Evil Tree



The Evil Tree is a members-only Distractions and Diversions event released on 25 February 2009. This D&D can be done twice daily; the counter resets at 00:00 UTC on the in-game clock. Players must log out and back in to reset their daily participation limit. An evil tree will spawn two hours after the death of the last evil tree in that world. As such, players may kill a tree in one world and switch to another world where a new tree is just sprouting.

Farming, Firemaking, and Woodcutting experience boosters can be used with this D&D:
 * Bonus experience will be used if possible.
 * Bonus experience items such as the Lumberjack clothes, Farmer's outfit, and the All Fired Up rewards do increase their respective experience received.
 * Woodcutting urns do not fill from chopping at an evil tree however.

Interacting with a tree at any stage of its development will count as one of the two daily trees. This also applies to nurturing trees, even if players do not have the required levels to chop or burn the fully grown tree. However, players can inspect saplings and young trees to find out what they will grow into to avoid interacting with evil tress they may not have the required levels for. Inspecting the health of, or the type does not count as one of the players daily interactions.

Groups dedicated to finding and reporting evil trees can be found in the Minigames and D&Ds section of the RuneScape Forums.

Overview
The purpose of the event is to kill the Evil tree, after which the player is rewarded; see below. There are seven types of evil trees and twenty-six possible locations.

Farming experience is granted each time the Sapling advances to another stage of development while nurturing. Woodcutting experience is granted every few seconds during chopping. Firemaking experience is granted each time a new section of the Tree is lit on fire from evil tree kindling. Firemaking experience is also granted after adding the evil tree kindling to the bonfire from the dead evil tree.

A leprechaun is found nearby the tree at all trees. He will explain how the evil tree works, and will be the one to reward players after one is killed. He can also loan out low-level tools if you've forgotten yours.

Stages
An evil tree has a total of 3 stages:
 * 1) The first stage is a series of growths for the sapling. The strange sapling may be nurtured by players to make it grow quickly, but it will grow on its own.
 * 2) The second stage is a fully grown evil tree. Chopping the vines will provide Evil tree kindling used to light fires around the evil tree, and enable the player to begin chopping at the evil tree.
 * 3) The final stage is an evil tree Bonfire. Rewards for participating in the event can be obtained now, and extra kindling can be burned on the bonfire awarding firemaking experience.

Locating
There are several ways to locate an evil tree:
 * By opening the D&D tab on the Adventurers interface. It will state the time until an evil tree appears, or state "ready" when an evil tree is active on that world.
 * By speaking with a Spirit tree. The Spirit tree will tell the player the status of the tree in each world and it gives players a hint to its location; see here. Each hint usually leads to at least two locations with the exception of two clues: west of Lumbridge and by collection of yews (both clues share a spawn location that has been removed). Once the Sapling has grown into a full tree, Spirit trees will teleport the player to the exact location. If a quest is required that you have not completed, (such as Legends' Quest for trees in the Kharazi Jungle) the Spirit tree will not teleport you.
 * By being nearby; once the Strange Sapling sprouts, Evil roots will briefly shoot out of the surrounding ground. These roots can appear a good distance from the location of the tree, so search carefully. Roots will only appear beneath the players feet that have not yet interacted with two evil trees that day.
 * If you cannot get a tip from the spirit tree, have a friend who can talk to the spirit tree get one for you.
 * A sapling for an Evil tree will spawn exactly two minutes from the time a server comes online after a crash or a system update.
 * Players that have completed the 2011 Easter event can use their Sunbeam crown or Icicle crown to ask about the tree's type and a hint to its location or, if no tree is alive, the estimated time until one is.
 * Join a clan or Friends Chat themed around the D&D. Groups dedicated to finding and reporting evil trees can be found in the Minigames and D&Ds section of the RuneScape Forums.

