Funcom fixes Dune: Awakening exploit, grants progression boosts, issues bans, migrates servers

Funcom moved quickly after discovering an exploit that let players damage and loot bases in PvE, posting a community message on February 23 that began, “We found the issue that allowed players to unintentionally damage player bases in PVE areas and we have made changes to ensure that this method can no longer be used to bypass standard game mechanics.” The studio took affected worlds offline, applied targeted rollbacks, and paused a major weekly event to stop further losses.

In that February 23 Reddit message Funcom said, “In order to restore most of the damage caused, we will roll back the progress on five worlds: Pax, Epsilon Eridani, Harmony, Arrakis, Stoneheart by 24 hours from the moment the servers were brought offline. This will allow us to focus on the worlds most impacted by this exploit while limiting the negative impact on players who have made normal progress. We believe this is the most balanced approach, given the nature of this incident.” The post also confirmed the studio would disable “this week's Coriolis Storm” so Deep Desert bases could be backed up safely.

Three days later Funcom published a fuller Developer Update on Steam dated February 26 and pushed hotfixes that same day, including “Dune: Awakening - 1.3.5.1 Hotfix Patch Notes” and “Dune: Awakening - 1.3.5.2 Hotfix Patch Notes,” both dated February 26, 2026. The developer update formed the basis for disciplinary totals reported by outlets summarizing Funcom’s actions: 444 accounts were punished, split into 155 players permanently banned and 289 players suspended for 14 days. MMOHuts summarized that breakdown and attributed the numbers to the February 26 developer update.

Funcom reiterated enforcement policy in community messaging and press coverage with the line, “We also want to reiterate that exploiting bugs or bypassing standard game mechanics is not permitted in the Dune: Awakening community. Players identified to have repeatedly used this exploit will be permanently banned from the game.” Tech Yahoo noted streamers openly bragged about looting via the exploit and described the exploit as “soul-crushing” for victims, while calling Funcom’s shutdown, patching, and ban program a “green flag” for responding decisively.

Operational remediation included player-facing recovery tools. The February 23 post instructed affected users to reach customer support: “Players who believe they lost their base to this exploit before the cutoff mark or from other worlds are kindly advised to contact our customer support team. They will be provided with adequate resource and item packages to cover any losses incurred.” The Studio also ran a weekend recovery event announced in the developer update and covered by MMOHuts offering double XP, double reputation, double resources, and double scrip to help players regain lost progression.

The exploit follow-up arrives in the wake of Chapter 3 and the Raiders of the Broken Lands DLC, which launched February 3, and a string of mid-February fixes including a February 17 patch labeled “Dune: Awakening - 1.3.5.0 Patch Notes” and earlier hotfixes in the 1.3.0.x series. Funcom has said Update 1.3.10.0 is planned for March and that it will “kick off server merges,” with a full list of affected worlds to be shared in early March so players have time to prepare, according to MMOHuts’ summary of the developer update.

Funcom closed its February 23 message with an apology: “Thank you for your patience and understanding today. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this might have caused.” As March approaches, the concrete next steps are the 1.3.10.0 roadmap, the promised server-merge list in early March, and the fallout from 155 permanent bans plus 289 temporary suspensions following the post-Chapter 3 disruption.