Spice is the most valuable resource in the universe. The spice extends life, it expands consciousness and makes interstellar travel possible. Create your own story and play as one of several factions, including House Atreides and House Harkonnen, and compete for power over Dune and the spice.

Scan the landscape for wormsign or risk losing your troops and spice harvesters to titanic sandworms who will burst through the sand dunes to swallow and devour them whole. Best your opponents through political intrigue, crush them in combat, and undermine them with your network of illusive spies.

Dune: Spice Wars features asymmetrical gameplay, will have several playable factions, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as multiple ways to achieve your ultimate goal – control of the spice on Arrakis. You can deploy agents to sabotage, assassinate and spy on your opponents, use political means to influence the Landsraad and pass beneficial resolutions, amass incredible wealth and simply overwhelm the other houses through economic and technological supremacy, or you can opt for open war.

Dune: Spice Wars is based more on the original novel than on the movie, but since we’re both drawing on the same intellectual property, there will be some similarities.

Marking the first time in two decades that players will be able to set foot on Dune in a game, publishers Funcom and Developers Shiro Games are thrilled to announce that on April 26, Dune: Spice Wars enters Early Access.

Along with the Early Access release, the fourth playable faction has also been revealed today as the Fremen. With a greater capacity to move across and withstand the open desert, less chance to attract colossal sandworms, and an improved ability to ally with hidden Sietches (neutral native settlements), the Fremen are uniquely poised to expand their area of influence in order to control the planet. Discover everything about the native desert survivors in today’s new faction reveal.

“With so many massive Dune fans in the studio, the excitement I see every day of working with this universe is very real, and we hope this comes across in the game,” says Sebastien Vidal, CEO of Shiro Games. “With all this passion for the source material, and all the know-how we’ve gathered from making Northgard, we can’t wait to put this game into players’ hands.”

The Fremen are the native inhabitants of Arrakis. Angered by the imperial invaders, they lead a fierce and relentless resistance. Often underestimated, their martial prowess is well known by the few who have been lucky enough to survive an encounter with them. During the 60 years of Harkonnen occupation, the Fremen have been a constant thorn in the baron’s side

Their dream and long term goal is to turn the planet into a lush, temperate planet, which may endanger the spice trade. The Spice Wars are an opportunity to free the planet from the imperial grip, one that the Fremen would be more than happy to take.

Fremen General Gameplay

Arising from and forged by the desert, the Fremen are less affected by the environment. They can travel further before suffering from exhaustion or attracting the sandworms. Better yet, they can use the terrible beast to travel faster and strike suddenly at the heart of their opponent’s domain. Experts in stealth tactics, they can also lay devastating ambushes on their opponents’ armies, or hide inside the dreadful sandstorms of Arrakis to surprise weakened, unsuspecting victims

While their guerrilla tactics are more than adequate for combatting the invaders, their true power lies elsewhere: in rallying all of the sietches across Arrakis, the Fremen will grow even stronger and may be able to completely drive the imperium out of the planet.

Fremen Leader

Prominent planetologist of the Emperor, assigned to Arrakis to study the spice cycle, Liet Kynes is secretly leading the Fremen’s ecological project started by her father. Her twin loyalty has made her a skillful schemer able to navigate both the convoluted Fremen traditions and the impenetrable Imperial administration. The Fremen have an almost religious admiration for Liet, who they believe will lead them to a utopian Arrakis, freed both from the Imperium and from water scarcity.

Just like her people, Liet is wary of outsiders, but also kind and trustworthy, concerned to the highest degree with the well-being and freedom of the Fremen

Fremen Councillors (or equivalent)

In the complex Fremen society, the majority of those in prominence support Liet Kynes’ plan, and respect her strategic mind. Some of them have joined her in Sietch Tabr to help lead the Fremen to victory during the Spice Wars.

• Chani Kynes, the daughter of Liet, is a bold and charismatic woman. Her brilliant and intuitive mind helps her gather facts and figures from the tiniest hearsays.
• Stilgar Ben Fifrawi is the Naib of Sietch Tabr. A formidable warrior,but an even wiser ruler, he is deeply respected by all of the Fremen.
• Mother Ramallo is a rogue Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit. She inspires a strong religious fervour into the Fremen and holds a deep knowledge of all their rites.
• Otheym is a renowned Fremen fighter. He is also a very good teacher and a great leader, specialising in desert guerrilla warfare.

Fremen Unique units

The Fremen are experts in holding military influence over a large territory. They can cross long distances in the desert in a short amount of time using their legendary ability to ride sandworms, resupply less often and further from home and hold up longer against a superior force.

Their unique units include:

• Warriorsare the bread and butter of Fremen fighters. Armed with long knives, they are experts at using Arrakis terrain to disorient their opponents.
• Infiltratorsare so used to the desert that they stay invisible and unheard until they strike with their two knives. Their surprise attacks will always find a weak spot, breaking their opponents’ will and focus.
• Skirmishershave a large supply of grenades. They use them to ambush well armoured units and soften them for their other comrades to finish off.
• Fedaykinsare the elite of the Fremen army. Trained in the weirding way and armed with the feared crysknives, they only get stronger the more opponents they face.
• Kulon Caravansare the holders of the clan’s water. While they can fight the invaders with maula rifles, their main function is to set up a hiereg camp. At the camp, all Fremen units will be hidden, healed and resupplied. As such, Kulon caravans are best deployed near remote villages as proxy bases for an attack.

Key Features:

• Frank Herbert’s Dune: Experience the unique Dune universe – one of the most influential sci-fi settings ever created. Play as iconic characters, such Duke Leto Atreides, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and more, and guide your faction to victory. Watch for the constant threat of the massive sandworms, who dominate the dangerous landscape of Dune.
• Forge your own path: Choose between subterfuge, political influence, economic supremacy, or open warfare toprevail and gain control over the most important planet in the universe! Use secretive agents to sabotage the plans of your opponents. Vote on political resolutions in the Landsraad to further your strategy.
• 4X in real-time: Explore Dune with ornithopters to discover resources, villages, and points of interest. Expand with your troops to take control of more and more regions. Exploit the resources through buildings and spice harvesters to dominate the economy. Exterminate your enemies with a strong military but beware as outright aggression can have high political repercussions.
• Growing throughout Early Access: The game will be updated and expanded during Early Access based on your feedback. More features and content, improved balance and new game modes will be added in the Early Access period, based on the crucial input of the community.

Dune: Spice Wars is the first game based on the Dune IP to be published by Funcom and is not to be confused with the open-world survival game the studio is developing. Dune: Spice Wars is created by the same team that released critically acclaimed RTS Northgard in 2017, using their expertise in creating strategy games to bring the Dune universe to life.

Dune: Spice Wars will be released into early access on PC (Steam) in early 2022.