Last verified 2026-09-21 by ReviewGamers Editorial
RuneScape: Dragonwilds is a co-operative survival adventure set on the forgotten continent of Ashenfall, where one to four players must gather, build, craft and battle to survive. Unlike the mainline RuneScape MMO, Dragonwilds emphasises gathering raw resources, constructing bases, and preparing for combat rather than traditional questing and dungeon progression. Your first few hours shape your survival strategy: learning where to find water and food, how to craft essential tools, and when to risk exploring dangerous regions.
Before you start: Choosing your world type
When creating a new character, Jagex offers three distinct world experiences, each suited to different playstyles.
Campaign mode is the standard survival experience: you manage hunger, thirst, and threats from creatures and the environment, and your progression depends on gathering, crafting and completing quests. Difficulty can be adjusted within Campaign worlds.
Creative mode removes survival friction entirely—all building pieces are unlocked, building costs no materials, and you carry unlimited weight. This mode is suited to players who want to focus on construction and exploration without resource pressure.
Custom worlds allow you to adjust over 50 settings: XP rates, damage dealt and received, hunger and thirst severity, and more. Custom worlds let you fine-tune the challenge level before committing to a character.
If you are playing your first game, the official wiki recommends starting in standard Campaign mode to experience the core loop Jagex designed.
Starting in Temple Woods: the tutorial and first objectives
When you begin, your character spawns in Temple Woods near the Temple of Saradomin. The First Steps tutorial quest will trigger automatically. Jagex’s official guides state that completing the tutorial is highly recommended for first-time players, as it covers the fundamentals you’ll need to survive.
The Wise Old Man appears as your initial guide and mentor. He introduces the core conflict: dragons are terrorising the region, and you must eventually confront them. However, he makes clear that you cannot face dragons unprepared—you must first learn to survive the elements and defeat lesser threats.
The tutorial directs you to three key NPCs:
Doric the Dwarf is located in a tent outside the temple. Doric teaches survival basics and is your first major contact. The initial steps will require you to gather and craft before speaking to him.
Vannaka can be found by following the road from the temple and taking a left. Vannaka teaches combat fundamentals and cooking—two essential survival skills. The tutorial will have you meet him after gathering initial resources.
The Wise Old Man remains your quest contact. After you complete the Dragon Slayer quest, you can speak to him again to access new regions and unlock additional quests.
The core survival loop: gathering, crafting and cooking
Jagex’s guides emphasise that the core loop of Dragonwilds rests on a cycle of gathering, crafting and preparation.
Gathering resources: your first priority
The area around Temple Woods contains abundant starting materials on the ground. Your first objective is to collect Ash Logs and Stone—both are freely available in the surrounding landscape.
Ash Logs are harvested using a Woodcutting action. You can left-click on trees near the temple to swing your Stone Axe and fell them for logs. As you level the Woodcutting skill, you unlock faster harvesting and access to better wood types.
Stone is gathered by hand from the ground or by using your Pickaxe to mine. Rune Essence can be harvested from shimmering rocks using a Pickaxe—this is a key crafting material for runecrafting.
Water must be gathered from ponds marked on your map. You will collect Dirty Water, which can be boiled at a fire to produce Clean Water, which is safe to drink. The Wise Old Man will direct you to gather water early on.
Food comes from two sources: fishing (which requires a fishing rod and training from an NPC) and cooking raw ingredients over a fire. As your Cooking skill increases, you reduce your chance to burn ingredients and unlock higher-quality recipes.
Crafting your first tools: the Crafting Table and Stone Club
Your first crafting objective is straightforward but essential: make a Crafting Table, then use it to craft a Stone Club (a weapon).
To build a Crafting Table, you need Ash Logs and Stone—both gathered in the steps above. Once placed, the Crafting Table becomes a workstation where you can craft items. According to Jagex’s guides, the crafting menu shows items you can make as opaque (you have materials) or transparent (missing components).
Once your Crafting Table is built, you can craft a Stone Club using the same materials. The Stone Club is your first melee weapon and will be essential for the combat training Vannaka offers.
Food and water management: survival meters
Hunger and thirst are tracked as meters on your screen. The official guides note that if either meter falls too low, your health will begin to drop and stop recovering. You must eat and drink regularly throughout your session.
Cooking takes place at processing stations (campfire or grill) where you combine raw ingredients into meals, or at crafting benches (Range or Stone Range) where you prepare more complex recipes. As your Cooking skill rises, you unlock better recipes and reduce burn rates.
