RuneScape: Dragonwilds Skills: What Levelling Gives You
Which skills exist, the three kinds of reward levelling provides, the level 99 cap and skill capes, and what to level first for different goals.
Skills cover combat, gathering, crafting, movement, farming and fishing. They cap at level 99.
You do not grind them deliberately. Chopping, mining, building, cooking and fighting all grant XP to the matching skill.
Levelling gives you three things: passive bonuses, new recipes and gear, and skill spells. The 1.0 update filled out the remaining tracks to 99 and added skill capes for maxing.
The three kinds of reward
| Reward | Examples | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Passives | Lower stamina costs, parry unlocks, melee special actions, halved wood weight | They change how combat and gathering feel |
| Recipes and gear | New weapons, armour, building pieces, processing stations | They decide which regions you can push into |
| Skill spells | Astral Projection, Rock Explosion, Wind Step, Eye of Oculus | They let you skip repetitive work |
Key skills and what they unlock
| Skill group | What it covers | Representative rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Combat | Melee, ranged, magic | Parry, melee special actions, sprint attacks, elemental spells |
| Gathering | Mining, Woodcutting | Divine Rock, Lumber Storage, Ore and Stone Storage |
| Crafting | Artisan, Runecrafting | Overdrive for processing stations, Storage Ledger auto-sorting |
| Movement | Agility | Faster traversal, and it pairs with Wind Step |
| Farming and Fishing | Farming, Fishing | A steady ingredient supply and high-healing fish dishes |
Worth calling out from 1.0: Storage Ledger (walk up and file your inventory into linked chests in one go), Overdrive (temporarily speeds up mechanical stations), Divine Rock (turn 5 ore into a personal mining vein), and Home Teleport (spend Law runes to return to your claimed bed).
Level 99 and skill capes
- The cap is level 99.
- 1.0 filled out the remaining tracks and added skill capes as a long-term goal.
- Jagex says levelling unlocks new passives and spells, so levels are never just numbers.
What to level first
| Your goal | Prioritise | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Finish the main questline quickly | Attack, Mining, Woodcutting, Cooking | Gear tier and food are the two hard gates on region progress |
| Build bases long term | Artisan, Farming | Building pieces and processing speed set your building ceiling |
| Play a mage | Magic, Runecrafting, Agility | Spell output depends on rune supply; mobility depends on Agility and Wind Step |
One warning: do not tunnel on a single skill early. Runes need levels, food needs farming plus cooking, and high-tier gear needs several stations. Focusing one track stalls on consumables fast.
How to use skill spells
- Check progress and unlock conditions in the skills menu.
- Slot the spell into your quick wheel. Since 1.0 the wheel has four hotkeys.
- Confirm you are carrying the right runes. Different spells consume different rune types.
Limits
- Per-level unlock tables live in the in-game skills menu. This page does not reproduce them line by line.
- Exact XP values and the levelling curve are not published.
- “What to level first” is an efficiency suggestion for a given goal, not the only correct order.
Sources
- Jagex, “Our 1.0 Release is live!”: https://dragonwilds.runescape.com/news/launch (15 September 2026)
- Jagex, “Dragonwilds’ Price Isn’t Changing.”: https://dragonwilds.runescape.com/news/ea-pricing (2 September 2026)
- Official 1.0 update video, “Our Early Access Journey Is Coming to an End”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuEqe0JigCM (15 September 2026)
- Steam store page (editions, price, system requirements, review counts): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1374490/RuneScape_Dragonwilds/
- Jagex, “The RuneScape Company Expands RuneScape: Dragonwilds In Asia”: https://www.jagex.com/news/jagex-the-runescape-company-expands-runescape-dragonwilds-in-asia-through-landmark-publishing-partnerships (23 June 2026)