With Chapter 2 fresh in the rearview, Funcom didn’t stop at free updates. They’ve also launched the game’s first major paid expansion, The Lost Harvest, available now on Steam. This DLC introduces a new region, story arc, gameplay mechanics, and cosmetic content that offer an even deeper dive into the brutal ecosystem and shifting power struggles of Dune Awakening Items Arrakis.
More than just new content, The Lost Harvest is a thematic evolution. It centers on exploitation, ecological collapse, and the inevitable consequences of greed — all hallmarks of the Dune universe. Whether you're an old-school survivalist or a narrative-driven explorer, this DLC brings new depth and danger to the world of Dune: Awakening.
Here’s what’s inside, what it adds to the game, and whether it’s worth the price of entry.
The New Region: Shashkol Oasis — A Dying Paradise
At the heart of The Lost Harvest lies the Shashkol Oasis, a lush but failing ecosystem hidden in the southern reaches of Arrakis. Once a thriving experimental zone managed by rogue Ecologists, the area is now crumbling under illegal spice harvesting and ecological sabotage.
Unlike the windswept dunes of the Hagga Basin or the urban grind of Arrakeen, Shashkol offers vertical environments, dense flora, and new traversal challenges, including rope-assisted climbs and hidden underground caverns. The region introduces its own weather patterns, most notably acidic rainstorms, which damage gear and force players to craft specialized survival equipment.
Shashkol isn’t just a new map — it’s a completely different biome that adds survival tension and exploratory reward. The contrast to the usual desert terrain makes it one of the most compelling additions yet.
Narrative Content: The Ecologist’s Warning
The Lost Harvest includes a five-part story arc centered around a faction of rogue Ecologists, led by the enigmatic character Dr. Sahri Yen, a former advisor to Liet-Kynes. Players are drawn into a conflict between environmental preservation and exploitation, with morally gray choices that affect both gameplay and reputation with certain factions.
Quests are designed more like multi-phase investigations than simple fetch tasks, often requiring players to gather intel, interpret encrypted field reports, and make decisions that have environmental impacts. In one early mission, for instance, you must decide whether to shut down a spice harvester killing native wildlife — or repurpose it to improve your personal harvest yield at the cost of local ecosystems.
This introduces a new "Eco Consequence" system, where specific story choices affect long-term conditions in the region, from NPC behavior to resource spawns. It’s one of the first times the game allows player agency to visibly shape the world.
New Mechanics: Biotech, Scanning, and Adaptive Gear
The DLC introduces a handful of new systems that meaningfully enhance core gameplay:
BioTech Implants: A new class of upgradable augmentations that offer minor boosts like thermal resistance, increased sprint speed, or temporary invisibility. These require rare resources from Shashkol to craft and can only be installed in Biome Chambers — a new type of facility.
Scanning Drone Utility: A remote-controlled drone used to identify hidden plant life, detect toxic pockets, and unlock otherwise inaccessible caches. Think survival meets reconnaissance. Drones also double as tools in PvP, helping scout enemy outposts or identify ambush zones.
Adaptive Armor Sets: New modular armor pieces that change functionality depending on the biome. For example, a Shashkol chestplate offers environmental protection from acid rain, but its benefits decrease in open desert combat. This adds a gear management layer, pushing players to think more strategically about their loadouts.
Combined, these mechanics offer new ways to engage with the environment, deepen your build strategy, and navigate the dangers of both PvE and PvP.
New Enemies and PvE Challenges
The oasis isn't unguarded.
The Lost Harvest adds three new enemy types:
Spice Leeches: Burrowing organisms that drain your stamina and resources if not burned off quickly.
Desert Fanatics: A splinter group of zealots who believe ecological collapse is part of Shai-Hulud’s divine will. Aggressive, heavily armed, and irrational.
Pollution Beasts: Mutated remnants of sand fauna, corrupted by spice runoff and biome imbalance. These mini-bosses drop rare implants and materials needed for late-game crafting.
In addition, a new group PvE event — The Purge of Shashkol — triggers once per day and challenges players to reclaim ecological control by shutting down illegal operations across multiple sectors in a 45-minute window. Rewards include exclusive cosmetics, rare blueprints, and high-tier upgrade modules.
Cosmetics, Gear, and Pricing
The Lost Harvest includes a bundle of themed cosmetics, including:
“Tarnished Ecologist” armor set
“Green Flame” knife skin
New glider model: The Whispering Leaf
Four exclusive emotes and banner icons
The DLC is priced at $14.99 USD and is available standalone or as part of the Dune Expansion Pass Vol. 1, which promises two more paid expansions by mid-2026. Players who own the expansion pass gain early access to Shashkol’s missions and bonus gear crafting perks.
So far, community response has been positive — many citing the DLC’s environmental design and narrative as some of the best content in the game. However, some players feel that $15 may be steep given the DLC's limited PvP relevance and smaller regional footprint.
Is It Worth It?
If you're a player who enjoys story-driven exploration, build variety, and environmental storytelling, The Lost Harvest is almost certainly worth the price. The biome diversity, decision-based questlines, and gear systems make it a standout expansion.
For hardcore PvP players or those focused on sandbox economy systems, it may feel less essential — but even they will find value in the new armor and implants, especially for survival or infiltration builds.
Ultimately, The Lost Harvest doesn't try to rewrite the game — it deepens it. And for a first DLC outing, that’s exactly what Dune: Awakening needed.
Conclusion
The Lost Harvest succeeds not by adding noise, but by adding nuance. It’s a DLC rooted in theme, consequence, and ecosystem — a perfect fit for a world as morally complex as Arrakis. With new gear, systems, and region-specific storylines, it expands Buy Dune Awakening Items in ways that feel both intimate and impactful.
If this is the direction Funcom intends to follow for future expansions, we’re not just looking at content drops — we’re looking at a full evolution of the live-service survival genre.