Drinking requires Clean Water. Always gather Dirty Water from ponds and boil it before drinking. Alternatively, drinking quests and NPCs will teach you how to produce other beverages as you progress.
Building your base: placement and materials
Once you have gathered initial resources and crafted basic tools, you may want to build a shelter. Build mode allows you to place individual building pieces—walls, roofs, doors, workstations and furnishings—to construct a base.
Build mode has placement restrictions: you cannot build in all zones, and certain areas are designed to be settlements or dungeons without construction. The interface will indicate valid and invalid placement zones.
Building pieces have material costs (Ash Logs, Stone, etc.), so you must gather enough before construction begins. Higher-tier building materials unlock as your gathering skills increase.
As of version 1.0, Palisade Walls were added specifically for defending bases against raids—a consideration for multiplayer worlds.
Setting up co-op multiplayer: finding and joining worlds
RuneScape: Dragonwilds supports one to four players in a shared world. When you first create a character, you can choose to play solo or multiplayer.
From the Main Menu, you can create an online world and select whether it is solo or multiplayer. If multiplayer, you can further decide whether to allow only friends or to permit anyone to join. You can change your world between solo and multiplayer at any time—you will be prompted to select when you launch the world.
If you are the world owner (creator), you can access Server Settings to manage who can play. You can block specific players or kick users who are currently online. The Jagex help centre notes that password-protecting your world is recommended if you want to restrict access to trusted players only.
Dedicated servers are available as an alternative to hosting from your personal machine—this is covered in Jagex’s How-To Guide if you plan to run a persistent world.
Joining a friend’s world
To join a friend’s multiplayer world, you need to be invited or given the world details by the creator. You then select their world from the multiplayer world list and connect. Cross-platform play is fully supported—Xbox, PC, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 players can team up in the same world.
Skill progression: gathering, crafting and combat
Dragonwilds uses a skill-based progression system. As you gather, craft and fight, you earn experience in associated skills. Each skill has a Skill Tree that grants passive rewards and unlocks new abilities (called Skill Spells) as you level.
Woodcutting determines which trees you can fell and how fast you harvest. Higher levels unlock better logs, faster harvesting and passive perks.
Mining allows you to extract Rune Essence and stone from rocks. Higher levels permit mining harder rock types.
Cooking affects your burn rate and the quality of recipes available. Better recipes provide more hunger restoration or beneficial perks.
Combat skills (melee, ranged, magic) increase your damage and unlock combat abilities. You learn these during combat training with Vannaka.
According to Jagex’s guides, skill progression rewards are cumulative—early-game investment pays dividends as you tackle harder content.
The first major quest: Dragon Slayer
After completing the First Steps tutorial and training with Vannaka, your next objective is the Dragon Slayer quest. This quest is a major progression gate—completing it opens access to new regions, new NPCs, and additional content.
The exact steps and locations are documented in the official wiki and in-game quest markers, which guide you through the required preparations. The quest requires that you have trained your combat skills, crafted adequate gear, and prepared food and potions before engaging the target encounter.
Quick starting checklist
Jagex’s guides summarise the first session in these steps:
- Play through the First Steps tutorial
- Gather Ash Logs and Stone from the ground around Temple Woods
- Place a Crafting Table using your gathered materials
- Craft a Stone Club weapon
- Gather Dirty Water from ponds and boil it to make Clean Water
- Gather food through fishing or by collecting raw ingredients to cook
- Meet Vannaka and complete combat and cooking training
- Return to Doric and progress through his training
- Begin the Dragon Slayer quest once you feel prepared
Tips from the official wiki
The RuneScape: Dragonwilds official wiki offers several additional tips for new players:
- Every in-game day lasts approximately 24 minutes, affecting how quickly resources respawn. Plan your gathering runs accordingly.
- Lodestones appear in major regions and provide fast travel once you unlock them. Lodestone placement is one early exploration goal.
- Lore scraps are collectible items scattered across Ashenfall that expand your knowledge of the world’s story.
- Sanguine urns increase your maximum health pool when discovered—exploration is rewarded with permanent stat gains.
- On multiplayer worlds, use private chests to protect your personal items from other players.
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For the latest strategy updates and platform-specific performance guidance on RuneScape: Dragonwilds, explore our Xbox Series X|S hub, browse PC Games coverage, or head to the RuneScape: Dragonwilds game page for more.