You need water to survive in Dune: Awakening, and it drains quickly since you’re in a desert. Additionally, water sources are rather scarce on Arrakis, so you have to get creative and research technology that will let you not only collect water, but store it so that you can use it as needed. The ways available to you for getting water change as you level up and spend points in research, but even at lower levels, you can start farming water and building your stores.
There are three main ways that you can collect water, and each one is useful if you have enough cisterns to store it for later.
Actively Farming Water
The main ways to collect water are through blood, windtraps, and dew. Of course, these give you varying amounts of water, which can change depending on the equipment you use, but you also have to be a bit proactive with collecting water this way. One of the first features you learn in the game is drinking dew from plants, but you can only fill the bottom third of your thirst bar this way. The next way to get water is going to be through the blood extractor and purifier.
For blood, you want to keep the extractor and a few blood bags on you. Then, every time you kill an enemy, use the extractor to collect their blood into your blood bag. From there, you can use your blood purifier to extract water from the blood, then store the water in a cistern for later. You don’t get a lot of water from the blood of each enemy, but you run into enemies often enough that you can start building your water storage this way.
Similarly, you can craft a dew harvester that lets you get water from the plants that you begin the game drinking from. This lets you collect more at once, and it can be incredibly useful if you’re traveling away from your base.
Finally, the best way to farm water is through the windtrap, which collects water when you place it by your Sub-Fief console. It requires a filter, but produces water at a steady rate for you to store in your cisterns.
Passive Water Gathering
In addition to setting up your base to gather water, you can passively collect water with stillsuits at a very slow rate. The water can’t be put into a cistern, but you can drink it right from your suit’s catchpocket. You don’t get much water this way, but it’s useful when you’re traveling and are away from the water stores at your base. Plus, you can’t be picky with how you get a necessity like water in an arid environment like that of Dune: Awakening.
