RuneScape: Dragonwilds Worlds, Saves and Backups

Everything your group has built in Ashenfall lives in a single save file on your server. This page covers where that file is, how the server decides which world to load, how to move an existing world onto a server, and how to back it up before you need to.

The three facts that explain most world problems

1. The server loads the most recent .sav file it finds in its save folder. 2. If it finds none, it creates a new world named after your Default World Name setting. 3. Changing that setting later does not rename an existing world — the name travels with the save.

Where saves live

Jagex documents the layout, and it is the same on a hosted server:

You can reach the server-side paths through your panel's file manager or over SFTP.

A note on the config path

Jagex's guide points at Saved/Config/Linux/. On our platform the server's configuration lives under Saved/Config/LinuxServer/. Either way you should not need to edit it for the usual settings: your panel settings are re-applied to the game on every start and override what is in the file. See Server settings and startup variables. The exception since 1.0 is PlatformPolicy, the crossplay setting, which lives only in this file. See Is RuneScape: Dragonwilds crossplay?.

How the server picks a world

Jagex states the rule precisely:

"When a Dedicated Server starts, it loads the latest .sav file available in RSDragonwilds/Saved/Savegames. If the folder doesn't contain a .sav file, the dedicated server will create a default Standard world with the default config.ini values applied."

Two consequences worth internalising:

The newest file wins. If you drop a second .sav into that folder, the server loads whichever is most recent — not whichever you meant. This is the single most common way people accidentally roll their world back.

A world's name is baked in. The Default World Name setting names a world at the moment the server creates it. After that, the name lives in the save. Renaming the setting on a server that already has a world changes nothing that players can search for.

"My world reset itself"

It almost certainly did not. Either the save folder was emptied (so the server created a fresh Standard world on the next boot), or a different, newer .sav file is present and the server is loading that instead. Check the folder contents and the file timestamps before assuming data loss — and do not start the server again until you have, because another boot can create yet another save.

Uploading an existing world

Moving a world from your own PC to the server is a file copy — but the order matters, and getting it wrong is how people lose things. Jagex's own procedure:

1. Stop the server. Not "restart later" — stopped, now. Copying files under a running server is how saves get corrupted.
2. Back up what is already there. Copy every file out of the server's RSDragonwilds/Saved/Savegames to somewhere safe first, even if you are certain you do not want it.
3. Empty RSDragonwilds/Saved/Savegames on the server. This is the step that guarantees the server loads your world and not a leftover one, because the newest file wins.
4. Copy your local .sav from C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\RSDragonwilds\Saved\SaveGames into the server's RSDragonwilds/Saved/Savegames.
5. Start the server.

Once it is up, remember that players search for the world's own name, which is the name it had on your PC — not whatever your Default World Name setting says. If people cannot find it, that is usually why. See Server not showing up.

Step 3 is not optional

Skipping the "empty the folder" step is the classic failure. The server loads the newest .sav, and if the world it generated on first boot happens to be newer than the one you just uploaded, it will load that instead — and you will conclude the upload failed when the files are sitting right there.

Creating a world with custom settings

There is no way to configure world generation options on the server itself. A dedicated server with an empty save folder always creates a default Standard world. If you want anything else — Custom, Creative, or particular settings — you generate it on your own PC first and upload it. Jagex's procedure:

1. Launch RuneScape: Dragonwilds on your PC.
2. Create a new world with the settings you want.
3. Enter the world, then exit it. This is what makes the game actually write the save to disk.
4. Follow the upload steps above.

Do this before you invite anyone

Deciding you want a Creative world after twenty hours of Standard means starting over. If your group has a preference, generate the world you want and upload it before the first session.

Backups

Jagex's official backup guidance is, in full, to copy the save files somewhere else and "rename the files to include the backup save in their names to makes things simpler". That is accurate, and it is a manual process that depends on you remembering.

Use your panel's backup feature instead — it captures the server's files without you having to identify which ones matter. How to create a backup covers the mechanics.

When to take one:

• Before any game update. Early 1.0 patches fixed world-save corruption (see below), so this matters more than usual right now.
• Before uploading a world, on both sides — the one you are replacing and the one you are uploading.
• Before changing world-affecting settings.
• On a schedule, so that "before" is already handled. See How to setup Schedules.

A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a backup

Once, on a quiet evening, confirm you can actually get a world back from a backup. Finding out that your backups were capturing the wrong thing is much cheaper before you need them.

Restoring a world

The safe sequence, which is the upload procedure with a different source:

1. Stop the server.
2. Copy the current contents of RSDragonwilds/Saved/Savegames somewhere else — even the broken state. If the restore goes wrong you want the option of going back.
3. Empty RSDragonwilds/Saved/Savegames.
4. Put the .sav you are restoring into the now-empty folder, on its own.
5. Start the server and verify in-game before telling anyone it is fixed.

Never restore onto a running server

Stop it first, every time. Writing save files underneath a running game is how a recoverable problem becomes an unrecoverable one.

Running more than one world

A dedicated server runs one world at a time — the most recent .sav in the folder. To swap between worlds, stop the server, move the current save out, put the other one in on its own, and start again.

There is no in-game world-switching menu on a dedicated server. If you want two worlds available simultaneously, you need two servers.

Save integrity and restarts

Two pieces of Jagex guidance are worth carrying into any restart.

Before forcing a restart, Jagex advises that "users on Dedicated Servers are encouraged to collect any belongings from gravestones and rest at beds before forcing restarts of servers" — written explicitly "to protect save file integrity".

And always stop the server cleanly rather than killing it. A graceful stop lets the game finish writing its save. More on the restart cycle in How to update your server.

Jagex has fixed save-related bugs before

The 0.11.0.8 patch on 7 April 2026 resolved an issue so that "Players connecting to a dedicated server should not experience rollbacks on progress from previous sessions", and another where "config files were overwritten on server shutdown". Both are fixed — but they are a reminder that a game in active development is exactly when backups earn their keep.

Worlds and the 1.0 release

Before launch, Jagex's FAQ said it was "endeavoring to avoid wipes whenever possible; this includes updates and our eventual full release." That line went when Jagex rewrote the FAQ on 10 September 2026, but the outcome is now known: 1.0 did not wipe worlds. The 1.0 release notes of 15 September 2026 announce no wipe and no migration step, and the 1.0.0.5 notes fix a recipe unlock "for users with existing character saves".

What 1.0 did bring was save trouble in its first week:

• 1.0.0.4 (18 September) fixed "World Saves becoming corrupted when exiting a game session". Jagex also reported that "some users have found that worlds in their world list have gone missing/turned invisible", and was working with the console platform teams on recovering them.
• 1.0.0.5 (notes published 23 September) said Jagex was still investigating "Save Corruption – world and character". It also said that restoring some saves had reset the world to default settings, so "Custom or Creative worlds will have been reverted to Normal worlds."
• 1.0 replaced the building system. Jagex calls it "a new system" that loads large builds much faster, and asks players to report problems with it.

Jagex's notes talk about worlds in players' own world lists. They do not say whether dedicated-server saves were affected.

Back up before every update, and keep more than one

The correct response to a patch that fixes save corruption is a backup taken before the next patch. Keep several generations rather than overwriting one copy, so a problem you notice late can still be rolled back. See Dragonwilds 1.0: what changes for server owners.

Quick reference

Related

• Getting started with your RuneScape: Dragonwilds server
• Server settings and startup variables
• How to update your server
• Server not showing up
• How to upload files via SFTP · How to create a backup

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