Evil Tree



Evil Tree is a part of Distractions and Diversions, released on 25 February 2009. This event can be done twice a day and helps players train their Woodcutting, Firemaking, and Farming skills. Most trees appear in waves every two hours, however trees still appear between waves, though it is at a much slower rate.

 Warning:  If players interact with a tree at any stage of development including farming it as a sapling, it counts as one of their trees for the day - even if they do not have the required levels to chop or burn it. So even if a player receives no reward, it still counts as one of the maximum two daily trees. The counter resets daily at 00:00 GMT. However, you must LOG OUT before it resets your clock.



Requirements

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

! Colspan="2" | Evil Tree || Woodcutting Level || Farming Level || Firemaking Level
 * Normal Evil Tree || Align="Center" | [[Image:Normal_tree.gif|Normal Evil Tree]] || 1  || 1 || 1
 * Oak Evil Tree || Align="Center" | [[Image:Oak_tree.gif|Oak Evil Tree]] || 15 || 7 || 15
 * Willow Evil Tree || Align="Center" | [[Image:Willow_tree.gif|Willow Evil Tree]] || 30 || 15 || 30
 * Maple Evil Tree || Align="Center" | [[Image:Maple_tree.gif|Maple Evil Tree]] || 45 || 22 || 45
 * Yew Evil Tree || Align="Center" | [[Image:Yew_tree.gif|Yew Evil Tree]] || 60 || 30 || 60
 * Magic Evil Tree || Align="Center" | [[Image:Magic_tree.gif|Magic Evil Tree]] || 75 || 37 || 75
 * Elder Evil Tree || Align="Center" | [[Image:Elder_tree.gif|Elder Evil Tree]] || 85 || 42 || 85
 * }
 * Yew Evil Tree || Align="Center" | [[Image:Yew_tree.gif|Yew Evil Tree]] || 60 || 30 || 60
 * Magic Evil Tree || Align="Center" | [[Image:Magic_tree.gif|Magic Evil Tree]] || 75 || 37 || 75
 * Elder Evil Tree || Align="Center" | [[Image:Elder_tree.gif|Elder Evil Tree]] || 85 || 42 || 85
 * }
 * Elder Evil Tree || Align="Center" | [[Image:Elder_tree.gif|Elder Evil Tree]] || 85 || 42 || 85
 * }
 * }

Item Requirements
These are items that are necessary for killing an Evil Tree:
 * Any hatchet (the higher, the better) to chop the tree. Machetes (including opal, jade or red-topaz bladed ones, obtained from the Tai-Bwo Wannai Cleanup or bought in the Grand Exchange) can also be used, they work better than axes at cutting Evil tree roots (a Red topaz machete is better than a Rune hatchet for cutting the Tree's roots, but not for cutting the Tree itself). The game will automatically make you use a machete while cutting the roots if it is better than your axe.
 * A tinderbox to set the tree on fire.
 * Note that the leprechaun will give you a free hatchet and tinderbox, however it will only be a Bronze hatchet, and thus fairly ineffective at cutting the higher level trees. Bringing a tinderbox will save time if you intend to burn the tree, but this is not a requirement, and full reward can be received without one.

In addition, completion of Tree Gnome Village is strongly advised for the farming experience. Without it, finding a sapling will be very hard, unless you have friends who tell you where it is.

Hints and signs
Evil trees are spawned similarly to Shooting Stars. They appear in waves every 2 hours, however there are a few evil trees which appear between waves, albeit at a much slower rate. Different worlds spawn trees at different times, so it is possible for players to cut a tree on one world, then switch worlds to cut another.

Evil Trees first appear as a sapling, which can be nurtured by players for farming XP. After a short while, typically a few minutes, the sapling will grow into a full Evil Tree. Players can tell that an Evil Tree or sapling is nearby because roots will shoot out of the ground near any player walking close to the tree. These roots will sometimes appear more than 10 paces away from the actual tree.

