It was now time for my fourth dedicated week to being in the Deep Desert. I was hoping to get most of what I wanted, with this being possibly my biggest week. The main goals were crafting some tier 6 armor and building all the tier 6 machines back at our main base.

Like before, I had some chests on standby with most of what would be needed for the week. I also pulled out of storage a bunch of corpses that would be used for water and fuel for powering generators. Setting them in containers next to the rest of the Deep Desert Supplies.

I also crafted the Compact Compactor Mk6 from the schematic I got from last week. It was costly to make and would not be cheap to repair. It provides quicker gathering when you are farming Spice in a PvP zone. It’s all about speed.

While I'm a bit sad to see it go. You can only have three bases at a time. Since I no longer needed to have a dedicated base near a large flour field. It was serving as a bookmark if nothing else.

I, however, wanted to have two spare bases if needed. My second one tends to be my dump base in the Deep Desert. The third I'd set up if the need arose in the Deep Desert. Where I was to far away from where a guild member would set up the main base at and I needed a quicker spot to dump resources at.

I would not end up needing that spot for this week. It was good to have some options open for the day when it was. Even further, having that flour base would have become not even a bookmark over time of where there was a large flour field to farm in Haga Basin, as flour would end up getting a massive nerf.

It was then time to go scout out the new Deep Desert. Find where a base would be useful. Along with any other important things like wrecks, testing stations, and a PvE tier 6 ore farming route.

While again, I'd be spending most of my time in the Deep Desert solo. I’d get some help hauling in and out. Along with having someone build the base itself. At this point, everyone knows what needs to be done. Only some small adjustments would need to be made.

By now, I was used to having to fly out to the Deeper spots that a large spice field could spawn in. I kind of gave up even checking anything close by unless I was in the area. I ended up lucking out and finding a field up.

The first run at this field, I only brought along my MK5 compactor. If everyone was getting along, which ended up being the case. I brought back with me the MK6. It was a decent improvement, and I was kind of shocked at how fast I was able to fill my Scout Ornithopter with spice.

One of the sand worms in the area that was patrolling this spice field was bugged. It would just leap into the sky as it went through the field. Making me question if it was smart to farm here in the first place.

While flying back, I noticed there was a medium spice field up that was a lot closer. So, I decided I should hit that up instead. I even brought out my Assault so I could haul back double the spice.

That is where I ran into some issues. Thankfully, they more or less just wanted the medium spice field for themselves. Many also prefer ground combat over the easy way out of rocking people to death.

While I had only farmed 400 spice sand, the worm was acting strange. Shortly after, it had popped out despite my farming at a rather chill rate. It showed up again. I felt something was off, so I jumped into my Ornithopter.

As I was taking off someone on foot, who I'd later find out was a ganker. Went sailing in the air over the top of the dune I was farming at the bottom of. Thankfully, he did not stick his landing on my Ornithopter. As he connected to it, I took off, causing him to glitch out.

At that moment, the worm popped up. While the guy was claiming he needed “saving” from the sand worm. The fact that someone was on foot out in the middle of nowhere made zero sense. While he kept screaming at me, I cried for “help.” I looked behind me to see Ornithopter coming right at me. It was a trap, and I was not following it.

They ended up chasing me almost back to the PvE part of the Deep Desert. Then they broke off and headed back in the direction I fled from. I decided it was not worth trying to go back to the large or medium spice field. Instead, I decided to go on the other side of the map to farm ores.

This week, for whatever reason, I just kept finding medium spice fields. While they do have an insane amount in them. It takes a couple of trips in a Scout Ornithopter to farm most of it. I was also rather enjoying having the use of the Mk6 Compactor.

As I took the last pile of spice sand that I compacted, it filled up the remaining space I had left. I noticed off in the distance four Ornithopters turning in my direction once they spotted the spice.

I knew there was no other reason for someone to take a large turn as they did. I was about to leave anyways. So, I jumped into my Ornithopter and ended up taking a bit of a longer way home. While they turned to try and chase after me. I was already too far away and flew faster than they did. After a few moments, they gave up chasing after me.

During one rather late ore mining session. Where I'd not expect anyone to bother someone farming away. I thought I heard an Ornithopter for about half a second before the sound stopped.

I decided to tilt my head around, and what do I see? Someone was falling from the sky. It looked like they were aiming for the exact node I was currently farming. The only reason to try and do such an odd thing was if you were trying to dive onto someone and gank them. Before they could even land, I jumped into my Ornithopter and fled.

After a decent amount of farming. I was able to craft the current end-game tier 6 light armor set. Since I'm not that rich, I don’t wear it often unless I'm clearing out a harder testing area or wreck.

I’m also willing to admit. I prefer the look of my old set of armor over it. I ended up farming most of the Pincushion schematics from large wrecks. While they were highly camped during most hours of the day, I found my time window to check for loot. The only thing I did not get from them was the helm, but I got it as a reward from prevue weeks' Landsraad.

When sandworms and people were not trying to kill me. It had to be some sandstorm. I don’t know how many times I'd be halfway to some far away spice field that I had found. Then I'd notice, before I'd arrive, some massive storm was rolling in. Sometimes I was able to just fly around them, other times I had to wait them out in the PvP section on whatever island I could find to land on.

Despite all the attempted gankings, storms, and other mishappens. One night, I was farming in a large spice field. I was used to people flying in an Ornithopter landing at a distance away from me and just farming spice themselves. Everyone was getting along for a while.

After a couple of trips back to that same spice field, it was getting late. No one was left but me. I noticed an Ornithopter fly in, but this guy was acting strange. By the time I made it back into my own Ornithopter, he had quite a few rockets flying at me.

The funny thing was, my cargo hold was already full of spice sand. I was just trying to get a little more to fill up my inventory. Otherwise, I would have been gone already.

While I attempted to escape, my wings were already quite damaged. I at least managed to make it to an island a couple of regions away. Where I was forced to land and wait for some rockets to finish me and my Ornithopter.

Despite having mostly an inventory full of spice and a full cargo hold of it. None of it was taken. Like most gankers, the person just wanted to murder. The person also stayed in that area quite a while, and I'd see rockets flying at random as they attempted to farm.

So, I ended up flying a boosted Ornithopter back out with zero cargo hold. I then over a few trips looted all the spice I had already farmed. With my boosts, I was far too fast for the ganker to catch.

In one final trip, I took apart my Ornithopter and took the parts back to the base we had set up. I’d later haul it off to my main base in the Hagga basin. I thought it looked so cool, I wanted to keep it as a memory. It ended up disappearing after a couple of days. What a shame!

Final Thoughts

This ended up being my most exciting week yet. From all the attempted ganks to someone managing to take me out. I also farmed so much spice and tier 6 ores that I was able to craft a large spice refiner, other refiners, and tier 6 crafting stations back at our main base in Hagga Basin.

Like always, it was a bit sad having to pack everything up the night before the wipe. I was also looking forward to taking another week in the Deep Desert. As this one took a lot out of me.

Information

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