From World to sietch: the fastest ways to squad up and move across Arrakis without the server headaches
Playing with friends made easy: finding sietches, visiting other servers in your World, and travel options
If you’ve ever tried to roll onto Arrakis with friends and hit a “server locked” message, you know the pain. The good news: Dune: Awakening was built to let you meet up quickly even when your home servers don’t match, and a major update removed the last big restriction—now you can claim land on any sietch inside your World. Here’s a clear, step‑by‑step field manual for getting in the same place fast, plus the smartest ways to travel when you’re split up.
TL;DR meetup flow (works today)
- Pick the same World as your friends at character creation. (World ≠ sietch; a World is the umbrella server group.)
- If their sietch is full/locked, create your character on any open sietch in that same World.
- Load in, open Social → Players, select your friend, and visit their server. You’ll be flagged as a Visitor until you use System (ESC) → Return to Home Server. Visitors can’t chain‑hop; you must return home before visiting a second sietch, and you can’t enter a full sietch.
- As of the “Deep Desert” hotfix (June 26, 2025), visitors can claim land anywhere in their World (max 3 sub‑fief consoles). The “home” icon in the server list now marks where you have a base, not where you first spawned.
Worlds, sietches, and what’s actually shared
- A World = a cluster of 20–25+ sietches (Hagga Basin servers) that share the same Social Hubs (Arrakeen, Harko Village) and a single Deep Desert. Your home Hagga Basin is persistent; Social Hubs and the Deep Desert act like massive, shared spaces across that World.
- A sietch = one Hagga Basin server inside your World (40 concurrent players). You can freely visit other sietches within your World.
- One character per World. You can visit any sietch in that World with that character, but you can’t cross Worlds with that character (server transfers between Worlds are planned post‑launch). If you pick the wrong World, you’ll need to roll a new character on the correct one.
- Overland Map travel (the top‑down flight layer) is how you move between Hagga Basin, Social Hubs, and the Deep Desert. Flights consume fuel, and time in flight consumes water.
Finding the right sietch in seconds (and spotting where your friends are)
- Open the Server Browser from the main menu.
- Set the Region (bottom‑left) to match your friends (NA/EU/Asia/Oceania/South America).
- Use the FRIENDS tab—it collapses the list to Worlds that contain your Steam friends. Expand a World (caret next to the ping bars) to reveal its sietch list and friend counts per sietch.
- If your friend’s sietch is locked, join any open sietch within that World, create your character, and then visit them once in‑game.
Tip: Private servers now exist but still live inside a World and share Social Hubs/Deep Desert with other private servers in the same World. They’re useful for guaranteed slots for your group, with fewer admin knobs than typical survival games.
Visiting another server in your World (exactly how it works)
- Visit via Social: Press TAB → Social → Players, pick your friend, and jump to their sietch. You’ll see “Visitor” status and can ESC → Return to Home Server at any time. Restrictions: visiting is World‑only (no cross‑World), you must return home before visiting a different sietch, and you can’t visit a full sietch.
- What you can do as a visitor (post‑June 26 hotfix):
- Claim land, place a sub‑fief and build anywhere in your World (limit unchanged: 3 sub‑fief consoles).
- Place respawn beacons in any sietch of your World.
- The server list now shows a home icon where you have a base and a vehicle icon where your vehicles are parked.
What carries over when you visit?
- Party & guild: You can party up and join cross‑sietch guilds inside a World.
- Progress & personal inventory: Your character progress and on‑you inventory persist across sietches in the same World. Stored stash stays with the base you stored it in. Vehicle inventory travels with the vehicle; store and retrieve with a Vehicle Backup Tool if you want it with you on another sietch.
Travel options that make meetups painless
1) Fast travel (the “ornithopter taxi”)
You’ll unlock fast travel in Griffin’s Reach during “A Touch of Civilisation”, which triggers a side quest (“A Wider World”) to speak to the Ornithopter Pilot—they function like a taxi between cities and tradeposts you’ve already visited. You have to talk to a pilot NPC to travel; there’s no fast travel button on the map. (There is a Solari fee.)
Best use: When you’ve unlocked a few hubs and want a safe, worm‑proof jump to a city or tradepost near your friend.
2) Overland Map flights (your macro‑movement layer)
From Hagga Basin, Social Hubs (Arrakeen, Harko Village), and the Deep Desert, you can take to the Overland Map in an ornithopter to reposition between maps. Flights consume fuel; time in flight consumes water. You’ll even see other players’ flights in your World.
Best use: When you need to cross maps or the Deep Desert quickly as a group or rendezvous after a wipe.
