To experience everything that Dune Awakening has to offer, you’ll need to go progress towards the mid to late game stages. In particular, many players look forward to use the Ornithopter because it makes movement so much easier later on. However, the Ornithopter is actually quite complex to use – with different gauges and a whole movement system. Additionally, you’ll also need to take care of durability. This can be very complicated for new players – especially considering how expensive it can be. In this guide, we’ll show you how they work so that you can fly it efficiently. Let’s dive in!
How to Fly an Ornithopter
The Ornithopter may seem like any other vehicle in Dune Awakening – but it is far from that. The game has decided to go the route of permanent durability reduction. This means that the ornithopter will gradually lose durability – requiring you to either repair it or get a new one.
However, for every percentage of durability you repair, you will lose a certain percentage of durability permanently. This durability cannot be restored again.
Below is an image which shows the durability meter for a Scout Ornithopter Wing Mk4. Here is a breakdown of what the colors mean:
- Yellow – Remaining durability
- White – Missing durability – but can be repaired.
- Red – Permanent damage, can no longer be repaired.
As you can see, permanent damage will eventually require you to get a new ornithopter. This is an issue for new players because the ornithopter is extremely expensive. So, flying properly will ensure that you preserve as much durability as possible.
How To Fly Efficiently
Since flying efficiently is key, let’s go over how you can achieve it in Dune Awakening. Starting off, we’ll be going over the flight basics for new players.
- Ascend
- Use the jump button to takeoff
- Aiming upwards while using the forward directional key will also allow you to ascend
- Descent
- Use the crouch button to descend
- Aiming downwards while using the forward direction key will also allow you to descend
However, the most important controls for the Ornithopter are by far the Vulture controls. Vulture mode allows you to turn the Ornithopter into a glider by turning off the engine.
You should only use the Vulture mode when you reach 500m altitude. Do not exceed 750m, as this will increase your fuel consumption. Pay special attention to the temperature gauge too as this will also affect durability.
Using Vulture Mode ascent and descent is the most efficient way to use the Ornithopter. We’ll be going over the numbers later in the guide.
When you’re using the Ornithopter, you should be able to make out a horizon line which shows your orientation. Your goal should be to keep aim the Ornithopter just below the horizon line so that you can gain speed while gliding.
If you keep it level, you’ll eventually lose speed and need to use your engines which will affect durability.
Eventually, you will need to start climbing. To do this, gain speed and then use your thruster. Do not turn on the engine.
With the thruster on, raise the Ornithopter above the horizon line and you’ll start climbing. Of course, the Thruster will raise the temperature so turn it off when the temperature gets too high. With just one ascent, you will be able to gain 150m of altitude without using the engine.
If done properly, one altitude climb like this will allow you to cross the map.
Players also have trouble when turning in the game – think they work like cars. However, the Ornithopter works much like planes do in flight games. You will need to angle the Ornithopter and pivot it in the direction you want to go to.
You can do this by dipping the Ornithopter and then just forcing the nose of the plane up with the thrusters on. Doing so will allow you to turn without using engines.
Finally, landing with the Ornithopter is fairly straightforward. The game gives you a lot of leeway while landing, so you can turn on the engine at the last moment to simply land when you are close to the ground.
Additionally, landing hard on the ground also does nothing to durability. So, you don’t have to be too careful when landing.
Summary
To summarize, to fly the Ornithopter efficiently in Dune Awakening you need to do the following:
- Do not use the engine after gaining altitude and instead use Vulture gliding
- Aim just below the horizon line to gain speed
- Use thrusters while aiming up to gain altitude
- Pivot the plane in the direction you want to turn to.
These are all the hallmarks of boost gliding, which is by far the most efficient way of flying. If you don’t believe us, we’ll be doing a simple test and going over different flying methods to see how they impact durability.
What Affects Ornithopter Durability
Now that you know how to fly the ornithopter efficiently, it’s time to see how different actions affect durability. This will allow us to determine the most effective actions so you can prevent durability loss.
Again, we want to stress how expensive the ornithopter can be. Keep in mind that even staying idle i.e. being in the Ornithopter but doing nothing can impact durability, as we’ll see below.
The test results are also based on 5 minute intervals.
Here is a breakdown of all the actions and how they impact the Ornithopter:
- Idle (Land)
- Wings: -3%
- Engine: -3%
- Generator: -1.5%
- Fuel: -8%
- Idle (Hover)
- Wings: -3%
- Engine: -3%
- Generator: -1.5%
- Fuel: -25%
- Active Flight
- Wings: -3%
- Engine: -3%
- Generator: -1.5%
- Fuel: -25%
- Ascent And Descent
- Wings: -3%
- Engine: -3%
- Generator: -1.5%
- Fuel: -25%
- Glide (No Boost)
- Wings: -3%
- Engine: 0%
- Generator: 0%
- Fuel: ~-1% (because of takeoff)
- Boost Glide
- Wings: -3%
- Engine: 0%
- Generator: -2%
- Fuel: -9%
- Thruster: -2%.
Which Flying Is The Best?
Based on the results above, we can see that boost gliding has the best overall results. The test that we’ve looked at only takes into account the time we do the flying, rather than the distance covered.
If we take the distance into factor, then we do not use the thruster all the time. As a result, you can easily cover three times the distance than you would with any other flying method. This not only saves you more fuel, but is also much more cost effective as durability will be affected less.
In this way, you won’t have to repair the Ornithopter as much.
Wrapping Up
That’s everything you need to know about how to fly an Ornithopter in Dune Awakening. Now that we’ve proven boost gliding is the most efficient method of flying, you should try out the basics we outlined at the start.
Additionally, please never sit in the Ornithopter if you do not plan to fly it. Idling in the Ornithopter is probably the most damaging thing you can do to it. Instead, try to store it so that it does not get damaged.
This is where our how to store vehicles guide can be handy!
