Having played RuneScape in the early 2000s, following its evolution and breakaway into what many call RS3 while still playing Old School RuneScape, there was uncertainty in hopping into RuneScape: Dragonwilds. Would this be the next evolution of RuneScape that I knew and loved, or would this be a different beast entirely? Early Access for RuneScape: Dragon Wilds began in April 2025, then went through multiple updates and hit 1.0 on Sept. 15, 2026.
I was given a game key to experience all that Ashenfall has to offer, and I have spent nearly 40 hours diving into what makes Jagex great at what they do. They took community feedback, as they have for decades, and used it to guide the creation of a game players can enjoy in a whole new way. Unlike those who joined during Early Access, my experience with RuneScape: Dragonwilds came with everything they built over the past year and a half.
The game is currently on sale on Steam; the Deluxe edition is well worth the $29.99.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds – A New Experience
Something that sets RuneScape: Dragonwilds apart from its origins is the ability to completely customize the playthrough, from costing nothing in creative mode to self-imposed Ironman mode; I, however, played a normal playthrough. Landing in Ashenfall isn’t without its confusion; so much is done differently from what gameplay in previous Jagex titles had been like. From character and world creation to live-action-style combat, even crafting runes was its own unique story.
This iteration from Jagex begins in an old, dilapidated church, where the Wise Old Man waits for the hero they called on to deal with the dragon problem that put the church in shambles. By pure instinct, every item must be picked up, but in RuneScape: Dragonwilds, players absolutely must be consciously aware of how much the character is carrying, as everything weighs them down eventually. Water is essential for hydration, which affects stamina regen; carrying too much water makes the character trudge slowly until no longer overencumbered.
Beginning RuneScape: Dragonwilds Tips
Having to consume water and food to keep the character going made me think of Subnautica or 7 Days to Die. The tutorial is worth going through just to learn the basics and familiarize oneself with the local area, but not required to enjoy the game. Finding the Wise Old Man in Bramblemead Village is the first major task; the location is also a great first base and spot to build a bed.
The area has the ingredients needed to make a dish called Sweet Veg Ball, needed for any adventure: redberries, cabbage, and potatoes. The tasty treat was a staple for my adventures, healing 70 HP and restoring 65 Sustenance, or hunger, while offering a 10% experience boost for the next 5 minutes of gameplay. Despite advancing in cooking and farming by growing what I needed, I stayed with this for a while because that 70 HP restore came in clutch multiple times while gathering resources to build the workstations and tools necessary for gameplay progression.
Building rooms for specific types of crafting with boxes for the relevant materials nearby is highly recommended. This can save on time, confusion, and frustration. Whether playing solo or with friends, having the needed materials around the crafting stations means players can keep up with the current best gear for the area they need to adventure into. Finding new resources unlocks new gear and tools that will benefit the adventure as a whole.
Hello Old Friend
Throughout my journey, I fancied a mix of melee and ranged to get me through the first part of the game and overtake the dragon Velgar. When I found my first Abyssal Demon while adventuring through the Whispering Swamp, I found the recipe that struck nostalgia within me: The Abyssal Whip, which required the Abyssal Demon’s spine. Testing out different weapons, from maces and two-handed swords to sword and shield, the Abyssal Whip is inevitably, and possibly due to nostalgia, my favorite melee weapon.
The original Abyssal Whip was locked behind a requirement of level 70 attack, but this fine beast in RuneScape: Dragonwilds only requires that one can defeat the Abyssal Demon and be blessed by RNG to get the rare spine. Keeping the whip functional was frustrating; repairing it required more spines, or moving to a different weapon. This was where the bow and arrows came into play, plinking enemies from a distance with the longbow before snapping them to their grave.
Towards the end of my playthrough, I tried out the magic system and found it was relatively responsive, especially with just one piece of Mage armor dropping the cooldown of stamina regen in half. This made wearing melee armor still useful, helping me deflect damage from enemy attacks that would end my low-magic-level character. However, how easy it is to cheese enemies might have also played a role in my fascination with magic casting with the incredibly powerful Grieving Moonstaff.
