Even Hagga Basin isn’t safe.
Dune: Awakening may have introduced more PvE-friendly areas in the Deep Desert, but that hasn’t stopped griefers from finding new ways to harass players, even in supposedly safe zones like the Hagga Basin.
As the starting area for all newly-Awakened, Hagga Basin is meant to be a PvE-only space where players can learn the basics of survival on Arrakis. Hostile creatures are generated by the system, and PvP is disabled. However, that hasn’t stopped griefers from dragging sandworms into the zone to ambush others, even in Hagga Basin.
Griefing hits Hagga Basin
Redditor RandoFinder reported that griefers were bringing their old tactics from the Deep Desert into Hagga Basin. By placing thumpers, which are devices that summon sandworms, and landing multiple ornithopters around players so that there is no way to escape, these griefers are able to lure Shai-Hulud (or sandworms) into PvE zones and indirectly kill other players.
“They're doing the same thumper and land-on-thopter technique they perfected in DD (Deep Desert),” RandoFinder wrote. “But now they're using it to farm all the minor nodes in Hagga.”
The Redditor added that the griefers were essentially waging war on the rest of the server, while solo players had no real means of pushing back. “This game has some massive issues ahead,” they warned. The frustration came through particularly in their comment: “As a Dune fan, I don't think planting a thumper and then having four thopters land on you is part of the mythology.”
Players agree that this isn’t genuine PvP: it’s an exploit of the game’s mechanics.
Others in the thread agreed that this behaviour was a clear abuse of game mechanics rather than legitimate PvP. Potential-Ecstatic pointed out that while PvP has its place, dragging in PvP-style griefing through exploits was unacceptable: “If you're in a PvE zone, you should not have to worry about players killing you through an abuse of mechanics.”
This wasn’t a case of mistaken rules, they added, but of players deliberately using systems meant to prevent griefing to do just that.
Many are concerned that Funcom has yet to intervene. Real_KazakiBoom bluntly warned, “This game will suffer from griefers until Funcom decides to combat them.” He dismissed the idea that this was just part of the PvP experience, instead claiming that “it’s a bunch of assholes with nothing better to do.”
And in a more tongue-in-cheek response, LikeALiamOnATree quipped that the griefers were just living their lore-accurate truth: “They are canon Harkonnen. They aren't human; they're brutal and need you to know it.”
Another Redditor also pointed out another mechanic griefers were using to abuse the sever. RCMW181 said that they “Found that a group of players had built walls over all the buggy entrances to the north of the rift on my server. You can drop in, but if you do you can't get out without deconstructing, and you can't do that if you're actually harvesting anything.” The Redditor shared that they allegedly reported it but only got an auto reply about being unstuck. "The game is fun but the toxic level of the player base is getting out of hand," they added.
So far, Funcom hasn’t issued a response, but players are hoping that will change soon.
