OSRS Woodcutting Guide 1–99: XP Rates, Forestry, Best Trees

Woodcutting 1–99: The Short Answer

The best Woodcutting XP is teaks. On the OSRS Wiki's numbers, 1.5-tick teaks on Fossil Island go from 93,000 XP an hour at level 35 to 235,000 at 99, 2-tick teaks reach 215,000, and plain teak cutting without tick manipulation tops out around 93,000. For AFK XP, yews with Forestry events average 80,000–90,000 an hour at 99, and redwoods give about 65,000 at 99 with a dragon or infernal axe, or 70,000–75,000 with a crystal axe.

The usual route: quest XP takes you to 26, oaks cover 26 to 35, and from 35 it is teaks to 99 unless you would rather sit on an AFK tree. If you don't tick-manipulate, teaks are only the best tree up to 65; sulliuscep is faster after that, and bloodwood trees at 77 (after The Blood Moon Rises) give 130,000–210,000 XP an hour with a dragon felling axe, the fastest method without tick manipulation. The tables below give the hourly rates for each option.

In hours, that is about 60 from 35 to 99 with 1.5-tick teaks and around 138 if you cut plain teaks to 65 and sulliuscep after. AFK teaks or Forestry events? You can have both: Forestry events spawn on teaks too, and the kit that triggers them is free.

Pick Your Woodcutting Method

Every option worth considering, with the OSRS Wiki's Woodcutting training rates. These are wiki figures for efficient play with the best axe for your level (the teak rates assume a dragon felling axe from 61 and a crystal felling axe from 71), so expect a little less if you bank, chat or miss ticks.

Woodcutting costs nothing beyond the axe and, with a felling axe, Forester's rations made from leaves you pick up while chopping. The wiki calls the skill's profit low next to real money makers, so choose by XP and attention, not by log prices.

Woodcutting XP Rates

Teak rates by level, from the wiki's Woodcutting training page. Tick manipulation more than doubles the rate on the same tree.

Hours to 99 Woodcutting by Method

Worked out from the wiki's level-by-level rates above and the Experience table, with no breaks. 35 to 99 is 13,012,025 XP, and 70 to 99 alone is 12,296,804 of it, so your late-game method decides the total far more than where you start.

Tick manipulation cuts the time by more than half on the same tree. If you won't do it, the sensible floor is about 138 hours via sulliuscep, or less if you have The Blood Moon Rises done by 77.

AFK Teaks vs Forestry Events

This is a false choice in one way. Forestry events spawn on teaks as well, and the wiki lists teaks south of Civitas illa Fortis, in the north of the Isle of Souls and in north-east Prifddinas as popular Forestry spots. The real questions are whether you carry a Forestry kit, and whether you want teaks at all once yews are open.

Teaks are also not AFK. Since Forestry, a tree falls on a timer that starts at the first chop: 30 seconds for a teak, 1 minute 54 seconds for a yew and 3 minutes 54 seconds for a magic tree. Farmed trees keep the old random fell chance instead: 1/8 for the planted teaks on Fossil Island.

Forestry XP Rates and How Events Work

Forestry is the event system added to Woodcutting in June 2023. Events only spawn when at least one player has a Forestry kit (free from the Friendly Forester), there are nine event types, and the spawn chance roughly doubles with ten or more people chopping.

On XP, the wiki gives about 80,000–90,000 an hour at 99 for yews with events, and says a Forestry kit with events adds roughly 20,000 XP an hour to plain teak cutting. Each player at your tree also adds an invisible +1 Woodcutting, up to +10 with ten players. None of this applies inside the Woodcutting Guild, on farmed trees or on normal trees.

Events pay anima-infused bark, the Forestry Shop currency. A felling axe with Forester's rations gives 10% more XP than a normal axe, with a 20% chance of no log on each action, and it stacks with the 2.5% from the lumberjack or Forestry outfit.

