Dune: Awakening’s sandworms will be their own masters: ‘You won’t be able to summon them at will’

Funcom recently announced that Dune: Awakening will release on May 20, and alongside that news, the publisher wants you to know that sandworms are independent annelids that obey their own rules and don’t need you to decide when and where they go places or what they do when they get there.

In a community FAQ, Funcom said that while it might be nice if sandworms could easily be lured to your enemies, that’s not the case. A prospective player specifically asked if there would be “measures in place to prevent, or mitigate, players baiting sandworms onto other players through yolo tactics.”

“Keep in mind that sandworms are their own entities in the game, with their own behaviors, patrolling routes, and routines,” Funcom said. “Sandworms will target any presence that attracts their attention, such as rhythmic vibrations caused by displacement, Holtzman tech, thumpers, etc.

“They will control the sands, and as such are a valuable tactical resource for those who know the ways of the desert and how to use them to their advantage. You can use thumpers to distract or lure them, but you won’t be able to summon them at will.”

Which seems about right to me. Before the events of the Dune books proper the sandworms are a force of nature to be respected and exploited by the Fremen alone. Dune: Awakening is set in an alternate Dune universe where the Fremen have vanished and Paul Atreides, who would unite them, was never born. So, you know, ain’t nobody the worms respect around.

You can find Dune: Awakening on Steam. Ahead of the May 20 launch, you can download a character creator and benchmark tool, so you’ll have an idea of how your rig runs it and also how your weird space person is going to look. (Don’t tell me your space person won’t be weird because I’ve read those books and everyone in that future is weird.)