RuneScape: Dragonwilds "failed to load player state" error
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Last checked
September 23, 2026
Trying to log into your main character throws "Error: failed to load player state" and dumps you back to the start/character-select menu, while newly created characters on the same account load fine.
Also appears as: dragonwilds failed to load player state, error failed to load player state dragonwilds, runescape dragonwilds character wont load, dragonwilds cant load main character
This surfaced as a cluster of independent Steam Discussions reports on June 26, 2026, all describing the identical error text and the same pattern: an existing, previously-working character suddenly won't load after a patch, but a brand-new character loads normally. Cross-posting between Reddit and Steam converged on a specific trigger: one player wrote "after talking on reddit with others having this issue. It seems to be due to latest patch and having the fire cape" — meaning owning that specific item is the suspected common thread, not something wrong with the account or save file in general. No Jagex reply or patch-note acknowledgment has surfaced for this specific error, and the original poster tried switching to older local save backups without it resolving the issue for a character that already has the fire cape. Treat this as unresolved on Jagex's end rather than something with a known local fix.
No problems reported in the last 15 minutes.
Is RuneScape: Dragonwilds down right now? Live reports →What to try
- 01If you have, or recently crafted, a fire cape, that's the pattern several independent players traced this to right after a June 2026 patch. There's no official fix yet, so this is information to include when reporting the bug, not a confirmed workaround.Reported
- 02Try the character-file backup swap some players use for other, similar loading failures: back up, then rename character.json.backup to character.json in %localappdata%\RSDragonwilds\Saved\SaveCharacters. This isn't confirmed to work for the fire-cape-specific case, but it's the standard recovery step for a character that won't load.Unconfirmed
- 03Report it in the official Discord's #bug-reports channel with your character's recent item history — no Jagex acknowledgment has appeared in the Steam threads describing this as of this writing.Unconfirmed
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- Nothing reported here yet.