In Shiro Games' Dune: Spice Wars, players control their chosen faction in a fight for control over territory and resources on the barren desert planet of Arrakis. Players must manage their settlements and armies, handle diplomatic issues and espionage, as well as search for and collect a number of resources. Chief among these resources is Spice, the psychedelic substance native to Arrakis which is of such value that several esteemed Houses declare war against one another over it.
Players must locate Spice, construct Refineries, and finally deploy Harvesters in order to gather the valuable resource. All the while, enemy raids, lightning storms and giant Sandworms will attempt to disrupt progress. Each faction has its own counter-measures to deal with these scenarios. Spice is needed to pay Imperial Tax, with any extra being sold to the CHOAM for Solari. Players can adjust the amount of Spice being sold with the use of slider in the top-left of the screen. But first, of course, they need to build up their supply. Here's how players can obtain Spice.
Refineries
In addition to Water and Solari, Spice is one of the key resources players must look out for if they wish to succeed in Dune: Spice Wars. First, players need to locate Spice Fields by sending out Ornithopters. Once found, the region will need to be Annexed and taken under control. Players can do this by deploying soldiers and ordering them to attack the desired territory, or by Peaceful Annexation for the Atreides faction.
Once a territory containing a Spice Field has been successfully annexed, players will then be able to construct a Refinery within the area. When the Refinery has finished building, players can then deploy a Harvester to go out and collect Spice for them. Spice will be processed automatically, and the Harvester will not have to return at regular intervals to drop off its findings. If the Refinery building is damaged, the Harvester will not be able to process Spice and will not have a safe point to fall back to for extraction.
Harvesters
Each Refinery works in tandem with a specific Harvester. As the name might suggest, Harvesters will harvest Spice from the nearby Spice Fields, which is then processed at the Refinery. The Harvester must be manually deployed in order to begin its work. Once the Deploy button is selected, a carrier will come and pick the Harvester up before delivering it to the Spice Field. Players can enable an Auto-Recall feature which will help protect the Harvester in the event of an attack or a storm.
Players can also add Crews and Ornicopters to the Harvesters, which will help them Harvest at a greater rate. Crews will add a 15% Harvesting bonus, while Ornicopters will add 5% with the benefit of scouting for Sandworms. If attacked by a Sandworm without the Auto-Recall feature, players will have to manually recall the Harvester to the Refinery. Doing so can be costly and replacing Harvesters can be expensive, so it is best to make sure that the Auto-Recall is enabled. In Spice Fields near contested territory, it can even be beneficial to have Military Units on standby to better protect the Harvester from enemy attacks.
Dune: Spice Wars is now available for PC on Steam and Xbox Game Pass.