Woodcutting
Chops 19 configured tree types with hatchets from bronze to 3rd age; trees have chop time, root count and a fall-down animation timer.
Woodcutting produces the logs that everything else burns or carves. Firemaking eats them, Fletching turns them into bows, shields, arrow shafts and crossbow stocks, and Crafting wants them for staves, wands, fishing rods and fishing cages. Hot air balloon flights are paid for in logs as well. Every tree tier has its own level and every hatchet has one too, so the skill gates both what you can cut and how fast you cut it.
Level 1 to 120
Cut the best tree your level allows and never look back: a sakura pays more than thirty times what a small oak does per swing. Upgrade your hatchet the moment you can, since each tier cuts faster and a dragon hatchet is two and a half times a bronze one. Trees fall over and take a while to regrow, so train in a grove and rotate between trunks rather than waiting at one stump.
- Small oaks around Lumbridge 1 to 10
Nine XP a log and one of the quickest single cuts in the skill. Buy a bronze hatchet at any general store and use the small oaks marked on the world map around Lumbridge: they always topple, but they are back up in about seven seconds.
- Palms, big oaks and apple trees 10 to 25
Palms open at 10 for 20 XP a log, big oaks at 15 for 15 XP and apple trees at 20 for 22 XP. Big oaks and apple trees both stand in and around Lumbridge and rarely fall, so they hold up better than palms, and an apple tree drops apples alongside its oak logs.
- Dead oaks, willows and spruce 25 to 40
Dead oaks at 25 pay 28 XP but always topple and take the best part of a minute to come back, so treat them as a stopgap. Willows at 30 give 34 XP and spruce at 35 gives 42, both hold up well, and a willow is marked on the world map out by Lumbridge Swamp.
- Teak and maple 40 to 55
Teak opens at 40 for 47 XP, maple at 45 for 56. Maples rarely fall, so one tree can carry a whole session. Pick up an adamant hatchet at 40 and a rune one at 50.
- Pine, yew and sequoia 55 to 75
Pine 72 XP at 55, yew 87 at 60, sequoia 104 at 65. Yews take the best part of two minutes to regrow once felled, so find a stand with several trunks rather than a lone tree.
- Magic, dead willow and baobab 75 to 90
Magic trees give 136 XP. Dead willows at 80 pay 162 but topple far more often than anything around them and only yield willow logs, while baobabs at 85 pay 190 and almost never fall, which usually makes them the better sit. A dragon hatchet at 70 is the single biggest speed jump in the skill.
- Elder then sakura 90 to 120
Elder pays 250 XP a log and sakura 300 at level 95. Both are slow individual cuts, but nothing else comes close per swing, and their logs are the ones Fletching and Crafting want most at the top end.
Bird's nests
Any chop can very rarely drop a bird's nest. Use it to open it: inside is a batch of noted herbs, a little ash, or a very large stack of feathers, which is the biggest single feather drop in the game and the easiest way to keep Fletching supplied.
Hatchets
Shops stock up to mithril, adamant and rune are smithed, gilded ones come out of elite and master clue scrolls, and the 3rd age hatchet at level 85 is a master clue reward. The dragon hatchet at 70 drops from green dragons, brutal green dragons, Dagannoth Prime and corrupt ents.
Each tier is a straight speed increase, so the hatchet matters as much as the tree you are standing at. Wear the Woodcutting cape once you have it: trees you chop topple less often, so you spend less time waiting on a regrow.
Buying logs instead
The lumber shop at the Lumber Yard sells oak, willow, spruce, teak and maple logs outright, and ents drop noted logs. If you only want logs for Firemaking or Fletching, buying is often faster than cutting.
Worth knowing
- Aim at the trunk. Swinging at leaves gets you a message and nothing else.
- A marker appears on a corner of the block while you chop. Keep your crosshair on it and every round it holds adds bonus XP, at least a quarter more over a full cut. Miss a round and the count resets.
- Once you are 20 levels above a tree, you keep swinging on your own and can stop clicking.
- Sneak while holding a dragon hatchet to spend special attack energy for an instant log and its XP.
The full table
XP is shown wherever it is fixed.
