In Dune, you will take control of one of the four great factions—House Atreides, House Harkonnen, the Fremen, and the Imperium—all vying to control the most valuable resource in the universe: melange, the mysterious spice only found at great cost on the planet Dune. Ship your forces to Dune, harvest spice, seize control of strongholds, and destroy your enemies. Who will control Dune? You decide!

The game is played multiple phases, some of which don't have player specific actions, like in the Spice phase, a Spice Blow card is drawn and spice is added to the board in two territories, or else a Sandworm attacks that last two territories where spice was placed. But on the card phase, each player draws up to a hand of 4 Battle cards, and then may purchase Market cards up to a hand of 3 for 2 spice each. On the Shipping and Movement Phase, players take turns adding forces to the board and then moving forces on the board.

The game plays 3 to 5 Rounds. Starting on Round 3, the game can end if a player occupies 3 strongholds at the end of the Round. If no one occupies 3 strongholds at the end of Round 5, then the player with the most spice wins (and each stronghold they occupy counts as 5 spice).