Summary
When you think ofDune, you think of its giant worms. Even if you haven’t seen the movies, you almost certainly know what they look like. That’s why it was very noticeable right away when Funcom removed the Shai-Hulud fromDune: Awakening.
Dune: Awakening, a survival game set on the series' fictional sand planet of Arrakis, launches this week, but early adopters have already spent their first weekend with it, giving Dune fans the chance to live in a version of its world. Much like the Fremen, they must figure out how to stay alive on Arrakis’s unforgiving surface. Naturally, one of the biggest threats to their lives are the giant worms. However, for a brief but blissful period, Awakening’s Arrakis was worm-free.
Reddit user Haloislifnoticed something was up after they passed two worm territories and didn’t feel the vibrations that warn you of a nearby Shai-Hulud. That prompted them to take tothe Dune: Awakening subredditto question whether something was broken, if they just weren’t alerting nearby worms, or if they had been removed from the game.
Shai-Hulud Are Wreaking Havoc On Arakkis
If You Lost Your Base To A Worm Last Weekend, You’re Not Alone
It appears to have been the third and final option, and the video below,shared on YouTube by Paddy M, might explain why. Upon hearing a worm approaching, the players retreat to the safety of their Ornithopter and then watch on, helpless, as the Shai-Hulud they knew was coming proceeds to wreak more havoc on their base than they, or anyone else who plays, thought was possible.
The worm effortlessly ploughs through the base, leaving nothing but a few walls standing amid some debris as it races away to whatever important business it has to take care of next. “Is that the base gone?” one of the players can be heard asking, to which their fellow inhabitant of this virtual Arrakis dejectedly replies, “Yep”.
The base above doesn’t appear to have been the only one decimated by a giant worm. It’s also not something that’s supposed to happen, at least not as easily as it does above, or as frequently as it seems to have been happening during Awakening’s first weekend. So much so that the reason players in the Reddit thread haven’t been able to find them is because they were briefly removed.
Shai-Hulud should be back in Dune: Awakening by the time you read this, and hopefully, Funcom has tweaked the game so that they can’t lay waste to bases quite as easily. Some players are hopeful the dev team hasn’t gone too far in the other direction, though. While well-built bases on rocks where the worms can’t get them should be safe, if you’re building your base on sand anywhere near giant worm territory, you deserve what’s coming to you.
