PvP is a big part of Dune: Awakening, Funcom’s newly released survival MMO based on Frank Herbert’s legendary sci-fi series, and some players have already found a busted strategy that the developers are looking to fix “ASAP.”
Dune: Awakening released on June 5 for those who paid for the game’s pricier editions (or June 10 for everyone else), and some players have already reached its PvP-focused endgame–the Deep Desert. It’s there where the game’s most precious resource, Spice, is found, and where players duke it out in large-scale PvP to come out on top.
As some players have learned the hard way, however, coming out on top can be quite literal, as a new meta involving the game’s flying Ornithopter vehicles is seeing helpless players crushed from above over and over again. One player took to the Dune: Awakening subreddit (via Eurogamer) and posted a video of their plight. The video shows user Bombe18 repeatedly crushed by an Ornithopter crashing into the ground. Every time Bombe18 self-revives, they are crushed again, and soon a second Ornithopter shows up to make Bombe18’s life even more miserable.
The video prompted a response from Funcom’s Joel Bylos, who responded to the video by stating “Sorry about this. We have people working on fixing the goomba stomping ASAP.” Bylos didn’t go into more detail on what exactly the fix would entail, but players on Reddit seem to agree that Ornithopters should be taking damage from ramming into the ground at high speeds.
Dune: Awakening does give players tools to deal with vehicles, such as explosive weaponry. Players being divebombed by Ornithopters could also use a vehicle of their own to try and escape or hit back. That being said, flying vehicles able to crash into the ground with no concern for their own well-being does seem like an issue that needs to be addressed, so it’s good to see Funcom is paying close attention.
For those looking to do their own Ornithopter diving runs, check out our Dune: Awakening guide on how to unlock and craft vehicles, as well as our beginner tips for surviving on Arrakis. Dune: Awakening is off to a strong start on Steam, having broken 140,000 concurrent players. Funcom announced the console version of Dune: Awakening, however, won’t release until 2026.
