Dragonwilds Stamina: Every Cost, and the Two Meters That Cap It
A dodge costs 20 stamina out of 100. A full greataxe combo costs 80. A single successful block costs 17 — and holding block costs nothing at all until something lands. Dragonwilds never shows you these numbers, which is why running out of stamina mid-fight feels random. It is not: every action has a fixed price, and two survival meters quietly change both your ceiling and your refill rate. Here are all of the figures.
On sourcing. Jagex do not publish stamina costs. The numbers below come from the community RuneScape: Dragonwilds wiki, and can change with any patch.
The Base Costs
Your maximum stamina is 100. Every figure below is before skill perks and stamina-reducing effects.
| Action | Cost |
|---|---|
| Running | 4 per second |
| Dodging | 20 |
| Jumping | 10 |
| Mining | 6 |
| Woodcutting | 4 |
| Successful block (any shield) | 17 |
The block number is the one worth internalising. "Holding a block does not consume stamina. Only when an attack is successfully blocked will the cost be incurred." So there is no cost to being ready — the cost is entirely in what connects.
And a dodge costs more than a block. 20 against 17. Blocking is the cheaper defence in raw stamina terms; dodging buys you distance and avoids the hit entirely.
Two rules that change how the numbers behave:
- A cost that would take you below zero still goes through, as long as you had more than zero to begin with — you simply land on 0. So you always get one more action than the arithmetic suggests.
- The gauge shows whole numbers but the maths runs on decimals, rounded down for display. Your actual stamina is usually slightly higher than what you see.
Attacks, by Weapon
| Weapon | Cost per swing | Combo | Total per combo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unarmed | 10 | 5 | 45 |
| 1h Dagger | 10 | 7 | 70 |
| 1h Sword | 15 | 5 | 75 |
| 1h Mace | 15 | 5 | 75 |
| 2h Greatsword | 17.5 | 4 | 70 |
| 2h Warhammer | 20 | 4 | 80 |
| 2h Greataxe | 20 | 4 | 80 |
| Thane's Authority | 23 | 4 | 92 |
| Abyssal Whip | 10 | 5 | 50 |
| Battlestaff | 10 | 4 | 40 |
Three things jump out of that table.
The Abyssal Whip is the cheapest real melee weapon in the game — 50 per combo, against a mace's 75 and a greataxe's 80. That is why it stays relevant long after its power level suggests it should not.
Battlestaves cost 40 per combo, half a greataxe. Magic's stamina economy is fundamentally cheaper than melee's, which is what the magic armour set bonus — −50% stamina regen delay — is built around.
And Thane's Authority is honestly priced. Its listed +15% stamina cost shows up exactly: 92 per combo against the warhammer's 80.
Ranged sits differently again:
| Ranged action | Cost | Combo | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shortbow quickfire | 17.5 | 3 | 52.5 |
| Shortbow aim and draw | 10 | — | — |
| Longbow aim and draw | 30 | — | — |
A single drawn longbow shot costs 30 — more than a dodge, and three times a drawn shortbow shot. The longbow's damage advantage comes with a stamina price to match.
Special actions are the expensive tier:
| Special | Cost |
|---|---|
| Greataxe | 50 — half your bar |
| Dagger, 1h Sword/Mace, Granite Maul, Abyssal Whip | 40 |
| Greatsword, Battlestaff | 35 |
| Warhammer, Crystal Bow | 30 |
The warhammer's special is the cheapest of the melee specials at 30 — and it is also one that staggers non-immune enemies. Cheapest and most useful is an unusual combination.
The Two Meters That Cap You
Rest sets your maximum stamina, through the Fatigue debuff:
| Rest | Maximum stamina |
|---|---|
| Above 50 | 100 |
| 50 or below | 80 |
| 25 or below | 60 |
| 0 | 40 |
At zero Rest your entire bar is 40 — which is one dodge, one block and nothing else. A greataxe combo becomes impossible. This is why a tired character feels broken rather than merely slower.
