Dune Awakening: All Starting Classes and Skills (known so far)

Modified Mar 14, 2025 15:07 IST

Dune Awakening classes skills — Dune Awakening's starting classes and skills have unveiled - here's what you will have access to at the start of the game (Image via Funcom)

Dune Awakening offers players a series of classes to pick during character creation, each with a useful starting skill. As we get closer to the game, more of these skills will be unveiled, and we’ll update this accordingly. Fans familiar with the books and films will no doubt have a clear idea of what these classes will likely do, but if you’re new, this guide is for you.

In fact, you can pick your character class right now, if you download and run the Character Creator and Benchmarker for Dune Awakening. You aren’t forced to stick to this choice, though, all it does is save a character preset, so when the game launches, you’ll be ready.

All starting classes in Dune Awakening, and how important your pick is

Swordmaster: Close-Quarters Aggression
Bene Gesserit: Physical Mastery & Manipulation
Mentat: Recon & Strategy
Trooper: Offense & Demolition

In Dune Awakening, it does and doesn’t really matter what starting class you pick, since you can ultimately learn all the skills by visiting other trainers scattered across Arrakis. However, while all the starting skills are good, some of them are stronger than the others, like the Swordmaster's starting skill — Deflection. It lets you deflect darts, which you’ll no doubt deal with as the game opens.

Swordmaster

Skill Focus: Close-Quarters Combat
Training: Swordmaster
Starting Ability: Deflection — Enter a defensive stance to deflect dart attacks.
Description: Revered throughout the Imperium, Swordmasters of the fallen Ginaz School still represent the pinnacle of fighting prowess in the Known Universe.

As it pertains to classes in Dune Awakening, the Swordmaster will no doubt be our tanks, similar to Warriors in other MMOs. Their baseline skill, after all, is a tank ability — it deflects incoming darts. Quick and deadly, they’re all about pure dominance in the melee space. If you’re concerned about survival, they’re an excellent choice.

Bene Gesserit

Skill Focus: Physical Mastery and Manipulation
Training: Bene Gesserit
Starting Ability: Voice: Compel — Use The Voice to force someone towards your position from afar.
Description: A shadowy all-female order with a deliberately obscure agenda. Adepts of the Sisterhood are prized by the nobility and feared by the rest of the Imperium.

While Bene Gesserits are a secret all-female society, it’s already been confirmed by Funcom that, regardless of gender, you can start as this class in Dune Awakening. They can control not only their own body, but the bodies of others. If you’re into manipulating enemies into doing what you want, this is the class archetype for you.

Mentat

Skill Focus: Recon & Strategy
Training: Mentat
Starting Ability: Battlefield Calculation — Scan nearby enemies and objects, gaining information about them.
Description: A secretive and insular organization, the Order of Mentats conditions their adherents to store and analyze vast amounts of data at superhuman speeds.

Mentats are geniuses when it comes to battlefield tactics and strategy. Through their useful power, Battlefield Calculation, you can gain valuable insights on what you’re about to come in contact with. Not as powerful for a solo start, but if you’re playing with friends, its recommended that one of you play a Mentat.

Trooper

Skill Focus: Offense and Demolition
Training: Trooper
Starting Ability: Shigawire Cable — Shoot a barb that attaches to a surface, launching you towards that position.
Description: Every Great House of the Landsraad fields its own standing army or House Guard, and the backbone of these formations are career soldiers known as troopers.

As far as my favorite starting skills go for any of the Dune Awakening classes, it has to be the Troopers Shigawire Cable. It’s excellent for exploration as well as gap-closing in combat. Want to get to an enemy before they know you’re there? Hit them with the Shigawire Cable and close the distance. Troopers look like they’ll be a lot of fun going forward.

Check out our other Dune Awakening guides and features

Edited by Angad Sharma