Woodcutting: A Lumberjack's Experiences of Chopping Trees Across Gielinor

Or What You Always Wanted to Know About Woodcutting But Could Never Find A Straight Answer Because No One Was Daft Enough to Do This

What *is* the best tree to cut for experience?
Are oaks really faster to cut than willows?
Are teaks faster than willows?
Where should I cut [insert tree name here]?
Where are the magic trees in Elfland?

I don't have all the answers to your woodcutting questions, but I do have some for what were the questions I wanted answered when I started out.


Introduction

I am working on getting 99 woodcutting. My current level is 93. I have cut just about every type of tree in RuneScape and I like to find trees that aren't swamped with people. For this bout of testing, I deliberately chose the most popular areas for woodcutting: Catherby/Seer's, Lletya (Elfland), Ape Atoll, Tai Bwo Wannai (TBW), Draynor, Varrock, Castle Wars (CW), Gnome stronghold and Barbarian Assault (BA).

My axe of choice: dragon. My clothing: spottier cape, boots of lightness, combat bracelet, ring of wealth (RoW), sailor's cap, Keldagrim shorts, rabbit's foot necklace. My run is always on. Unless noted, I was close to a bank or deposit box and saved my logs. Times are taken with a Timex stopwatch.


Part 1: Oaks
I chose 3 places to cut oak trees: Draynor village, Varrock west and CW. You need 15 woodcutting.


Draynor village


Dangers: Jail guards
The yellow circle shows where I cut and the line is my path to and from the bank. My test time starts and ends at the bank after I deposit the logs. The average time is: 1 minute 45 seconds.


Varrock west


Outside the west gates of Varrock are 2 oak trees. The time starts and ends at the bank when I deposit the logs. I earned 1 nest and an evil chicken random, which I ran from. Average time: 1 minute 50 seconds.

Castle Wars


Average time: 1 minute 46 seconds


Conclusion: Oaks take just under 2 minutes to cut 28 logs. That's 1,050 exp per load; approximately 31k exp per hour.

Part 2: Willows
Everyone's favorite tree! I tested at 4 locations: Draynor village, Barbarian Assault and Catherby 1 and 2. You need 30 woodcutting.


Draynor village


Dangers: 2 dark wizards
My time starts and ends at the bank after I deposit my logs. This is the top spot in F2P to cut willows and 2nd in P2P. There were 4 other players cutting at this spot. Average time: 2 minutes

Barbarian Assault


There are basically 2 spots to cut willows and each has 4 trees. There's a lone tree circled which can be used alone since willows respawn quickly. This is the top spot to cut willows in P2P. The northern spot usually has more people, so I take the southern spot or lone tree. Average time: 2 minutes.


Catherby


For this test, I started and ended at the trees. At spot 1, one other person was cutting and at spot 2, I was alone. Average time: 2 minutes.


Conclusion: Willows take 2 minutes to cut 28 logs. That's 1,890 exp per load; approximately 56,700 exp per hour. I found BA no faster than the other places I tried.

Part 3: Yews
I tested at Catherby, Legends guild and Gnome stronghold. You need 60 woodcutting.

Catherby


I call this spot Catherby since that's where I bank. Other terms for it: south of the flax field and south of Seer's. The number 1 spot to cut yews. There are 5 clustered together so you don't have to move very far to work on a tree. There is a single yew tree northeastish of the big 5 which you pass if you bank at Catherby. Another lone yew is at the northeast corner of the beehives fence. When I cut here, there were 5 other people. My times start and end at the bank after depositing a load of logs. Average time: 6 minutes


Legends guild


Recommendation: finish Legends quest to access the bank on the second floor. Otherwise bank at Ardougne.

It's pretty rare to see someone here. Times began and ended at the trees. Average time: 10 minutes.


Gnome stronghold


The second most popular place to cut yews in P2P. I stick with the 3 yews north of the farming plot and next to the bank. If you have 60 farming, you can have a yew tree of your own here. There were 1-3 people cutting yews; 1 strictly on yews and 2 others also cutting magics. Times began and ended at the bank. Average time 9 minutes.


Conclusion: The best spot, hands down, is Catherby even with other players chopping. Yews take 5-20 minutes to get 28 logs, depending on your woodcutting level and the number of players also cutting there. That's 4900 exp per load; approximately 14,700-58,800 exp per hour. Currently, yew logs sell on the GE for 360 gp each. The adage is true: if you want money, cut yews.


Part 4: Magics
The top log of the game for P2P with 250 exp per log. A dragon axe makes a slight difference in the speed of cutting magics, but not by much. You need 75 woodcutting.


Gnome stronghold


My own times were tested at the magic tree next to the farm plot. I also have a magic tree in the plot which I cut when the other tree is down to its stump. You need a farming level of 75 to grown your own magic tree. There were 1-3 people also cutting magics. Average time: 23 minutes.

