Funcom has rolled out a patch for Dune: Awakening that stops players from being squashed by vehicles, but the change is more of a legal verdict than a mechanical rework. As of early 2026, anyone on Arrakis is now immune to vehicle collision damage, which means a screaming Ornithopter or a runaway sandbike can no longer turn a player into a red smear on the dunes. The vehicles themselves were not changed. Instead, Funcom simply removed the damage players take when hit, a choice that protects both victims of PvP griefing and riders who accidentally launch themselves off cliff edges.
On paper, this is a neat fix. Accidental sandbike deaths have long been an occupational hazard on Arrakis, and the patch acts like a thermal blanket thrown over a sunstroke patient — it treats the symptom, not the climate. Griefers who once used Ornithopters as twelve-meter flyswatters have not vanished. They have adapted. Community reports suggest some are now using vehicles in new ways to harass or disrupt rather than directly splatter. The patch is less like a repair and more like a treaty that forbids arrows while leaving the archers free to keep marching.
Reaction on the game's subreddit has been mixed. Hundreds of players upvoted confirmation of the change, but the comments read like a strategic council rather than a victory parade. Several recurring suggestions have emerged:
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🚀 Reduce rocket top speed while increasing thruster top speed, so PvP revolves around control rather than ganking.
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🛡️ Remove rockets from Scouts entirely; let slower Assault units carry the explosive load because they require more careful input.
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💥 Apply damage to both the vehicle and the player, preserving a real deterrent against ramming.
Shooting down an Ornithopter is not easy. Rocket launchers and Lasguns remain the only dependable counters, and both sit deep in Tier 6 weapon progression. That means most players spend dozens of hours without an answer to a single aircraft, making an aggressive pilot about as easy to remove as a hunter-seeker in a dark sietch. The new immunity also closes off one unglamorous but effective tactic: using vehicles to ram NPC enemies and speed up fights. That loss is likely acceptable to most, but it underscores how the patch changes the game's rules without changing the tools that created the problem.
None of this has dampened the game's momentum. Dune: Awakening received a Great 8/10 score in IGN's review, with particular praise for the climb from a dehydrated scavenger to a powerful warlord. The review also highlighted combat that never quite reaches its full rhythm, an endgame that can feel like a chaotic mess, and technical bugs in need of squashing. Those issues were described as tiny desert mice next to the sandworm-sized successes of the survival experience and worldbuilding.
Funcom's survival MMO launched on June 10, 2025, reaching 142,000 concurrent players on Steam within hours and climbing to 189,333 over the following weekend. Into 2026, the Steam user review rating remains very positive. For newcomers, the usual starting priorities still apply: choosing a class, learning the scan-and-store loop, and tracking down early resources such as iron, steel, and aluminium.
Part of the frustration stems from how vehicles intersect with the class system. Scouts are meant to be mobile scouts, Assaults are slower, and rockets are supposed to matter for landmark control. The patch did not address these underlying roles, so the debate has shifted from accidental deaths to what vehicles should be allowed to do in PvP at all. It is a reminder that in Dune: Awakening, the real enemy is often not the sandworm but the design gap between player imagination and server reality.
The patch may save lives, but it also removes a layer of consequences from vehicle play. Some players valued the risk of being hit as a natural deterrent against careless flying. Without that risk, the skies can become even more crowded with pilots treating the battlefield like a stunt show. Whether Funcom revisits Ornithopter physics or weapon restrictions later in 2026 remains an open question.