RuneScape: Dragonwilds Server Requirements and RAM Guide
How much RAM, CPU and storage a Dragonwilds dedicated server needs for 1 to 6 players, why bigger plans do not help, whether the PC you play on can run it too, and which stability problems more memory will not fix.
Officially, the server needs 2GB as a base plus 1GB per connected player. That gives a clean range of 3GB for one player up to 8GB for six.
Dedicated servers still cap at 6 players. Extra RAM above 8GB does not raise that cap or make normal play noticeably better on its own.
The official container only asks for 1 CPU core, but for an Unreal server a faster core usually matters more than piling on extra cores the game thread cannot fully use.
Patch mismatches, missing port forwarding, editing the ini while the server is live, slow disk logging, or killing the process mid-save can all look like hosting problems that more memory will not fix.
The short answer: RAM by player count
If your group is trying to pick a server size quickly, use the official formula first and only move up if your hosting plan forces you into the next tier. For Dragonwilds, the rule is straightforward enough that it should be your starting point for any rental or self-hosting plan.
| Players | Official RAM | What that means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3GB | Fine for a private world or testing, but some host panels may not offer a plan this small. |
| 2 | 4GB | A sensible entry point for a pair. This also lines up with the official container minimum of 4 GiB RAM. |
| 3 | 5GB | Usually enough for a small group without buying a full-cap plan. |
| 4 | 6GB | Good fit for the old dedicated server cap and still enough for many friend groups. |
| 5 | 7GB | Near the top end. At this point it often makes more sense to choose an 8GB plan rather than a more awkward in-between size. |
| 6 | 8GB | The full dedicated server cap. There is no normal reason to buy far beyond this just for Dragonwilds. |
The key part is the ceiling: six players equals 8GB. Because the dedicated cap did not increase beyond 6 with 1.0, bigger memory plans do not unlock more slots, and they do not change the game’s own scaling systems. Buy for the group you actually have, not for a theoretical future crowd the server cannot accept.
Why the formula works: base world cost + each player’s area
The official formula makes sense once you think about what the server is holding in memory. Part of the RAM bill is a fixed cost just for running the world at all: map state, save data in use, active systems, and the server process itself. That is the 2GB base. Then each connected player adds another 1GB because the server has to keep that player’s part of the world loaded, updated, and synchronised with everyone else who needs to see it.
In plain English, “world activity” means how much is happening and how spread out it is. If all players stay together, the server can focus on one busy area. If players spread across Ashenfall, the server has to keep more separate areas active at once, with more movement, more objects changing state, more AI work, and more data to send back out. That does not automatically mean the server is short on RAM, but it does explain why a world with the same player count can feel steadier one evening and busier the next.
- Players together: less of the map needs to stay active, but one area may become busy with combat, building, and lots of object updates.
- Players spread out: more separate areas stay loaded and synced, which pushes memory and networking more than a tightly grouped session.
- Building: more placed pieces means more world state to track and save, which touches memory and disk during writes.
- Combat: AI, damage events, movement, and replication put more pressure on the main server thread and outgoing updates.
This is also why more than 8GB is usually wasted for a normal Dragonwilds world. The server cannot exceed 6 players, so the per-player side of the formula stops there. If your six-player group says the game feels tougher, remember that Jagex’s damage and health scaling caps at 4 players rather than 6. In other words, a five- or six-player session can feel different because of the game’s combat scaling, not because your server suddenly needs 16GB.
CPU and storage: what actually helps server smoothness
The official container only needs 1 CPU core, which tells you Dragonwilds does not demand huge parallel processing to start. In practice, the more useful question is not “how many cores?” but “how fast is the core doing the main work?” Unreal dedicated servers tend to care more about clock speed and single-thread responsiveness than raw core count once you are past the bare minimum. The busy parts of the server loop still need one core to keep up with simulation, AI, replication, and player actions in sequence.
That means a plan with a faster CPU is generally more helpful than paying extra for lots of idle cores the game will not use well. If your server stutters during busy building or combat while RAM is already sized correctly, that points more towards main-thread CPU time than a memory shortage. For broader background on this sort of split between CPU, memory and storage, the same ideas show up in general game server hardware requirements.
