Dune: Awakening’s desert is filled with raw resources like crystals, metals, ore, stone, and even corpses, that lend their essence to crafting useful survival tools and equipment. One of the most important materials is Iron. It’s a raw resource found in two key zones outside of the starter area, and you’ll need plenty for base building, clothing crafting, weapons, and vehicles. I recommend designating one member of your group to farming raw resources, and pay them a pittance and a few bits of praise to keep them satisfied.
You can scour Hagga Basin all you want, but you won’t find Iron Ore Nodes. For that, you must travel to either Eastern Vermilius Gap or Western Vermilius Gap, both directly north across a vast stretch of desert from Hagga Basin South. I learned this the hard way, but you really need a sandbike to travel across the sand here. Even crouch-walking will alert the sandworms, and they’ll consume you wholly before you can reach the other side. If you die to a sandworm, you’ll lose all of your gear and items in your inventory. Don’t do it!
Once you reach either of the Vermilius Gap regions, whip out your Cutteray Mk1, which is a key component needed to farm Iron. It requires 6x Copper Ingots and 4x EMF Generators, which you can find in moisture caves.
Once there, look for the Southeast Ironworks or Southwest Ironworks. The Iron Ore Nodes look similar to the Copper Ore Nodes, albeit with metallic veins instead of the blue spots of Copper.
Essential items to craft with Iron
Before you can begin crafting genuine tools, equipment, and vehicles, you’ll need to turn your Iron Ore into Iron Ingots, which means harvesting plenty of ore for a refinery. As you progress deeper into the game, unlocking additional workbenches via the research tree, you’ll unlock three: Small Ore Refinery, Medium Ore Refinery, and Large Ore Refinery. A Large Refinery is the most efficient, requiring 25mL Water and x3 Iron Ore to craft a single Iron Ingot.
Once you have Iron Ingots, then you may craft:
- Kirab Stillsuit (Body, Boots, Gloves, Mask)
- Blood Extractor Mk2
- Dew Reaper Mk2
- Medium Blood Sack
- Kirab Heavy Armor (Jerkin, Pants, Headwrap, Gauntlet, Boots)
- Kirab Scout Armor (Jacket, Pants, Helmet, Boots, Gloves)
- Holtzman Shield Mk2
- Standard Weaponry (Disruptor M11, GRDA 44, Karpov 38, Kindjal, Maula Pistol, Sword)
- Repair Station
- Cutteray Mk2
- Power Pack Mk2
- Static Compactor
- Handheld Resource Scanner
- Leap Suspensor Belt
- Sandbike Mk 2 Components (Hull, Chassis, PSU, Engine, Tread, Booster, Inventory, Scanner)
- Uniques (Mendia’s Boots, Meol’s Stillsuit Mask, Oathbreaker Chestpiece)
Dune: Awakening is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs.