Dragonwilds woodcutting guide: axes, trees, spells and fast levelling

How Woodcutting works in Dragonwilds

Woodcutting has been in RuneScape: Dragonwilds since launch in April 2025, and its unlocks now run all the way to level 99. You chop trees for logs, which go into almost everything you build: crafting, construction, farming plots and campfire fuel.

Unlike in other RuneScape games, there's no Woodcutting level needed to use an axe or chop a tree. What you can chop depends only on the best axe in your inventory, and which regions you've reached in the story.

Chopping happens in stages:

1. Fell the standing tree. It drops as one long trunk.
2. Chop the trunk into two halves, then four quarters. Each quarter breaks into logs.
3. The stump stays behind and regrows into a new tree.

You earn XP for every bit of damage you deal, plus a 3 XP bonus each time a stage breaks: the fall itself and each of the seven trunk pieces. That's 24 XP of bonuses per tree.

Logging axes

Your first stone axe is made from ash logs and stone, both of which you'll find lying around. Better axes are smithed from their metal. Axes wear out with use: repair them at a blacksmith's bench, or anywhere with the Magical Mending spell.

Every tree and its XP

Maple trees also drop maple sap half the time, and every tree has a 25% chance to drop a bird nest once you reach level 16.

Standard chop vs overhead chop

There are two ways to swing your axe, and using the right one makes a real difference:

• Standard chop for standing trees. It's the only good way to fell them: an overhead chop does just 1–3 damage to a standing tree.
• Overhead chop (level 4) for fallen trunks. It's built for splitting trunks and earns slightly more XP per hit on them than a standard chop.

So: standard to fell, then switch to overhead the moment the trunk hits the ground.

Stumps, regrowth and tree seeds

• Leave the stump. A felled tree regrows from its stump after 3 in-game days (72 hours). Chopping the stump gets you a little more XP and wood, but the tree never comes back.
• Tree seeds drop from 5% of trees, except maple, which drops one every time. Bird nests (level 16) are another source.
• Plant your own forest. With the Tree Farming perk (Farming level 20), tree seeds can go straight into the ground anywhere and grow with no upkeep. That's the basis of the tree-farm method below; see our farming guide.

Woodcutting spells

• Line trees up for Axtral Projection: one cast can drop a whole row. It also hits any monster in its path for 1–3 damage and makes it attack you, so check what's behind the trees.
• Splinter is about speed, not XP. Its flat 100 XP costs you little on ash or oak, but a lot on willow and magic trees. Push several trunks together first, because one cast processes all of them.
• The July 2026 update (0.12.1) fixed Axtral Projection and Splinter destroying stumps, so older complaints about losing trees to them no longer apply.

Fastest way to level Woodcutting

Woodcutting XP is mostly per tree, so the fastest route is to chop the best tree your axe allows, keep a large patch of them regrowing, and chop the trunks by hand.

Levels 1–11: ash with a stone axe

Make a stone axe and chop ash. Overhead Chop arrives at level 4; use it on every fallen trunk. Push for level 11, because Axtral Projection changes how fast you can fell.

Level 11 onwards: fell in lines

Find rows of trees, or plant your own, and use Axtral Projection to drop several at once. While it's on cooldown, chop the trunks by hand with overhead chops. That rhythm also gives your stamina time to recover.

Move up the axe tiers

Each new axe opens a better tree: oak (133 XP), willow (189), maple (about 196) and yew (220). Willow groves are full of nature spirits, zombies and skeletons, so build a lodestone nearby. Maple is calmer: The Courtyard in Dowdun Reach has the biggest cluster and few enemies, apart from the odd carnivorous chinchompa. Yew means managing the Umbral Sands heat, so chop in the shade where you can.

The tree-farm method

This is the wiki's recommended late-game method, and it builds on Farming:

1. Plant two or more parallel rows of about a dozen trees (Tree Farming, Farming level 20).
2. Fell each row with one Axtral Projection.
3. Chop the trunks by hand for full XP, or Splinter them when you just want logs fast.
4. Leave the stumps. Plant a second and third farm so one is always ready while the others regrow over their 3 days.

The end goal: magic trees

Magic trees give about 1,000 XP each, five times a yew, and regrow in 1–2 in-game days. They need a rune axe and access to the Scorned Wilderness. For scale, 1 to 99 would take about 4,550 yews or under 1,000 magic trees.

XP boosts

With all of them active you earn about 65% more XP. You can have one food perk and one potion perk at once, and the Cooking spell Internal Alchemy keeps a food perk going.

Tricks that don't work any more (or never did)

Stamina, weight and gear

Every swing costs stamina, and logs are heavy, so these make long sessions much smoother:

• Lumberjack potions cut Woodcutting stamina cost by 33% (Lumberjack II: 66%).
• Foreman's Feast from a Glazed Pumpkin Sandwich or Meat Twist Sandwich cuts Woodcutting and Mining stamina by 33%, and those sandwiches also give Knowledgable Nourishment.
• Mage armour: a single magic hat or robe halves your stamina regen delay. A Fleet-Footed Infusion halves sprint stamina between trees.
• Leggings of Lightness add 50 carry weight, and Wood Weight Reduction (level 88) makes wood 50% lighter.
• Storage: lumber storage (level 67) holds 4,752 logs at your base, and the Personal Chest spell carries up to 1,980 weightlessly.
• The Woodcutting cape (level 99) has a small chance to finish a tree instantly, and a Skills Necklace occasionally gives extra wood.

Woodcutting, Farming and Cooking

• Farming plots cost 8 logs each: ash, oak, willow or yew, matching the plot. Logs also make compost (10 each in a compost bin). See our farming guide.
• Campfire fuel: better logs burn longer, up to 3 minutes 30 seconds for a yew log; see the fuel table in our cooking guide.
• Maple sap from maple trees becomes maple syrup at Cooking level 41.
• Tree Farming (Farming level 20) is what makes the tree-farm method possible, and every tree you plant is one less walk across the map.

Woodcutting level unlocks

The wiki lists Trunk Totem at level 50 in one place and 52 in another, and the Axtral Projection upgrade at 78 or 88. We've used the levels given on each spell's own page.

Dragonwilds woodcutting FAQ

What level do I need to chop each tree?

None. In Dragonwilds your axe decides what you can chop: stone for ash, bronze for oak, iron for willow, mithril for maple, adamant for yew and rune for magic trees.

What's the best tree for Woodcutting XP?

Magic trees, at about 1,000 XP each, in the Scorned Wilderness. Before that, yew (220) and maple (about 196) are the best.

How long do trees take to grow back?

3 in-game days from the stump, as long as you don't chop the stump. Magic trees regrow in 1–2 days.

Does Splinter give less XP?

It gives a flat 100 XP per tree whatever the tree, plus 2–3 fewer logs. That's close to hand-chopping for ash and oak, but far less for willow and magic trees.

How do I get tree seeds?

Felled trees drop a seed 5% of the time (maple always does), and bird nests from level 16 contain them too. Plant them anywhere with Farming's Tree Farming perk at level 20.

How many trees does 99 Woodcutting take?

Level 99 takes 1,000,000 XP: roughly 4,550 yews or under 1,000 magic trees without boosts. Use the woodcutting XP calculator for your own numbers.

Sources