Lletya (Elfland)


Required: Complete Plague City, Biohazard, Underground Pass, Regicide, Waterfall and Roving Elves quests.
Recommendations: Start Mourning's Ends part 1 to get a tiny elf crystal which, when charged, will teleport you inside Lletya for easy banking.
Dangers: 2 dire wolves to run by

There are 3 magic trees here. One person was cutting there. It can get busy, so you may have to world hop. If you have more than 1 teleport crystal/tiny elf crystal, carry one with you for easy banking. Eluned, who charges the crystals for a fee (minimum of 150 gp each), appears here about every 5 minutes. You can watch pawyas scamper and dig holes. My times began and ended at the bank and I used a teleport crystal. Average time: 14 minutes.


Conclusion: Lletya is great providing you've done the quests. Cutting there, you can get 7k exp per 28 logs or 6,750 exp per 27 logs with a teleport crystal. Approximately 28k exp (28 logs) or 27k exp (27 logs). Currently, magic logs sell on the GE for 1100 gp each.


Part 5: Maples
You may have heard someone tell you, "cut willows to 95, then do maples". It sounds good until you realize maples only grow in a couple areas of Gielinor - around Seer's village, west of the Legends guild and west of the Sinclair mansion. I tested 3 areas: behind Seer's bank, west of Sinclair mansion and near the hops patch. Maples are easy to see on the world and mini map because they are brown icons. You need 45 woodcutting.



Behind the Bank
There are 3 maple trees behind the bank and they are extremely popular because they are so close to a bank. When I tested, there were 3 people cutting. Average time: 3 minutes.

Sinclair Mansion
Dangers: wolves if you go too far north
I cut on the southern 3 trees. Times started and ended at the trees and I used the deposit box to bank logs. Average time: 4 minutes.

Hops
No one was here when I was, but the boxed area is fairly popular due to it being closer to the bank. Again I timed runs started and ending at the trees and used the nearest bank teller to deposit logs. Average time: 4 minutes 10 seconds.

Conclusion: Maple logs are good money with the GE because F2P can easily buy them. Maples take 4 minutes for 28 logs and are a good run from a bank. You get 2800 exp per load; approximately 42k exp per hour.

Part 6: Teaks and Mahogany
The closest bank to either of these trees is CW, but that is 1 measly teak tree on the western end of the chompy hunting grounds. The other options for where to cut are: Ape Atoll, Tai Bwo Wannai village and Khazardi jungle. I tested on Ape Atoll and at TBW. Since there are no banks nearby, I had to drop each load. Your times may vary depending on how fast you can drop 27 logs. You need 50 woodcutting for mahogany and 35 woodcutting for teak.

Ape Atoll mahogany


Required: Complete The Grand Tree and Tree Gnome Village quests; Monkey Madness to the point where you can access Ape Atoll
Recommended: Either finish Monkey Madness or up to the point where you have made a monkey greegree (you turn into a Karamja monkey); Recipe for Disaster: Save King Awowogei for Ape Atoll teleport spell; any monkey greegree
Dangers: If you do not have a greegree equipped, you'll be attacked by everything on the island except for the gorilla priest at the Ape Atoll teleport spot

There are 2 mahogany trees on the Atoll. You can still cut trees as a monkey, so keep your greegree (if you have one) equipped. Average time: 5 minutes

Ape Atoll teak


Required: Complete The Grand Tree and Tree Gnome Village quests; Monkey Madness to the point where you can access Ape Atoll
Recommended: Either finish Monkey Madness or up to the point where you have made a monkey greegree (you turn into a Karamja monkey); Recipe for Disaster: Save King Awowogei for Ape Atoll teleport spell; any monkey greegree
Dangers: If you do not have a greegree equipped, you'll be attacked by everything on the island except for the gorilla priest at the Ape Atoll teleport spot

There are 4 teak trees close together. Keep your greegree equipped and nothing will attack you. Average time: 2 minutes.


TBW mahogany and teak


Required: Complete Druidic Ritual and Jungle Potion quests; earn 60% favor in TBW Cleanup mini game and pay 100 trading sticks to Murcaily to access the hardwood grove
Recommended: Bring your own axe. There are 2 bronze axe spawns inside the grove if you forgot yours.
Dangers: Jungle snakes inside the grove; jungle spiders, tribesman, bush snakes, mosquitoes and broodoo victims while playing the mini game and possibly just hanging around. Jungle spiders lurk in the north part of the village, near the calquat patch.

I cut a load, then dropped all the logs. You can burn the logs instead, but the area is small and not very good for building long strings of fires.

I cut mahoganys first. I got 2 nests and learned a lesson - drop your logs far away from the tree your cutting. One of the nests landed under a pile of mahogany logs and disappeared before I could dig it out. XD Average time: 4 minutes.

Teaks came next. Average time: 2 minutes


Conclusion: If you want an alternative to willows and don't mind dropping logs, try teaks. You do have to pay 100 trading sticks each time you enter the grove, so keep that in mind if you're wanting to bank the logs. Mahogany: 3,500 exp per 28 logs; approximately 52,500 exp per hour. Teaks: 2,380 exp per 28 logs; approximately 71,400 exp per hour.


Part 7: Eucalyptus
A new type of tree sprouted in the Feldip Hills area: the eucalyptus. There's only one place to cut these trees and that's at Oo'glog.

