Dune: Awakening Starts Testing Single-Player Mode Before Console Launch

Dune: Awakening’s public test client now includes single-player mode and a reworked character selection experience, giving PC players an early look at two features planned for the game’s September 22 console launch. Those features are also set to arrive on PC when the console version goes live.

Funcom says this build is going up early so the team can run a longer test than usual. According to the patch notes, single-player is selected when starting the game, but existing multiplayer characters can’t be moved into it. You’ll need to make a new character for that mode.

Once you’re in, single-player offers three preset survival difficulty options, plus a wider set of custom rules. Players can tweak things like sandstorms, item durability, base decay, drops on death, base building limits, and sandworm auto-spawns. Funcom says more settings are still being detailed.

The mode keeps the broad structure of Dune: Awakening, just without other players. NPCs remain, starter areas are smaller, and the map doesn’t reset. Coriolis storms can still appear if enabled, but they’re being treated more like weather events rather than instant-death map wipes. The Exchange also works more like a vendor, while the Landsraad is adapted through simulated guilds for solo play.

The character experience update changes the main menu into a cave scene, with the last-played character shown up front. The character tab now gives more useful info at a glance, including playtime, server history, and current location, which should make jumping back into older sessions less of a hassle.

Character portability still has limits. Single-player characters stay locked to single-player. Multiplayer characters have more flexibility, including moving from live servers to private and self-hosted servers, but not back again.