One of the most iconic elements of the long-running MMORPG RuneScape is its skill system. Players can level up dozens of skills, from attack and defense to farming, fishing, herblore, and even more out-there abilities like necromancy and summoning. Upcoming spinoff RuneScape: Dragonwilds will transpose this skill system into the survival genre, as players explore and populate the magic-rich, dragon-filled continent of Ashenfall. Dragonwilds will bring the skill system players know and love into a new setting, creating a RuneScape experience never seen before.
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The Survival Game Genre Fits Well With RuneScape
In a conversation with The Best War Games, Dragonwilds executive producer Jesse America revealed that developer Jagex has long been interested in adding survival elements to RuneScape, with a survival-focused mode considered at times for both standard and Old School RuneScape. America and the team feel that survival gameplay is a good fit for RuneScape because it offers a lot of freedom, something players consistently rank as very important in surveys about the game.
"The RuneScape games, especially Old School, are not games that hold the player's hand, necessarily," America said. "So that is also something that connects with survival, that sort of freedom." He compared the amount of freedom Dragonwilds offers its players to that seen in several popular survival sandbox titles such as Valheim, Ark, V Rising, and more.
RuneScape's existing skill system, which will feature in Dragonwilds, is also an excellent fit for a survival game. RuneScape has never been just about combat: players have also needed to level up their skills in hunting, fishing, woodcutting, crafting, cooking, and herb identification. On the continent of Ashenfall, where Dragonwilds takes place, these skills become even more valuable as the world is far less populated and civilized than RuneScape's previous setting.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds Will Blend Survival And MMORPG Elements
America explained that the team at Jagex sees the survival genre as "MMO-adjacent" because they typically feature large worlds, a significant amount of player freedom, and a focus on skills. Dragonwilds will have a mix of survival gameplay and RPG elements, such as melee and magical combat, as well as an MMO-inspired update schedule with smaller monthly updates plus larger quarterly and annual ones that add significant amounts of content to the game.
America believes that this is just the beginning of this crossover between survival sandbox games and MMORPGs, stating:
"The survival genre will keep developing further and further, and Dragonwilds is on the start of its journey, right? And the lines between what makes an MMO and what makes a survival game, especially the takes on it in the future, if you look at stuff that's going to be published quite soon elsewhere, are going to be blurry."
Players of Dragonwilds will have many skills to level up, and can use those skills — either alone or together with friends — to build homes and communities, take down dragons, and craft all sorts of valuable gear, weapons, and other items. However, because the continent of Ashenfall is infused with wild magic, Dragonwilds also offers a twist on the survival skill-grinding formula: players will unlock spells that can help carry out certain tasks. For example, they can use magic to cut down multiple trees at once or transfigure one resource into another.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds plans to enter Early Access in Q1 of 2025. Following its release, America and the team plan to gather feedback from players to continuously improve and update the game, adding more quests, more dragons to fight, more crafting recipes, and plenty of other content. Players who wish to explore a vast world that blends survival elements with classic RuneScape skills — and those who wish to battle the ferocious dragons of Ashenfall — can do so when the game launches in Early Access.
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