Locations with hints

 * Location hints are given by Spirit trees at any time, and via the Sunbeam and Icicle crown once a sapling has sprouted. The Tree Gnome Village (Quest) or The Grand Tree quest must be completed in order to speak with a Spirit tree. These are not required for the crowns, however.
 * All hints refer to at least two possible sprouting locations—due to the events of Battle of Lumbridge, a sprouting location is no longer active, and as such, the two parent hints that it once belonged to now only point to 1 sprouting location each.
 * The Anima Mundi is not a location hint. Hints begin with the phrase "It can be found …"
 * There are currently 23 possible locations an evil tree will sprout:

Killing
The evil tree can be killed from chopping at it with a hatchet and lighting fires at its base. Different levels are required to cut and burn evil tree types; see table below. Chopping the evil tree and roots earns Woodcutting experience. Lighting kindling gives Firemaking experience, both at the base of the evil tree while alive, and at the bonfire once the tree has died. The tree begins with 100% health, and the player with 0% reward. As players chop the tree and the fires burn, the tree's life drops and the player's percentage of reward increases. This can be checked by right-clicking and inspecting the tree. The amount of players that need 100% to kill the evil tree depends on the total amount of players cutting the tree. Eventually the tree will die and become a Fallen tree, from which you can receive your rewards. Once you have received your rewards, you may burn spare kindling in it for Firemaking experience. You may only collect a maximum of 200 kindling. A fallen tree will remain for 10 minutes before disappearing.

To chop the tree, a hatchet is required either on your person, or placed inside your Tool belt. As with all woodcutting, higher-tiered hatchets will chop more accurately than lower-tiered ones providing experience quicker. Machetes can be used to chop evil roots more effective than some hatchets. If you have a Rune hatchet and a Red topaz machete in the inventory or toolbelt, your character will automatically use the machete to cut the roots, indicating that it works better. The Dragon hatchet, Inferno adze, and Crystal hatchet are still faster than any of the machetes. When 4 evil roots are active cutting one will takes the least time. As well as this, when 3 evil roots are present, the fourth will respawn slower. It takes at least one minute for new roots to strike up again on each side.

To burn the evil tree, the player will require some kindling attained from chopping down one of the four roots which sprout along the sides of the tree. The evil roots will strike and stun players who are standing nearby, also forcing players who are standing near to jump away each time they sprout. It is suggested to stand directly on these spawn spots in order to jump away, rather than being stunned by the root when it sprouts. There are eight spots at the base of the tree to light. The fires do damage to the tree over time and help you earn reward faster; therefore it is recommended to light the fires as early as possible to maximize damage.

If an evil tree takes too long to die, it will get struck by lightning; see below.

It is often best to kill a tree with at least a few other people to get the max rewards quickly. Also, with more people, the evil roots get killed faster, letting you get back to chopping for experience and reward. An evil tree can provide a group between 4–12 the maximum reward for everyone without time waste.

Lightning
If an evil tree takes too long to die, it gets struck by lightning. If the tree's health is above 50% 10 minutes after it has appeared, lightning will strike and bring its health down to 50%; after 20 minutes the same applies for 25% health and after 30 minutes, the tree is then killed by a third lightning strike. This also has a lightning sound effect to go along with it. If the evil tree is struck with lightning for the third time and dies, you will still get your rewards if you participated.

Items
When an evil tree is felled and petrifies, players collecting a reward may get any the following items from the evil tree as a reward:
 * You can sell the Evil tree kindling to the leprechaun for 25 coins each, burn it in the fallen tree, or choose to keep the kindling to use on future Evil trees. Since all trees give the same type of kindling, keeping the kindling for the next tree could be of great help getting it lit faster.

The normal reward received is various noted logs, Coins, and a random Tree seed or Bird's nest, with Clue scroll (easy) and Key halves as an additional reward. If there is not enough room in a players inventory, items will be dropped on the ground instead.

Maximum rewards
The following table shows the highest reported possible rewards. A lower percentage reduces the rewards, but the same percent will not always equal the same amount of gold or logs:

Experience
Note: The Inferno Adze will not automatically light any kindling received.
 * When an evil tree is still a sapling, Farming experience can be gained from nurturing it. No items are required to do this.
 * When an evil tree is fully grown, chopping the evil roots and the tree itself grants Woodcutting experience.
 * When an evil root vanishes, the player gains Evil tree kindling, which can be used to set fire to a part of the tree. This awards Firemaking experience depending on your level.
 * When an evil tree dies, the player can contribute any remaining evil tree kindling to a bonfire for even more Firemaking experience.
 * Firemaking experience rewarded from the evil tree bonfire is determined by a player's level in Firemaking.

