Dragonwilds beginner's guide: what every new player should know

What kind of game is Dragonwilds?

RuneScape: Dragonwilds is a survival crafting game from Jagex, set in the world of RuneScape. You gather resources, build a base, train skills and fight your way across the continent of Ashenfall, with a story about dragons running through it all. It entered Early Access on 15 April 2025 and had its full 1.0 release on 15 September 2026, which brought the conclusion of the first story arc, Kuldra's Saga.

You can play solo or co-op with friends, on PC (Steam, Epic or the Jagex Launcher), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2. When you create a character you choose a mode:

• Normal: the standard game. A tougher hard mode is also available.
• Custom: scale health, stamina and resistance to suit you, or turn on invulnerability.
• Creative: unlimited resources, for building without the grind.

Unlike most RuneScape games, skills don't lock you out of areas. What decides where you can go is mostly your gear, and how far you've got in the story.

Your first hour: the tutorial quests

You wake up in a ruined temple in the Temple Woods, part of Brynmoor. A short chain of tutorial quests teaches you the basics, and they're worth doing even if you've played survival games before:

1. First Steps gets you moving and leads you towards the Wise Old Man.
2. Getting Started, from Doric outside the temple, teaches water and crafting. You fetch dirty water from the pond, then build a crafting table (4 ash logs) and craft a stone club (6 ash logs and 8 stones). Doric also warns you that drinking too much dirty water can poison you.
3. Ratcatcher, from Vannaka, and then Rune Mysteries round off the tutorial chain.

After that, find the Wise Old Man in Bramblemead Village. He starts Dragon Slayer, the first main story quest, which has you build a shelter, hunt, craft and eventually take on your first dragon, General Velgar.

Food, water and rest: the three meters

Alongside health and stamina, you have three survival meters, each out of 100. Here's how long each lasts from full, and what happens as it runs down:

• Eating or drinking pauses that meter for a minute, so you don't need to top up constantly.
• A well-fed character heals four times faster: 2 health per second at full food, against 0.5 at a quarter.
• A full night's sleep refills rest completely and gives the Fresh Start buff, which stops all your meters dropping for 3 minutes.
• Cooked food is your main way to heal in a fight, so keep some on you. Our cooking guide covers the best meals.

Days and nights

A full in-game day lasts about 24 minutes, with around 19 minutes of daylight. Sleeping through the night skips straight to morning, and that's also when crops grow and felled trees count down to regrowing. Many players plan their days around it: gather and explore in daylight, then head home to cook, craft and sleep.

Building your first base

You'll build almost everything from wood to start with: ash logs are everywhere in Brynmoor. A good first base has:

1. An enclosed shelter with a roof
2. A bed, claimed as your respawn point
3. A campfire outside, under open sky, for cooking and boiling water
4. A crafting table, and later a stone range under the roof
5. A storage chest close by
6. Room to expand, near water and resources like berry bushes and trees

A few rules to know: you can't build inside vaults or in most of Dowdun Reach, and ash-log structures are fairly weak (100 health), so upgrade to oak and willow as you get them. Campfires only work in the open, and cooking ranges only work under a roof.

Once your base is settled, a few farming plots mean you never run out of food, and a patch of trees outside the door keeps you in logs. See our woodcutting guide.

What happens when you die

Death is a setback, not a disaster:

• You come back at your claimed bed, or at the lodestone in the Wise Old Man's temple if you haven't claimed one.
• You keep all your skill XP.
• Your items stay in a gravestone where you died. On a normal world you can have several and collect them at any time.
• Your food and water meters drop by 10 (or reset to 25 if they were already low), and rest drops by 15.

Getting around

• Map and compass: press M for the world map. The compass at the top of the screen shows Dragonkin vaults, kebbit burrows, your claimed bed and other players, with distances in metres.
• Lodestones are the game's fast travel. You walk up to one and teleport to another you've activated. Later you can build your own from 32 stone, 20 rune essence and a vault core, which you find inside Dragonkin vaults.
• Teleporting costs law runes, and the cost goes up with both distance and how much you're carrying. Drop heavy materials off at home before a long jump to save runes.

Gear and power levels

Every enemy and item has a power level. You start with power level 0 armour (an adventurer's tunic and leggings) and a power level 1 stone club. Your own power level comes mostly from your armour, and each region's enemies sit at a set level:

• Brynmoor, the starting region, takes you up to power level 2 gear.
• Ghornfell, to the north, is where you unlock bronze (power level 3) and iron (power level 4).

If enemies are barely taking damage, or they're taking big chunks of your health, back off and upgrade. Players recommend upgrading a full set of armour rather than mixing tiers.

Look out for sanguine urns as you explore: each one permanently raises your maximum health by 10.

Skills: where to start

Skills go up to level 99 and level up simply by doing them. Each one gives passive bonuses (such as using less stamina while sprinting), unlocks recipes and teaches spells. You don't need to train everything at once. These four make the rest of the game easier, and each has a full guide and calculator here:

• Woodcutting: logs build almost everything. From level 11, Axtral Projection fells a whole row of trees at once. Guide · Calculator
• Cooking: better food means more healing and longer trips, and the Sweet Veg Ball boosts XP in every skill by 10%. Guide · Calculator
• Farming: a few plots near your base mean food without foraging. Guide · Calculator
• Fishing: any river becomes a food supply, and every fish is Cooking XP too. Guide · Calculator

Combat is split into three skills, Attack, Ranged and Magic, and you're never locked into one. Spells, both for combat and for skilling, cost runes, so keep some rune essence spare.

Common beginner mistakes (and how to avoid them)

1. Drinking dirty water. Boil it at a campfire first. Too much dirty water can poison you.
2. Throwing away "useless" materials. Many recipes only appear after you've picked up or made a material. Keep at least one of everything new in a chest.
3. Forgetting to claim a bed. Without one, every death sends you back to the starting temple.
4. Rushing into the next region. If your gear is a tier behind the enemies, every fight is a slog. Upgrade first.
5. Running yourself ragged. Below 25 rest you lose stamina, carry weight and maximum food and water. A nap restores 1 rest per second.
6. Chopping tree stumps. Leave them, and the tree grows back in 3 in-game days.
7. Teleporting fully loaded. Heavier bags cost more law runes. Empty them at home first.

Playing with friends

Dragonwilds is built for co-op as well as solo play. The game's official details list worlds for 1 to 4 players, while the wiki's new-player guide mentions worlds of up to 6, so check the in-game settings for your world. If you play on a public or shared world, the wiki recommends a few safety settings:

• Lock your chests.
• Set a server password.
• Keep gravestone protection switched on.
• Be careful when trading.

Dragonwilds beginner FAQ

Should I skip the tutorial?

No. The first quests (First Steps, Getting Started, Ratcatcher and Rune Mysteries) are short and teach the basics you'll rely on for the rest of the game, from boiling water to crafting your first tools.

Can I die from hunger or thirst?

No. At 0 food or water you lose health until you're down to 1, but they can't kill you on their own. Enemies, falls, poison and fire can, though, so don't wander around empty.

What happens to my items when I die?

They stay in a gravestone where you died. On normal worlds you can collect them any time and keep all your XP. On hard mode, dying again before you collect them destroys them.

How long is a day in Dragonwilds?

About 24 minutes, with roughly 19 minutes of daylight. Sleeping skips the night.

How do I fast travel?

With lodestones. You teleport between ones you've activated, paying law runes based on distance and how much you're carrying.

Which skills should I level first?

Follow the story and level skills as you use them. Woodcutting and Cooking pay off fastest; see the guides hub for every skill we cover.

Sources