You wake with nothing on a planet that kills people for standing in the sun. Water is the currency, spice is the reason anybody is here, and the sand is not safe.

Water first, everything else after

A stillsuit, shade and blood from what you kill. The first few hours are genuinely about not dying of heat, and it never fully stops being about that.

The worm is real

Rhythmic movement across open sand calls it. You learn to walk without rhythm, to stay on rock, and to watch the horizon. Getting it wrong ends a run instantly.

Build somewhere to keep things

Bases with power, refineries and defences, on your own or with a guild, in a world shared with other players.

An ornithopter eventually

Vehicles from a sandbike up to a full thopter, and the map opens enormously once you can fly.