Oo'glog


Required: Complete Druidic Ritual, Jungle Potion, Zogre Flesh Eaters, Big Chompy Bird Hunting quests; start As A First Resort quest for access to the bank, 58 woodcutting
Recommended: Complete As A First Resort for access to the salt water pool which gives unlimited run energy for a short time
Dangers: Ogresses, Ogress warriors, Ogress champions, wolves

Find a couple of trees close together, but stay out of the way of the ogresses and wolves. The red circled water is the salt water pool. Hop in it for a bit and get a boost to your run energy. Average time: 6 minutes 20 seconds.


Conclusion: Eucalyptus cut about the same as yews, but are further from a bank. Every 2 runs I had to hop in the pool again. 4,620 exp per 28 logs; approximately 41k exp per hour.

EDIT: Found an html error and cleaned it up.
EDIT 2: Found minor spelling errors and fixed them. :P

Twins?

This morning I cut wood and, surprise, got a second raven's egg. When the raven chick I'm nursing atm grows up, I'll try to incubate and raise the second. I'd assume you can have more than one adult bird/dog/crab etc. like cats as long as they are the same type and size.

I've fallen into a sort of schedule. I farm all my trees in the morning, do the battlestaff run, woodcut willows (now at Catherby, usually cutting the 2 by the yew). After a few hours, I farm the willows and go back to cutting. I break for supper around 7ish and watch tv for an hour (Cold Case Files ftw!) before woodcutting until 11ish when I farm willows before I log out.

Level 94 - 7,859 willows
Level 99 - 83,264 willows
Approximately 11 days @ 9 hours cutting per day

Not that anyone cares, but I'm done even reading blogs on Sal's. I keep getting rude PMs and am admitting it's not worth the effort. Congrats on getting rid of me for good, Whoever You Are.

I wanna dance with my baby

I got a raven's egg this morning and decided to incubate it. I have no idea how long it takes to get the egg to hatch (the KB says "a little while"), but there was a chick waiting for me hours later. Now I have a baby bird to take care of while I'm chopping willows. I hope it tells me when it's hungry.

I've found a nice spot to woodcut: Lumbridge by the furnace. It has 2 willow trees, is near the general store since I just sell off the logs and a bank for when I accumulate too much random event junk like gems and nests. Today was difficult to get the trees to myself and I hopped a few times. If it gets really bad, I can always cut at the pond behind Farmer Fred's place. It's a bit farther to run though.



What makes it fun is that I'm farming maple trees, so cutting those down takes away from how many willow logs I need.

Willows to 94: 11k on the button :P
Willows to 99: 86,403

About the finger. I was putting a bowl in the dishwasher and got stabbed by a steak knife which was put in the rack blade up. There was very little blood and it only needed 1 stitch. The doctor said it was too deep for just a band-aid; I don't like getting stitches and I do my damnedest to avoid them. I was impressed with myself when the knife stuck me. All I yelled was "MOTHER!" and mouthed "FUCKER!" In-laws didn't miss a beat watching Coronation Street.

A dishwasher tip

when putting silverware/cutlery in the dishwasher, put it HANDLE UP!

/is waiting for cab to hospital to get stitched

A nice place to visit

Reston, Virginia

Call me lucky

A few things I forgot to mention that happened last week. I bought some things on the GE just to have spares. I'd gone through 2 bank rearrangements due to not putting a placeholder in the spot where my lava staff was removed. I bought another one for 10k! Feeling good, I bought 2 slayer staffs for 12k each which is 9k less than buying from a slayer master. Also, I paid for 5 rune crossbows at 9k each. I now have 23 bows of 6 different types even though I dislike range (used to be hate, but I've learned to enjoy it more).

Yesterday I was discussing what to do with my money in RS with my husband. Yes, we talk about games in a serious fashion. Anyway, hubby asked if there was anything I was saving for, such as certain armor or a rare item. And I gave it some thought. No, not really. I only want cash to *have*; to see that total of numbers turn green again. There aren't many skills left that I can buy levels - prayer, herblore, smithing, runecrafting, crafting, farming - and I have been buying fruit and regular tree seeds for farming. As long as I keep enough cash on hand to buy my staves and seaweed and keep my kingdom coffers semi filled, I'm happy. Oh, I wouldn't turn down a party hat or god sword, but they don't appeal to me (tbh, I'd never have enough to buy either :P).

I did buy 100 pineapple seeds last night and 54 watermelon seeds. I planted and grew the watermelons today while I cut yews. I was harvesting melons in Catherby when I see the bankers spam, "87M drop in the party room in 9 minutes!" I decided to go check it out and see if anything good is in the chest or if someone is pulling another Merch drop. I wasn't the only person wanting to look. Gods the party room was completely packed; every square had 2-5 people on it and there were good items, over 2M cash, a god sword (no, I'm not shitting you) and the usual crap.



