Dune Awakening Classes and Trainers Guide

Dune Awakening has five skill schools: Trooper, Swordmaster, Bene Gesserit, Mentat and Planetologist. You start as one of the first four. To unlock the others, you visit their trainers in Hagga Basin: Ghavouri at Griffin's Reach, Arno at Pinnacle Station, Sister Mesa at Helius Gate, Samin Moro at Riftwatch and Derek Chinara near Testing Station No. 2.

Your starting class is not a cage. It gives you a head start on one tree and lets you skip that school's first trainer quest. Every other school can be learned later by finding its trainer and finishing a short quest. Skill points are shared, so a typical build mixes two or three schools. Plan one in the skill planner before you spend points.

Where to find all class trainers in Hagga Basin

Ghavouri and Derek Chinara are in the starter zone. The other three stand in fortresses and tradeposts further away, so visit them when a quest or a resource run already takes you there.

Trooper: guns, grenades and suspensors

The Trooper school is the soldier's kit, and the easiest one to play solo. Its active abilities include Shigawire Claw (a grappling barb that pulls you to a surface), Explosive Grenade, Assault Seeker (a flying hunter-seeker that explodes on contact), Suspensor Blast, Gravity Field, Anti-gravity Field, Attractor Field, Collapse Grenade and Energy Capsule. The passives raise Ranged, Disruptor, Scattergun and Heavy Weapon damage, and Suspensor Efficiency cuts suspensor power drain. Among the perks, Death from Above adds damage while you are airborne, and Suspensor Dash gives you a mid-air dash.

Ghavouri at Griffin's Reach Tradepost

Ghavouri stands just inside Griffin's Reach Tradepost, in the starter zone. His basic quest sends you after three targets in the region. The advanced Trooper trainer is Kara Valk in Arrakeen.

Swordmaster: melee damage and stamina

Swordmasters win fights at blade range and outlast enemies on stamina. The abilities are Inspiration (a melee damage buff for you and your group), Crippling Strike, Deflection (blocks incoming darts while your stamina lasts), Knee Charge, Foil and Retaliate (parry-counters) and Eye of the Storm, a spinning area attack. The passives cover Blade and Long Blade damage, General Conditioning (more stamina), Desert Conditioning, Field Medicine, Bleed Tolerance and Solid Stance. Dance of Blades empowers your next strike after a melee kill.

Arno at Pinnacle Station

Arno works inside the Pinnacle Station tradepost, next to the House Sor representative. Swordmaster's advanced trainer is Seron Varlin at the back of Harko Village.

Bene Gesserit: the Voice and body control

Bene Gesserit is a melee and control school built around the Voice. You get Compel (pulls a target to you), Stop (freezes enemies in a cone), Ignore (a target treats you as invisible), Weirding Step (stun plus a superhuman dash behind the target), Bindu Sprint, Prana-Bindu Strikes and Litany Against Fear, which steadies nearby allies. The passives are about survival: Vitality, Self-Healing, Recovery, Sun Tolerance, Poison Tolerance and short-blade damage. Rapid Register speeds up the Voice's target lock.

Sister Mesa at Helius Gate

Sister Mesa stands in Helius Gate, the Atreides fortress, close to the Atreides Quartermaster and the House Richese and Vernius representatives. The advanced Bene Gesserit trainer is in Harko Village.

Mentat: precision, poison and gadgets

The Mentat is a ranged tactician. Its abilities include the Hunter-Seeker (a piloted assassination drone), Poison Capsule, Poison Mine, Stunner darts, The Sentinel (an automatic dart turret), the deployable Shield Wall cover, Solido Decoy, Source of Power (power regen for allies), plus gravity and anti-gravity mines. The passives boost headshot, rifle and pistol damage, and Assassin's Shot rewards hits in the back. Iron Will resists the Bene Gesserit Voice, which matters in PvP.

Samin Moro at Riftwatch

Samin Moro waits at Riftwatch, the Harkonnen fortress, a short way from The Anvil tradepost. The advanced Mentat trainer, Zayn de Witte, is in the Salusan Bull bar in Arrakeen.

Planetologist: the gatherer's school

You cannot pick Planetologist at character creation. It is the crafting and gathering school, and nearly every serious builder learns it. Vehicle Mining and Cutteray Mining raise yields, Sandcrawler Yield boosts spice harvesting, and Vehicle Scanning and Scanner Mastery extend scanner range. Spice Surveyor reads spice-bed density from surveys, which is most useful in the Deep Desert. Dew Gathering gets more water from a dew reaper, and Stillsuit Seals improves your stillsuit. Fuel Efficient Driver and Pilot, Vehicle Repair, Mountaineer, Compaction, Cartographer (makes sinkcharts) and the Suspensor Pad launcher round it out.

Derek Chinara near Testing Station No. 2

Derek Chinara's camp is next to Imperial Testing Station No. 2, close to Griffin's Reach. His first task is to retrieve a film from inside Testing Station 2. Later in the Planetologist questline you meet Chinara again at Testing Stations No. 197, No. 29 and No. 163. The advanced trainer is at Station No. 197. Read our Imperial Testing Stations guide before you go in.

Which starting class is best?

There is no wrong pick, because you can learn the other schools later. Two things matter most.

1. Trainer distance. Ghavouri (Trooper) and Derek Chinara (Planetologist) are both in the starter zone, so you will pick those schools up early anyway. Arno, Sister Mesa and Samin Moro are far from the starter zone. Starting as Swordmaster, Bene Gesserit or Mentat saves you the longest trip.
2. How you like to fight.

Our pick for most new players: Trooper if this is your first survival game, Bene Gesserit if you want the strongest PvP toolkit and do not mind a learning curve. Either way, unlock Planetologist early. Its yield and scanner skills save hours of farming.

Starting from zero? The beginner guide covers your first hours, and the best base locations article shows where to settle near the trainers.