In RuneScape: Dragonwilds, the best base location is not the prettiest lake. It is the spot where you can live with the raids. Since 1.0 launched on September 15, 2026, Ashenfall has five regions plus the Scorned Wilderness, and each one sends a different warband at the bed you sleep in, from power level 1 goblin runts in Brynmoor to dozens of zombies in Fellhollow. Some areas send nobody at all.
This guide ranks the best base locations by stage of the game, explains how raids decide who gets attacked, and covers the one thing most base guides skip: what changes when the base lives on a shared dedicated server.
How Raids Pick Your Base (Read This First)
A Warband Raid is a random event tied to your respawn point. When you are near the bed you have claimed, a horn sounds, the banner reads "A warband is attacking your base", and two waves of enemies come for you. Where that bed sits decides how hard the raid is:
| Region | Raid enemies |
|---|---|
| Brynmoor (Bramblemead Valley, Whispering Swamp) | Goblin runts (power level 1), goblin berserkers (power level 2), goblin archers |
| Ghornfell (Fractured Plains, Bloodblight Swamp) | Garou, power level 3 |
| Ghornfell (Stormtouched Highlands) | Garou, power level 4 |
| Fellhollow | Dozens of slow zombies, so the attack can arrive well after the horn |
| Dowdun Reach, Rasthin's Rest | No base raids |
| Umbral Sands | No base raids, but Fuzan hunts players with a red dragon |
Two details matter more than the table. First, the warband is hunting you, not your walls. If you hide inside, they start breaking buildings; if you run, the event ends and the party leaves. Second, Ghornfell raids are rarer than they used to be: patch 0.7.2 raised the grace period to 12 in-game days, cut the base raid chance from 10% to 5% per event tick and stretched the cooldown to 3.75 in-game days.
Early Game: Temple Woods and Bramblemead Valley
Your first base belongs in Brynmoor, where the worst raid is a handful of goblins.
Temple Woods, by the lake north of the Temple of Saradomin, is the easiest recommendation in the game. The woods give you ash and oak, a Rune Essence geyser and anima vents, the lake gives you water and several fishing spots, and the temple holds the lodestone you will lean on later. The east side of the woods, toward Bramblemead Valley, has more farming space but pulls bigger goblin waves, so stay west if you want quiet nights.
Bramblemead Valley is the alternative for players who want flax for cloth and river water on the doorstep. Goblin berserkers can show up, but nothing here should threaten a base with a single wall.
Neither spot is a forever home. Once you need bronze and then iron, the trips north get long.
Mid Game: The Edge of the Fractured Plains
Ghornfell is where metal lives. The edge of the Fractured Plains puts you close to copper and tin for bronze, and the border with the Stormtouched Highlands is the route most players take for iron. The trade-off is the garou: power level 3 on the plains, power level 4 in the highlands.
Pick the plains, not the highlands, for anything permanent. Build on a defined edge with water, such as the southwest side near the wooden bridge and waterfall, and treat the highlands as a mining trip. The Fractured Plains are also where the Scorned Wilderness entrance sits in the northwest, which makes this a natural staging base for the 1.0 endgame.
Late Game: Witchwillow Range in Fellhollow
Witchwillow Range, south-east of Emberwood in Fellhollow, is the community favourite for a permanent base, and the node list explains why: coal, iron ore, granite, a Rune Essence geyser, stone boulders, ash, oak and willow trees, plus cadavaberries and pumpkins for food. The flat ground next to its small pond takes a full smelting and farming setup without terraforming.
The catch is Fellhollow's raid. Dozens of zombies sounds bad, but they approach so slowly that you often have time to finish what you were doing, or simply walk away and let the event expire. Nature spirits, dragon wolves and skeletal warriors roam the wider range, so wall the side that faces Emberwood.
Raid-Free Homes: Dowdun Reach and Rasthin's Rest
If you are done with warbands, two places send none.
Dowdun Reach has no base raids, but you can only build in four areas: The Approach, The Pastures, The Menagerie and The Courtyard. The Courtyard by the Library is the one guides recommend, with usable water, net fishing spots and a chest you can farm repeatedly. Expect a vertical, cramped build rather than a sprawling one.
Rasthin's Rest in the Scorned Wilderness, the raid zone added in 1.0, is the only buildable area on those floating islands. Set your bed there and Warband Raids cannot reach you. It also has runite ore, a luminite deposit and magic trees. You need Icthlarin's Little Helper completed and Regicide started to get in, so it is an endgame address.
Umbral Sands: Outpost, Never Home
Umbral Sands has adamant, yew and red dragonhide, and no base raids. It is still a bad main base. Daylight brings Sunscorch, quicksand eats careless routes, and Fuzan hunts players with a red dragon. Build a small shaded outpost with storage and a lodestone, and keep your bed elsewhere.
Linking Bases: Lodestones and Kebbit Burrows
Most endgame players run one main base and two or three outposts. Two systems make that work:
- Lodestones need Construction 80 and cost 32 Stone, 20 Rune Essence and 1 Vault Core (from Dragonkin Vaults). A teleport costs at least one Law rune, scaled by distance and by what you carry: distance in metres / 1000 x carried weight in kg / 1000, rounded. 8,000 m with 400 kg costs 3 Law runes, so empty your bags before you jump.
- Kebbit Burrows are free shortcuts. There are 19 across Ashenfall, and digging one open needs Agility 27 in Brynmoor and Ghornfell, 42 in Fellhollow, 55 in Dowdun Reach and 67 in Umbral Sands. A base next to a burrow saves you runes every trip.
On a Dedicated Server, Every Bed Is a Base
Raids follow each player's own bed. On a shared server that means one friend who sleeps in the Stormtouched Highlands draws power level 4 garou to their corner of the world, while the rest of the group fights goblins. If your group wants calm evenings, agree on the region before anyone claims a bed, or move everyone's respawn to a raid-free spot.
Before a big move or rebuild, take a backup. On our servers each world is a single file in RSDragonwilds/Saved/SaveGames/, named after the world, with a rolling .sav.backup beside it. Never replace or edit that file while the server runs: it rewrites the file on every save and your change is lost.
Conclusion
Start by the Temple Woods lake, move to the edge of the Fractured Plains for metal, and settle in Witchwillow Range or a raid-free Dowdun Reach courtyard once you can handle the trip. Tie it together with lodestones and burrows, and keep Umbral Sands as an outpost.
New to hosting? Getting Started with Your RuneScape: Dragonwilds Server covers the setup, and crossplay on your server explains how PC and console friends join the same world. You can also rent a RuneScape: Dragonwilds server with automatic updates, backups and 24/7 support.
