How to Update Your RuneScape: Dragonwilds Server

Dragonwilds servers must be restarted to sync each patch. How updating works, the save-integrity step Jagex advises first, and how to automate restarts.

Updated August 19, 2026

RuneScape: Dragonwilds

RuneScape: Dragonwilds updates often, and every update requires your dedicated server to be restarted before anyone can play on it. Jagex writes the instruction into nearly every patch note:

"Dedicated Servers will need to be restarted to sync updates."

On a hosted server this is simpler than it sounds. Restarting the server is the update. This page covers why, the one precaution Jagex asks you to take first, and how to stop having to think about it.

The short version

Stop the server, start it again. On the way up it checks Steam for the current build, downloads it if there is a newer one, and then launches the game. There is no separate "update" button and no files to copy.

Why a restart is required at all

Dragonwilds clients update themselves through Steam automatically. Your server does not — it updates when it starts.

That creates a window where your players are on the new build and your server is still on the old one, and the game handles that mismatch badly. It does not show an error, or a "server out of date" message. The server simply stops appearing in the server list. Jagex describes the symptom in its dedicated-server guide:

"If you cannot see your Dedicated Server any more, use the logs to ensure that the version it runs matches the one your game does. This is likely to happen any time an update or hotfix is released."

So the entire failure mode looks like "the server disappeared", when what actually happened is that Steam updated a client somewhere.

How updating works on a hosted server

Your server has an Auto Update setting, and it ships enabled.

With it on, every start does this in order:

The server contacts Steam and checks the version of the Dragonwilds dedicated-server package.
If a newer build exists, it downloads it.
The game server launches on the current build.
The console prints START SESSION - Success once the world is up and accepting connections.

Which means a restart and an update are the same action. You do not need to run any commands, and you do not need to touch the game files.

Turning Auto Update off pins your server to an old build

If auto-update is disabled, a restart just relaunches the same version — and the server will keep failing to appear in the list after every game patch, no matter how many times you restart it. Unless you have a specific reason to freeze a version, leave it enabled. It is covered in Server settings and startup variables.

Before you restart: Jagex's own precaution

This is easy to miss because Jagex published it inside routine hotfix notes rather than in the documentation. It appeared twice, on 9 April and 13 April 2026, worded identically:

"To protect save file integrity, users on Dedicated Servers are encouraged to collect any belongings from gravestones and rest at beds before forcing restarts of servers to apply this fix."

In plain terms, before a forced restart:

Have players retrieve anything left in gravestones.
Have players rest at a bed.

Jagex framed this around specific fixes rather than as a standing rule, and it is guidance rather than a hard requirement. It also costs nothing. On a routine hotfix with nobody online it does not matter; before a large update with players mid-session, do it.

Stop the server cleanly

A graceful stop lets the game write its save out properly before the process ends. Use the panel's normal stop or restart control and give it a moment to finish. Force-killing a server that has players mid-session risks losing whatever has happened since the last save was written.

Step by step

Check whether an update is out. Jagex posts patch notes to the game's Steam news feed. Anything titled "is now live!" or "is going live!" means a restart is due.
Give players notice if anyone is online, and ask them to clear gravestones and rest at a bed.
Stop the server from the panel and let it shut down cleanly.
Start the server. It will check for and download the new build before launching. A large update takes longer than a hotfix — be patient.
Watch the console for START SESSION - Success.
Verify the version. The server's version is printed at the top of its log; your client shows its version in the top-left corner of the game. They should match.
Join it yourself before telling everyone it is back.

Automating it

Restarting by hand means noticing that a patch shipped, which is the part that fails. A scheduled restart removes the decision.

A daily or twice-daily restart at a quiet hour means your server is normally no more than a few hours behind any patch, without anyone having to watch a news feed. Set one up with How to setup Schedules.

Pick a genuinely quiet hour

A restart drops everyone currently connected. Schedule it for when your group is asleep, not when it is most convenient for you to remember.

A scheduled restart is not a substitute for reacting on a big patch day — see below — but it handles the routine hotfixes, which is most of them.

How often does this actually happen?

Often enough to matter. The pattern from Jagex's own release history:

0.11 shipped 31 March 2026, followed by hotfixes 0.11.0.2 through 0.11.0.10 within thirteen days. Three were explicitly flagged "Dedicated Servers WILL require a restart to apply this patch", two of them adding "We STRONGLY ADVISE that you patch as soon as the update is live."
0.12 shipped 22 June 2026, with six announced hotfixes between 0.12.0.1 and 0.12.0.8 over the following nine days.
0.12.1 shipped 29 July 2026 and had three hotfixes inside 48 hours — 0.12.1.1, 0.12.1.2 and 0.12.1.3 on 30 and 31 July.

Major updates are followed by a cluster of hotfixes, each needing a restart.

The 1.0 release — 15 September 2026

Jagex has announced that Dragonwilds leaves Early Access on 15 September 2026, launching simultaneously on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2.

For updating purposes, treat it as the largest patch the game has had:

Restart the server on the day, once the update is live, and before your players try to join.
Expect follow-up hotfixes through that week. Based on every previous major update, there will be several, and each will need another restart.
Take a backup before the first restart of the day. See Worlds, saves and backups and How to create a backup.
Do the gravestone-and-bed routine before that first restart, since it is exactly the scenario Jagex's advice was written for.

What happens at 1.0 is announced, not observed

This section is based on Jagex's public announcements before the release. Jagex has published no 1.0-specific server migration steps, no new settings and no changes to how updating works — but "not announced" is not the same as "will not happen". Re-check Jagex's patch notes on the day rather than assuming this page is still current.

Broader launch-day planning is in Dragonwilds 1.0: what changes for server owners.

Why the server cannot update itself while running

A reasonable question: if the server can check for updates, why does it not just do it in the background?

Because the update replaces the program that is currently executing. The game server has the world loaded in memory and is actively writing to the save file; swapping the binaries underneath it would corrupt both. So the check happens at the only safe moment — while the server is stopped, on the way up.

This is also why Jagex's instruction is always restart, never update. The restart is not a step you take after updating; it is the mechanism by which the update happens at all.

The same reasoning explains a related rule: settings changes do not take effect on a running server either. Jagex puts it as "Changing those values while the server is running will result in those changes being lost." Change it, restart it, then check it — in that order, every time. See Server settings and startup variables.

One restart, several changes

If you are about to restart for an update anyway, that is the moment to apply any pending settings changes too. Batch them and you spend one outage instead of three.

Troubleshooting the update

The server updated but still does not appear in the list.
Check that the version at the top of the server log matches your client's. If they still differ, auto-update may be disabled — see Server settings and startup variables. The full checklist is Server not showing up.

The server is taking a very long time to start.
A major update is a large download. A first boot after a big patch legitimately takes several minutes. Watch the console for progress rather than restarting it again — restarting mid-download just starts the download over.

The console shows errors during the update.
Read the log from the top. Jagex stores the full server log at RSDragonwilds/Saved/Logs/RSDragonwilds.log, reachable over SFTP. Attach it to a ticket if you need help.

Players are on a newer version than the server and cannot wait.
There is no way to hold a client back, and no reason to try. Restart the server.

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