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RuneScape has been around for many, many years. It’s gone through many highs and lows, with more of the former, and it’s still one of the MMOs everyone should play. However, Jagex has taken a new approach to the series, bringing it to the survival-crafting landscape. Naturally, this will be quite different, especially for those who are stuck with the MMOs only. Furthermore, the lands of Ashenfall can be a bit punishing for new adventurers. For that reason, we’ve made a list of 10 beginner tips every RuneScape: Dragonwilds players should learn before delving into these dragon-infested lands.
1. Don’t Worry About Your Rune Amount
Since runes are a key aspect of Dragonwilds, because the game is called RuneScape, you will need a lot of them. Naturally, many might think these will clutter their inventory or even weigh them down. Well, we have good news for you. They don’t. Runes don’t weigh anything, meaning you can craft as many as you need. Furthermore, runes have a specific inventory tab, so you won’t have to worry about them using up space in your bag. However, Rune Essence will take up space and will weigh you down, so make sure to use it as soon as you obtain it.
2. Spells Will Speed Everything Up
This might be the most obvious beginner tip for RuneScape: Dragonwilds players, but really, spells do everything much faster. Right now, all of us have the survival-crafting brain of smacking trees for hours. And yes, you’ll have to do some smacking here, too. However, spells are extremely helpful and make things much faster for you. While some will help you with your gathering, a few will even let you reach tough places or hidden entrances inside vaults. Even if you’re used to the classic survival systems of just fighting and jumping, try spells here; they are quite helpful.
3. You Can Preview What You Are Building
There is a thing called Ghost Mode in RuneScape: Dragonwilds that you can enable when building something. By pressing F, you’ll see a silhouette of what you’re going to build. While not the most ground-breaking thing, it is quite useful as you can preview what you’ll place and where you’ll place it. Furthermore, you can see if that particular piece fits that place before you build something. You can still break down some of the things you put down, but why work double if you can prevent it?
4. You Don’t Have to Beat Vault Bosses to Get the Rewards
Vaults are alluring places full of rewards, but are pretty dangerous due to the enemies inside them. Most games only give you rewards after beating a final boss or completing a puzzle. Here, however, all chests are up for grabs. One thing you can do in most vaults is run to the chests, loot them, and return to the entrance. Even if you don’t manage to run to the entrance and die, your loot will spawn outside of the vault. This means you can grab the rare items, get them, die, collect your loot, and return to your base without facing a single boss. It’s not the bravest path, though.
5. All Items Can be Repaired
One thing that many modern survival games have done lately is add the option to repair items. RuneScape: Dragonwilds has that option, too, but many might miss it. To repair items, head to your workbench and look for the repair tab at the top. You only need to select the item you want to fix, and it will tell you what materials it needs. This is quite useful, as you won’t need to craft 20 hatchets in one playthrough.
6. Most Quests Don’t Have Markers
More than a beginner tip, take this as a beginner warning for all RuneScape: Dragonwilds players. Normally, games show you where to go for a particular quest and even what to do. Hand-holding is something normal nowadays. However, RuneScape has always brought a unique questing system where players need to discover everything by exploring, talking to NPCs, and solving puzzles. Dragonwilds is no exception. If you don’t see a marker, return to the NPC, exhaust their dialogue, and check your map. You’ll likely find a few clues there to help you.
7. There’s a Way to Change the Element of Your Staff
While the Magic skill isn’t formally in the game yet, you can still attack foes with a Magic Staff. One thing the game doesn’t tell you is that you can change its element. After crafting runes and a staff, head to your rune inventory and right-click on the rune you want to use to attack. Doing so will change the element of your staff. Just remember to have enough runes to attack enemies.
8. Gathering Rune Essence Will Also Level Up Your Mining Skill
The easiest way to level up two skills at the same time is by going to the floating rune essence areas, you know, those pink geysers around the map. Here, you can mine rune essence, and doing so will level up your Runecrafting and Mining skills. The latter will level up slower than the former, but it’s still a good way to get experience for both skills. Furthermore, this is quite useful as mining has excellent spells that let you gather items much faster.
9. Runecrafting Is The Best Skill in the Game
Believe it or not, Runecrafting is the best skill in the game, or at least the one you should level up as fast as possible. First, you’ll unlock a lot of runes, which you’ll need for spells. Second, and the most important thing, is that you’ll unlock lifewards. These stones give you an extra layer of protection at the cost of some toxicity on your character. Fortunately, toxicity goes down quickly, so it is always great to have a few lifewards to give you a shield of sorts.
10. Build a Base Everywhere You Go
So far, it seems there isn’t a base limit in RuneScape: Dragonwilds, so for our last beginner tip, just build a base everywhere you go alongside a Lodestone. If you visit a new biome and are afraid of losing your hard-earned items, build a base, rest for the night, and fast-travel to your main base. This isn’t a game-specific tip since you can use it in any other survival-crafting game, but if you’re new to the genre, always make a habit of building a home everywhere you go.