The nine Forestry events

Who gets the rewards

• At least one player at the tree must carry a Forestry kit, worn or in the inventory, or nothing spawns.
• Events never come from regular trees, burnt or hollow trees, player-grown trees, the blisterwood tree or anything in the Woodcutting Guild.
• Full rewards (bark, full XP and the unique rolls) need the event to spawn within 30 tiles of one of the last two trees you made a chopping roll on, less than 3 minutes after you stopped chopping it.
• Starting a new chop after the event appears, before you join it, loses your eligibility.
• Arrive late and you get 1 Woodcutting XP and nothing else. Events on the same tree are 40–120 seconds apart, and no new event starts within 30 tiles of one already running.
• Free-to-play worlds only roll Rising Roots, Struggling Sapling and Friendly Ent.

Forestry Shop: what to buy first

Everything in the Forestry Shop costs anima-infused bark, and most items also cost noted logs. The Friendly Forester runs it in Draynor Village, Seers' Village, Prifddinas and Nemus Retreat. Buying every permanent item, cosmetics included, takes 210,500 bark, so the order matters.

1. 1

   Forestry kit

   (free). Nothing spawns without one.

2. 2

   Felling axe handle

   (10,000 bark, 500 oak logs). Turns your axe into a felling axe for 10% more XP with rations. Mains can buy felling axes up to dragon on the Grand Exchange, so this is mainly an ironman buy, or for fitting a handle straight onto a crystal axe.

3. 3

   Log basket

   (5,000 bark, 300 oak and 300 willow logs). Holds 28 logs, so each bank trip carries two inventories. It sells back for 80% of the cost, except for UIM.

4. 4

   Clothes pouch blueprint

   (10,000 bark, 300 willow and 300 maple logs). Made into a clothes pouch at 50 Crafting and 50 Woodcutting, it stores the lumberjack outfit in your kit so the 2.5% applies while you wear prayer gear. Any other set-effect gear, such as graceful, still cancels it.

5. 5

   Log brace

   (3,000 bark, 300 maple and 300 yew logs). With 45 steel nails, 2 ropes and 3 adamantite bars at 75 Smithing and 75 Woodcutting it becomes a sturdy harness, which joins the kit and log basket into one Forestry basket.

6. 6

   Then the extras:

   sawmill vouchers (150 bark for 10, one extra plank per log), ritual mulch for nature offerings (150 bark; a 50–60% chance of an extra log), twitcher's gloves (5,000) and the cosmetics, ending with the fox whistle and golden pheasant egg at 75,000 bark each.

Quest XP and the Unlocks That Matter

Four quests give 9,000 Woodcutting XP, enough to go from 1 to 26: Monk's Friend (2,000), Enlightened Journey (1,500), Icthlarin's Little Helper (4,000) and the Skrach Uglogwee part of Recipe for Disaster (1,500).

Later quests pay more: The Fremennik Isles gives 10,000, Song of the Elves 40,000 (needs 70 Woodcutting) and Grim Tales 60,000 (needs 71). The wiki's full list of Woodcutting quest rewards adds up to 128,387 XP.

The Woodcutting Guild needs 60 Woodcutting, which can be boosted, and no quest since Kourend favour was removed in January 2024. Inside you get an invisible +7 boost, yews, magic trees and redwoods, but no Forestry events.

For teaks, the 1.5-tick spot is the hardwood patches on Fossil Island. The Isle of Souls has three teak trees with no requirements, which makes it a popular teak spot on Forestry worlds.

Woodcutting 1–99 Level Path

Default route below. If you want AFK instead of XP, switch to the trees marked AFK as soon as you have the level.

1. 1

   1–15: normal trees, or skip them with the 9,000 quest XP (level 26).

2. 2

   15–35: oaks.

3. 3

   35–99: teaks, ideally 1.5-tick on Fossil Island or 2-tick at Ape Atoll, the Isle of Souls or Prifddinas.

4. 4

   60+ (AFK): yews on a Forestry world, or yews in the Woodcutting Guild.

