Three ways to 99
| Playstyle | Route from 35 | Rough xp per hour at 80 |
|---|---|---|
| Tick manipulation | Teaks to 99 (1.5-tick or 2-tick) | 186,000 to 208,000 |
| Normal clicking | Teaks to 65, then sulliuscep | about 91,600 |
| Low effort | Blisterwood, then redwoods at 90 | about 69,000 before 90 |
Everyone shares the same first 35 levels. After that the choice is about how much attention you want to give, not how much gold, since Woodcutting costs next to nothing to train.
Levels 1 to 35
Monk's Friend, the Skrach Uglogwee part of Recipe for Disaster and the hot air balloon quest from Entrana give 5,000 Woodcutting xp together, enough for level 20. If you skip them, chop regular trees to 15 (97 logs at 25 xp each) and then oaks to 35, which takes 534 oak logs at 37.5 xp each. Willows open at 30 but oaks are slightly faster until teaks, so do not bother switching. Draynor and Varrock both have oaks a short walk from a bank, and early logs are handy later for Firemaking or Fletching, so banking them costs little.
Use the best axe your level allows. Felling axes add 10% xp when you eat forester's rations, but below rune they are uncommon and expensive for how long you use them, so a normal axe is fine until 41. A rune axe at 41 is the sensible early upgrade.
Teaks: the fast route
From 35, teaks are the answer for anyone who will tick manipulate. 2-tick teaks work at Ape Atoll, the Isle of Souls or Prifddinas; 1.5-tick teaks on Fossil Island are a little faster and more demanding. Without any tick manipulation teaks are still reasonable to 65.
| Level | 1.5-tick | 2-tick | No tick manipulation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | 93,000 | 78,000 | 34,000 |
| 50 | 126,000 | 108,000 | 46,000 |
| 61 | 173,000 | 151,000 | 65,000 |
| 80 | 208,000 | 186,000 | 80,000 |
| 99 | 235,000 | 215,000 | 93,000 |
A crystal felling axe pushes 1.5-tick past 250,000 xp an hour at 99, and steady long sessions tend to land around 230,000 to 240,000. Ape Atoll has spiders that interrupt you; the Isle of Souls and Prifddinas are calmer.
Not keen on the clicking? Stop teaks at 65 and move to sulliuscep on Fossil Island (Bone Voyage). It needs no tick manipulation and runs from 82,700 xp an hour at 65 to about 101,900 at 99 with a dragon axe, a little more with crystal.
Every tree worth knowing past 60
| Tree | Level | XP per hour | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blisterwood | 62 | up to about 69,000 | Part of Sins of the Father |
| Sulliuscep | 65 | 82,700 at 65, about 101,900 at 99 | Bone Voyage |
| Camphor | 66 | about 70,000 | 45 Sailing, part of Troubled Tortugans |
| Bloodwood | 77 | 130,000 or more, three trees at once | The Blood Moon Rises |
| Ironwood | 80 | about 80,000, 110,000 with a crystal felling axe | 72 Sailing |
| Redwood | 90 | 55,000 to 65,000 | Woodcutting Guild |
| Rosewood | 92 | 85,000 to 90,000 dropping logs | 79 Sailing, Drumstick Isle |
Bloodwood is the surprise here: cutting three trees in rotation puts it close to tick-manipulated teaks, and the engorged bloodwood tree near the Ruined Village gives around 70,000 xp an hour with much less input. Rosewood and ironwood are the Sailing-era trees. If you have not reached the Sailing levels for them yet, our Sailing guide covers the fastest way there.
AFK Woodcutting
Blisterwood is the best low-effort tree before 90. It makes a sound roughly every ten chops, so you can look away for long stretches, and it gives up to about 69,000 xp an hour (86,000 with a crystal felling axe and rations). At 90, redwoods in the Woodcutting Guild take over: 55,000 to 60,000 xp an hour, about 65,000 at 99, and very long idle times. Boosts such as the dragon axe special (+3), recharged faster with a Lightbearer, let you start them a few levels before 90.
Yews and magic trees are the classic AFK choices and they still work, but they are slow: about 47,000 xp an hour on yews at 60 and 27,500 on magic trees at 75, both with the guild's +7 boost.
Forestry events, outfits and axes
Forestry events pop up while you chop in a group and are worth joining: they add roughly 20,000 xp an hour on top of most methods and pay out anima-infused bark. Bark buys the forestry outfit and the felling axes, and the official forestry worlds are where the events happen most.
- Outfit: the lumberjack outfit and forestry outfit each give 2.5% bonus xp per log. Lumberjack takes under an hour of the Burgh de Rott escort minigame with the right route.
- Axes: rune at 41, dragon at 61, crystal at 71 after Song of the Elves. The crystal felling axe is the top tier.
- Boosts: the Woodcutting Guild (60) gives an invisible +7 boost, and the dragon axe special adds +3 on top.
Free-to-play and ironman notes
Free players have no teaks, no tick-friendly hardwoods and no guild. The route is oaks, then willows from 30, then yews from 60 at Edgeville, south of Falador, Varrock Castle or the Lumbridge graveyard. It is slow, but yews sell well enough that the late levels pay for themselves. Joining Forestry events where other players gather is the biggest boost available without membership.
Ironmen should think about what they cut. Teak and mahogany logs feed Construction planks, yews and magics feed Fletching and Firemaking, and the Sailing hardwoods feed boat upgrades, so banking logs from the slower trees often beats dropping teaks for raw xp. Bird nests are also the main ironman source of several tree seeds.
Is there money in Woodcutting?
A little. Redwood and magic logs sell steadily, mahogany at 50 makes decent gold for a mid-level account, and every tree has a small chance of dropping a bird nest that adds up over a long session. Forestry bark is often the best earner of all if you turn it into felling axes. For anything bigger, cut logs and use them for Firemaking training or Fletching training instead of selling them, so the same hours train two skills.
The Woodcutting calculator shows exactly how many logs you need from your current xp to a goal, with what those logs are worth today.
Level milestones
15 for oaks, 30 willows, 35 teaks, 50 mahogany, 60 yews and the Woodcutting Guild, 62 blisterwood, 75 magic trees and 90 redwoods. Troubled Tortugans needs 40 Woodcutting, so get there before your Sailing reaches 45 and the quest opens.