Being a sponge, I stayed but turned off public chat. I didn't expect to pop a balloon, let alone get anything (even one of the crappy items). The place lagged out when the balloons fell. I did get one popped, ran to try to pop another without checking to see if I'd gotten anything. I noticed a pair of boots not far from me. With no clue as to whether anyone else could see them or not, I laggily ran back to picked them up.



I'll admit; I tried them on to see the stats before tele'ing to Edgeville and putting them up for sale for 2M. I never did find out who hosted the drop party, but thanks for the free 2M. :)

I grew my last belladonna plant today, too. With it, I mixed up 14 super strong weapon poison and sold them on the GE. I'm doing my best to power farm so I can get back to mixing potions. When I get my big stock of trees grown, I'll try to head back to toadflax farming and Sara brews.

Whilst woodcutting, I gave a lot of thought as to leveling it to 99. Since there wasn't much out there that I wanted to buy, yews seemed like such a waste of time. I did some calculations, comparing yews, willows and maples. Willows really are the best experience wise. I can get over 56K XP per hours with willows vs. exactly 56k with maples vs. 29k XP with yews. Now I'm trying to find a good spot for willow chopping that isn't swarmed. I did a bit of cutting at BA and it was okay, though only have the deposit box could be bothersome. Tomorrow, I'll cut at Ardy and see how that goes. I need 92,406 willows to 99 and 5,906 willows to 93. I'm going to work on getting a set amount of XP a day instead of no-lifing like I normally do. Lol

This is it

Despite suffering a feverish ear infection, I managed to get 94 magic. I intended to spend the day alternating between catching up on the laundry irl and woodcutting/farming in RS. I ended up taking a nap and missed a lot of training. :P

Very little

Though I can see I've made progress, I feel as though I've done very little on RS today.

I enchanted air orbs and have a nice stock of 1300 waiting to be screwed onto staves. I did my farming runs for maples and fruit trees and made certain my calquat grew healthy and happy. I rearranged my bank into neater, more concise groupings due to my forgetting to put a placeholder in the spot where I had my lava staff. I bought some White Knight and initiate armor to fill out my armor wardrobe in the house, thus making more room in the bank and encouraging me to sell off a few now redundant items. Amazingly, I was able to sell my beloved archer helm for 4k less than I initially spent to buy it. I crafted black vambrances and used the GE to make black d'hide sets. I'm keeping all 5 though, just in case I need some throw away range armor.

The other day, I bought blessed d'hide because I was tired of seeing myself in black. I wanted Sara since I love blue but that was 668k, so I settled for Guthix at a modest 330k. Guthix sure gets fucked over for pricing, doesn't s/he?

One feeds the other

I'd dug up and replanted a magic tree in what I feel is my woodcutting haunt: the gnome stronghold. I like having a magic tree all to myself and the gnomes were nice enough to put the tree patch next to another magic tree. It makes for good cutting because one is public and the other is private. When they both are down to stumps, I rush over and chop on a yew tree. I finally got 92 woodcutting at the Catherby yews which was crowded. There was some dude there who kept asking people their woodcutting levels. That's alright if you've just shown up or someone new has, but continually asking the same people (or person) when they (or she) told you less than a minute ago just screams AUTOER. By the time I thought to report him, he'd logged off.

2,689 magic logs to 93
26,044 magic logs to 99

Woodcutting isn't a favorite skill, but it's a time killer (like fishing) when I'm doing some farming. I don't feel right logging in, planting, logging off and logging back in 6 hours later. Oh, if I've got things IRL to do, but just for the hell of it? No way.



My magic tree growed up on me! :D Since I'm yakking about farming anyway, might as well talk about the updates for it. I tried out Vinesweeper and think I'll enjoy it. I don't know what I'll use the points for yet, but there are some expensive seeds available and that sweet super compost potion. If you've played Minesweeper on your computer, the game is the same with slight differences. You can check each hole to see if there's a seed and I do that. Hey, might as well use the opportunity. Watch out for any rabbits near you when you're ready to plant a flag to mark a seed. Make sure a farmer is close by or no rabbits are or the seed gets eaten. :P

Yesterday while I was cutting magics, I kept getting this annoying random-type event: the farming spirit. Here's one of the messages it sent me:



I got 3 different ones, but I can only remember: You don't have to stand near your crops for them to grow. They will grow even if you are offline. I'm saying to the monitor, "Yeah dude, I know. I'm woodcutting here, mkai?"

I do like the teleport option for the nature amulet. I've got mine on the calquat patch usually and it's a pain in the ass to find a quick teleport near there. I think the closest is the house tele if your house is at Brimhaven.

Interesting

Yes, someone was Abyss crafting with a yellow party hat. I saw him wearing the p-hat several times in the Abyss, so this isn't a one-off picture.

I didn't get hit by any revenents this time, but those abyssal guardians are kicking my ass big time. I'm tempted to train up my melee for 119 combat so they'll leave me alone. Something I noticed the other day is that I could use the Zamorak mage as a teleport to escape a revenent after it ice burst me. I get frozen in the Abyss, but it's the lesser of 2 evils. :)

I did some thinking about where to woodcut and tentatively decided to hang out in the gnome stronghold by the tree patch. I have a permanent magic tree there and the public magic tree is next to the plot. When both magics are down to stumps, I start in on the yews.

