Finding skill trainers in Dune: Awakening is essential for upgrading your combat and survival capabilities, though some are easier to track down than others. You can unlock a handful of new skill trees fairly early in the game without much issue, but others require you to complete more challenging quests and venture further afield. There’s no time limit on unlocking new skills, though, so just seek them out at your own pace when you feel ready to.
Below, we’ve explained where to find all Dune: Awakening skill trainers, including advanced skill trainer locations.
What do Dune Awakening’s skill trainers do?
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Dune: Awakening’s skill trainers come in two varieties, basic trainers scattered across Arrakis and advanced trainers who stick to two specific locations. The basic trainers let you access skill trees from a class that’s different to the one you chose during character creation, while advanced trainers let you improve skills you already know and learn even more powerful abilities.
The basic skill trainer from the class you first choose can’t teach you anything, which is why we recommended against picking Trooper. There’s also one hidden-ish class, the Planetologist, that you can only unlock by completing a quest for its basic trainer.
You can learn from any trainer as soon as you find them, though only after completing a side quest for them. Some of these are lengthy or send you into dangerous areas. Trooper, Mentat, and Planetologist are less complicated to handle early, but for Swordmaster and Bene Gesserit, you’ll want to wait until you’ve at least unlocked iron-level crafting recipes and get some decent defensive gear on you.
Trooper basic trainer location
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Ghavouri, the basic Trooper trainer, spends his days in Griffin Trading Outpost, so he’s likely the first trainer you’ll encounter, assuming you follow the main story path (which you should do, at least until reaching Vermillius Gap). Ghavouri asks you to take down a handful of targets to prove your worth, and then he’ll teach you Trooper skills.
Mentat basic trainer location
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Samin Moro is the Mentat trainer, and you’ll find her outside the Riftwatch base, which is east of The Anvil in Hagga Rift. She’s standing near the staircase that leads into the base’s imposing main structure. Samin asks you to bring her iron ore – you need to unlock the iron category in your research tree for that – and plant fiber to make poison you can use on the local bandits.
Swordmaster basic trainer location
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The Swordmaster trainer, Arno, hangs out in Pinnacle Station on the edge of Eastern Shield Wall and Jabal Eifrit Al-gharb. It’s a long drive here from the Vermillius Gap, so unless you’ve already established a base in the region. make sure you’ve got some full or mostly-full water storage on you before setting out.
Arno is inside the trading post, to the right of the outpost’s main entrance. He asks you to investigate several of his former drop sites for messages pertaining to a top secret mission. This quest takes a while and also sends you to some dangerous places, so get properly prepared before setting out.
Bene Gesserit basic trainer location
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The next easiest trainer to find is Sister Mesa, the Bene Gesserit trainer. She’s hiding out in Helius Gate in Eastern Shield Wall, under a green canopy in the main building. She wants you to investigate some Fremen ruins in pursuit of a prophecy.
Planetology basic trainer location
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It’s possible to completely miss the planetology skill tree, since it’s Dune: Awakening’s only class that you can’t pick during character creation. The associated quest also doesn’t outright say “this is for a new class” unless you’re paying attention.
Pick up the contract “Assistance Required” from the Griffin Trading Post. You’re asked to help Derek Chinara, who’s currently stuck above a nearby imperial research facility.
Dune: Awakening advanced trainer locations
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Advanced trainers are all located in one of Dune: Awakening’s social hubs, either Arrakeen or Harko Village. You can access either location from any trade post by paying 2,500 Solari for the Ornithopter taxi to take you there. That’s the only way to reach Arrakeen and Harko Village until you create an Ornithopter of your own, but you can get enough cash from completing a few basic contracts.
That said, you don’t really need to unlock advanced skill training until maybe around the time you complete your third or fourth Trial of Aql.
As far as we’re aware, there is no advanced Planetologist trainer.
Advanced Bene Gessiert trainer location
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Jacosta is the advanced Bene Gesserit trainer, and she’s near the weapon stall in Harko Village. Her quest follows a similar line as Sister Mesa’s, as Jacosta also sends you into Fremen ruins in exchange for teaching new skills.
Advanced Swordmaster trainer location
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Seron Varlin continues your Swordmaster training, and he’s also in Harko Village, near the northern entrance by a campfire. Seron’s first quest is sending you after his old sword.
Advanced Mentat trainer location
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Zayn de Witte in Arrakeen is your ticket to more assassination techniques. You’ll find him in a bar, and, surprise, he wants you to assassinate some people.
Advanced Trooper trainer location
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Finally is Kara Valk, the advanced Trooper trainer. Kara is also in Arrakeen, on the city’s second floor. She wants you to infiltrate a slaver camp, but only to grab some transmitters. You can turn the slavers into water, too. It’s just not mandatory.
If you’re just landing on Arrakis for the first time, check out our 19 essential Dune Awakening beginner’s tips to help you get started. Brush up on where to find plant fiber locations to help make staying hydrated with your blood purifier easier and how to snag a Worm Tooth to make your own Crysknife.