Players who have completed Tree Gnome Village have their Evil Tree hunting made much easier with the use of Spirit Trees. Spirit Trees will do two things to aid players. Firstly they will tell you where you can find saplings. Their knowledge of human geography is limited, however, so they only give vague hints. The tree will only provide hints if a sapling is currently growing. Since saplings only exist for a few minutes before becoming an Evil Tree, it is uncommon that a casual player will talk to a spirit tree while a sapling is up. This particular mechanic resulted in many players believing that the hints system was broken.

The second way that spirit trees will aid players in hunting Evil Trees is, when a sapling becomes an evil tree, the spirit tree will teleport the player directly to the tree. This does not count as interacting with the tree, so it will not use up one of your two opportunities for the day. There is no way, however, to teleport back to where you came from, and players must make their own way back to civilization. Also investigating the tree is not touching the tree. This means you should investigate before cutting so you can see how much health remains on the tree, what kind of tree it is and how much chance you have on a reward.

On 17 March 2009 the Spirit trees were given the ability to tell players approximately how long it would be until the next Evil Tree. When one is about to appear, the Spirit tree will say that another strange sapling is about to sprout for the final 5 minutes.

Killing an Evil Tree


When confronting an Evil Tree, it shakes wildly, lashing out its branches. Evil Trees cannot deal any damage, but the roots may stun people. Players should start off by chopping the Evil Tree. Periodically, a root will shoot out from the ground. If players are standing on top of an area where a root shoots out, they will automatically dive out of the way. If the root is chopped down, the player will be given an Evil tree kindling. The kindling may be used to set the tree on fire with a tinderbox. A player can set up to eight fires around the tree. In terms of rewards gain, it is best to light fires early, when the tree is still healthy, since the fires do damage-over-time (and the rewards are based on the damage done). Lighting all 8 fires can take quite a while, especially if the Evil Tree summons a lot of roots. Therefore, if the Tree is almost dying, a player will earn, in the end, more reward % by chopping the tree rather than trying to light fires, as the fires wouldn't have enough time to deal a lot of damage (the act of lighting fires itself does not increase rewards, only the subsequent damage caused by them). This is of course considering the player does not desire Firemaking XP, and only wants to maximise their rewards % gain.

The mechanics of the tree's health and reward systems are not fully known, so many theories about them are unproven. Some of the theories/rumors are:
 * That lighting fires around the evil tree will result in a lower reward percentage for everyone other than the player who lit them, because doing so shortens the tree's life span.
 * That cutting roots alone does not raise your reward potential.
 * That trees will stay up for a minimum time period regardless of their remaining health. This allegedly is the cause of evil trees which remain standing well after their health reaches 0%.
 * That the tree's will remain standing until someone reaches a reward of 100%, even if the tree's health is at 0% (this may also be connected with the above statement).

Locations with hints

 * See Distractions and Diversions Locations for more information.

Hints are given by Spirit trees when a evil tree is a strange sapling just before it grows into an evil tree.

So far, these are the 27 possible tree locations:

 Image:Fally-evil-tree.png|Mine west of Falador Image:Monastery.png|Monastery Image:Relekka_evil_tree.png|Relekka Image:Ranging_guild_evil_tree.gif|Ranging Guild Image:Legends.png|Legends' Guild Image:Nature_alter.gif|Nature Alter Image:Brimhaven_evil_tree.png|Brimhaven Image:Lumbridge_evil_tree.png|Lumbridge Image:Varrock_evil_tree.gif|Varrock Image:Tyres.png|Tyras Image:Eviltreeseers.png|Seers 

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 kindlings, 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 and Flame gloves 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
 * 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 || ~88
 * }
 * Yew || 172.5 || 1,112.5 || 12.5 || 64
 * Magic || 311 || 1,517.5 || 15 || 71
 * Elder || 687.5 || 2,000.5 || 17 || ~88
 * }
 * Elder || 687.5 || 2,000.5 || 17 || ~88
 * }
 * }