Storage requirements and why SSD matters
The official container lists 20 GB disk as the minimum. That is not mainly about giant save files; it is about having enough room for the server install, updates, logs, and world data without the machine constantly fighting for space. Dragonwilds saves are stored as .sav files in RSDragonwilds/Saved/Savegames, and the server loads the latest save from there.
SSD or NVMe storage helps because it reduces the delay when the server starts, updates through SteamCMD, writes logs, or saves the world. A slow disk can make those writes stall, and if logging is forced to flush too aggressively it can briefly freeze the game thread while the server waits for storage. That is why storage speed affects smoothness even though it does not change your player cap or RAM formula.
A graceful stop matters as much as the drive itself. If the server is shut down cleanly, it gets time to write the current save. If it is killed abruptly, you risk losing progress since the last write because the server was interrupted before the save finished.
Network and ports: the part that decides if friends can actually join
For internet play, Dragonwilds needs the right UDP ports open all the way through: local firewall, every router in the path, and your ISP. If any point in that chain blocks the traffic, the server may still show in the public list and then fail when someone tries to connect. That specific “listed but not joinable” behaviour is one of the clearest signs that port forwarding failed somewhere.
| Port | Protocol | Use | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7777 | UDP | Default game port | Main traffic for the server. If you run a second server on the same machine, the next game port becomes 7778, and so on. |
| 8888 | UDP | Beacon port in the official container | Used by the official container setup. If forwarding is wrong, the world can appear in the list and still fail with “connection lost”. |
Upload speed matters less than people often assume for a six-player cap. What matters more is a stable connection with low packet loss and a host location near the group. For a UK friend group, London is the obvious target because it keeps latency shorter and more consistent than placing the server far away for no gain.
If people are on the same local network as the server PC, they should direct connect to the host’s LAN address on the game port rather than loop out through the public route. For everyone else, players find the server on the Public tab of the Worlds screen by searching the exact, case-sensitive world name.
Can you host the server on the PC you play on?
Sometimes, yes, but the memory maths gets tight quickly. The official game client needs 8 GB RAM minimum and 16 GB recommended, and the dedicated server’s RAM comes on top of that. So even before Windows, background apps, voice chat or a browser enter the picture, the game and the server are already competing for the same pool of memory.
| Your PC RAM | Game client | Server size | What is left | Practical read |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 GB | Minimum 8 GB | 1 player server = 3GB | Not enough | Not realistic on the same machine. |
| 16 GB | Minimum 8 GB | 1 player server = 3GB | 5GB | Possible on paper, but still leaves limited breathing room once the rest of the system is included. |
| 16 GB | Minimum 8 GB | 4 players server = 6GB | 2GB | Very little headroom once Windows, voice chat and a browser take their share. |
| 16 GB | Minimum 8 GB | 6 players server = 8GB | 0GB | Not a sensible same-PC setup. |
| 32 GB | Recommended 16 GB | 6 players server = 8GB | 8GB | Comfortable: the game gets its recommended memory and a full six-player world still fits. |
The short version is that same-PC hosting makes the most sense for a tiny private world, testing, or temporary use. Once the group is larger, once players start spreading out, or once you want the world online while the host is away, a spare machine or rental is the cleaner option. If you are weighing that route properly, this guide on hosting a game server on your own PC covers the wider trade-offs.
Jagex’s own difficulty comparison is a useful reality check: hosting through a partner is the easiest option, hosting at home is hard and adds electricity use plus manual backups, and cloud VPS hosting is the hardest route and still needs manual backups. That lines up with how Dragonwilds works in practice: the game itself is not the awkward part, the ongoing server care is.
Renting a Dragonwilds server: what size plan fits your group
If the aim is to avoid overspending, rent to the official formula rather than buying a huge generic plan. For two players, target 4GB. For three to four players, target 5GB to 6GB. For five to six players, target 7GB to 8GB, and in most cases the clean choice is simply an 8GB plan because that covers the full dedicated cap.
