Highlights
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Dune: Spice Wars
is a game inspired by Frank Herbert’s book series, offering players the chance to experience different factions battling for control over the spice on the planet Arrakis. - The game features factions like House Corrino, House Atreides, The Smugglers, and House Harkonnen, each with their unique playstyles, strengths, and weaknesses.
- Players can explore different game modes, control powerful military units, use diplomacy, espionage, and other strategic tactics to gain dominance and resources on the desert planet.
Inspired by the Frank Herbert book series, Dune: Spice Wars takes players to the fictional desert planet of Arrakis, where the most valuable commodity is a naturally-occurring psychedelic spice. Several powerful factions battle for control over this land, much to the detriment of the native inhabitants, the Fremen. While the books largely center around the perspective of House Atreides and their war with House Harkonnen, Dune: Spice Wars allows players to experience several factions, with more still due to be added when the game leaves Early Acces this September.
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The factions available to players will vary depending on which game mode they are playing. In Conquest mode, only the large houses (Atreides, Harkonnen, and Corrino) can be player-controlled. However, in both the Battle For Arrakis and Kanly Duel game modes, players can also control The Fremen or The Smugglers.
Updated April 21st, 2024, by Andrew McLarney: With the release of the major 1.0 update, which saw the game leave its period of early access, the new House Ecaz faction was introduced. With the surge in popularity catalyzed by the release of Dune: Part Two in 2024, a new DLC was also introduced: ‘House Vernius of Ix’ which introduced a new faction from Brian Herbert’s canon prequel books that describe the ‘Machine Crusade’ and the reasoning behind the banning of robotics and sentient AI technology. The introduction of this faction helps to add a whole new playstyle and a difficult opponent to defeat. This list of Dune: Spice War’s best factions has been updated to better reflect the standing of each faction with the introduction of these new Houses.
7 House Ecaz
A Unique Faction Centered Around Economy Rather Than Combat
House Ecaz may not feature as prominently as some other notable families in the Dune universe, but they are nonetheless a powerful faction that centers around the creation of Sanctuaries. This unique faction ability enables House Ecaz to gain additional benefits from Village Quirks by surrounding neutral settlements.
While House Ecaz have many strengths including the Champion unit and some powerful councilors, it is generally a difficult play-style to learn, and only really becomes effective in the mid-to-late stages of a game. The use of Garden Resorts can greatly increase production output, making House Ecaz one of the stronger factions when it comes to trade and diplomacy.
6 The Smugglers
A Unique Faction With Strengths In Espionage
The Smugglers are an organized crime group on Arrakis primarily dealing in mercantilism and subterfuge. The Smugglers also have a useful array of councilors and excel at Infiltration with their powerful and skilled network of spies. This faction can be difficult to get to grips with at first due to their unconventional playstyle.
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By constructing an Underworld Headquarters in opposing settlements, The Smugglers can sap resources from other factions, as well as set traps that could lead to more straightforward annexation. One unique faction bonus is the ability to annex territories regardless of their distance from the Sietch Tuek. This enables The Smugglers to play in a more fragmented way and prioritize the annexation of territories based on the resources within them rather than their location.
5 House Corrino
A Difficult Faction For Newer Players With Strong Military And Councilors
House Corrino is one of the more difficult factions to play in the game due to its “tall” playstyle. The faction will receive huge penalties for the expansion and annexation of new territories. However, they are incredibly strong when it comes to the maintenance and prosperity of their controlled territories.
Due to the power and status of this household within the galactic Empire, House Corrino can utilize the Imperial Edict on Lansraad Resolutions to change their scope. They also have the capacity for an additional building slot with every settlement, enabling higher rates of resource production. Their legendary Sardaukar military units are also some of the most powerful in the game, though they can be expensive to produce in high numbers.
4 House Atreides
A Great All-Round Faction With Strong Diplomacy Modifiers
House Atreides is a powerful diplomacy-focused faction, and they possess some of the strongest councilors and military units in the game. One of the main strengths of this faction is its dominance within the Council, which can be used to vote on certain reforms to provide additional bonuses to all factions.
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The Peaceful Annexation faction ability is also very useful, although it can take a long time for new territories to be annexed. House Atreides will also cause other factions to lose 100% Landsraad standing if they break a treaty with them, giving them a very strong political position relative to other factions. When reaching 5k Hegemony, House Atreides will also gain 10% Solari production while under the effect of a positive Resolution and 10% Military Unit Power while under the effect of a negative one. As a relatively peaceful culture, the Atreides cannot pillage neutral villages.
3 The Fremen
A Formidable Faction With A Range Of Special Abilities
The Fremen are the native people of Arrakis and, as a result, have an easier time interacting with the hostile environment than other factions. With the ability to perform Wormriding and collect Spice using mobile teams rather than Harvesters, many unique benefits come with playing as this faction. The melee Warriors, for example, are the base unit type and some of the strongest troops in the game.
The Fremen councilor Otheym is also one of the strongest in the game militarily, offering a 10% Speed bonus as well as +25% Power and -25% Damage Received for all units. At 5k Hegemony the Fremen will unlock the ability to surround Deep Deserts to control them as well as generate Thumpers that will attract Sandworms, which can then be used for teleportation-like travel. The only real constraint on the Fremen is their -1 Building Slot limit, but this is more than made up for by the other strengths of the faction.
2 House Harkonnen
A Powerful Military Faction With Strengths In Many Areas
A highly revered militaristic faction, the Harkonnens use expansionism and Oppression to assert dominance over other factions, but in addition to their powerful armies, they also have a number of very useful buildings for the maintenance and resource production within their territories.
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Faction bonuses for the Harkonnens include additional Intel when raiding neutral villages and a 5% bonus to resource production from villages for every single active militia unit. While the Harkonnens excel in the area of Infiltration with several powerful Agents and Councilors, they have less of a standing within the Lansraad council than some other factions. Nevertheless, their military dominance and building production make for a fast, aggressive playstyle for anyone wishing to capitalize on the faction’s strengths.
1 House Vernius
The Most Technologically Advanced Faction In The Game Has A Number Of Unique Abilities
Available as a playable faction in the “House Vernius of Ix” DLC, this faction is arguably the strongest in the game, utilizing the power of robotics and AI to gain an advantage over their rivals. Taken from the prequel series written by Frank’s son, Brian Herbert, House Vernius are known for pushing the boundaries of machinery and testing the limits of the law imposed after the Butlerian Jihad.
In addition to having a number of powerful mechanical units, House Vernius can also utilize the Tether ability to gain a number of unique advantages by linking settlements through a Nodal Network. The faction also has some extremely good councilors, so it is easy to see why this relatively overpowered faction is part of a separate, paid expansion.
Dune: Spice Wars
- Released
- September 14, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Shiro Games
- Publisher(s)
- Funcom , Shiro Games
- Genre(s)
- Real-Time Strategy
