u/mininglegoz

I’m a new player who’s done a lot of research into Dune: Awakening, and I’m pretty excited to start with 1.5. I’m just torn between an official multiplayer world and the new local single-player mode.

From what I can tell, almost the entire game is soloable either way. The main meaningful multiplayer differences seem to be:
The real player Exchange instead of the new NPC Exchange
Optional Deep Desert PvP and higher-risk resource farming
Other players in social spaces, co-op, guilds, etc.
Human-driven Landsraad, although as a mostly solo player that still seems like numbers moving in the background

For experienced players, do the Exchange and Deep Desert PvP actually add enough to justify multiplayer? Is the economy active and useful, and do you encounter enough people in the PvP Deep Desert for it to matter?

The Exchange is especially important to me because I come from Path of Exile and really enjoy a healthy trade economy. I like being able to farm something that may not be useful for my own build, sell it for currency, and convert that value into the specific items I actually want. Does Dune’s current player economy meaningfully support that kind of loop?

Also, does anyone testing 1.5 know how the new NPC Exchange compares to the player Exchange? What does it sell, and can it meaningfully replace trading unwanted loot for useful progression, including higher-end gear, schematics, or augments?

Solo appeals to me because I can run the world locally, keep the Deep Desert persistent, avoid population/server issues, and use the settings to remove tedium or frustration without removing friction or difficulty.

For a mostly solo new player, does multiplayer add enough meaningful gameplay to outweigh the control and persistence of 1.5 solo?

Crazy bug with heartseeker pull variant, Confluence, and the narrow eye set 5 stack. All you need is to hit one enemy with heartseeker per life or instance and let that be the last marksman basic you use. Then, permanently, as long as you live, any marksman skill will repeatedly pull in and proc heartseeker effects like the energy side upgrade. The trigger for this variant specifically doesnt require you to maintain 5 stacks or even to get to 5 stacks. The functionality is weird as well in that it doesnt seem to require the 2 additional arrows to hit anything to actually do the pull, you can be extremely far and see the two arrows going off wide and still every marksman core skill will proc a pull.

The only thing is that I dont think you get any of the buffs from actually stacking up the vengeance such as the 60x, 200x, and 15 move speed, so this may just be good for speedfarming. Its pretty interesting with DOK since each knife seems to be able to proc a different heartseeker pull.

Hey guy right now running an imbued rapid fire setup with the trigger cold and poison bursts on lucky hit. My damage is amazing and I’m pushing through the torments and want to understand how the damage is scaled so I can be more efficient. My rapid fire is perma imbued, so all Imbued damage affects it and also affects the base damage of the shadow expiration DOT, right? If I put on an aspect that gives me more marksman damage, I know that it affects the rapid fire, but does it affect the shadow imbue in any way? Is there any way to scale the triggers from the alchemist lucky hit trigger aspects? Right now I’ve just been tempering vulnerable damage on all my gear but is there a more efficient temper?