That is why per-player or 8GB plans make the most sense for Dragonwilds. A full-cap world fits in 8GB, so 16GB or 32GB does not buy extra slots, does not fix port forwarding, and does not change the four-player cap on damage and health scaling. For five- and six-player groups, longer fights or a different balance feel are expected by design; treat that as game behaviour, not as a sign your host must be upgraded.
Regular pricing reflects that sensible sizing. Per-player plans start from £4.50/mo ($5.99) for one player. An 8GB plan that fits a full six-player world starts from £6.01/mo ($7.99). If you specifically want a six-player plan in London, prices start from £11.28/mo ($15.00).
If you want to compare locations, panel options and plan styles side by side, see our RuneScape: Dragonwilds server hosting comparison. For most UK groups, the simple rule is still the best one: choose the smallest plan that cleanly covers your real player count, with London location and SSD storage preferred over oversized RAM.
Setup facts worth getting right before the first launch
Dragonwilds dedicated servers only run on a 64-bit OS, and Windows plus Linux are both supported. The free Steam product for dedicated servers uses app ID 4019830, and the official install method is through SteamCMD.
steamcmd +force_install_dir C:\MyInstallFolder +login anonymous +app_update 4019830 +quit
Once installed, run RSDragonwilds.exe and use the recommended launch options below so you can see what the server is doing.
-log -NewConsole
The dedicated server config lives in the following paths:
Linux: RSDragonwilds/Saved/Config/Linux/DedicatedServer.ini Windows: RSDragonwilds/Saved/Config/WindowsServer/DedicatedServer.ini
There are four mandatory values you must set: Owner ID, Server Name, Default World Name, and Admin password. The server will not start without the Owner ID, which is your in-game Player ID from the bottom of the Settings menu. A world password is optional.
Two rules prevent a lot of confusion. First, stop the server before editing DedicatedServer.ini, because changing values while it is running loses those changes. Second, restart the dedicated server after every patch or hotfix so SteamCMD can update it and the server version can match the client version again. Since 1.0, dedicated servers also have a crossplay option, stored as PlatformPolicy=Crossplay in the same file.
For backups, copy the RSDragonwilds/Saved/Savegames folder. For troubleshooting, the log file is RSDragonwilds/Saved/Logs/RSDragonwilds.log, and the first place to check after an update is the version line at the top.
Stability problems extra RAM will not solve
A lot of hosting trouble gets blamed on memory because RAM is easy to see on a plan page. In Dragonwilds, the more common failures are often versioning, configuration, storage behaviour, or networking. Start with the symptom and work from there.
| Symptom | Likely cause | First fix |
|---|---|---|
| Server missing from the list after a patch | Server version no longer matches the client version | Restart the dedicated server so it updates, then compare the version at the top of the log with the client version shown in game. |
| Server is listed but joining ends with “connection lost” | UDP port forwarding failed somewhere | Check firewall, router forwarding, any extra router in the path, and whether the ISP blocks forwarding entirely. |
| Settings keep resetting or edits do not stick | DedicatedServer.ini was edited while the server was running | Stop the server fully, edit the file, save it, then start the server again. |
| Server will not start at all | Missing Owner ID | Enter the in-game Player ID as the Owner ID in the config and launch again. |
| Short freezes for seconds when lots of log lines appear | -FORCELOGFLUSH is forcing every log line to sync to disk on the game thread | Remove -FORCELOGFLUSH. It slows the server by making gameplay wait on disk writes. |
| Linux server crashes when players teleport | Older build with the known Linux teleport crash | Update to hotfix 1.0.1.2 or newer and restart the server after patching. |
| Friends cannot join through a Steam invite | Known dedicated server invite issue | Have players search for the exact, case-sensitive world name on the Public tab instead. |
| Recent progress is missing after a crash or forced shutdown | The server was killed mid-save or stopped abruptly | Use a graceful stop so the world can finish writing its latest .sav file before the process ends. |
The thread running through these fixes is simple: identify which resource is actually under stress. Version mismatches are an update problem. Port failures are a network path problem. Log flush stalls are a disk and game-thread problem. An abrupt stop is a save integrity problem. None of those improve just because a host sells you more RAM.