5. 5

   65+: sulliuscep, 77+: bloodwood if you don't tick-manipulate.

   Sulliuscep grows on Fossil Island; bloodwood is in Vampyrium and needs The Blood Moon Rises.

6. 6

   90–99 (AFK):

   redwoods in the Woodcutting Guild.

Fastest XP Methods

Tick manipulation decides the top end. 1.5-tick teaks on Fossil Island are the fastest common method at 235,000 XP an hour at 99, and 2-tick teaks at Ape Atoll, the Isle of Souls or Prifddinas reach 215,000. The same tree without tick manipulation gives about 93,000, so players who don't tick-manipulate move to bloodwood at 77: 130,000–210,000 an hour cutting three trees at a time with a dragon felling axe.

Redwoods in the Farming Guild can reach up to 180,000 XP an hour with 1.5-tick cutting and a crystal axe. The dragon axe special attack gives a temporary +3 Woodcutting boost that stacks with the guild's +7.

Cheapest / Budget Approach

Woodcutting costs almost nothing beyond the axe. A dragon axe needs 61 Woodcutting (60 Attack to wield), and a crystal axe needs 71 Woodcutting plus 50 Agility and Song of the Elves to use, with 70 Attack to wield, per the wiki's axe table.

The lumberjack outfit adds 2.5% XP, and the wiki calls Temple Trekking the fastest way to get it: under an hour on route 1 if you avoid every event except undead lumberjacks.

Logs you keep feed Fletching, Firemaking and Construction, so banking them turns XP time into supplies for three other skills.

AFK & Lower-Intensity Options

Yews, sulliuscep and redwoods are the AFK trees. Redwoods in the Woodcutting Guild give 55,000–60,000 XP an hour at 90 with an infernal or dragon axe, about 65,000 at 99, and 70,000–75,000 with a crystal axe.

Yews on a Forestry world are the best mix of AFK and XP, at 80,000–90,000 an hour at 99 when events spawn regularly. The wiki lists worlds 388, 444, 487 and 510 as members' Forestry worlds.

Two quieter options sit outside the usual list. The blisterwood tree in Darkmeyer (62, after part of Sins of the Father) never depletes; there is a 1/10 chance you stop chopping, with an obvious sound when it happens, for up to about 69,000 XP an hour before 90. With 79 Sailing, rosewoods on Drumstick Isle (92+) last about 4 minutes 35 seconds each and give 85,000–90,000 an hour while dropping logs.

Practical Tips

• Get the lumberjack outfit from Temple Trekking before a long grind for +2.5% XP.
• Carry a Forestry kit on Forestry worlds; events do not spawn unless someone at the tree has one.
• Decide early whether the logs are for XP or for Fletching, Firemaking and Construction. Felling axes with rations skip 20% of logs.
• Use the dragon axe special (+3) at the start of a session; it stacks with the Woodcutting Guild's +7.
• Make your own rations: leaves collect in the kit as you chop, and magic leaves with manta rays make 36 rations a set (35 Woodcutting and 35 Cooking).

Ironman Notes

Woodcutting feeds Firemaking, Fletching and Construction, and on an Ironman all three are waiting on it. Logs are worth banking even when the XP is not the point: a bank of yew and magic logs is a Fletching level and a set of house upgrades you do not have to come back for.

Because of that, the cut-and-drop methods that look best on an XP-per-hour table are often the wrong choice for an iron. Cutting slower and keeping the logs is usually the shorter path to the goal behind the skill.

A route that keeps the logs and builds the Forestry unlocks an iron cannot buy:

1. 1

   1–26 from quests, then oaks to 35.

   Pick up the free Forestry kit in Draynor Village on the way.

2. 2

   Temple Trekking for the lumberjack outfit before anything long.

3. 3

   35–65: teaks on the Isle of Souls on a Forestry world.

   Save bark for a felling axe handle (10,000) and a log basket (5,000). Use the felling axe when you want XP and a plain axe when you want every log.

4. 4

   65–99: sulliuscep on Fossil Island.

