My second week in the Deep Desert was going to be quite a bigger undertaking. I wanted to do a lot more and further set myself and the guild up for success further down the line. For that, I was going to need an early start.

While I'm not crazy enough to show up moments after the start of each week. As the final wipe happens at 6 AM and I assume there will be some server downtime thereafter. I was at least out there a couple of hours later on a Tuesday. I have no idea why they have it be Tuesday, but that's the day it is for US servers.

Before anything was to be hauled in. I needed to work out exactly where I wanted to have a base. With a full wipe, the map is also full of fog again and would need to be fully explored, and even using probes if I felt like it.

As I made my way out to the E row, I stopped where I could to drop a probe to reveal whatever section I was in. While I rather liked where I was in my first week out. I had no idea if there would even be any rocks to set up.

As with a fresh reset every week. You don’t have to just explore the map again. The sands shift from the storm. Areas that you knew to farm at could not be covered and were under the sand. While new islands and rock formations would be up.

This also meant that large spice fields and other things also changed locations. I had no idea where anything was. Let alone what would even make an ideal spot to set up camp at.

While just having a week before the Deep Desert resets every time feels a bit short. I must admit it also keeps things feeling a bit fresh. You just hope every week that the setup is more ideal for whatever you want to accomplish for the week.

The setup in the first week I was in the Deep Desert was so good. That was after many weeks in the Deep Desert. I’ll admit it never got better. At the very least, for my second week there, I found a decent spot to set up after all.

There ended up being a rather nice spot in D6. There were four tier 6 ore nodes to farm from. Along with two caves as well. I lost count of how many hours I'd just sit in my base and only go out to collect the tier 6 ores around the island we were on. This ended up getting us a lot of ores.

The base was also not that far from a large spice field that was in the PvP area, not too far away. While other large spice fields would spawn quite often. I’d end up having some opportunities to farm spice during the week.

Despite all the people who would end up building bases on this island. As if it were the best spot to pick to build at. I would hardly ever see anyone. Occasionally, I'd see someone fly in or take off. Maybe someone would be out to farm on the island itself. It seemed, however, a lot less busy than I was expecting it to be.

We ended up having quite a large base on top of a mountain. You would not think anyone would try to build next to you. But with how cramped the island ended up getting. That ended up being the case.

There was even an attempt to build a ramp down from the mountain itself. There were considerations of taking part in a buggy and hauling it in. That, however, just seemed like too much work. Along with how long it took to get to each of the tier 6 nodes. It felt as if anyone who was paying attention could easily beat the buggy there. So that idea was scrapped for this week.

While I would mostly be solo again for that week. I at least had help hauling things in and out. We also had our guild base builder online, who made a base to fit my needs for the week. It was quite the change from the little shack I was living out of the first time around.

You would think with how massive the building was. Along with all the parked ornithopters in a parking hangar, we had set up. There would have been a few people using this base. That was not the case. It was at least nice knowing I had some backup ornithopters if things went wrong.

I also had the materials to set up the large spice refiner for the week. This thing was massive, taking up like five stories or something silly. The base, more or less, was built around the idea of having enough space to place it down. Even then, it felt a little tight.

This also started to become the week when I realized a better setup and packing plan were needed. I could see the trap people would fall into with needing to make endless trips back and forth to Hagga Basin to pick one a little bit of this or that.

I ended up coming up with the solution that I'd have storage set aside in our main base back in Hagga Basin. It would be on its circuit, so it could not be crafted accidentally. All resources used in the Deep Desert setup would get placed there.

While trying to stay organized like that was not perfect. As time goes on, the base needs would expand. On top of things getting placed in storage that would not be needed for the Deep Desert. It at least cut down on a lot of preplanning and endless trips running back and forth for supplies outside of corpses.

I was hoping to just farm the corpses I needed for water. Since the base in the Deep Desert had two caves near it. The NPCs in there proved to be quite challenging. I’d end up getting killed enough times that it was just easier to haul in corpses.

One of the caves was even under our base. So, I could hear every time someone attempted to clear it. The number of times I'd hear people try for ten minutes or longer was shocking. I’d then go down there to see what most of the NPCS were remaining. Whoever attempted to clear out the cave had given up.

Final Thoughts

A lot of my time in the first couple of days was just re-exploring the map. My old tier 6 ore farming route was no longer a thing. I needed to find where the large spice fields could spawn, as even when they are empty, the giant spot on the ground they spawn in is still visible.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Dune: Awakening.