Tune it or upgrade?
If the server feels rough, decide first whether you are hitting the official limits of the world or just a bad setup. The best clue is when the issue happens. Trouble that appears when another player joins or when everyone spreads out across the map points more towards legitimate resource growth. Trouble that appears exactly after a patch, during logging bursts, or only for remote joins points somewhere else.
| What you notice | What it usually means | What to do first |
|---|---|---|
| The world is stable until extra players join, then gets unreliable | You are probably at the edge of the official RAM formula for your current group size | Move to the next RAM step that matches your actual player count. |
| Problems show up when players spread across Ashenfall | More of the world is being kept active and synced at once | If your plan is below the official target, upgrade RAM first; if not, look at CPU quality next. |
| Busy combat or building causes stutter, but joins are fine | Main-thread CPU time is more likely than memory capacity | Prefer a faster CPU and keep logging sensible; extra RAM alone is unlikely to change much. |
| Saving, rebooting, or update start-up feels sluggish | Storage speed is the bottleneck | Use SSD storage and avoid anything that forces constant disk sync on the game thread. |
| The server appears publicly but friends still cannot connect | Network path problem, not server size | Fix UDP forwarding on 7777 and 8888, or rent instead of hosting from home. |
| You want the world online when the host PC is off | This is an availability problem rather than a performance problem | Use a spare PC that stays on, or rent a dedicated server. |
| You are already on 8GB for six players and thinking about 16GB or 32GB | You are trying to solve something other than the player-cap memory need | Check updates, ports, CPU quality, storage, and shutdown behaviour before buying more RAM. |
How do you know a change helped? The useful signs are practical ones: the server stays visible after a patch, players can join without “connection lost”, long pauses during log bursts disappear, a clean shutdown writes the latest save properly, and the world remains stable when your group reaches its usual size.
If your group would rather rent than troubleshoot home networking, compare providers by location, plan style and how closely they match the official 3GB to 8GB RAM range, instead of paying for memory Dragonwilds cannot use.
Compare the best Dragonwilds server hostsRuneScape: Dragonwilds server FAQ
How much RAM does a Dragonwilds server need?
Officially, a Dragonwilds dedicated server needs 2GB plus 1GB per player. That means 3GB for one player, 4GB for two, 5GB for three, 6GB for four, 7GB for five, and 8GB for six. Because dedicated servers cap at 6 players, there is normally no reason to buy far beyond 8GB.
Can more than 6 players join a Dragonwilds server?
No, dedicated servers currently top out at 6 players. The March 2026 update raised the cap from 4 to 6, and 1.0 did not change that. Buying a larger RAM plan does not raise the cap.
Can I host a Dragonwilds server on the PC I play on?
You can, but only if your memory budget leaves enough room for both the game client and the server. The client needs 8 GB minimum and 16 GB recommended, and the server RAM is added on top. That makes same-PC hosting most realistic for very small setups, not for a full six-player world.
Does a Dragonwilds server need a powerful CPU?
It does not need a huge number of cores, but it does benefit from a fast one. The official container only lists 1 CPU core minimum, yet real smoothness depends more on main-thread speed than on stacking extra cores the server cannot use efficiently. If the world stutters during busy action while RAM is already correct, CPU quality is the next thing to check.
Why can’t my friends see my Dragonwilds server?
After a patch, the most common reason is a version mismatch between the server and the client, so restart the server and check the version at the top of the log. If the server appears in the list but cannot be joined, the usual cause is failed UDP forwarding on the required ports. Also make sure players search for the exact, case-sensitive world name, because Steam invites are a known issue on dedicated servers.
More server requirement guides
Our Dragonwilds host comparison, plus requirement guides for other survival games.
Written for RuneScape: Dragonwilds 1.0 and hotfix 1.0.1.2. RAM, port and file-path figures come from Jagex’s official dedicated server guide and Jagex’s official server container.
