Dune Spice Wars - Complete Guide to Infiltration

The infiltration system in Dune: Spice Wars will be unlocked once you start harvesting Spice. By sending your agents to the key arenas of politics on Arrakis, you can earn additional income, spy on your rivals, and undertake missions that can alter the planetary balance of power.

The infiltration is just as important for winning the game as the Landsraad votes and the victories on the battlefield, and successfully managing your agents will give you advantages in all aspects of the game. You might even be able to make your rivals quietly disappear and eliminate the opposition without a trace.

Updated on September 16, 2023 by Matt Arnold: With the launch of Dune: Spice Wars from Early Access, there have been some changes to assassination missions. We have updated this guide accordingly.

Agents

When you harvest Spice, progress is automatically made in recruiting an agent. You can see the current progress bar below the infiltration button on the right side of the screen. Once an agent is recruited, they can be assigned to infiltrate one of your rivals or one of the four major non-player organizations on and around Dune.

Each agent possesses a unique trait that grants a small advantage to your empire when they are deployed for infiltration. Sometimes, this bonus affects your overall production, while the agent's trait makes them particularly suited for a specific task. Strategically maximizing the effectiveness of your agents is always a useful tactic.

When an agent is tasked with infiltrating a facility, it will increase your infiltration level within that facility. Infiltration levels always lean towards the number of agents currently deployed there and are necessary for carrying out advanced operations.

By default, a faction can employ up to ten agents simultaneously. However, certain bonuses, such as the Eye Of The Council Charter and the Counter Measures Development, can increase this limit.

Infiltration Effects

Missions And Operations

By utilizing intelligence (Intel), you can carry out missions listed on the right side of the infiltration interface. These missions are performed by agents as they infiltrate the necessary organizations, but this does not prevent them from fulfilling their regular tasks. Once a mission is completed, the associated operation becomes available.

To carry out an operation, click on the corresponding button in the upper right corner of the main screen and select the region where you wish to perform it. High-risk operations carry the danger of alerting players already present in the affected region to your actions and potentially even capturing agents. You can negotiate the release of captured agents through the diplomacy screen of the capturing country.

Occasionally, during a mission, a complication arises - these special events need to be resolved in order for the mission to continue. If you let a complication play out, the mission will be aborted.

How To Assassinate An Opponent

If the "Assassination" feature is enabled in your current game, you can carry out an assassination mission against your opponents. Upon successful completion, this faction will be immediately eliminated from the game, just as if their capital had been destroyed.

To eliminate an opponent, you need at least one level of infiltration in Arrakis, CHOAM, the Spacing Guild, and the Landsraad. You also need maximum infiltration against the chosen faction. Since you can't deploy more than one agent by default to infiltrate an opponent, you must first perform the "Infiltration Cells" mission twice.

Each infiltration cell allows you to send an additional agent to spy on the target faction. When deciding where to place your infiltration cells, the best locations are near your border and at least two regions apart from each other.

Once you have reached sufficient levels of infiltration, you can proceed with the assassination attempt by spending one thousand Solari and five hundred Intel. Assassination missions incur daily maintenance costs in the form of Solari and Intel, with the costs increasing the longer the attempt takes. If the costs become too high and you are forced to abort the attempt, there is no way to recover the invested progress or resources.

An assassination requires one hundred progress points to be successful. By default, the mission gains two progress points per day for each agent assigned to the target faction. However, the mission suffers a stackable, percentage-based deduction from its progress gain every day, depending on the number of agents assigned to counter-espionage against the target.

If the target notices the assassination attempt, they can initiate a special mission to track down infiltration cells. This allows them to deploy military units to search villages. If they find a cell, it will be destroyed, and the assigned agent will either be captured or sent back home. Since this reduces the number of agents assigned to the assassination, the progress will be significantly slowed down.

An assassination attempt only ends when it is successfully completed or when it is aborted by the attacker. This typically happens when the maintenance costs become too expensive or when all agents are discovered. The target can also request a guarantee of their safety on the diplomacy screen, which cancels the attack. However, this usually comes with inflated prices.

When a faction leader is assassinated, all their units are disbanded, all regions they hold become neutral, and their main base is destroyed. The player is permanently eliminated from the current game.