On Dune Awakening Items Arrakis, not everything rests under the sun. Deep below the dunes, shielded from orbital scans and sandworms alike, lie some of the most complex and dangerous Imperial Testing Stations—buried research vaults and stealth labs left behind after failed Harkonnen experiments.

These under-sand stations reward players who favor stealth, puzzle-solving, and surgical strikes. Here, brute force won’t save you. Instead, success comes from understanding map layouts, using the right implants, and mastering movement under pressure.

🧱 Station 1: Substrate Excavation Vault

• Location: Beneath the Eastern Dune Wastes, hidden under a collapsed excavation shaft

• Access Requirements: Demolition charge to clear rocks, flashlight module, hacking mod

• Terrain: Multilevel underground vault, flickering lights, elevator puzzle segments

• Enemies: Discarded mining bots, unstable turrets, tripwire-triggered guard drones

• Difficulty: ⚙️ Hard (requires both gear and coordination)

🔧 Unique Loot & Schematics

This station is a goldmine for players looking to craft late-game tech builds. The Echo Pulse Sensor is a must-have in stealth operations.

🧠 Strategy Tips – Substrate Vault

• Prep: Bring at least two players—one with hacking capability, another with demolition.

• Light = Life: Some turrets only activate in the dark. Keep your flashlight OFF unless needed to reveal wall markers.

• Puzzle Mechanics: Certain doors open only when two floor switches are pressed simultaneously.

• Extraction Tip: Once the final loot room is cleared, a hidden stairwell will appear only if no alarms were triggered.

🌀 Station 2: Tremor Labyrinth Station

• Location: Northwest Crater Rim, hidden below a mobile sand dune

• Access Requirements: Must enter during sandstorm window when the dune has shifted

• Terrain: Multi-room labyrinth with pressure plates, moving floors, and vertical shafts

• Enemies: Tremor-sensitive stalker bots, holographic sentries, magnetic doors

• Difficulty: 🛑 Very Hard (team-based stealth required)

🔧 Unique Loot & Schematics

🧠 Strategy Tips – Tremor Labyrinth

• Movement Control: Any sprinting will trigger stalker bots. Move in bursts, crouch often, and avoid stepping on cracked tiles.

• Environmental Control: Use sound grenades to lure sentries away from puzzle doors.

• Loot-Room Condition: Final chest opens only if three data keys from puzzle rooms are inserted in the correct order (hinted via wall symbols).

• Escape Route: One-use lift platform takes 20 seconds to rise—cover your team until then.

🧬 Why These Stations Stand Apart

1. Complex Layouts: These are not simple combat arenas. You’ll need to solve, sneak, and sometimes split the group to proceed.

2. Puzzle-Exclusive Loot: Many drops here are not tied to RNG kills, but to successfully completing mechanical tasks.

3. Cross-Zone Benefits: Items like the Memory Cache Decoder have implications far beyond one run—they affect lore-based vaults in other zones.

🕵️ Lore: Shadows in the Vaults

• The Substrate Vault is tied to early Harkonnen failures to build self-replicating mining drones. Some of them still operate under “rogue routines.”

• Tremor Labyrinth was designed as a mobile training course for Sardaukar infiltrators but was abandoned after “incident R-7,” where its AI sealed itself off from command.

🔁 Suggested Vault Run (Team of 3)

1. Prepare: Equip cloaking mods, hacking tools, noise decoys

2. Start with Substrate Vault: Easier to warm up and get team timing right

3. Transition to Tremor Labyrinth: Enter during sandstorm cycle (watch for weather markers)

4. Exit: Use fast-travel token from Buy Dune Awakening Items Memory Room (available after decoder use)

Estimated Time: 35–45 minutes, 4–5 rare schematics per run, 1 guaranteed implant per week (if no wipe/death occurs)