Master the art of long-range combat and control the battlefield from the shadows with the help of this Dune: Awakening Sniper Mentat Build Guide. Here, learn this class’s best skills, weapons, and armor to help you dominate the sands of Arrakis.

Dune: Awakening Mentat Overview

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Become the supreme arbiter of long-range conflict as a Sniper Mentat in Dune: Awakening. Use this class’s unique skill trees, like those in Mental Calculus, to control the battlefield. There are also like the Sentinel to manipulate foes and their psyches. Nonetheless, your true weapon is anticipation, as one precisely placed round from the shadows asserts your analytical dominance.

Sniper Mentat Skills & Abilities

Mental Calculus

• The Sentinel: You deploy a suspensor-buoyed dart projector that uses motion detection to cover a field of fire. Trigger a second time to activate.
• Garment Keeper: You are able to spot the flaws in any garment and see where it is most likely to tear first. This allows you to reinforce it, preventing wear and tear. Your garments maintain their durability for longer.
• Ranged Damage: You use your considerable mental prowess to calculate the most impactful trajectories for your darts – increasing your damage with all ranged weapons.
• Tailoring: Your skills with a needle are legendary. Every time you repair a garment, you reduce the maximum durability damage the repair would cause.
• Marksman: You are an expert at focusing on the most vulnerable part of the human body, the head. However, your training to hit this smaller target has actually made you worse at putting darts into the center of gravity. Your headshot damage is increased, but your body shot damage is decreased.
• Pistol Damage: Handfired weapons are usually less lethal the further away they are, but you have used your mental training to optimize your shots. All damage with pistol-style weapons, such as the Maula Pistol and Rafiq Subnose, is increased.
• Exploit Weakness: You have learned to observe your enemies and predict their weaknesses based on a thousand minutiae. When you damage an unshielded enemy with a ranged weapon, the hit location becomes a weak point that you can target to increase the damage of subsequent attacks. Only one weak point may be visible at a time.
• Rifle Damage: Learning to overcome the drop in trajectory that occurs when firing rifles at long range, you have increased your lethality with rifles such as the Karpov 38 and JABAL Spitdart. All damage with these weapons is increased.
• Shield Overcharge: When your blood is saturated with the melange, any ranged attack on a shield will reveal a vulnerability in the Holtzman shield. Continual attacks against this vulnerability will overcharge the enemy shield, causing it to drain their power pack more quickly. (Requires Prescience).

Assassination

• Poison Capsule: You have a hidden dart dispenser that fires off a specially prepared capsule filled with poisonous spores. On impact, a cloud of poison spores appears, building poison on all who remain within.
• Poison Mine: You can place a remotely triggered mine that, once triggered, releases a cloud of poisonous spores - stacking poison on all who stand within.
• Headshot Damage: As you train with ranged weapons, you become more proficient at shooting the vulnerable parts of the human body. Your headshot damage is increased.
• Assassin’s Shot: You do not squander an advantage in battle. Ever. You deal additional damage to your enemies when shooting them in the back.
• Poison Tooth: Installed by a Suk Doctor, you can activate this poison tooth when downed in combat, causing a cloud of poison mist that damages and poisons anybody nearby. The downside, of course, is that it damages you as well.
• Stunner: You have a hidden dart dispenser that fires off a specially prepared sedative-tipped dart. On impact, this dart stuns the enemy, locking their muscles and rendering them unable to move or attack.
• Hunter-Seeker: You have been trained in the use of the Hunter-Seeker, a specialized assassination device used to kill enemies without causing alarm. You pilot a thin sliver of metal that, when it strikes, burrows inside the arteries of the enemy and causes them incredible pain and often, instant death. You are vulnerable while piloting the device.

Tactician

• Shield Wall: You deploy a half-height Holtzman shield that provides cover during combat for you and your allies. It will also slow enemies who attempt to pass through it, giving you time to take them down.
• Gravity Mine: This mine, when triggered, uses a modified secondary phase Holtzman field to amplify the effect of gravity in a spherical area. You can use the sphere to slow enemies and drain their power or decrease the speed of projectiles.
• Solido Decoy: You use a miniature solido projector to project a near-perfect image of yourself onto the battlefield. Triggering it again will force the projection to move forward, fooling enemies into attacking.
• Anti-Gravity Mine: This mine, when triggered, uses a modified secondary phase Holtzman field to negate the effect of gravity in a spherical area. You can use the sphere to lift enemies or prevent fall damage during traversal.
• Iron Will: You have developed such a strong sense of self that you are able to alter your thought patterns to avoid the manipulations of the Bene Gesserit voice at the cost of stamina. At least, those of lesser practitioners.
• Source of Power: You place out a powerful generator that continuously regenerates power for nearby allies. Though the device uses a form of nuclear fission, it is small enough to be safe provided that it is given adequate time to cool between uses.

Sniper Mentat Best Skills & Abilities

Mental Calculus

• Ranged Damage
• Marksman
• Rifle Damage
• Exploit Weakness

The foundation of any Sniper Mentat in Dune: Awakening is the Ranged Damage skill. After all, it transforms your rifle into a deadly tool using lethal projectiles. Don’t forget about Marksman, an ability that ensures your headshot damage is increased at the cost of reducing the damage dealt to other body parts. Then, there's Rifle Damage and Exploit Weakness, two abilities that allow you, the Sniper, to bring the hurt to anyone at the end of your weapon's barrel.