Further woodcutting
For a period of time after an evil tree has been felled and a reward claimed, players are given a buff which gives several advantages when chopping at Normal, Achey, Oak, Willow, Teak, Maple, Hollow, Mahogany, Arctic Pine, Eucalyptus, Yew, Magic, Blisterwood, and Elder trees: Players wishing to take advantage of this feature should consider cutting trees which yield logs quickly. The duration of the buff depends on the percentage of reward claimed from the evil tree, and the type of evil tree; see table. This ranges from 2 to 30 minutes and does not disappear when you logout; The timer becomes paused until logged back in-game. Players collecting the reward from a farming leprechaun afterwards will receive only half of the magical banking time however.
 * A significant reduction to the chance of felling a tree after a resource is harvested. This will also work on Normal trees, but the player with the buff must be the only player chopping at the Normal tree. The effect will stack with the Seer's headband efficiency effect, if it is being worn at the time.
 * A significant increased chance of shaking Bird's nests out of trees.
 * The ability to have logs "magically escorted" to the player's bank while Woodcutting. An effect can be seen above the players head when a log is sent to the bank. It is not possible for other players to see this effect.
 * For Woodcutting experience, it is suggested to chop Arctic Pines for the duration of the buff.
 * For a combination of experience and profit, it is suggested to chop Teak trees.
 * For less experience and more profit, it is suggested to chop Mahogany trees.

If a players bank is full when the buff effect attempts to bank a log, the player will receive a message stating "Your bank is too full to hold any more logs." You may still chop trees and gain experience from doing so, but no logs will be collected from the process.

Treasure Hunter
D&D of the week A different distraction and diversion is chosen each week to give the player a Key token for simply participating. Once every 4 weeks, the player may gain a key token for chopping an Evil Tree. Key tokens can only be received when the Evil Tree D&D is the designated D&amp;D of the week.

Music

 * Trees aren't your Friends

Trivia

 * With the release of Evil Trees, pures who had completed Monkey Madness gained the ability to travel to Ape Atoll without receiving the experience rewards from Daero. This was accomplished by using a spirit tree to teleport to a tree located there. This prompted Jagex to simply allow players to return to Ape Atoll normally without claiming the experience reward.
 * If you are interrupted by a system update while participating, you will find a new sapling sprouting in its place upon login. This may take a few minutes to start. Your rewards from the original tree will be awarded if you talk to the tool leprechaun.
 * If you try to use a ring of stone or ghoulish mask next to an Evil Tree, instead of transforming you get the message: "The magic from the nearby Evil Tree could make the effects of the transformation unpredictable."
 * If you don't have a woodcutting tool in your inventory when killing an Evil Tree, your character will cut the Evil Roots with a machete if it is in your toolbelt and cut the body of the Evil Tree with a hatchet.
 * If an NPC is standing over the evil root spawn area it will not respawn.
 * Prior to the later introduction of Elder Trees, an Elder Evil Tree gave an assortment of logs, as there was no Elder Log. They have since been updated to give various logs, including Elders.
 * The magic log banking reward takes priority over Signs of the Porter, which were added with Divination.
 * An update on 26 May 2015 made several changes to Evil trees, including the ability of kindling to be burned after a tree is killed, improved experience rates, and a change to the magical log banking ability such that your inventory no longer needs to be full.
 * The type of a sapling could formerly only be determined by checking the farming experience when nurturing or the level requirement needed if the player's farming level was too low.
 * An update on 8 June 2015 added more logs to the magic banking reward. Trees added were Achey Trees, Arctic Pines, the Blisterwood Tree, Eucalyptus trees, Hollow trees, Teak trees, and Mahogany trees.

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