Ivy



Ivy, referred to in the skill guide and its members examine text as Choking ivy, is a vine which grows upon several walls throughout Gielinor and may be chopped down by members for woodcutting experience. It was released along with the Woodcutting Rebalance update update on 23 September 2009. Level 68 Woodcutting is required to chop this vine, and no items are directly obtained through chopping the vine. When an ivy vine is chopped down the remains will be an ivy stump. The respawn rate is 40 seconds and chopping grants 332.5 Woodcutting experience, which is the most Woodcutting experience of any tree currently available. If ivy was a collectable item then a full inventory of ivy would provide 9310 experience.

The ivy was designed to give fast experience without any monetary rewards apart from bird's nests, which are known to contain seeds and rings that can be worth up to 200k or more. Therefore, many players choose to wear a Strung rabbit foot while cutting to increase the number of bird's nests received. This "tree" does not require any trips to the bank (except to bank birds nests).

The Sacred clay hatchet grants additional experience amounts, which totals to 665 experience per vine cut with the original experience added on. With a fully charged hatchet, a player will average about 34,000 experience in 18–20 minutes before it dissolves, which works out to roughly 102,000 experience per hour; however, 3 hatchets will be needed, as every piece cut will cause the hatchet to lose 2% of its charge. Lumberjack clothing and Sacred clay hatchet combined provides a more significant experience boost.

Despite being only the third fastest woodcutting experience in the game, with hourly experience rates behind those that can be gained cutting Teaks or at the Sawmill, ivy is by far the most popular means of training woodcutting at higher levels because it requires very little input from the player to cut.

The easiness of chopping Ivy has also resulted in many macroing programs. A popular spot for the macroing programs is at the Ivy near Taverley, since it is close to the bank in Catherby.

Respawn Locations



 * North wall of Varrock Palace, near the Yew trees. (4 Ivy spots)
 * South-east outer wall of Varrock Palace, next to tree Farming patch. (5 Ivy spots)
 * North side of the north wall of Falador, a little west from Standing stones location. (7 Ivy spots)
 * South side of the south wall of Falador, a little north of the allotment patch. (7 Ivy spots)
 * South-east of Taverley, near the Hot air balloon. (5 Ivy spots)
 * East wall of East Ardougne church, just west of Handelmort's Mansion. (5 Ivy spots)
 * North side of the north wall of Yanille, south-east of Yanille Dungeon. (6 Ivy spots)
 * South wall of Castle Wars, south of the Saradomin base. (7 Ivy spots)

Trivia

 * The Inferno Adze does not burn ivy, as it is not a burnable log. Thus, the Inferno Adze works as a Dragon hatchet.
 * When ivy respawns, it is seen climbing up the wall, similar to growth actions of vines in real life, only sped up dramatically.
 * A tactic used by many players is turning the sound on in order to hear the sound of the woodcutting. Therefore they can play AFK, and when the sound stops they can go back to click another branch. (One can also hear the sound of a bird's nest falling this way).
 * While cutting ivy produces no logs, players can tell when they get experience by watching their feet, as when experience is gained, piles of twigs fall to the player's feet, the experience calculator counting XP gained, and a message appears in the chatbox. The animation of the twigs on the ground is visible by all, allowing players to view how fast others cut the ivy—normal trees do not give any indication of other player's rates of cutting. (However "single log" trees are completely cut down when a log is obtained.)
 * Ivy, along with Light, Medium, and Dense jungle, are the only non-tree vegetation that can be cut down.
 * When Ivy was released, bonus experience was not granted for wearing Lumberjack clothing; however, this was fixed within a few days.
 * Despite not having any branches to support them, bird nests can be found in choking ivy.
 * Ivy is often claimed to be faster experience than it really is. In reality it cannot be more than about 75k experience per hour.
 * On 3 December 2009, there was an update which caused the ivy cutting animation to glitch. Players would stand sideways next to the wall and swing their hatchets at thin air. This was fixed by another update later that day. This event occurred again on 9 January 2011.
 * On 31 December 2009, the cutting animation of ivy was accelerated.
 * If you are crushing a bird's nest with a Pestle and Mortar, then, before the crushing animation has finished, click a bit of ivy that's not directly east, west, south or north of you, your character will run to the ivy, and start chopping diagonally.
 * On 16 February 2010, a glitch occurred along with an update that caused players to use whatever they were wielding to cut the ivy, not a hatchet (though you still needed to have a dragon hatchet in your inventory). This has been fixed.
 * When cutting ivy with a Dragon Hatchet, the character swings and only hits from top to the middle of the ivy. Other hatchets cut all the way down the ivy. This is needed for it to not cross the wall. (since Dragon Hatchet is larger).
 * You cannot light a fire right in front of the Ivy.
 * There is a glitch where if you view yourself/others cutting ivy at a side angle the top part of the dragon hatchet will appear gone when the player reaches back.
 * A player with a level of at least 85 woodcutting can expect to cut around 6-7 ivy vines a minute. Each cut grants 332.5 experience, so experience per minute can be modeled by (332.5*6+332.5*7)/2 which equates to an average of (roughly) 2161 experience per minute. At level 85 with 3,258,594 experience, it will take 9,775,867 experience to reach level 99. The time it takes to bridge the gap from level 85 to 99 will in theory take 4523 minutes of woodcutting or 75.4 hours.
 * Although ivy is members only, in a free to play world ivy can be seen however not cutable nor examinable.
 * A lighter coloured ivy can be seen on walls around Runescape. These can not be cut and are decorative only.
 * When the chopping animation ends, your character will walk closer to the wall. This is when the tips of dragon hatchets appear on the other side of the wall, as shown in the middle picture below.