The best skills in Dune Awakening are spread across all five skill trees and fifteen subtrees, ranging from Bene Gesserit superpowers to Trooper combat abilities. Aside from those two skill trees, you can also master the skills of Planetologists, Mentats and Swordmasters, ultimately gaining a diverse range of abilities that allow you to survive Arrakis and even potentially master it.
Below I'll lay out the best skills from each tree for you to prioritize for the best chance at success, especially in the early game. Keep in mind that you'll need to find all the Dune Awakening Trainer locations to unlock all the skill trees and options before you can even think about investing the points, and our attached guide will help you do just that. However, if you've unlocked them already or just want to plan ahead, here's the best skills in Dune Awakening for each tree.
What are the best skills in Dune Awakening?
Below I've laid out the best skills in Dune Awakening for each Skill Tree, so players know what to aim for early on no matter what their starting mentor is.
- Trooper
- Disruptor Damage (Gunnery). A blanket enhancement for damage on the game's most common firearms.
- Suspensor Dash (Suspensor Training). A great evasion skill for combat and for increasing your jump.
- Shigawire Claw (Tactical Tech). A hookshot that lets you explore more easily and throw off opponents by yanking them around.
- Mentat
- Exploit Weakness (Mental Calculus). Make your own weak points with modified ranged attacks.
- Stunner (Assassination). This dart paralyses opponents and leaves them vulnerable, allowing you to either escape or attack.
- Planetologist
- Cutteray Mining (Scientist). Considering the frequency with which you use the Cutteray, a Yield Bonus for mining is a great bonus to invest in early on.
- Mountaineer (Explorer). Reduced stamina loss when climbing is a serious benefit for moment-to-moment exploration.
- Bene Gesserit
- Bindu Sprint (Weirding Way): A very fast dash is multi-purpose, allowing you to close the gap or escape threats as needed,
- Weirding Step (Weirding Way): A means to get behind opponents quickly is essential for these melee builds.
- Stop (The Voice): The ability to freeze opponents is a great advantage in any situation.
- Litany Against Fear (Body Control): This ability provides a massive defense buff to both you and all your allies.
- Swordmaster
- Blade Damage (The Blade): Considering the frequency of swordfighting, this increase in raw damage is near-essential.
- Thrive on Danger (The Will): The final skill in the Will tree provides a massive series of combat buffs to lose on low health.
- Disciplined Breathing (The Way): Quicker stamina regen is fantastic for melee combat, but also helpful for all gameplay.
- General Conditioning (The Way): A higher max stamina has the same justification as the skill above.
All Skill Trees in Dune Awakening
There are five Skill Trees and/or classes in Dune Awakening, each one of which has a different focus. Those skill trees are:
- Trooper: A soldier-style skillset focused on firearms, ranged combat, anti-gravity suspensors and explosives.
- Mentat: Skills based around sharpshooting. sniping, stealth and laying traps.
- Planetologist: Little-to-no combat focus, instead based on resource management, exploration, and vehicles.
- Bene Gesserit: A witchy tree focused on speed, small blades, mind control powers and resilience.
- Swordmaster: A melee class targeting larger blades, tank abilities, increased health and stat recovery.
It's worth clarifying that none of them are inherently better than the others as a whole – it depends on what equipment you have and your preferred playstyle. For example, players who focus on base building, exploration and mining will get more from focusing on the Planetologist, whereas those who crash into Bandit camps and slaughter everybody to loot the bodies would be wise to pick the Trooper or Swordmaster.
How to unlock new skills in Dune Awakening
Players will start with one of the skill trees unlocked depending on their choice of class in Dune Awakening character creation, but you can find the others along your journey. For each skill tree, you need to find a Basic Trainer, an NPC expert in that skill, who will unlock the tree so you can start putting Skill Points into it. This will unlock the early section of those trees, and you'll need to find an Advanced Trainer to unlock the latter sections.
Trainers are found in populated areas (such as the Basic Trooper being found in the Dune Awakening Griffin's Reach Tradepost) and usually require some sort of mission to get them to teach you. There is no benefit to finding the Basic Trainer for the skill tree that you unlocked during character creation through your choice of Mentor.
It's worth mentioning that most of the advanced trainers are found in the Dune Awakening Arrakeen hub area. If you want to know how to get there, our guide will explain it.
Trooper
Troopers are frontline fighters with an emphasis on ranged combat. They're soldiers, loud and effective, bolstered by advanced tech that allows them to control foes and reposition.
- Trooper sub-trees
- Gunnery: Heavy and full auto firearms.
- Suspensor Training: Anti-gravity devices for mobility and impeding foes.
- Tactical Tech: Grenades, grapples and combat devices.
Mentat
Mentats have brains like supercomputers, which in Dune Awakening is put towards roguish, stealthy builds and sneakiness.
- Mentat sub-trees
- Mental Calculus: Sniping, pistols, and weak points.
- Assassination: Poison, backstabs, and silent kills.
- Tactician: Planted mines and devices used to distract or kill enemies.
Planetologist
The only class without a strong combat focus, the planetologist focuses on resource and exploration, making sure you can get around Arrakis safely between combat encounters without getting swallowed up by the Dune Awakening Sandworms.
- Planetologist sub-trees
- Scientist: Resource gathering and conservation.
- Explorer: Climbing, mobility and map making.
- Mechanic: Buffs and perks for Dune Awakening vehicles.
Bene Gesserit
In Dune Awakening to play a Bene Gesserit is effectively to have picked a monk class – they focus on speed, melee combat, regenerative abilities, as well as the mind-controlling "Voice" powers.
- Bene Gesserit sub-trees
- Weirding Way: Sprinting and speed, as well as melee, unarmed and knife attacks.
- The Voice: Mind-controlling powers used to command and control enemies.
- Body Control: Health regeneration, stat management, immunities and constitution.
Swordmaster
One of the most straightforward builds, the Swordmaster is focused on melee combat with a blade. They also tend to double as tanks, able to deflect or survive attacks that would kill other characters.
- Swordmaster sub-trees
- The Blade: Focused on swords, blade weapons, and melee abilities tied to both.
- The Will: Defensive powers that allow you to dodge, deflect or survive attacks without dying.
- The Way: Stamina enhancements, stat improvements, and new methods to incapacitate foes.
Want some more help learning about the world of Arrakis? Find out how to master the deep desert without specially curated Dune Awakening tips here!
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