Evil Tree



The Evil Tree is a members-only Distractions and Diversions, released on 25 February 2009. This event can be done twice daily; the counter resets at 00:00 GMT. Players must log out to reset the clock. A Tree will spawn two hours after the death of the last 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.

Players may join a clan chat dedicated to finding Evil Trees, as it is easier to find Trees in groups than alone. These clan chats can be found by searching the Runescape forums.

 Warning:  Interacting with a Tree at any stage of development counts as one of the two daily Trees. This applies to nurturing Trees, even if players do not have the required levels to chop or burn the fully grown Tree. Right clicking to inspect and check a fully grown Tree's health does not count as one of the daily interactions.



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 Tree, and twenty-seven possible locations.

Farming experience is granted each time the Sapling advances to another stage of development. Woodcutting experience is granted every few seconds during chopping. Firemaking experience is granted each time a new section of the Tree is lit.

A leprechaun is found near all Trees. He will explain the Evil Tree, and is the one to reward players.

Stages
The Tree grows in two stages: the Strange Sapling and the Evil Tree. The Strange Sapling must be nurtured by players to grow into a full Tree; doing so gives Farming experience. It is possible to determine which type the Tree will be by examining the amount of experience gained; see chart. All Saplings are identical. The only way to discern which type of Tree it will become is by nurturing it and looking at the Farming experience it grants. However, this counts as one of the twice-daily interactions. Players may wish to refrain from nurturing Trees until they know if they are interested in killing the resulting tree. This can be done by nicely asking others who are already nurturing the Tree. After the Sapling is fully grown, it becomes an Evil Tree.

Locating
There are several ways to find a Tree:
 * Speak with a Spirit tree (this requires completion of Tree Gnome Village). It will tell you the status of the Tree in each world. Once the strange sapling sprouts, it will give players a hint to its location; see here. Note that each hint leads to at least two locations. Once the Sapling has grown into a full tree, Spirit trees will teleport the player to the exact location. Note that if the Tree is in a location that requires a Quest to enter, (such as Kharazi Jungle) the Spirit tree will not teleport the player.
 * Be nearby. Once the Strange Sapling sprouts, roots will briefly shoot out of the surrounding ground. These roots can appear significantly far from the location of the Tree; for example the top of White Wolf Mountain while the Tree was near the Dark Wizards' Tower.

Killing
The Tree is killed using two methods: cutting with a hatchet and lighting fires at its base. Different levels are required to cut and burn the tree; see below. Chopping the Tree and its roots gives Woodcutting experience, and lighting fires gives Firemaking experience.
 * Chopping requires only a hatchet. As with all woodcutting, higher-level hatchets cut faster than lower-level ones. If players do not have one, the Leprechaun will give the player a bronze hatchet.
 * Burning the Tree requires kindling and a tinderbox.
 * Kindling is attained from chopping down one of the four roots that grow around the tree, and the leprechaun will give players a tinderbox.
 * One root grows on the north side of the tree, one the east, one the south and one the west.
 * These roots strike and stun players who are standing nearby if they are not chopping the root, as well as doing a bit of damage. They will also force any players who are standing on their spawn location off the way each time they spawn.
 * It has been said that a machete is more efficient at cutting the roots than is a hatchet.
 * There are eight spots at the base of the Tree to light. The fires do damage to the tree over time; therefore it is recommended to light the fires as early as possible to maximise damage.


 * The Tree begins with 100% life, and the player with 0% damage. As players chop the Tree and the fires burn, the Tree's life drops and the player's damage done increases. This can be checked by right-clicking and Inspecting the tree, and then clicking "continue". Doing so will stop the player from chopping, note, so do so sparingly.


 * The Tree does not always die when it reaches 0% health, and it occasionally lives for a considerable time after reaching 0%. It is believed that at least one player needs to have done 100% damage before the tree dies.


 * If an Evil Tree takes too long to die, it gets struck by lightning. Its health drops to 50% if above 50%; to 25% if between 25% and 50%; and will die on the third hit if it does not die in time. This also has a lightning sound effect to go along with it.

Skill Requirements

 * {|class="wikitable" width="650"

!colspan="2"|Evil Tree !Woodcutting Level !Farming Level !Firemaking Level
 * Normal Evil Tree
 * align="center"|Normal_tree.gif
 * 1
 * 1
 * 1
 * Oak Evil Tree
 * align="center"|Oak_tree.gif
 * 15
 * 7
 * 15
 * Willow Evil Tree
 * align="center"|Willow_tree.gif
 * 30
 * 15
 * 30
 * Maple Evil Tree
 * align="center"|eviltreemaple.png
 * 45
 * 22
 * 45
 * Yew Evil Tree
 * align="center"|Yew_tree.gif
 * 60
 * 30
 * 60
 * Magic Evil Tree
 * align="center"|eviltreemagic.png
 * 75
 * 37
 * 75
 * Elder Evil Tree
 * align="center"|Elder_tree.gif
 * 85
 * 42
 * 85
 * }
 * Elder Evil Tree
 * align="center"|Elder_tree.gif
 * 85
 * 42
 * 85
 * }
 * }

Locations with hints

 * See Distractions and Diversions Locations for more information.

Hints are given by Spirit trees when there is a Strange Sapling.

These are currently 27 possible known locations.

All hints refer to at least two possible locations. They all start with 'It can be found...'

Experience

 * When the Tree is still a sapling, Farming experience can be gained for nurturing it. No items are required to do this.
 * When the Tree is fully grown, chopping the roots and the Tree itself gains Woodcutting experience.
 * When a root vanishes, the player gains Evil tree kindling, which can be used on the Tree to set fire to a part of the Tree. This awards Firemaking experience.