While I was at a yew tree, I ran into an interesting conversation:



I wonder what bug got up Assassin's butt.

A series of unfortunate tests

One of my goals for this year is 99 woodcutting.

Now that I've had some experience with getting 99s, I have something of a method to figure out the best way for me to get to that coveted level.

I read up on the skill guides available on the (imo) 3 major fansites: RuneHQ, Sal's and Zybez. Sal's has several tip guides for gaining a 99 in various skills which outline ways to get there - power leveling, money or cheaply, depending on the skill and the player. The woodcutting guide leaves little choice except to make good friends with willow trees because you'll be chopping those buggers down for 69 levels. I take in the information and start making trial runs/tests to see what's the fastest/cheapest/efficient/closest to a bank.

Cooking was my testbed for leveling. I blindly followed the crowd: lobsters/sharks. I didn't think about how I would get these fish other than fishing them myself. That's why it took 4 months to go 83-99; I would cook any raws, then go fish for more. I didn't have the money to plunk down nor the experience in trading cooked for raw.

I learned from this disaster.

Fishing I read the help guides and knew right away that lobsters were not going to cut it. By the time I actually said out loud that I'm going for 99 fishing, I was nearly level 93. I tested out the big 2, lobsters and sharks, at both Catherby and the fishing guild. I borrowed my husband's stop watch and began timing my runs as bank-fish 27-bank. I timed for a single run, then 20 minutes, then 30, then an hour, all the while jotting down notes in my RS notebook of the difference between lobsters and sharks. Lobsters, naturally, were faster to catch but lesser experience. Sharks, while the best experience aside from trawler fish, were utterly slow. The final test fishing was lure fishing at Shilo. So hateful. Shilo is a pain in the ass to fish because the spots always end up on the other side of the inlet. I took a last, fateful look at the RS knowledge base (KB) to see if I'd missed anything.

Monkfish were a mystery. I'd done Swan Song and only knew of them from that. Was it safe to fish there? Had the trolls been eliminated? Warily, I took the first of many fairy ring trips to just south of the Piscatoris fishing colony, crawled under the tunnel and pushed open the gates. I went to the shore and dipped my net in, only to be attacked by a troll. I ran away down the beach and found another player fishing. After the initial nervousness, I settled in and have never regretted it. The great thing about Piscatoris is that there is little spam and no bots, since you have to complete the quest to fish there.

Thieving came down to: how quickly do I want this cape? I wanted it bad enough to attempt Pyramid Plunder. If Contact! had not come out as a quest and made a bank in Sophanem, I would've stayed pickpocketing paladins and knights. The bank is the only reason I plundered for as long as I did. I started at level 85 and stopped at 97. That's right, I stopped. My mind was cracking from the repetative nature, mummy attacks and no end in sight. I just got tired of being there. The last 2 levels were gained at the fur seller's building in Ardougne by mugging a trapped knight.

What to do with the 96k maple logs from Miscellania led me to 99 firemaking. Again, I did test burning at the known locations: Varrock, Seer's, Falador, Draynor. It was difficult to get a line of 27 spaces to yourself without tripping over another person laying down logs. I needed a place with 1) open spaces and 2) very few people. Piscatoris fit the bill for this skill. There was enough room that 3 people could and did burn fires without constantly being under foot.

The latest skill, fletching, was a plain and simple buy out. The GE made buying in bulk available to me and I had the money to do just that. I was determined to make the nature runes and bow strings myself and thusly get a profit from high alching. I ended up selling the remaining 44k to a guy in Yanille because I preferred having the money.

Today, I did my obligatory test runs for woodcutting. The 3 trees I would be trying out were maples, yews and eucalyptus. There are 2 difficulties in power training woodcutting - trees close to a bank and trees not being swarmed by other players. This is why willows are right out. Too many people are cutting them and the ones without people are at the ass end of Nowhere, Gielinor. With the 3 I picked out, I knew they would sell and that is mainly my objective. The breakdown for times and money:

maples - 3 minutes per trip at Seer's - average 45 gp on GE
yews - 10 minutes per trip at Fally - average 350 gp on GE
eucalyptus - 6 minutes per trip at Oo'long - average 300 gp on GE

Maples are the fastest but have the least profit. Yews take the longest but make the most money. Eucalyptus are the middle road for time and money, though how long they will sell decently is in question. I also use the salt water pool in Oo'long when cutting eucalyptus to keep my run energy maxed. The trouble is where to cut near a bank. Aside from the koala trees, yews and maples near banks are pretty well swarmed with players. Oh, you can get them to yourself for a bit, but someone shows up eventually. I trained for today outside Legends, alternating yews and maples when the yews were both down. The other yew spot I like is in the Elflands, but I haven't figured out a quick way of banking. :P

I can dream

A list of things I wish were in RS but aren't and probably won't ever:

- A gardener to watch over your limpwurts and herbs.

- A new choice of more teleports for your PoH: Moonclan island, Trollheim, Tai Bwo Wannai village, Lletya and Burgh de Rott.

