Does Dune Awakening support mods?

Will Dune Awakening support mods? It's no secret that proper mod support can be a game-changer for enjoyment, and survival games have often been major beneficiaries. From significant quality of life tweaks to major overhauls of crafting systems, there are some cracking mods out there. What's more, private servers often come with in-built modifiers, letting you switch up things like progression speed among other elements.

But will Dune Awakening follow suit? While there's only a small chance server-wide mods will arrive with Dune Awakening private servers, you can expect the modding community to chip in with visual filters and performance adjustments to give the survival MMO a bit of extra oomph. For the latest on what Funcom's said about mod support, as well as our preliminary wishlist, read on.

There is currently no confirmed support for Dune Awakening mods. Funcom has remained largely quiet on this, only commenting on the potential for server-wide mods to become available with the materialization of private servers.

Funcom's creative director, Joel Bylos, told Wccftech in February 2025 that the studio "can allow people to do things like speed up progression and change variables on the map." This was on the proviso that only very specific map servers, presumably early game PvE zones, were to be leased out. Mod support has yet to be confirmed, despite Dune Awakening private servers with limited settings being made available at launch.

What we currently have is essentially a fulfillment of what Bylos told TheGamer in August 2024, that Funcom "probably wouldn't allow people the modifications in Conan Exiles" due to concerns over how they could impact game balance and the endgame experience. Awakening is, after all, part-MMO, so things like the in-game economy, guild power, and the Landsraad system need to be carefully considered.

Meanwhile, support for mods that alter gameplay elements, such as UI overhauls and crafting system optimizations, has yet to be confirmed. At the very least, local mods that don't impact the client, such as visual filters and engine optimizations, should still work.

Dune Awakening mods wishlist

Considering the limitations that come from the MMO side of Dune Awakening, we expect to see mods that alter the UI, character customization, and the crafting experience. Effectively, anything that doesn't impact the multiplayer gameplay loop.

In my Dune Awakening preview, I noted that "Awakening's character customization isn't so vast that it'll let you punch in the exact shades of color you're after," but it does the job. That being said, there's always room for improvement, and things like new hairstyles, an expanded color wheel, and more are likely candidates should Funcom grant the means to mod the game this deeply.

In the same preview, I observed that the user experience for base building needed some extra polish. Granted, this was only a preview build, and I expect the final version to be much-improved, but construction mods like Conan Exiles' 'Less Building Placement Restrictions' would be welcomed.

Aside from those, the aforementioned visual filters and optimizations should pop up pretty quickly after launch. Though Dune Awakening already looks about as pretty as an endless desert can, it'll never be cinematic enough for some. A big one I'd like to see, provided the game doesn't ship with the option, would be a mod to turn off the HUD altogether. No bars, no navigation elements, just me and ol' Shai-Hulud as nature intended.

And that's everything we know about Dune Awakening mod support for now, alongside our mod wishlist. We'll be sure to begin adding the best mods if and when they crop up. In the meantime, check out more of the exciting upcoming PC games we have to look forward to in 2025 and beyond.