Assassination

• Poison Capsule
• Headshot Damage
• Assassin’s Shot
• Stunner
• Hunter-Seeker

Remember, a prepared Sniper Mentat is one who wins most, if not all, fights. So, ready yourself by allocating Skill Points to the right abilities in the Assassination Tree. For starters, Poison Capsule is excellent for area denial, as it forces opponents out of cover. Next, there are the Headshot Damage and Assassin's Shot abilities, which are ideal for passively increasing your overall damage. Finally, the Stunner and Hunter-Seeker abilities increase survivability in different combat scenarios.

Tactician

• Shield Wall

Out of all the abilities under the Mentat Tactician Skill Tree, Shield Wall is arguably the most practical. Deploying a portable shield allows you to line up accurate shots while being protected from enemy fire. This barrier blocks darts and also slows any foe, especially if it’s a Short-Blade Bene Gesserit that attempts to power through it.

Sniper Mentat Best Weapons

Distance is your best friend as a Sniper Mentat in Dune: Awakening. Combine that element with damage, and you become a force to be reckoned with when enemies face you. Complete this goal with the Thufir’s Best Sniper Rifle, which is arguably the best weapon to use for this build. Find this weapon by completing the Untwisted Questions Contract. Note that this quest gives you the weapon, and not the schematic. So, once the weapon breaks, you must use the schematic to craft another one. With that, travel to the Wreck of the Delphis or Wreck of the Euporia. These locations contain chests that may contain Thufir’s Best Sniper Rifle. If it doesn’t appear, wait about 45 minutes for the containers to respawn and try again. Once acquired, craft it at a Weapons Fabricator using the following materials:

• 35x Duraluminum Ingot
• 13x Mechanical Parts
• 30x Silicone Block
• 33x Gun Parts
• 6x Heavy Caliber Compressor
• 9x Spice-Infused Duraluminum Dust
• 340x Water

Note that Thufir’s Best is a powerful sniper rifle that can fire poisonous darts, increasing your overall DPS. But it doesn’t hurt to carry secondary weapons to become a versatile Mentat fighter in Arrakis. Two notable options are the Cope unique pistol and the Adept Tripleshot Repeating Rifle. As for your melee weapon, the Moisture Sealer is a great choice.

Sniper Mentat Best Armor

Acheronian’s Heavy Armor is one of the best, if not the best, armor set for the Sniper Mentat in Dune: Awakening. Each component has excellent armor value, promoting top-tier defense. However, like other Heavy Armor options, the Acheronian’s Heavy Armor variant is weak against Blade damage. Nonetheless, your sniping skills should aid in preventing enemies from getting within melee range most of the time. The schematic for each Acheronian Armor component can be found in a chest in Shaitan’s Grotto. Again, these armor parts aren’t guaranteed drops. So, you may need to farm this location frequently to get the complete set. Once completed, use the right materials to craft the Acheronian’s Heavy Armor Set. The resources needed for each component are as follows:

• Acheronian’s Helmet: 40x Duraluminum Ingot, 13x Plasteel Microflora Fiber, 23x Silicone Block, 20x Armor Plating, 9x Spice-Infused Duraluminum Dust, and 340x Water
• Acheronian’s Chestplate: 55x Duraluminum Ingot, 16x Plasteel Microflora Fiber, 30x Silicone Block, 26x Armor Plating, 12x Spice-Infused Duraluminum Dust, and 450x Water
• Acheronian’s Pants: 50x Duraluminum Ingot, 14x Plasteel Microflora Fiber, 26x Silicone Block, 23x Armor Plating, 10x Spice-Infused Duraluminum Dust, and 400x Water
• Acheronian’s Gauntlets: 28x Duraluminum Ingot, 8x Plasteel Microflora Fiber, 15x Silicone Block, 14x Armor Plating, 6x Spice-Infused Duraluminum Dust, and 225x Water
• Acheronian’s Boots: 35x Duraluminum Ingot, 10x Plasteel Microflora Fiber, 20x Silicone Block, 17x Armor Plating, 8x Spice-Infused Duraluminum Dust, and 280x Water

Note: Prepare 208x Duraluminum Ingot, 61x Plasteel Microflora Fiber, 114x Silicone Block, 100x Armor Plating, 54x Spice-Infused Duraluminum Dust, and 1,695x Water to complete the entire Acheronian’s Heavy Armor Set.

Sniper Mentat Build Tips & Tricks

One Shot, One Kill

While distance is your best friend, patience becomes your primary weapon as a Sniper Mentat in Dune: Awakening. Remember, become one with your sniper rifle, and discipline yourself to ensure a headshot with each pull of the trigger. So, invest in the Marksman ability, as this skill improves your lethality.

Master the Terrain

Arrakis is filled with high vantage points, and it should be in your best interest to learn the best viewpoint to take out your enemies one by one. Use high rock formations or the deep shadows in ruins to break line-of-sight. Analyze your foes and dominate the Dune: Awakening server with stealth and accuracy.

Psychological Warfare with Hunter-Seeker

Transition from tactician to predator with the Hunter-Seeker, the ultimate tool for psychological domination. Once concealed, activate it to secure your position. The distinct audio can cause panic and force enemies into desperate yet predictable movements. Sow paranoia in groups, and then deal with them accordingly with your sniper rifle.