The Dune: Awakening community is torn right now. In the Deep Desert, roaming hordes of orniphopters (the Dune equivilent of a plane or helicopter) are dominating the end game and making an already dangerous area even more perilous. The thing is, I don’t think this is a bad thing. In fact, I think it’s good for the game in the long run.
For those who aren’t familiar, the Deep Desert is a no-holds-barred open world PvP area that makes up the majority of Dune: Awakening’s end game. It’s a vast, mostly barren, landscape where the best materials can be found. It’s also a place where any player can kill you and snatch any money or materials you have on you.
So the stakes are high. At the moment, the Deep Desert is being patrolled by Assault Orniphopters. They may not be able to crush you to death anymore, but they’re still armed with missiles, allowing pilots to shoot down other orniphopters with relative ease. One can be evaded easily enough, but when eight of them fly towards you, you’re done for.
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As you can imagine, there are numerous complaints about these flocks of orniphopters dotted around social media and Dune: Awakening community hubs. Take this Reddit post conveying the sadness tied to the Deep Desert compared to Hagga Basin. Or this one, in which user nowheels64 makes a plea for the lock-on missile launchers that appear in the recent Dune movies. The frustration real. It’s palpable.