Hydration sets how fast the bar refills, in five clean steps:
| Hydration | Stamina regeneration |
|---|---|
| 0 | 0.75 per second |
| 25 | 1.5 per second |
| 50 | 3.0 per second |
| 75 | 4.5 per second |
| 100 | 6.0 per second |
That is an eightfold range. Fully hydrated you recover a dodge's worth of stamina in a little over three seconds; dehydrated it takes nearly thirty.
And regeneration only starts after three seconds without a stamina-consuming action — the base regeneration delay. The magic armour 1/3 set bonus halves that delay, which is worth more than it sounds in a fight with constant small actions.
So the diagnostic when combat feels wrong is:
- Bar is short → drink? No. Sleep. That is Rest.
- Bar refills slowly → drink. That is Hydration.
- Health recovers slowly → eat. That is Sustenance.
Reducing the Cost
| Source | Reduction |
|---|---|
| Ferocious Fighter (infusion) | Attack stamina cost |
| Relentless Ranger (infusion) | Ranged attack stamina cost |
| Arcane Aligned (infusion) | Magical attack stamina cost |
| Evasion (infusion) | −33% dodge cost |
| Fleet Footed (infusion) | Sprint cost |
| Stalwart Shield (Maple Infusion) | −33% block cost |
| Lumberjack (potion) | −33% Woodcutting, or −66% for the upgraded version |
| Quarrymaster (potion) | −33% Mining, or −66% upgraded |
| Melee armour 1/3 | −33% block stamina cost |
| Ranged armour 2/3 | −33% ranged attack stamina cost |
| Skill levels | −0.5% per level for Attack, Magic and Woodcutting |
The rule that governs all of them: stamina-reducing perks do not stack against the same action. Drinking two things that both cut attack cost gets you one discount, not two. They stack across different actions — an attack discount and a dodge discount coexist happily.
Which makes the choice per fight, not per character. A boss you will mostly dodge wants Evasion; one you will mostly block wants Stalwart Shield from a Maple Infusion; one you will out-trade wants Ferocious Fighter.
One more mechanic worth knowing, because it is free: dodging can animation-cancel most player animations. You can cast Abyssal Snare and, as the cast animation completes, dodge out of an incoming attack. It also means a mistimed dodge cancels the action outright — the timing is the whole skill.
And a note on a discrepancy. The wiki's per-level stamina perk is recorded as −0.5% per level on the skill level-up tables and as −1% on its stamina and perk pages. The level-up tables are the more detailed source and cross-check correctly against their own stated totals, so we have used −0.5% — but treat the exact figure as unsettled.
Practical tips
- Max stamina is 100. Dodge 20, jump 10, block 17, run 4/s.
- Holding block is free. Only a successful block costs stamina.
- The Abyssal Whip is the cheapest melee combo in the game at 50.
- A drawn longbow shot costs 30 — more than a dodge.
- The warhammer special is the cheapest at 30, and it staggers.
- Rest below 50 cuts max stamina to 80; at zero it is 40.
- Hydration drives regen from 0.75/s to 6.0/s — an eightfold range.
- Regen starts after 3 seconds; the magic 1/3 set bonus halves that.
- Stamina discounts do not stack against the same action.
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Conclusion
Dragonwilds prices every action out of a 100-point stamina bar: 20 for a dodge, 17 for a successful block, 10 for a jump, 4 per second running. Melee combos run from the Abyssal Whip's 50 through 75 for a mace to 80 for a greataxe and 92 for Thane's Authority, while a battlestaff combo costs 40 and a drawn longbow shot costs 30 on its own. Special actions are the expensive tier at 30 to 50, with the warhammer's stagger special the cheapest of them. Two survival meters then move the goalposts: Rest sets your ceiling — 80 below 50 Rest, 60 below 25, and just 40 at zero — while Hydration sets your refill rate across an eightfold range from 0.75 to 6.0 per second. Discounts from infusions, potions and armour sets are real but do not stack against the same action, so pick the one that matches how you intend to fight. And remember the free mechanic: dodging animation-cancels most actions, which is either your escape or your cancelled attack depending entirely on timing.
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