Concealment and Detection - A Stealth Guide to Dune: Spice Wars

A comprehensive look at Stealth units and mechanics in "Dune: Spice Wars" and how to counter them.
Current as of game version 2.2.5.32923 (12 Dec 2024 update)

Stealth: The Unseen Adversary

In my time learning how to improve at Dune: Spice Wars, I found a particular lack of public information or guides on the game in specific areas. There are great guides on factions and faction mechanics if you dig for them in Discords and on YouTube, but one under-served area of game knowledge that I couldn't find (heh) is Stealth.

My goal for this guide was to consolidate all the available information regarding Stealth; how each faction can use it and how to counter it. I will gloss over tactics and applications of these topics and focus solely on objective information for the sake of simplicity. It's up to you the reader to take these findings and apply them with extreme prejudice against your Spice Wars foes.

Throughout the guide I will use the terms Concealment, Stealth, and Camouflage interchangeably, mostly for sentence flow. While they are technically different, in video game speak they largely refer to the same concept: you the player can see the [thing/object/unit etc.] but others cannot.

Concealment: Who Can Use Stealth and How

Stealth plays a small but important role in most Dune: Spice Wars skirmishes. Its a key component of Assassination Operations to eliminate other players and it's integral to the playstyle of the Fremen faction.

Generally speaking, the game handles Stealth (or Concealment or Camouflage) as a Status given to a unit, and that Status is granted a few different ways: by an Armory Upgrade to a unit; an Area of Effect from a game mechanic like a Sandstorm or Espionage Operation; or as a feature built into a unit's design. The Stealth Status will always be removed if the unit enters combat with another unit or the unit is detected by one of the Stealth Detection methods, outlined in the later part of the guide. Units revealed by combat can regain Stealth by leaving combat and waiting for a few moments, with some exceptions.

Now, let's sharpen our (mental) Crysknives and go through all of the Stealth mechanics and how they work.

Universal Stealth Units and Mechanics

Here we'll briefly cover Stealth units every faction can use and a universal mechanic that conceals otherwise non-concealable units.

Assassins

Assassins, a key component of Assassination operations, are the most common threat who utilizes Stealth. They can be created by every faction that has unlocked the Tier 2 Statecraft Development, Spying Logistics (or Physical Wiring if you are House Vernius, which is a Tier 4 tech instead).


Assassins spawn at the rally point like any other units but are Hirelings, meaning they do not regenerate Health if they take damage. They will not reveal themselves (break their Camouflage) when performing an attack or reaching an Infiltration Cell in a village unless the enemy has some form of Stealth Detection in the area (see the Detection section of the guide).

Mercenaries

When you have >10% CHOAM shares, you can recruit Mercenaries. Like Assassins, they are also Hirelings and are concealed when they are not in combat.

Sandstorms

Sandstorms temporarily conceal units within the storm's Area of Effect if they are not in combat. If a unit leaves the storm's AoE, the storm moves away, or they attack another unit, they will no longer be Concealed.

Faction-Specific Stealth Units and Mechanics

Now lets cover the Stealth units, operations, developments, and mechanics that are specific to certain factions.
Note: Houses Atreides, Corrino, and Ecaz do not have any unique Stealth capabilities; only the Universal Stealth Units and Mechanics above can be used by them.

The Fremen

Starting with the Stealthiest faction, lets look at the Fremen.

Developments (Techs)

Desert Watchers

The Fremen can conceal their entire army in Fremen territory and allied Sietches (even inside Enemy territory!) with Desert Watchers, the tier 3 Expansion Development. This includes their temporary units like Landsraad Guards, Judges, Punishers, etc.

Iday Alakrab

Iday Alakrab is a tier 4 Military Development that allows the Fremen worm-riding ability to be Concealed. Units are also Concealed for one day after exiting the worm.

Espionage Operations/Missions

The Fremen have two Espionage Operations that can apply Stealth: Hiding Tracks and Hidden Thumpers.

Hiding Tracks

Hiding Tracks gives Fremen units Stealth outside of combat in the selected region and adjacent regions.

Hidden Thumpers

Hidden Thumpers allows the Fremen units to travel by worm to a region without costing them a Thumper, but it also gives units in that region Stealth outside of combat. If Iday Alakrab is researched, the Fremen will be concealed riding the worm towards the region too.

Units

Independent of Desert Watchers, the following units are able to use Stealth in and out of Fremen territory:

Infiltrators

Infiltrators can unlock Camouflage Fabric in the Armory allowing them to be concealed outside of combat.

Skirmishers

Skirmishers can unlock Camouflage Fabric in the Armory allowing them to be concealed outside of combat.

Mobile Turrets

Donkeys Mobile Turrets can unlock Ambush Camouflage in the Armory allowing them to be concealed outside of combat, but only when they are deployed. If they are moving around as the "Donkey team", they will not be concealed.

