deep Desert will be permanently destroyed;
- All resource nodes in the Deep Desert will change location; and
- All PVE content will disappear and be replaced with new PVE content (Wrecks & Testing Stations).