3) Personal vehicles (bikes, buggies, ‘thopters)
- Sandbike (early unlock): Crafted during the early “Across the Gap” chain; great for closing distance between rock outcrops and for getting a new player to a meetup point.
- Ground vehicles (jeeps/buggies): Faster than running but still risky on open sand (worms love vibrations).
- Ornithopters (player‑owned): The safest mid/late‑game transit. Exiting mid‑air now makes ‘thopters drop straight down (a patch tweak to reduce losses), and there’s a Vehicle Backup Tool to store/restore them when moving between sietches.
Loadout tip: If a friend is stranded far from rock, a ‘thopter pilot can ferry them from outcrop to outcrop. Pair this with a backup tool so you never strand your aircraft on the wrong sietch.
4) On foot (and the art of rock‑to‑rock)
If you must cross sand, chart a straight line from one rocky outcrop to the next and commit—shortest possible exposure, no zig‑zagging. That’s veteran advice that still saves lives (and gear).
5) Thumpers (worm distraction 101)
Thumpers lure nearby worms to a specific point. Equip like a tool and drop one before you harvest or when you need a brief window to cross dangerous sand—then move. You unlock/craft them early as you progress through the trials.
Two common meetup scenarios (do this)
A) Same World, different sietches
- The player who can log in first creates a character on any open sietch in the group’s World.
- Everyone else joins that World (any sietch), completes the intro, then Social → Players → Visit to the intended sietch.
- Place a sub‑fief (now allowed on any sietch in the World), drop a respawn beacon, and set base permissions so latecomers can immediately use storage and benches.
B) Different Worlds
You cannot visit or party across Worlds. Decide on a World, then roll a new character on that World. Transfers between Worlds weren’t available at launch, with devs saying they’d arrive later; check the latest patch notes if that changes.
Smart, low‑friction travel playbook for groups
- Unlock fast travel early at Griffin’s Reach and touch every tradepost you pass—more visited locations = more taxi endpoints when someone dies or logs in late.
- Use Overland for macro moves, then taxi for the last leg into a hub, then bike/buggy or on‑foot rock‑hops to the precise rendezvous.
- Respect the worm. Cross sand in short bursts between rock, keep stamina skills ready, and don’t loiter on dunes. If you have a thumper, drop and go.
- Mind server status when visiting. You can’t visit full sietches; if the target sietch fills, have a backup meetup plan two sietches over in the same World.
- Secure your assets. Stashes don’t follow you; your carry inventory and vehicles (via backup tool) do. Move as a convoy if hauling in open sand.
- Look for UI cues. The server browser “Visit” button and the top‑left sietch label help track where you are; the home and vehicle icons show where your base/vehicles are parked.
Building and permissions: make one base work for everyone
- Guilds and parties work cleanly across sietches inside a World; use Social → Guilds to organize.
- Use the Sub‑Fief Console to set Owner / Co‑Owner / Associate / Guild / Public permissions so your friends can build, craft, and access storage the instant they arrive as visitors. (You’ll find these controls in the Manage menu on structures/vehicles.)
- With the June 26 change, you can establish your own sub‑fief in the friend’s sietch and make it your new home—without rerolling.
Fastest routes to each other: practical examples
- You’re in Arrakeen; your friend is in Hagga Basin two sietches over.
Taxi from Arrakeen → Hagga tradepost you’ve visited → bike to their base (carry a thumper). If you haven’t touched that tradepost yet, Overland fly to their basin, then rock‑hop. - A latecomer joins and the group’s sietch is locked.
They create on any open sietch in the same World, finish the intro, visit via Social, then you drop a respawn beacon and share base permissions. The latecomer can claim a sub‑fief immediately now.
Avoid these common mistakes
- Picking the wrong World. You can’t cross Worlds with a character; coordinate World selection up front.
- Thinking map‑menu fast travel exists. It doesn’t; talk to pilot NPCs.
- Leaving vehicles behind. Use the Vehicle Backup Tool before swapping sietches.
- Standing on sand to socialize. Don’t. Talk on rock, then plan the route and sprint.
- Forgetting you can now claim land anywhere in your World. Don’t waste nights hoping a sietch unlocks—visit and build where your friends already are.
Final word
Once you internalize the World/sietch split and unlock the ornithopter taxi, Dune: Awakening becomes a co‑op dream: pick the same World, visit across sietches, claim land where your friends play, and use the right travel tool for the leg you’re on—taxi for hub‑to‑hub, Overland for map‑to‑map, and rock‑to‑rock sprints (or a ‘thopter) whenever the sand starts to sing.
