Find out how to survive when you step into a new realm of dragons in our early preview of Runescape: Dragonwilds.
What do you do when you’ve got two massive MMORPGs in your studio catalog? Logic says to build an expansion. Maybe even think about a sequel. Nope! Jagex took things in a wildly different direction today and announced a new sandbox survival sim, Runescape: Dragonwilds. Due to begin testing on PC platforms this year, this all-new open-world survival and craft adventure leaves behind the civilized realms of Gielinor and takes players to the forgotten continent of Ashenfall.
Here, Dragons rule the land and air, destruction reigns, and an ever-evolving world full of exquisite creatures and deep dark secrets awaits. Set in the Runescape universe, this new view on a classic IP challenges players to take a new view, gather, build, skill, and craft to survive in this cooperative survival crafting game.
A New Look
With the rest of Gielinor’s population trimming their sails and competing for skill chips during Runefest, we got a first look at Dragonwilds, and I’ve got to say that it’s nothing like I was expecting. When anything is announced in the Runescape universe, the obvious expectation is a simple top-down look, a brightly colored aesthetic, and varying degrees of fidelity. The latest of these adventures changes perspective, takes a third-person view, and paints the world in a totally different light from the familiar landscape of Old School. As if announcing an intent to be wildly distinct from its forebearers, Ashenfall is a land that mixes various ideas, all beautifully rendered in a colorful hue.
Stepping into a mix of 5 distinct hand-crafted areas and two very different biomes, the players finding themselves transported to this new sandbox will see a world that’s not too dissimilar to the likes of Dauntless, Hyper Light Breaker, or even a million miles from WoW. There’s a comforting familiarity to the graphical changes that still strives to be somewhere between Runescape classic and the expectations of a modern animated adventure. It’s a choice that allows Jagex to build a lush environment full of autumnal forests and dreaded dungeons, characters that have individuality, and constructions that feel like home, all without forgetting that this is still Runescape. Look and feel aside, sidestepping hyper-real aesthetics means I’m hopeful that it also will still apply Dragonwilds on the very same machines that can run Runescape too.
At its core, however, the newest Runescape is a survival sim. Players spawning into a lush realm can explore a large open-world environment, picking how to progress and making their way through a series of new environments in their own way. You’ll use the power of Anima to shape how you do that. Rather than take the traditional approach of punching trees and arranging rocks to pick the first steps on your new path, you’ll use the power of magic. Wield Anima, to reshape your play sessions thanks to one of the standout elements of this spin-off.
New and Old Threats
Experienced survival veterans will be used to scavenging to build tools, punching, chopping, and wielding tools to your benefit. Nothing so mundane for Dragonswilds. Instead, you’ll wield magic. Players can equip spells to access powerful magics and abilities that they might want to use.
This system provides some flexibility that you might not expect. Learning to use ethereal axes to chop down trees sounds like a nice twist on a traditional idea until you see it combined with another wind spell that turns them into a whirling tornado of axes that buzz through a cluster of trees before them. It’s an intriguing concept that not only tries to sidestep the pedestrian tropes of slow and, frankly, boring gather and upgrade systems but can allow some level of creativity in the process of getting your base built.
There’s more to this hand-crafted land than simply feeling some trees, however. It’s just a small sampling of how Dragonwilds is different from other survival sims, with the most obvious difference being dragons!
These powerful beasts influence gameplay right from the word go, circling at random, looking for food, and being drawn to activity. As a meaningless snack just rolling around the diverse biomes, you’ll need to understand when to fight and when to hide. Make too much noise, burn a few too many goblin camps, or even step out in the open as they fly overhead at random intervals, and you’re likely to draw their wrath. To get strong enough to take them down, you’ll need to fight the local wildlife, take on other enemies, find ancient secrets, and unlock the strength to take them down.
The dragon, named General Velgar, will be the first such problem you encounter. While trying to avoid its eye, you’ll trip over actual named characters, NPCs, who have fared badly against this toothy adversary. Along high-traffic areas, the aftermath of flying fire can be found, giving you a hint of what’s coming. If you spend long enough in those areas, you’re going to get a run in with a dragon either way, but you can also expect to encounter Velgar during specific narrative beats during your adventure.
The Journey
The joy here is in the journey. While you can simply exist and explore, you won’t get away with that for too long. If you get too industrious, those same dragons are likely to come calling for some snacking, burn everything down, launch globs of poison, breathe toxic breath, and generally cause chaos. While Dragonwilds will still leave materials behind, its lost time and unnecessary chaos that you will want to avoid, especially during early levels. Thankfully you can power up to help defend against this. Like MMOs, better gear, better skills, and levelling up all help. Ashenfall, in many ways, seems similar to the MMO land Runescape left but balances it out in the open world.
Final Thoughts
It’s probably obvious by now that it’s you or the dragon, and that’s Runescape at its core! This time, however, there’s more crafting than clearing, and a little more collaboration than Deadman. We’ve only seen an early look at this new twist, but it looks like a fantastic entry into an iconic franchise.
Incoming through 2025, the team is looking at improving and developing the survival upkeep mechanics that are core to the experience. Looking further beyond the initial testing phase, players can hope that we get the planned enemy faction, more NPCS, as well as more dragons and an additional area coming at the end of the year. Launch will come sometime after that, and the team hopes that late 2026 is viable. With any early build, things happen, builds crash, and unforeseen bugs can cause delays.
Let’s hope that Runescape: Dragonwilds manages to fend off the development dragons, and this wild new adventure is worth the wait. You can find out more about Runescape: Dragonwilds on the official Steam Store Page.