Additional rewards



 * You can sell the Evil tree kindling to the leprechaun for 25 coins each, or choose to keep the kindlings to be used in future Evil trees (there is no difference between kindlings from each type of Evil tree, i.e kindlings that came from Evil Oak trees can be used to light Evil Yew trees).
 * When the Evil Tree is killed, additional rewards are given. This final reward is based off the damage that players contributed to the tree.
 * Players may see their reward earned so far, and the remaining health of the tree by using the "Inspect" option.
 * Players can get the following items from the evil tree as a reward:
 * Noted logs of the same type as the tree (Note: Elder trees offer noted Yew, Magic, Teak or Mahogany logs)
 * Bird's nest - holds rings, tree or fruit tree seeds, or a bird's egg.
 * Level 1 Clue scroll
 * Key halves
 * Coins
 * Tree seeds
 * Can keep and bank Evil tree kindling for quick burning of the next tree you see
 * Ability to have logs "magically escorted" to the players bank while Woodcutting if their inventory is full for 2-30 minutes.
 * This ability is ONLY active for Normal, Oak, Willow, Maple, Yew, and Magic trees.
 * Message: The leprechaun snaps their fingers, and you are granted a magical log-banking ability for the next x minutes.
 * If no room in bank: Your bank is too full to hold any more logs.
 * Significantly reduced chance of a tree being felled when a log is harvested for up to 30 minutes
 * This works on all trees including normal trees, so players may collect more than one (or two with Seers' headband) from each tree.
 * Note this does not work if another player is cutting the same tree, so it is important to have a tree to oneself.
 * A significantly increased chance of having birds' nests fall out of trees during the time you have the log teleport magic.

Log teleportation

 * Players wishing to take advantage of this feature should consider cutting trees which yield logs very fast.
 * The maple trees north of Seer's Village are a good choice because not many people use them, there are a lot of maple trees in a close area, and a player can use the Seers' headband 2 or Seers' headband 3 to get more experience.
 * For lower level, players may consider to chop lower level trees for faster exp. Good choices are close to teleport spots but far from bank because less regular WoodCutting training players there. Examples:
 * Willow trees outside Crafting Guild (using Skills Necklace)
 * Willow trees near the Lady of the Lake in Taverley (using Balloon transport system)
 * Oak trees just south of cabbage patch or willow trees just south of Spirit Tree Patch in Port Sarim. (using Explorer's Ring 3)
 * Logging out pauses the remaining log teleportation time.

Maximum rewards
The following table shows the maximum reward possible (if 100% of the reward is achieved - a lower percentage reduces the rewards accordingly):


 * {| class="wikitable"

! Evil Tree || Logs || Gold coins || Duration of log teleportation
 * Normal || 16|| 159 || 6 minutes
 * Oak || 34 || 302 || 10 minutes
 * Willow || 94 || 565 || 14 minutes
 * Maple || 91 || 1,099 || 18 minutes
 * Yew || 15 || 2,257 || 22 minutes
 * Magic || 10 || 4,315 || 26 minutes
 * Elder || 316 Teak or 137 Mahogany or 57 Yews or 25 Magic || 8,166 || 30 minutes
 * }
 * Yew || 15 || 2,257 || 22 minutes
 * Magic || 10 || 4,315 || 26 minutes
 * Elder || 316 Teak or 137 Mahogany or 57 Yews or 25 Magic || 8,166 || 30 minutes
 * }
 * Elder || 316 Teak or 137 Mahogany or 57 Yews or 25 Magic || 8,166 || 30 minutes
 * }
 * }

Music
Music track unlocked:


 * Trees aren't your Friends

Trivia

 * On the day of release, a Server blackout occurred. The Grand Exchange was also affected with spikes in prices; some items rose over 200,000% in a single day.
 * 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 are now able to get the adamant gloves from the Culinaromancer's chest, this is because trees that are located on Ape Atoll allow pures to travel there without receiving defence experience from Daero which is mandatory if a player wants to return to Ape Atoll after they have completed Monkey Madness. In addition to this Initiate pures can now get rune gloves in a similar fashion.  A later change on March 17, 2009 allowed players to reach Ape Atoll through Daero without accepting his reward, enabling pures to reach Ape Atoll without waiting for an Evil Tree.
 * Because the warning saying: 'The leprechaun's magic will fade in 5 minutes' (note that there is no full stop) is the same length as 'The logs are magically escorted to your bank.' the message is often missed. The 1 minute warning is longer, and so is easier to notice.