Summary
“The slow blade penetrates the shield,” as Gurney Halleck says, and using a melee weapon is still one of the best ways to get through a shield inDune: Awakening. Most of the gear and weapons in the game have to be crafted, and the schematics for daggers and swords can be found in the Crafting menu or learned from found items.
The weapons the player has access to early in the game aren’t fancy, but they’re just as effective for both offense and defense, and they often have some handy abilities other than just slice and dice. It’s necessary to collect certain materials to make these melee weapons, some of which are refined, but others can only be found in caves, scavenger outposts, and Imperial Testing Stations.
7Kindjal
Simple But Deadly
The Kindjal is one of the earliest melee weapons that players can create using the Fabricator. It requires the player to collect some plant fiber and copper ingots, which is easy enough, but the Plasteel Microflora Fiber is more difficult to find. Scavenger caves and bandit camps often have these kinds of spare parts, and players mightobtain enough during the Tutorialto finish one.
The schematic for the Kindjal is already provided in the Crafting section, and the knowledge only costs a few Intel points. Once this is unlocked, the character can not only make this handy dagger, but they can also repair it.
6Scrap Metal Knife
A Survival Weapon
This is the only weapon that players can make without a Fabricator. In fact, it’s one of the veryfirst things they make inDune: Awakeningas part of the Tutorial. When the character survives the crash landing on Arrakis, they have to survive with no gear or weapons, but they can MacGyver a simple knife with only a few pieces of scrap metal.
It’s a weapon that players will drop as soon as they pick up something better, but it’s still a good idea for a new player to keep one in their bag just in case. From this point, it’ll still be a while until the player can repair their gear. So, if the new knife gets damaged, at least there’s a spare.
5Artisan Dirk
A Harkonnen Design
The Artisan Dirk is of a Harkonnen design, so it’s not a surprise that it tips the damage scale.Players can unlock it in the Crafting menuand have to collect steel ingots, plant fiber, water, and blade parts, which are easily found at lower levels. Two additional ingredients, steel ingots and Plasteel Microflora Fiber, take more effort to make or acquire.
Most daggers are more about a quick and messy death than a swordfight, and the Artisan Dirk is an excellent example of this. It’s intended for defense as opposed to offense, but that doesn’t make it any less deadly.
4Standard Sword
Capable Of Sweeping Attacks
This is the first sword that most players will make, and it’s already in the Crafting menu, but the cost is a bit steep at 10 Intel points. Once it’s unlocked, the character has access to a weapon that’s slower than a dagger, but it can hit more than one enemy in one sweep and deals more damage on average.
The Standard Sword requires iron ingots as opposed to steel, which is more difficult to make and only unlocks after a certain skill level. Plasteel Microflora Fiber, plant fiber, and blade parts can be found in shipwrecks, Imperial Testing Stations, and Intel locations.
3Artisan Kindjal
Styled After Duke Leto’s Favorite Knife
The Artisan category of weapons is one step up from iron, which means that these recipes require steel. The extra ingredient is carbon ore, which is added to iron ingots to make steel ingots, and the rest of the recipe includes the usual mix of water, plant fiber, Plasteel Microflora Fiber, and blade parts.
House Atreides prefers the Kindjal design instead of the fashion of the Dirk, which is a favorite of their sworn enemies, House Harkonnen. It’s a considerable step up from the first Kindjal the player can make; although it doesn’t move any faster, it does twice as much damage.
2Artisan Sword
A Great House Item
This is the weapon that the Swordmasters of the Great Houses will use when training, sparring, and fighting. It’s more elegant and precise, requiring a different skill set than a dirk or a kindjal, and it does more than twice as much damage as the Standard Sword.
The recipe for the Artisan Sword is almost exactly the same as the Standard recipe, but the one difference is steel as opposed to iron. It also requires 10 Intel points, so it’s a steep investment compared to other weapons, butit might be worth it to early players.
1Kaleff’s Drinker
Collect Blood Without An Extractor
Kaleff’s Drinker is on every player’s list as the schematic to find and craft. It doesn’t do a lot of damage, but it maims and kills with brutal efficiency. On top of that, it exsanguinates the target and stores their blood ina container that the player has in their inventory. At a time when water acquisition and storage are in their early stages, it makes the game that much easier.
It even has an entertaining legend behind it about the former owner, Kaleff, a Fremen who managed to last for days against a much larger Sadukar force thanks to his special knife. The recipe requires only copper ingots and Plasteel Microflora Fiber, which can beacquired almost anywhere at low levels, but the Copper-infused Dust has to be found or looted in the wilderness.