Note: the Ring of fire, Flame gloves and lumberjack clothing give no additional experience, and the Inferno Adze will not automatically light any kindling received.


 * {|class="wikitable"

!rowspan="2"|Evil Tree !colspan="4"|Experience !Nurturing !Firemaking !Chopping roots !Chopping tree
 * Normal
 * 20
 * 200
 * 3
 * 15.1
 * Oak
 * 45
 * 300
 * 6.5
 * 32.5
 * Willow
 * 66
 * 450
 * 9
 * 45.5
 * Maple
 * 121
 * 675
 * 11
 * 55
 * Yew
 * 172.5
 * 1,112.5
 * 12.5
 * 64
 * Magic
 * 311
 * 1,517.5
 * 15
 * 71
 * Elder
 * 687.5
 * 2,000.5
 * 17
 * 77.8
 * }
 * Elder
 * 687.5
 * 2,000.5
 * 17
 * 77.8
 * }
 * }

Items

 * You can sell the Evil tree kindling to the leprechaun for 25 coins each, or choose to keep the kindling to use on future Evil trees. Kindling does not depend on the type of tree you received it from.


 * When the Tree dies, it turns silver and bends. Players always get the following items from the evil tree as a reward:
 * Noted logs of the same type as the tree. Elder trees offer noted Yew, Magic, Teak or Mahogany logs.
 * Coins
 * Tree Seed or Bird's nest


 * In addition to the items listed above, players might receive:
 * Level 1 Clue scroll
 * Key halves

Further woodcutting
For a period of time after the Tree is killed, players are given several advantages when cutting trees. The amount of time depends on the percent damage done to the Evil Tree, and the type of Evil Tree; see below. This ranges from 2 to 30 minutes. Note that these abilities only applies to cutting Normal, Oak, Willow, Maple, Yew, and Magic trees. (Does not include other evil trees or farming-plot trees.)
 * Significantly reduced chance of a tree being felled when a log is harvested. Note that for this to apply, nobody else may be cutting the tree.
 * Significantly increased chance of having birds' nests fall out of trees.
 * Ability to have logs "magically escorted" to the players bank while Woodcutting if their inventory is full.
 * The leprechaun snaps their fingers, and you are granted a magical log-banking ability for the next x minutes.
 * If there is no room in bank: Your bank is too full to hold any more logs.
 * Players wishing to take advantage of this feature should consider cutting trees which yield logs very fast. Logs cut, when having a full inventory, end up in your bank. The most efficient trees to chop for Woodcutting experience for the duration of the reward are willow trees. Some of the best places to make use of the automatic banking are:
 * Willow trees outside Crafting Guild or Fishing Guild (using Skills Necklace)
 * Willow trees near the Lady of the Lake in Taverley (using Balloon transport system)
 * Willow trees near the Lumbridge Lake (Home Teleport)
 * Willow trees to the north of Seers Bank (Camelot Teleport)
 * Willow trees west of Draynor Village, by Port Sarim (Amulet of Glory Teleport or Cabbage Port)
 * For players with higher woodcutting levels, maples in an uncrowded area are also good for using the magical log-banking. The best location for this is the forest of maple trees west of Sinclair Mansion, north of Seer's Village.
 * Logging out pauses the remaining log teleportation time.
 * The "escorted log" animation is only seen by the respective player. You will never see the animation on another player with "auto-banking", only yourself.
 * If you choose to claim your bonus at a later time after finishing the tree, the duration of your bonus will be half of what it normally is. You can also talk to any tool leprechaun also to receive your reward.

Maximum rewards
The following table shows the highest reported reward possible. A lower percentage reduces the rewards.

'''Since there are many conflicting reports on the maximum rewards possible, please check out the Talk Page. This notice will be deleted when there are enough contributions to the research.'''


 * {|class="wikitable"

!Evil Tree !Logs !Gold coins !Duration of log teleportation

50 Yews or 18 Magic
 * Normal
 * 11
 * 166
 * 6 minutes
 * Oak
 * 34
 * 311
 * 10 minutes
 * Willow
 * 211
 * 567
 * 14 minutes
 * Maple
 * 131
 * 1,103
 * 18 minutes
 * Yew
 * 14
 * 2,352
 * 22 minutes
 * Magic
 * 9
 * 4,472
 * 26 minutes
 * Elder
 * 181 Teak or 102 Mahogany or
 * Magic
 * 9
 * 4,472
 * 26 minutes
 * Elder
 * 181 Teak or 102 Mahogany or
 * 181 Teak or 102 Mahogany or
 * 8,132
 * 30 minutes
 * }

Music
Music track unlocked:
 * Trees aren't your Friends



Trivia

 * On the day of release, a Server blackout occurred. The Grand Exchange Database page was also affected. Players saw items rising over 200,000% in a day, but the actual price of the items were intact.
 * When right-clicking the music track "Trees aren't your Friends" in the Music list and choosing the "Unlock hint" option, the hint will state "This track was unlocked during The Evil Tree minigame." This might be an indication that the Evil Tree distraction was intended to be a minigame at first. The Evil Tree is also under the Minigames index in the in-game woodcutting guide.
 * 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 bug prompted Jagex to simply allow players to return to Ape Atoll normally without claiming the experience reward.
 * Originally, Spirit trees would only mention evil trees after the sprout had already appeared. It wasn't until a few weeks after the original release that they began to give information on how long it would take for the next evil tree to sprout.
 * If somebody lights a fire where a root will sprout, when the ashes appear and the root sprouts again, the ashes will appear on top of the root and once the root goes away the ashes will look to be floating. This glitch has not yet been fixed by Jagex.