Entering The Abyss
After defeating Velgar, the first dragon and true boss in RuneScape: Dragonwilds, the game took an almost eerily freaky turn. This unlocked Fellhollow, where nothing is quite safe, danger lurks behind every corner, and enemies quite literally appear out of nowhere or crawl up out of the ground like a zombie movie. Fellhollow was where it felt like the game’s difficulty level had somehow increased out of thin air.
Even the wolves have plated armor and spit fire; these canine ancestors are now dragon wolves, far more ferocious and aggressive, with new attacks to parry. I would play the game on endless mode if I could get one of these as a companion pet in a future update. Hint hint, Jagex.
The enemies crawling out of the ground and dragon wolves aside, they aren’t the only danger in the Fellhollow, as even the ground has Soulscourge- somewhat red and murky, sometimes bubbling- effects that, when fully affected, cause lost souls to begin appearing. When this first happened after talking to Death inside what could only be described as the most beautiful broken cathedral I’ve ever seen in a game, I actually was startled by the lost souls appearing out of nowhere.
Turns out these are useful, and a must-have, because they drop ectoplasm, which is an essential item for making tier 5 gear.
Learning Helps Us Grow Wiser
Something I hadn’t paid too much attention to until entering Fellhollow was the cost of teleporting between Lodestones. I was upgrading to Willow farmplots to grow pumpkins, corpse cotton, and cadava berries. I made a trip down to Witchwillow Range where I found two clusters of four willow trees. Chopping them down, then splitting the logs and leaving the stumps, I had amassed nearly 3 full stacks of 99 willow logs, perfect for farming.
Heavily overburdened by the stacks of wood, my at-the-time melee iron gear, food, and water, I trudged down to the lodestone only to find the cost to teleport to home base had hit a whopping 84 Law Runes. Needless to say, the cost made me take another look when I finished dropping off. Sure enough, the original cost was only 13, while closer lodestones cost even less Law Runes. So by deduction, Jagex found a way to make one picky about what they farm and where; otherwise one could end up walking the whole distance back to base.
It was actually this experience that made me try out magic in my last 5 hours of gameplay to test the utility of running magic, as that piece of armor is much more lightweight. While I’ve only solved one of three curiosities within the Fellhollow, I can see that it will lead me down a perilous path of constantly watching from all angles for danger. I cannot wait to see what else Jagex has put into RuneScape: Dragonwilds and what the future of the game will become.
Why 1.0 Felt So Fluid
Looking back on my journey through Ashenfall and into Fellhollow, what impressed me most wasn’t any single boss, weapon, or skill. It was how naturally everything flowed together. Unlike players who joined during Early Access and experienced each major update separately, I stepped into a version of RuneScape: Dragonwilds where those additions already felt interconnected. Farming gave me a reason to gather materials in bulk, Ava’s Accumulator made mixing ranged combat with melee practical, and quality-of-life features like auto-run and automatic item collection helped keep the focus on exploration and progression instead of inventory management.
Rather than feeling like a collection of features added over time, the systems worked together and made character growth feel smooth and rewarding. That cohesion became even more apparent the longer I played. Whether I was gathering resources for crops, hunting Abyssal Demons for the rare Abyssal Spine to repair my whip, experimenting with magic in the final hours of my playthrough, or venturing into the dangers of Fellhollow, each step felt like a natural continuation of the one before it.
Even the sprint attack added at launch quickly became one of my favorite combat tools, especially when paired with the Abyssal Whip, sending my character lunging forward into battle in a way that never stopped being satisfying to watch. Nearly 40 hours later, RuneScape: Dragonwilds felt less like a game finding its footing after Early Access and more like a world that had finally brought all of its ideas together into a cohesive adventure.
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