Dune: Awakening | Ep. 25 – Arrakis Update: Still Full of Sand

The journey through the frontier continues. Tough choices, unforgettable moments, and a world that never stops testing you.

Some nights, the plan changes.

After the heartbreaking loss of one of my chickens, Popcorn, I wasn’t in the mood for gunslingers and outlaws. Instead, I headed back to Arrakis — a world that’s every bit as harsh, unforgiving, and strangely comforting as real life can be. Sometimes you just need to disappear into the sand for a while.

And honestly? It turned out to be exactly the kind of chaotic, hilarious, nerve-wracking adventure that makes Dune: Awakening special. Giant flying machines, spice harvesting under the shadow of a sandworm, mission mishaps, and enough #BlameGary moments to last the week.

🏜️ About the Game

Dune: Awakening is an open-world survival and crafting game set on the deadly world of Arrakis.

You begin as just another survivor trying to scrape together water, shelter, and equipment, but the further you progress the bigger your ambitions become. Massive bases, ornithopters, political intrigue, spice harvesting, and the constant threat of giant sandworms all combine to create a world where every expedition feels like an adventure.

Whether you’re building an empire or desperately trying not to become worm food, Arrakis never stops testing you.

🧭 Where We Are in the Journey

By Episode 25, we’ve well and truly settled into life on Arrakis.

The focus has shifted from simply surviving to building something spectacular. Between streams I’ve been rebuilding my main home, affectionately known as Cheese Base, transforming it from a giant rectangular block into something that actually looks like it belongs in the Dune universe.

This episode is part base showcase, part engineering experiment, and part high-risk expedition into the Deep Desert. Naturally, chaos follows us every step of the way.

🛠️ What Happens in This Episode

The evening began with a change of plans.

After losing Popcorn, I wasn’t feeling up to returning to Red Dead Redemption II, so instead I headed back to Arrakis. It felt right to spend the evening building, exploring, and getting lost in the sands with the community.

The first stop was Cheese Base.

Gone is the old giant solid block design. In its place is the first stage of a much more ambitious fortress, complete with a huge vehicle deck, a massive tube hangar for the giant carrier affectionately named Flappy Flappy, a guest landing pad, an upper hangar for assault craft, and a dedicated harvester pickup platform.

Chat immediately started comparing it to something straight out of the films, and honestly, I was pretty proud of how it was coming together.

Of course, no stream stays peaceful for long.

Before heading out to the Deep Desert, I decided it was time to prove once again that I have absolutely no fear of Hubert the Sandworm. I casually strolled across open desert to Gary’s base without a care in the world and then walked all the way back again.

Four hundred hours into this game and Hubert still hasn’t managed to eat me.

Meanwhile Gary, Mr V and Mr Smith seem to get swallowed every other week.

I genuinely don’t know how they do it.

With the showboating complete, Gary and I climbed aboard and headed into the Deep Desert in search of spice.

The journey itself became part of the adventure. Long flights across endless dunes led to conversations about music, old games, chickens, and whatever strange tangent chat decided to take us on next. Running jokes about blaming Gary resurfaced, the community jukebox got a workout, and somewhere in amongst it all Vvoornth fought a heroic battle against connection issues before a server restart finally got him into the game.

Eventually we found a promising spice field.

Unfortunately, Hubert had apparently followed us.

What should have been a straightforward harvesting run quickly turned into a tense dance of mining spice while keeping one eye firmly fixed on the sands. Every rumble had us on edge, and Hubert seemed particularly determined to terrorise Gary.

As if that wasn’t enough, the harvester decided to develop a mind of its own. Every time we dropped it, the thing would land and immediately flip itself around like it was auditioning for an acrobatics show.

Because apparently physics on Arrakis are just suggestions.

Still, we managed to fill the tanks, survive multiple near-heart attacks, and haul our spicy treasure safely back home.

That wasn’t quite the end of the night though.

Refuelled and rearmed, Gary and I set off for a Landsraad mission in Wind Pass. What should have been a simple operation turned into an exercise in confusion as we completely overshot the terminal we actually needed and accidentally cleared what turned out to be the next section of the mission instead.

By the time we realised our mistake and found the correct terminal, every enemy we’d already fought had respawned.

Which meant we had to do the whole thing again.

Thankfully, the enemies were no match for me and Gary. We pushed through, completed the mission properly this time, and headed back to Cheese Base to call it a night.

To finish things off, we raided over to DashDucks, sending the community off into another stream and ending the evening on a high.

Arrakis might still be full of sand.

But it’s also full of stories.

🎥 Watch the Episode

If you want to see the base rebuild, meet the mighty Flappy Flappy, witness Hubert trying and failing to claim another victim, and enjoy all the chaos from this stream, make sure to check out the episode below.

Watch here: Dune: Awakening | Ep. 25 – Arrakis Update: Still Full of Sand

You can also follow the whole series here:

Dune: Awakening Playlist

And if you enjoy the adventure, don’t forget to like, comment and subscribe to the channel:

Dr Ravenholm YouTube Channel

🌪️ Join the Adventure Live

The sands are always shifting on Arrakis.

One night we’re building impossible fortresses. The next we’re racing sandworms for spice or somehow turning a straightforward mission into a comedy of errors.

If you’d like to experience the chaos as it happens, come and join us live. Bring your stories, your theories, and maybe a spare harvester that obeys the laws of physics.

🔴 Twitch
https://www.twitch.tv/dr_ravenholm

📺 YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@Dr_Ravenholm

The adventure is always better with company.

🤝 Community & Links

No one survives Arrakis alone.

Whether you’re here for the stories, the laughs, the engineering disasters, or simply to shout #BlameGary at the appropriate moment, there’s always room for you in this strange little corner of the internet.