If you want to continue expanding your empire in Dune: Spice Wars you’ll need to learn how to increase Authority income. This is because every time you want to claim a new village, you’ll need to spend some Authority. The amount varies depending on several factors.
Such as how far it is from your main base, how many villages you already own, and a few other factors that can play a role too. You’ll need to manage this currency well or at least figure out how to get a lot of it so you can continue growing. This Dune: Spice Wars guide dives into several tricks to increase Authority revolving around technology, diplomacy, and more.
How to Increase Authority in Dune: Spice Wars
Increase Authority With Espionage
Espionage can be a confusing window at first if you’re not sure how it works. Make sure you take advantage of the different Infiltration buffs and missions.
A big part of getting more Authority in Dune: Spice Wars is a bunch of different small ways to increase it. One of which is by using your Agents in the Espionage window. You can access this area by clicking the magnifying glass button, near the top right corner of your screen. For each agent assigned to the Arrakis Infiltration, you’ll gain +1 Authority.
Another neat trick to reduce the cost of claiming a village is getting the Underworld Cells Espionage operation. Using this operation on a village reduces the cost to claim it by 30% while increasing it by 30% for other factions. You can use it on both neutral and hostile territory. Just be careful since it doesn’t last for a long time. This operation costs 200 Intel and 200 Gold, however.
Increase Authority Through War
Try not to start treaties with factions other than Atreides unless you want to get -1 Authority per treaty.
Assert your dominance in Dune: Spice Wars by attacking other factions to start increasing your Authority gain. This method relies on having negative relations with another faction. For each faction that you have at least -50 relations with, you’ll gain +1 Authority. Unfortunately, there isn’t an increase if you go the opposite direction with a focus on positive relations instead.
While I don’t recommend butting heads with everyone, this can be a nice increase if your border is near another faction. Or if you notice they have units near your border. Chances are they’re about to attack you anyway. Also, you can check your relations by opening the trading tab. Click on a faction banner near the top right corner and look to the right of their name for a symbol with two arrows.
Take Advantage of Water Seller Caravans
Take advantage of downed Ornithopters that you can stumble upon for extra scouting. There are all sorts of random camps and caravans you can interact with.
This is the best way to get Authority immediately in Dune: Spice Wars as opposed to waiting over time. If you spot a Water Seller Caravan anywhere on the map, you can spend 500 Solari to instantly get Authority. The one issue is that it’s 500 Solari and that’s not cheap unless you’re in the mid to late game. And even still it can be expensive.
It’s worth mentioning that the amount you get seems to vary so there’s no guarantee how much you’ll get. I tried interacting with two Water Seller Caravans at the same time to see how much it would change. Just in case it’s based on your progress in the match. However, the first gave 95 and the second gave 59. Keep an eye out for the water drop symbol/icon in the screenshot above to find them.
Increase Authority With Technology/Developments
Developments are essentially the technology tree in Dune: Spice Wars for tons of passive benefits. You can also unlock new buildings and military units this way.
Learning new technology/Developments is especially useful for reducing costs in claiming villages. However, you can also increase your gain for agents assigned to the Arrakis Infiltration. One of the earliest developments you can unlock is Local Dialect Studies under the green section. This provides a set -15% Authority for annexing villages.
The third row all the way to the left in the green section has Underground Network for another sizable change. This reduces specifically the distance cost for annexing villages by 40%. Such as claiming a village extremely far from your main base. The Underground Network development also provides Supply benefits and an extra 20% military power to all units at night.
Combining Sand Diplomacy and Lay of the Land can lead to decent buffs in Authority.
The third row in the green section also has Lay of the Land which increases Authority gain by 20% for agents assigned to the Arrakis Infiltration. This is in the Espionage section that I mentioned in a previous section. You’ll also get an extra agent slot for the Arrakis Infiltration and 100% quicker Sietch detection speed.
Leaving the green development section to the purple/indigo one, Sand Diplomacy works similar to Lay of the Land. It provides a 30% Authority gain increase for agents assigned to the Arrakis Infiltration. While you won’t get another agent slot, you do get more benefits related to Sietch tribes. An extra 30% in relation gains and +30% in resources received from trading.
Miscellaneous Ways to Increase Authority in Dune: Spice Wars
Even though every faction starts with +4 Authority, you’ll want to increase it where you can. Even if it’s just a little bit.
As far as I can tell every faction starts with +4 Authority by default. Therefore, you should always have at least that much unless your base gets destroyed and if that happens, you’re no longer in the match. Once you pass the 2,000 Hegemony point, you can start building in your main base districts.
The only building in your main base that provides Authority is the Administrative Hall. This requires researching the Local Hubs development first, however. It also costs 1,500 Solari and 500 Plascrete so it isn’t cheap. You’ll gain +30% Authority production, +10% Hegemony gains, and a portion of your Hegemony as Solari.
The Administration Hall is one of many expensive buildings you can slot into your base. You’ll want to prioritize a certain type to gain district bonuses.
This can make the Administrative Hall a popular pick for each of the three benefits easily. Just remember that each base building comes with high upkeep compared to villages. But, the benefits can outweigh the upkeep if you have a good handle on your economy.
That aside, one of the final tips I can think of regarding how to increase Authority is trading with Sietch tribes. While this doesn’t work for every Sietch you come across, it does work for certain ones. In one of my matches, I can trade 10 Water for +1 Authority with the Sietch Halgah locals. This will also build positive relations for other potential advantages with the Sietch.
Creating alliances with Sietch locals can lead to major buffs like increases in Knowledge, Power, production, and more.
That’s all there is to this Dune: Spice Wars guide on how to increase authority. If you come across a useful tip or trick, be sure to share it in the comments with others. There are likely a couple of unique faction tricks I may not know about. Make sure to check out our other guide on How to Use Airfields if you aren’t already.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.
Sarah
Wednesday 25th of May 2022
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