- A way to keep random people from using you as a free taxi. This would be like Public chat: Taxi On, Taxi Friends, Taxi Off.

- Make seedlings tradeable

- Teach the slayer masters to stop giving you assignments you Burthorpe. Surprise, Duradel! I didn't kill warped tortoises for Chaedlar; what makes you think I'll do them for you?

- A fun, fast hunter mini game involving red chinchompas. No more logging on at 4 am to hunt only to find 3 people already camped.

- An Idiot's Guide to [insert mini game name here]. This would be a tutorial in actually playing the game (like a demo with NPCs filling roles) instead of a dry, boring speech that you rapid click through just to shut the guy up.

- Fix the hats so we can see our long hair again. Includes: berets, sailor's hat and Freaky Forester hat

- A mini game for summoning that allows for charms as rewards.

Silly plans

I hatched a plan to get 99 farming with a combination of tree seeds from Miscellania and toadflax. Yes, it sounds crazy to me but I have a good reason: money. I'm about middle of the road for having gold in my bank compared to everyone else on RS and spending over 20M on a skill with no visible way to recoup the money is plain ol' dumb in my book.

I chose Miscellania because, at the time, I was getting maples for firemaking and it helped cut down (ha!) what I needed to cut myself. The nests from there are reliable; woodcutting is so unpredictable for nest drops. I even found a calculator that can tell me how many nests I'll get depending on how much money is in the coffers and the number of workers cutting maples (or teak and mahogany).

And now for the toadflax explanation: again it boils down to money. Toadflax gives mediocre farming exp for planting and harvesting - about 192.5 exp per seed with an average harvest of 5 herbs. At the time, I bought 7900+ toadflax seeds for 4.5M+ gold. I did and still do have a plan to get my money back - Saradomin brews. The average selling price on GE is between 1600 - 1800 gp per 4 dose potion and all that I have sold in the past 2 months have sold instantly. I take into account the plants dying while chain farming, so I only expect to harvest 7k of the total seeds. But, I keep my eye on the prize. With an average harvest of 5 herbs and if 7k grow successfully, I'm looking at level 95 herblore via Sara brews. ^_^

I did some math and had my husband look the numbers over for me and found if I used all the time I play on RS (about 10 hours), farm all 5 herb plots, it would take me about 3 months to farm all those toadflax.

So I decided to supplement my farming as much as possible.

Using RuneHQ's farming calculator (it gives an option to figure with total farming - plant, harvest, average crops), I wrote down some numbers of certain seeds (I had to be able to pay a gardener to watch and payments had to be easy to obtain).

Maple seeds - 2143
Pineapple seeds - 1542
Curry seeds - 2433
Calquat seeds - 590 (I got desperate :P)

Since last I checked, curry seeds were the only ones that had decreased in price. Bananas are easy to get (bones to bananas). Then I thought, "How common are curry seeds?" For me, I hadn't seen a curry seed until I started putting money in Miscellania and getting those nests. After hemming and hawing and dithering, I decided to spend 6M on maple seeds (200). I got 100 bought immediately and I waited for the rest to appear in my collection box. I had almost enough oranges banked to pay for those first seeds.

I hope to either be woodcutting or fishing during the 70 minutes it takes for the toadflax to grow. I can sell the logs (yews or magics, I'm not sure if I should hang in Catherby or go to the gnome stronghold) and raw sharks for money, Plus, I'm working on making 1k deaths every day. All my rechargeable teleport items will be getting a workout! I'm waiting anxiously for the new farming amulet/update this month!

PS: I am jealous of 99 farmers who used magic and yew seeds to level. :P

A good Eggh, missing trees and icy gloves

During a late farming run through some willow trees, I made a discovery in Varrock just outside the palace courtyard.

Where are the 2 trees and fencing that was there a couple days ago? o_O

Yes, I am on low detail but the trees and fence were visible before.

Moving on. I logged onto W124 in the hopes that Egghebrecht would be on and I could convince him that dying to me in the Fight Pits is a good thing. He was on, so I sent him a quick PM asking for this favor. He agreed and said he also needed to be champion for the diary. Ah, so nice to know you aren't alone. We met at the Tz-Haar city, the pair of us in full dragon because it's a safe mini game. We entered and I felt confident since I could see he only had a dragon wc axe. Why am I entangled? That nub is using a whip! Sneaky! He pwned me and I let him know it by calling him a def nub:



Obviously, I would win our rematch. Unfortunately, someone else was in the Pits, probably trying to be champ for the diary. I met with Eggh, who had kindly stripped down to his default clothes, and the other guy, who was in ranging gear with a dark bow. *scary* Eggh died quickly and I started in on the other guy. I threw up protect from range and he protect from melee, so we stalemated. Then I see he's reequipped for melee and pwning me good.

After this fight, Eggh suggested via PM to team up. The 3 of us enter the Pits and we began. Eggh died first and I did my best. Eggh sent me PMs that we would hop and try again. I was getting pwned again, but offered congrats when I decided to go for broke and use Piety. I really didn't think it would do anything. I was down to half health and the other guy was untouched (my scimmy vs. his whip) when I said, "Grats :)" and he laughed, "Mwuhahaha". Then I hit an amazing 25. Eggh had logged into W121 and told me to hop when I finished.



