Dragon hatchet



The Dragon hatchet is tied with the Inferno adze for the best hatchet available in terms of its ability to cut wood. It is a members-only tool. As with all hatchets, it is both a weapon (requiring 60 Attack to wield) and a Woodcutting tool (requiring 61 Woodcutting to use). It is a rare drop from the Dagannoth Rex, Dagannoth Prime, and Dagannoth Supreme, all of whom inhabit Waterbirth Island.

The dragon hatchet is more efficient than the rune hatchet at cutting trees; it is about 5-10% faster than a rune hatchet. However, there are still debates on whether the rune hatchet is as effective as dragon hatchet if used on trees that are below Yew.

In the recent Q&A between some Jagex developers, Mod Mark released the exact differences between a Dragon hatchet and a Rune hatchet:

"Dragon axes are approximately 5 to 10% better than rune axes. This depends entirely on what sort of tree you are hitting and what your current Woodcutting level is, but it’s roughly 5-10% better. Having a better hatchet means more logs and therefore more xp. The nice thing about dragon axes is that they are rare enough to hold their trade values – this means you can be relatively safe in the knowledge that you can buy one and resell it. Any extra logs you did get from using it would more than pay for any money you might lose from a shifting resell price, assuming you used it efficiently while you were trying it out."

- Mod Mark

Special Attack
Like other dragon weapons, the hatchet has a special attack, which is called "Clobber". This lowers the target's Defence and Magic level by the amount of damage dealt. The special attack uses up 100% of the special attack bar. Clobber is especially useful when battling a Wild Jade vine. Although it is not quite an efficient melee weapon, its special attack is somewhat useful when fighting mages because it can lower their Magic level and their Defence to make them more vulnerable against attacks. However, overall, the special attack is highly disregarded, although it can be effective, as stated above. Clobber will not work while fighting evil trees.

Trivia

 * When it was released, the dragon hatchet simply was considered a more expensive, red-coloured Rune hatchet with better combat stats as it cut logs at the exact same rate (which Jagex actually confirmed in the knowledge base earlier). This was later updated, making the dragon hatchet the best hatchet in the game; it is now about 5-10% faster than a rune hatchet. Now it is popular among members for cutting trees such as Magic trees, Yew trees, Maple trees, and Willow trees due to its faster cutting speed that allows for more logs in the same amount of time; therefore, faster experience and cash if selling the logs.
 * The special attack animation was redone to make it smoother.
 * On 1 April 2009, Jagex officially changed the names of all Woodcutting "axes" to "hatchets" to avoid confusion with battleaxes and pickaxes.
 * Upon its release the Dragon Hatchet only needed a Woodcutting level of 41 (same as a rune hatchet), but this was changed the following week to a level of 61 that we see today.
 * Upon release of the Woodcutting Rebalance update on 23 September 2009, the Dragon Hatchet spiked in price, reaching slightly above 3 million coins.
 * Now most players use the Dragon hatchet for ivy since it goes faster than a Rune hatchet.