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DuneII-death-hand

A large, ballistic cluster missile that only appears in some Dune video games. The missile is associated (even recognized as a signature super weapon) with House Harkonnen. The missile is constructed, maintained, and launched from the Palace (of Harkonnen or Sardaukar design) to any place in the battle theater, sending a large powerful blast, with some versions sporting poisonous or radiating "additionals".

The Dune II variant of the Death Hand missile is unimaginably powerful, capable of destroying many structures, and large quantities of units (even airborne ones), but it's terribly inaccurate and may miss its designated impact zone completely.

The Dune 2000 variant of the Death Hand appears to be bigger, however, its destruction radius is significantly smaller, albeit the firepower of the missile remained more or less the same. In return, the Death Hand became more accurate. The Death Hand requires sufficient power to construct.

Behind the scenes[]

Designer notes on Dune II indicate the developers looked for ways to circumvent the Dune universe's laws concerning Atomics.[1] So while the Death Hand was designed to deal massive damage, it can be assumed that the missile's warheads are not atomic in nature.

  1. Westwood News & Notes Volume 1, number 2, page 3: "(I don't think putting atomic weapons in is a good idea)"
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