I told Eggh, "I won".



Here's the guy I beat. He was very gentlemanly about it; no name calling or taunting. Thank you, Partyboyer for letting me kill you. :) I got my gloves upgraded after ...how long has this diary been out, 6 months? ... and checked out the teleport area. With the 10k exp lamp and a single bloated leech pouch, I achieved 58 summoning.



Afterwards, I went off to kill the ice queen for a second pair of ice gloves. Lol, it was ultra easy with 115 combat. :P

Blog change

I made a change to the blog concerning comments. The program altered the blog template in order to do its job and it deleted all the comments already posted. I am sorry to the people that commented, especially michaelma (sp?) because s/he taught me 4 useful lessons about how:

1. I'm trying to be a big martyr.
2. I'm hated by everyone associated with Canting.
3. I should grow the fuck up.
4. It's wrong to blog about people.

Oops.

Strictness and Unwanted

I posted asking for someone to kill in the Fight Pits and mentioned I wasn't sure if it should be here (RS Questions). Mahoumade73 answered, saying s/he wasn't sure where to ask either, but made a couple suggestions. I was editing my OP with an apology and the thread was locked. Oh well. Not upset over it, but wow that was a fast lock! I'll see if Egghebrecht is online tomorrow and if he'd let me kill him.

I got a PM from Lilshu on Sal's today over this post in Merch's blog (see the comments). Lilshu's PM basically wanted to know what was going on between myself and the current Canting crew since he could see there were a lot of people on Canting that made me mad. My reply: "Yes, there are and they all tended to be on Canting at the same time. Why does everyone think I left and resigned as a general? I guess I should stop reading Merch's blog and commenting. Pity. It's a great blog."

I have not read the comments after my second comment which cleared up who Eman was and what he did with his quest cape. I don't need the aggravation of them (probably Zachary, Cougarsrule9, Eman and Pen Knee if I had to guess) jumping on my ass. I don't like bringing that shit up in Merch's or anyone's blog because it puts Merch in the awkward position of being friends with 2 sets of people who dislike each other. I haven't put a friend in that situation since first grade. So I will be the one that walks away; eerily similar to why I left Canting. :/

I'll leave Merch's blog on my blog roll even though I don't read it anymore. It's a great blog. I've added 3 that I found on RSC.

Something I forgot to mention in the post below. I unlocked the 4 gods music in God Wars. I went safely, yet n00bishly equipped - Zammy god cape, Sara prayer book, Armandyl ammy, Ancient mace (works as Bandos item) and climbing boots. I took all the items I needed to get to each of the boss' rooms of which the doors were barred, even after I repeatedly offered H.A.M. cookies. :P The only musics left are for PC, BA, deep under Waterbirth island and Champion's Challenge scroll (fat chance of getting one of those! rofl).

Can I kill you?

When I logged on this morning, I found a pretty red headband in my collection box. It's looks sweet with the dragon armor. :) I spent the day puttering around RS until my calquat tree grew up. Then, I crafted about 1k deaths and noted my times. Takes me about 2 1/1 minutes to bank-Abyss-craft-tele home-tele Edgeville-bank again. About every 6-7 runs, I'd get the pouches fixed. I rounded it up to 3 minutes for semi easier math and concluded I could make 1k deaths in an hour. I'm not afraid of the Abyss anymore. Though I take minimal items and a home tele tab in case revenants freeze me (I've been caught 4 times but the spell froze me in the Abyss).

With the Abyss becoming, to me any rate, a fairly safe thing to do, I decided to get my shit together for completing the Karamja achievement diary. All I had left were become champion of the Fight Pits and kill a Ket-Zek in the Fight Caves. None of my friends were on (or they were hiding from me lol), so I chose the Fight Caves. Stuff like this freaks me out because I'm not very brave with my character in a game where there's no save to fall back. I've done pretty crazy things in computer games, but there was always a saved game I could reload if it didn't work/I died.

There is no reloading in RS.

I used the fairy rings to get to Tzh-Haar. At the bank, I got my best ranging gear: black d hide, barrows gloves, ranger helm, glory, snakeskin boots, magic shortbow, 1887 steel arrows, thieving cape, crystal bow (recommended for killing Ket-Zek), becon ring (best ring I had for combat; I did consider taking the ring of stone for fun), 11 prayer pots (4), 3 Sara brews (3), 1 range pot (4) 6 super restores (4), 6 tuna taters (thank god) and the holy wrench. Not the best set up for taking on Jad, but I only wanted to get to the Ket-Zek (wave 60??? idk).

