Building My First Base on Arrakis – Lessons Learned the Hard Way

When I first landed on the scorching sands of Arrakis in Dune: Awakening, I had no idea how important my base would be—not just for crafting and survival, but for sanity. Arrakis is not forgiving. Sandstorms, heatwaves, and aggressive rival factions make life outside a well-built base nearly impossible. If you’re just starting out, let me walk you through how I built my first base, the mistakes I made, and what I learned Dune Awakening Solari.

First Rule: Place Your Sub-Fief Console Before Anything Else

This was my first big mistake. I started putting down walls and foundations without placing the Sub-Fief Console first. Big mistake. The game only allows you to build within the radius of this console, and it basically functions like your land claim marker. Without it, you’re just wasting resources. Always place the Sub-Fief Console first—then build out from there.

The cool part is that while the initial placement defines your territory, you can move the console later without losing control of the area. That helped me reposition my console after I learned I had accidentally built too close to a cliff where wind erosion would constantly damage my structures.

Using the Construction Tool – Plan Before You Place

The Construction Tool is your lifeline in base building. Once I figured out how to toggle between build and blueprint mode (pressing RMB), my builds became way more efficient. In Blueprint mode, I could visualize what my base would look like and plan out my rooms, crafting areas, and storage zones without committing materials right away. This saved me tons of time and resources.

There's also a Piece Picker mode, which lets you select a placed structure and duplicate it easily. Great for symmetry and speeding up placement when building walls or rows of storage units.

Crafting Stations & Power Management

Here's where things got real. I placed multiple crafting stations—Refiners, Fabricators, Chem Labs—you name it. But suddenly, my base power grid shut down, and I was left vulnerable. Turns out, each station uses a set amount of power, and your starting Fuel-Powered Generator only produces 75 units. I was burning more than that.

Lesson: Check the power requirements of each station, and upgrade your generator ASAP. Without power, your base shields go down, leaving you wide open to Arrakis’ brutal elements and even other players.

Moving Your Base – A Game-Changer

At one point, I found a better location near a spice-rich area and wanted to relocate. I thought I’d have to rebuild everything from scratch, but then I discovered the Solido Replicator. This little gem lets you store a blueprint of your current base layout, which you can use later to rebuild in a new spot.

Fair warning: the replicator doesn’t save your crafting stations, only the base structure itself. So yes, you’ll still have to manually place every station again—but it’s way easier than re-planning the entire base.

I used my Sandbike (equipped with inventory storage) to transport all my building materials. Honestly, that combo of blueprint + mobile inventory made moving painless.

Multiplayer Base Sharing – Set Your Permissions!

If you're building with friends (or even just allowing them to visit), don't forget to manage Permissions through your Sub-Fief Console. I had a buddy accidentally dismantle part of my wall because I forgot to restrict his access. Lesson learned. You can also fine-tune permissions on specific doors or containers—super useful when you want to share certain resources but not all Dune Awakening Items.

Final Tip – Master the Circuit System

At first, I thought it was just a gimmick. Then I realized how powerful it was. By connecting storage units and crafting stations via Circuits, I no longer needed to carry mats in my inventory. Want one Fabricator to only use Iron? Put it on Circuit 1. Want another to use all other materials? Connect it to Circuit 2. Clean, efficient, no inventory juggling.