I’ve been rather shocked by how often a new and even old resource I'd discover on Arrakis would become a staple in my daily or even weekly farming routes. One such resource I seem to never have enough of is called Erythrite Crystals.

Just north of my base, across a scary patch of sand, I've tempted fate on my sand bike more than once. Sits a new region I went out to explore called Hagga Rift. This place became quite intimidating as it has this massive abyss feature split right down the middle of it.

I’ve looked down this massive rift more than once and could not see the bottom. I could tell there were even a few levels to it. I had this nasty feeling that if I ever fell into it that I might never find my way out.

As one might expect. I avoided speeding on my sand bike too close to the edge. While there would be that fateful day that I do succumb and slide down into the abyss. Today thankfully was not going to be one of those days.

I did end up climbing up some steep mountains. I needed a spot to launch a survey probe from to get a better layout of the land. It only made the abyss in the middle of this region even more intimating to me.

There would end up being two critical resources I'd end up farming a lot of in this region. The first one is carbon ore that I could find easily on the surface. Carbon ore combined with iron makes steel. You could say with the discovery of carbon I had now entered the steel era of progression.

The other resource is called erythrite crystal. I feared its only location was going to be deep within the abyss that I just did not want to go near. I’d later discover that was true. There were troves of it down there.

While exploring the map, I discovered a spot called Riftrun Passage. While it would take you into the rift which I did not dare go. It also had a small cave system within it that had a couple of erythrite crystal node spawns and just crystals on the ground to collect in general.

The cave itself was not exactly close to my base either. I could however fill up my inventory with the crystals in question. While there was not enough in them to fill up my sand bikes inventory as well. I could usually go around afterward, hitting up some carbon spots before taking a risky ride across the sands once again to my base.

While the cave was not massive by any means. It had a couple of rooms in it. For a short while, the scavengers I found inside the cave gave me quite the trouble. However, once I upgraded to some newer gear thanks to all the new kinds of resources I was finding in Hagga Rift they became less of a threat and more of an annoyance.

They were at least somewhat of a learning period where you struggle just enough to make the needed to make slight changes in how you conduct yourself in combat. I also made sure to bring along lots of bandages for the runs where things would not go as smoothly as I'd hoped.

I ended up having way too many close calls with the worm. So, I decided not only to build a garage to park my sand bikes into. As I found out the hard way just leaving them outside but on my land was not good enough. The one I got after my death with a sandworm ended up taking a ton of damage from sandstorms. Meanwhile, a bike that I stole from a local outpost downright rusted away into nothingness.

With how damaged the sand bike became and all the driving I did on it. Along with just how often it needed to be repaired. I crafted myself a shiny new mark 3 sand bike. This thing had increased top speeds and better handling.

I am however not one to waste. That old sand bike, I'd end up taking a trip down to that other base I set up in the wrong region. I felt as if I was ever going to get eaten by a sandworm over there while farming flour. It might as well be a mostly damaged sand bike. Oddly enough that sand bike despite my ability to replace it a hundred times over with something so much better. Remains there to this day. It gets almost no use anymore as at one point I stopped needing to use sand bikes but that is a story for another day.

With a new sand bike, I felt a bit more adventurous. I started to go some great distances away from my current main base. I was hoping at some point to run into another trade-out post so I could travel for a small fee quicker between this new area and where my base was located. It turns out I'd have to adventure quite a far distance and into different regions to find the next trade-out post.

Far too often, I'd just turn right around after dropping off my latest haul of carbon and crystals at my baes and head right back to Riftrun Passage. I’d sometimes even find myself showing back up before the resources had respawned.

It seemed like I was not the only one using this cave I found for some kind of farming. Sometimes I'd show up and someone else had farmed the crystals recently. Other times, I'd find the place fully cleared out, but the crystals were left behind.

I even dared once or twice to venture closer to the abyss. As the cave I was in existed into it. With another cave not being that far away down the cliff shelf I found myself on. I was hoping to find more crystals in that nearby cave, but I never did.

Whatever short-term bravery I'd have in trying to find more crystals to farm would be short-lived. I’d then run as quickly as a storm right back into the cave I knew like the back of my hand after all the trips I made to it. As if being in there was somehow safer than being in the other cave I had found.

Final Thoughts

I’d end up using the Riftrun Passage for far too long as my only source of crystals. I’d go off and explore other areas and even caves in Hagga Rift if they were not in the abyss in the middle. Every time I'd leave a bit disappointed. While I did end up finding one other cave, it was quite small and way out of my normal farming route, so I never went back.

As far as why I needed so many erythrite crystals you turn them into cobalt paste. Cobalt paste is used in an insane number of items on Arrakis. I wish I could say far after I left behind the base I lived out of for so long, I no longer had to go on multiple mining trips for the crystals every week. That would however be a lie.

Information

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