On March 31, developer Jagex officially announced RuneScape: Dragonwilds, an open-world survival game set in the RuneScape franchise. It was a bit of a surprise spin-off, especially since RuneScape is best known as one of the longest-running MMORPGs still active today. The team didn’t waste much time getting it into players’ hands: RuneScape: Dragonwilds launched into Early Access on April 15, 2025. While we wouldn’t consider ourselves RuneScape fans, we do love crafting survival games and always jump on an opportunity to play a new one. So even though the RuneScape branding didn’t appeal to us, we were drawn to a more polished crafting survival experience from Jagex.
After stepping into Ashenfall, it didn’t take long to notice the heavy Valheim influence in RuneScape: Dragonwilds. I jokingly said this was Valheim 2.0, with a prettier coat of paint and that sentiment held true even after 20 hours of playtime. What separates RuneScape: Dragonwilds from Valheim is the use of magic, even for the monotonous tasks of cutting down trees and mining ore. The game already offers a good variety of spells, but the cooldown on some feels like a drag. Using spells requires Runes, which are plentiful and a minor inconvenience. In fact, one thing this game does really well is turning all of the typically annoying aspects of a crafting survival game into minor inconveniences.
If you’ve played Valheim, you’ll quickly understand how progression is handled in RuneScape: Dragonwilds. You’ll begin with your typical crafting bench, gathering wood and stone to start your first base. You’ll need a bed and a roof to sleep and keep your stamina bar at 100%. Exhaustion exists, but you can recover it easily by resting in a bed—even during the day. Food and drink stay fresh indefinitely, so managing them is a breeze. Some food provides buffs as well, similar to Valheim, and there’s an entire collection of potions to unlock and craft. A basic questline guides you through setting up your first base and venturing into the next biome to gather copper and tin for tech upgrades.
Like Valheim, all your skills level up just by using them. During the Early Access launch period, several skill trees—magic, ranged, and farming—haven’t been implemented yet. Still, ranged fighting holds its own, even though melee is currently the only combat skill that levels up. Crafting survival games are notorious for janky combat, and while a bit of that remains in RuneScape: Dragonwilds, it’s probably the smoothest we’ve tried. It still feels a bit floaty, but it’s more precise than most other games in the genre. Blocking and dodging both matter, and in some fights you’ll definitely need to use one or the other.
Some of the game’s progression involves exploring mini dungeons called vaults. There are plenty of vaults scattered throughout Ashenfall, each featuring a different mix of mechanics. Most are riddled with traps, so players must tread carefully, while others feature platforming sections. These vaults house numerous items and crafting recipes, but primarily serve as the source of vault cores for other in-game recipes. We mainly used them to craft teleporters, allowing easy travel from our base to each biome.
A more unique feature in RuneScape: Dragonwilds is the dragon. From time to time the dragon soars overhead and attacks players, leaving pools of poison across the landscape. Fortunately, these poison pools won’t damage your base or structures. Defeating the dragon is currently the final Early Access quest, but it still persists even after its defeat. That means you’ll still deal with an angry dragon flying around, even after you collect its head. Players will also have to deal with being hunted, which is essentially mobs spawning on top of the adventurer, as well as warbands attacking the base. Warbands arrive in two waves and usually consist of around a dozen enemies. All these elements keep you on your toes while exploring and add unpredictability when gathering or crafting inside your base.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds lays a solid foundation for a crafting survival game, but we were surprised by its lack of innovations for the genre. The inclusion of magic adds a new element, but it doesn’t significantly change gameplay. We’d love to see the magic system expanded beyond faster resource gathering, shields, or extra damage. It’s worth noting that none of us decided to take on the role of a mage, so it’s quite possible there’s more to the magic system than we engaged with. Overall, it feels like there’s plenty of room for improvement.
If you’re like us and aren’t huge RuneScape fans, the game may feel like a bare-bones crafting survival experience with a touch of polish. Building feels standard, and we were disappointed not to find a simple system for upgrading material tiers. The core elements are in place, but at $29.99 versus Valheim’s $19.99, we’d recommend Valheim for most players. If you’ve exhausted Valheim and want something new, Dragonwilds delivers around 20 hours of entertainment. We’re looking forward to seeing where Ashenfall goes, but for now, we’re happy to set this aside after finishing the current main questline.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds is scheduled to enter Early Access on April 15, 2025, for PC. These first impressions are based on a purchased retail copy of the game on PC. While FullCleared does have affiliate partnerships, they do not influence our editorial content. We may, however, earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds First Impressions Gallery