   From 65 to 99 the wiki averages about 264,000 numulite, 978 sulliuscep caps and enough fossils to finish the Varrock Museum displays (120,000 XP in skills of your choice), with roughly 2.4 million Prayer XP from the leftovers. Our Prayer guide covers where that fits.

5. 5

   When you need logs instead:

   1.5-tick redwoods in the Farming Guild (up to 180,000 XP an hour, every log banked), or blisterwood with an infernal axe (85 Firemaking) for some passive Firemaking.

UIM: the Friendly Forester stores logs for a UIM, but only for spending in the Forestry Shop; they cannot be withdrawn, and UIM cannot sell items back. A UIM can deathpile the Forestry kit and let it despawn without losing what is inside. Our UIM guide covers storage in general.

HCIM: two spots on the fast routes hit back. Ape Atoll's 2-tick teaks sit next to highly aggressive jungle spiders that hit up to 10 and poison, and tar monsters and spine mushrooms attack sulliuscep cutters in the Tar Swamp, so bring antipoison. For 2-tick, Prifddinas uses rabbits, which cannot hit you at all. More on hardcore risk in our HCIM guide.

F2P and Pure Accounts

Free-to-play stops at yews (60), and everything members-only above is off the table. The wiki's free-to-play Woodcutting page has oaks faster than willows until 60 when you drop logs, 2-tick oaks outside Falador's south gate up to a theoretical 112,000 XP an hour from 60 with a rune axe, and 3-tick willows with a snow globe up to 85,000 an hour at 99.

The F2P Forestry worlds are 398 and 434, with three events: Rising Roots, Struggling Sapling and Friendly Ent. In F2P, bark only buys the felling axe handle and the felling axe itself is members-only, so treat F2P bark as savings for membership. For the combat side of a free account, see our F2P training guide.

Pures: Woodcutting adds nothing to combat level, and an axe works from the inventory, so a 1 Attack pure can still use a dragon axe at 61 Woodcutting or a felling axe without wielding it. Bloodwood and the crystal axe sit behind The Blood Moon Rises and Song of the Elves, so check those quests against your build in our pure builds guide before you plan around them.

Common Woodcutting Mistakes

1. 1

   Banking far from a Forestry tree.

   Stop chopping for more than 3 minutes, or move more than 30 tiles away, and the next event pays you 1 XP. A log basket or the Leprechaun's free deposit keeps you in range.

2. 2

   Buying the lumberjack outfit with bark.

   It costs 5,000 bark and 1,200 logs across four types, against under an hour of Temple Trekking.

3. 3

   Expecting Forestry in the Woodcutting Guild.

   The guild's +7 is real, but it has no events and no group boost, so yews there give 47,000 XP an hour against 80,000–90,000 on a Forestry world.

4. 4

   Staying on kit-less teaks past 65.

   Without tick manipulation the wiki moves you to sulliuscep at 65, and bloodwood beats both from 77.

5. 5

   Using a felling axe when you need the logs.

   Rations give 10% more XP, but 20% of chops give no log, which is the wrong trade for an iron stocking Fletching or Construction.

When Paid Training Makes Sense

The case for buying Woodcutting rests on what it is blocking. The cost of a gathering skill is hours rather than gold, so it is worth buying if those hours are the only thing between you and the content you log in for, and not worth it if you find the rhythm relaxing, which plenty of people do.

If you do order it, specify the method as well as the level range: tick-manipulated teaks and AFK redwoods are different jobs with different timelines for the same 99. Our Woodcutting training page lists what we need from you, and the work is played by hand.

FAQ

Still stuck on a mechanic? Ask the team on our Discord, it is free.

Final Takeaway

Quest to 26, cut oaks to 35, then teaks to 99, or bloodwood from 77 if you don't tick-manipulate. Switch to yews, sulliuscep or redwoods if you want AFK. If the logs are going into bows, the Fletching guide has rates for every method, and the skilling guide covers the other 23 skills.