Runescape Dragonwilds is now out in early access, which probably came as a surprise to many as literally nobody expected that to happen on the day it dropped. It can be a pretty complex game, especially if you have no experience with survival games. If you bought into this early test version of the game, here is a list of ten tips that might come in handy while you are learning the ropes.
Top 10 Tips & Tricks
There are many things to learn while playing the game, but a lot of them are taught to you through the very straightforward tutorial or the pop up information boxes that will show up for almost everything you do or unlock.
As such, most of these tips are just going to act as a refresher. The game is very bare bones at the moment, so there is no secret tech to learn nor is there a reason to try and over optimize anything.
Tip #1 – Abuse Axtral Projection Often
Axtral Projection is one of the first few spells you will learn in the game as a part of the tutorial, where an NPC will tell you all about it. It is unlocked at a relatively low woodcutting level, and all you will need is a handful of astral and air runes alongside your logging axe.
Using this spell, you can chop down multiple trees in a single cast. As long as you line it up properly, which you can check by looking at which trees are highlighted in green, the spell will knock all of them down for you to easily chop them up into smaller pieces.
Tip #2 – Use Rocksplosion for Mining Everything
Rocksplosion is another spell that you are going to unlock very early in the game, and what it does is that it blows up nearby rocks or other resources that you mine with a pickaxe. This requires a handful of earth and fire runes and has a very long cooldown, so it is something you use more as a supplement.
One thing you might not be aware of is that it can also be used to mine rune essence, even the ones that are hovering around in the air. You may also try to hit them with ranged attacks to drop them to the ground.
So that you do not waste any of your runes, make sure to line up the spell’s radius properly, since it does not highlight affected nodes like Axtral Projection does.
Tip #3 – Build with Eye of Oculus
Under the construction skill tree is the Eye of Oculus spell, which only requires a few astral runes. As the description states, this lets you build structures from a completely different perspective. What this means is that you can build stuff without making scaffolding or moving around in weird spots.
Upon activation, it puts you in a sort of “flight” mode that lets you build stuff for as long as you keep it on. If you are struggling to build stuff, such as a roof or anything that requires you to go up high, this will be very useful.
Tip #4 – Plan Stuff with Ghost Mode
On the topic of construction, there is an option to toggle ghost mode by pressing the F key while in build mode. This will let you plop down outlines of whichever structure you have selected, and it does not use resources.
This will allow you to plan out your build in advance, because it helps you figure out if what you want to make is actually doable or looks decent. When you are ready to actually build stuff, just come back with the resources needed and get it done.
Tip #5 – Powerleveling Your Construction
One way to level up your construction fast is by simply building the cheapest things you can that give experience. Then, you can dismantle everything and do it all over again, because resources are fully refunded whenever you destroy a structure.
This works well with the crafting table, which is probably going to be your best choice to do this with due to its extremely cheap cost and decent exp rate. You can speed this up even more if you have a potion that boosts construction exp, which you can make or get from random chest loot.
Not everything will give you experience upon placement, so save yourself some time and stick with the crafting table to keep it simple.
Tip #6 – Recharge Your Armor with Rune Essence
Once you start making armor past the set of rags that you start the game with, you are going to be introduced to the lifeward mechanic. There is an entire side quest with one of the NPCs that will teach you all about this, which you will immediately start upon being exposed to lifeward for the first time.
In case you were not paying any attention to the dialogue or just ignored it completely for whatever reason, this is essentially bonus health that you need to recharge manually once it has been depleted.
To do this, head to a rune altar. There, you will find the recipe for a small wardstone that will require some stone and rune essence. They are extremely cheap and are worth having in small amounts while you are out exploring.
Again, the side quest teaches you all about it, including its drawbacks. These wardstones will give you some toxicity on use, so do not just consume them over and over again in combat. You might accidentally kill yourself by doing so.
Tip #7 – Hunger and Thirst Do Not Kill You
If you have to step away for any reason and do not or cannot close the game, you do not need to worry about your hunger and thirst meters. Although this will significantly debuff you when you come back, going to the lowest point will not kill you.
You will lose health over time when you are completely hungry, but for some reason, your HP will never drop to zero. If you have to leave, just stand in a safe shelter to hopefully avoid potential death from random raids or dragon attacks.
Tip #8 – It Is Okay to Die
Speaking of death, dying in this game does not delete your items or scatter them all around the ground. Just like the games it is based on, your items will instead be stored in a grave stone that will appear right over the spot where you died.
All you need to do is interact with it to retrieve all your items, given that you have enough inventory space. The only annoying part here will be running back to your grave stone, since you could die so far away from a fast travel point
Tip #9 – You Can Swap Staff Runes
If you are using the staff as a weapon, you should know that its attacks are fueled by whatever rune you have equipped at the moment. By default, it will use either the air or fire runes in your inventory, and to swap these, you just need to open your bag and right click whichever element you prefer.
You only have two choices at the moment that have different damage numbers and attack types, so just pick whichever you think will be more useful to you. Air offers more utility in combat, so you may want to stick with that for the most part.
Tip #10 – Enemy AI is Currently Bad
If you are struggling with constant goblin attacks, you can use the terrain to your advantage. For example, at the village where you meet with the wise old man NPC, you can jump across the gap in the ruined building.
This will render you completely safe against melee enemies, though ranged fighters will still be able to hit you while you are up there. Use this whenever you are feeling a bit overwhelmed or are not good at dealing with groups in general.
They will also try to path around terrain whenever possible, so you can kite them by repeatedly jumping down a ledge and running back up if there is one nearby that has multiple paths to get there.
And those are all the tips we have for you. These should hopefully help you get better at the game and explore all it has to offer, which is not a lot right now as it can be considered as something like an alpha due to how much content is still not out yet.
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