I entered the caves. The first 6 waves were done in the ancient shoot-and-scoot style of combat: shoot an arrow, run away, shoot an arrow, run away. When the level 90s started appearing, I used the "hide behind the Italy rock" strategy, which usually worked unless one of them popped onto the map in front of me. I did really good until I saw my first 180. Holy shit, it's in front of me! AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Run away!!!!!! I managed to calm down and keep to getting it stuck either by the Italy rock or behind another monster. The second scariest part is the wave before the Ket-Zek when 2 level 180s show up. One was in front of me and the other was behind Italy. I had to run a full circuit of the cave to get them both trapped. One got stuck on the little spur on the heel of the boot and the other was stuck behind him. I killed the further, then the nearer and got ready for Ket-Zek.

There's only one this wave; I remembered from that table on Sal's and that I should range/protect magic at Italy. As I hid on other side of the Italy toe (I figured it would pop in in front of me on the other side, so I thought I was being sneaky). Fuck me, where is it? I hear the music that it's on the map, but I can't see it on the mini map.

I take one step forward, warily. Nothing in sight.

I take a second step forward.

I take a third st-holy shit it's right fucking THERE!

OMGOMGOMGOMG

Hit 37 - Hit 28 - fuckfuckfuckfuck - protect melee - run away - tater - tater - shit!

Gah it's maging! Hit 37 - Hit 35 - Hit 29 FUCK ME! Eat you stupid bitch! >:[

Wait.

It's maging me.



I'm not getting hit anymore. Eat the last tater and don't move. The steel arrows are fine, no need to switch. Take a screenie for the blog. It sucks, but I wasn't getting any closer than this. Okay, just kill this guy and leave. I've proven myself to ..myself?... and gotten this stupid thing out of the way. A minute after the screenie, I killed it and got the diary update as I ran screaming out of the caves (literally, I was yelling, "Ahhhhhh!").

My husband came home shortly after this and saw how badly my hands were shaking. Lol.

Now I need to find a friend who will let me kill them in the Fight Pits on a nice, low populated world, preferably when school is in session.

A stranger's advice

I suppose I should tell you that I signed up to the RuneScape Community (RSC) forums (Zybez forums). Not that I have to justify anything, but I was having a hard time sticking with plans and wanted advice. I wanted some ideas on what to sell for money and should I stop hoarding 50k of various runes? How odd that a total stranger would set me off in a new direction: runecraft through the Abyss. The Abyss is still scary, even without the PKers, but the danger is acceptable to me to make a few test runs to see how I would do. I knew what they typical gear would be. I wanted to wear things I could die in. When it would happen, I could just grab one of the many replacements I have banked and continue crafting without blinking an eye.

First few runs, I wore a spottier cape and boots of lightness and carried a home tele tab and 27 pure essence. When things looked okay, I stepped it up to wearing my nature amulet (I have a calquat growing and don't want it to die :P) and taking my 4 pouches, 53 pure ess, an iron axe and the obligatory home tele tab. Things went very well. I got teleblocked by revenants 3 times - all 3 shots froze me in the Abyss. My baby goal was to craft 3k death runes and sell them on the GE.

As with all good feelings, I wanted to purchase something that wasn't my RS dream, but would be nice to have: almost full dragon armor. I priced each piece and chose to work on the maximum prices to figure the cost. I had more than enough cash. Quickly, the boots, chain and left shield half came into my possession. I waited for the other shield half before deciding it would probably be simpler to buy it from the Legends guild even though it cost more. I did. I walked through downtown Ardougne, skulled, carrying the outfit. Oh, I'd popped in to the Culinomancer's chest to see if I could buy a second set of barrows gloves and I could. :) I bought the shield half and wandered to Hemmenster to hammer the halves together. After 2 screens worth of struggle, I smithed the dragon square shield whole.

I strolled south to the fishing guild to use the bank. I wanted to see what headgear would look better: slayer mask or red boater. I have an order out for a red headband which I think will look wicked awesome. The outfit pieces: dragon chain, dragon skirt, dragon boots, dragon square, dragon scimitar, barrows gloves, nature amulet, slayer mask/red boater, Legends cape.




This morning, I made 168 Sara brews and got 83 herblore. I wonder if it's worth making some of the potions or if I should sell the cleaned herbs. Looking at the toadflax seeds I have already, a conservative estimate of herb growth couple with making Sara brews would net me 6.3M exp. I suppose I'll have to keep checking on the herb prices versus the potion prices. I'm pretty sure I get more money selling the tarromin, harralander, kwuarm and cadantine herbs rather than the potions. Another stranger from RSC even suggested buying snapdragon or rannar seeds, growing them and selling the herbs.



All this thinking has me thinking I should do something that cultivates thinking, like woodcutting! Lol

Here we go again

And I'm back to blogging on Blogger. This time, I've separated my normal email address from this blog, so I should be able to stay put for longer than 4 months. It's like I have a curse or something with blogs about RuneScape.

Just a quick brief on my blogging backstory. I started on Sal's Realm of RuneScape, moved to Blogger for more freedom in speaking, then moved to Blog.com because my Gmail account/Blogger blog were locked for some reason (I did piss off a few people, so hacking is not out of the question) and am back to Blogger due to some weird glitch of not being able to see any posted messages before January (I can edit them, but can't actually see them as published).

I want to apologize to the 4 people who were/are keeping up with my blogs for moving yet again.