Chani Kynes

Chani, one of the Fremen Heroes, is a Stealth unit who buffs other Stealth units. She is Concealed outside of combat.

The Altar

The Altar, the Fremen Flagship, can unlock two on-board enhancements: Sky Facade to Conceal itself and Sand Cloud to Conceal units within Long-Range, shown below.














And now, the other factions with Stealth units:

The Smugglers

Free Company

Free Company, the Smugglers' Elite unit, can unlock Stealth Gear in the Armory allowing them to be concealed outside of combat.

Scavenging Drone

Scavenging Drones, the Smugglers' Mechanical unit, can unlock Optic Camouflage in the Armory allowing them to be concealed outside of combat.

Banshees

The Banshee, The Smugglers' main air unit, is Concealed outside of combat.

Drisq

Drisq, one of the Smugglers' Heroes, gives units in the same region as her Stealth if the Smugglers have an active Espionage Operation in that region.

House Vernius

Spirits

The Spirit, Vernius' main air unit, have a built-in trait where they are Concealed when they are within Vernius' or another faction's territory (with whom they have a Truce).

C'Tair

C'Tair, one of House Vernius' Heroes, is a Stealth unit who can Conceal friendly non-mechanical units like Fight-Engineers or Suboids within Short Range.

House Harkonnen

Cerberus

Cerberus units, the Harkonnen Flankers, can unlock Stealth Gear in the Armory allowing them to be concealed outside of combat.

Combat Probe

Combat Probes, the Harkonnen Mechanical units, can unlock Optic Camouflage in the Armory allowing them to be concealed outside of combat.

Detection: How To Counterplay Against Stealth

Knowing how to detect Stealth units early can be the difference between surviving an ambush or stopping an Assassination Operation in time. In this section, we'll cover what tools you have to detect the Stealth units we previously covered.

Firstly, here's an important but simple tip: This is a Cloaked Unit Detection Alert.

If this pops up in your notifications, you have discovered a Stealth unit. You just need to left-click on the notification (twice) for it to fly your camera over to where the Stealth unit(s) have been revealed.




Next tip: If you want to check the range of your unit's detection ability, the Monitoring Station's range, any ranged ability, etc., you can hover over the range's text with your mouse and it will show an overlay around the unit/building (sometimes you need to select the unit/building again or lock the tooltip by pressing "B" first).

Universal Stealth Detection

Below are the methods to detecting Stealth units that can be used by every faction.

Probe Setup

The first Espionage Operation you get access to as any faction. For a measly 50 Intel, you can scan a region for three days and if any Stealth units are present, they will be revealed. They also remove Fog of War and reveal undiscovered resource nodes, villages, Sietches, and Points of Interest in a region.

Another use for Probe Setups is to see if Assassins are using a region to traverse towards your territory during an Assassination Operation against you, where information like that could be the difference between dying or not.

Monitoring Station

Monitoring Stations are a cheap, no-upkeep cost, Statecraft Building you can place in your villages that will detect Stealth units in a Very Long range (see image below).

Main Base

Main Bases automatically detect Stealth units at Very Long Range, which is slightly smaller range as your Main Base Missile Battery's range, but not by much (there's currently no way to see the exact range, but comparing the Missile Battery range with other uses of measurable Very Long Range, we can surmise this is accurate).
So, if you turn on the Main Base Missile Range map filter, that's roughly the range of Stealth detection. No specific Main Base Building required; this works right out of the box.

Faction-Specific Stealth Detection

Now let's cover which Factions have unique units or abilities to detect Stealth units.

Note: Houses Atreides, Corrino, and Harkonnen do not have unique Stealth Detection capabilities, they can only use the Universal methods outlined in the previous section.

The Fremen

Mobile Turrets

Mobile Turrets, as a Donkey or deployed as a turret, can detect Concealed units with Shadow Scan, unlocked in the Armory.

Altar

The Altar, the Fremen's Flagship, can unlock the on-board enhancement: Recon Stations, to reveal Stealth units within Very Long Range, shown below.

The Smugglers

Drisq

Drisq, one of the Smugglers' Heroes, has the built-in ability to detect Concealed units at Very Long Range.

House Ecaz

Musketeers

Musketeers can detect Concealed units with Shadow Scan, unlocked in the Armory.

House Vernius

Fight-Engineers

Fight-Engineers can detect Concealed units with Shadow Scan, unlocked in the Armory.

Conclusion

That's it! Thank you for reading my guide to all things Stealth in Dune: Spice Wars. Don't waste your moisture because it's over; smile because you stopped that pesky neighbor of yours from assassinating you.

Shoutout to Daevohk's YouTube Channel for all the guides on the factions as well as all the kind and helpful folks and guides on the Turin Multiplayer Discord, the Dune: Spice Wars official Discord, and the Dune Circuit Discord.

Arrakis is a harsh place, but maybe a little less after this guide. Good luck out there.