Runescape: Dragonwilds announces new work on the open world survival genre
Blog Andrew Joseph 31 Mar , 2025 0
Today, Jagex announced that it would bring the world of Runescape into a new genre: Survival. The developer revealed Runescape: Dragonwilds, a collaborative open-world survival game that will be entering early this spring.
Dragonwilds happens in Ashenfall, a new world in the Rune Universe where one or four players can learn new skills together, build camps, become stronger and survive with powerful enemies, including many dragons. Ashenfall has two areas, five unique biomes, and it is possible to add more after being sent later. Although Ashenfall is most symbolically matched continents, Runescape fans will find many familiarities in the world, including places that may be familiar to Runescape itself, such as the wizard's tower or some kind of castle…
The monster may also look familiar, but there is a twist. While you will still see the mice, dragons, trolls, cows and other creatures you will also recall in Runescape, Ashenfall's wild magic twists these creatures into strange, natural versions with a new look and fusion with plants, thorns and other wild spots.
The core of Dragon Wing's survival is the development of skills, and yes, they include classic rune activities such as cooking and woodcut. These skills allow you to interact with the world in various ways – when I saw some clips of the game at the game developer conference earlier this month, I showed me player clips using wind runes to gain the ability to glide across distances. What’s even more nostalgic is a woodcut technique that allows players to line up rows of trees and throw away the spectrum axe to chop them all at once. I was told it was an “axe projection”.
Runescape: DragonWilds will be on PC early this spring sometime this spring, hoping for a wider launch (including consoles) sometime in 2026. Jagex will hold a deep dive on Twitch game at 9:00 am PT on April 15.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior journalist at IGN. You can find her post on bluesky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Is there a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
