OSRS F2P Woodcutting: Willows vs Yews 30–99 XP Guide

Game screenshots and facts are cited from the Old School RuneScape Wiki (strategy, equipment, drops, and related pages). Writing is original editorial, not a copy of the wiki article.

For a free-to-play account, Woodcutting is one of the most accessible gathering skills. It requires no upfront cash, no complex quest chains, and can be trained semi-AFK while watching a stream or planning a bankstanding session. But once you hit level 30 and unlock willows, the real question becomes: do you camp Draynor Village for fast, bankable logs, or grind yews at Edgeville for more valuable but slower logs? This guide breaks down the two most common F2P paths from 30 to 99, comparing XP per hour, profit, attention required, and the supplies you actually need. We’ll also cover when buying gold or a service is an honest time-saver.

Who This Is For: Requirements & Skill Bracket

Before you compare methods, make sure your account is ready. Willows unlock at level 30 Woodcutting, while yews require level 60. In free-to-play, the best axe you can use is a rune axe, which itself requires only 41 Woodcutting to wield (though you can use it from inventory at any level if you can obtain one). Attack level does not matter for chopping—axes work from inventory. If you are below level 30, train on regular trees and oaks first; the free-to-play training page recommends oaks until level 30 if dropping, or until 60 if banking near Varrock west bank.

Willow Method: Draynor Village Banking

Draynor Village is the classic F2P willow spot. The patch of willow trees sits directly south-west of the bank, close enough that you can bank a full inventory in under 15 seconds. The proximity makes banking willow logs viable, and the trees have a relatively short 30-second despawn timer and 8.4-second respawn time, meaning you rarely have to wait long between trees. Willows grant 67.5 experience per log, and at higher levels you can chop them quickly. The main danger is the aggressive dark wizards that wander near the trees; they can hit hard on low-level accounts, so bring food or train here only after you have enough Hitpoints to tank a few hits.

To train efficiently, some players drop willow logs instead of banking. Dropping allows you to stay at the trees without running to the bank, which can increase XP per hour significantly if you are fast with shift-click. However, banking willows is often only slightly slower because the bank is so close, and it adds stackable profit. The free-to-play training guide notes that banking oak and willow logs makes experience rates equal, implying that the bank trip is offset by the value of the logs.

Yew Method: Edgeville Bank

Yews unlock at level 60 and are the highest-tier tree available in free-to-play. The most popular spot is just south of Edgeville bank, where two yew trees are a short run from the deposit box. Unlike willows, yews have a much longer despawn timer of 1 minute 54 seconds and a respawn timer of 59.4 seconds, so you will often wait for the tree to reappear. This makes yews more AFK—you can click the tree, then look away for a while—but also significantly slower in terms of logs per hour. At level 60, your success rate at yews is low, so the XP per hour is poor compared to willows. As you approach level 80+, yews become more consistent, but they still generally lag behind willows for pure XP. The trade-off is profit: yew logs sell for more than willow logs, and because the bank is close, you can accumulate decent gold over the long grind.

XP & Profit at a Glance

The table below summarises the key differences between banking willows at Draynor and cutting yews at Edgeville. Use it to decide which method matches your goals—fast XP or AFK profit.

Strategy: Balancing XP and AFK

Your choice between Draynor willows and Edgeville yews depends on how you value your time and attention. If you can actively play or semi-AFK and want 99 as soon as possible, willows are almost always better until at least level 90, and often all the way to 99. The faster tree respawn and faster chopping keep your XP rate high. Yews only begin to compete in profit at higher levels when your success rate improves, but even then, the XP/hr remains significantly lower.

One effective hybrid strategy is to cut willows until your Woodcutting level is in the mid-80s, then switch to yews when you need more AFK time or want to build a cash stack. This way you bank fast XP early and then coast on profit later. Alternatively, if you are buying gold, the profit difference becomes less important, and you can stick with willows the whole way.

AFK vs Efficient Training

Woodcutting in F2P can be as active or as passive as you want. Efficient players drop all logs and use every trick to reset the 4-tick chopping cycle. The free-to-play training page describes a 3-tick willow method using a snow globe from a Christmas event, which can boost XP by up to 33% if executed perfectly. This requires constant attention and precise timing—not something you do while watching Netflix. For most players, banking willows or afking yews is more realistic.

At the other end, cutting yews at Edgeville is the definition of low-intensity: click a tree, wait for it to deplete, click another tree or the bank when you notice. Because the trees last nearly two minutes, you can browse other tabs or even play another account. The downside is that yews are slow XP; if you want to reach 99 quickly, willows are the better choice even if you bank every inventory.

Supplies & Equipment

Your only required item is an axe. In F2P, the progression is bronze, iron, steel, black, mithril, adamant, and rune. The rune axe is the best available and can be used from level 41 Woodcutting. There are no felling axes or dragon axes in free-to-play. If you have membership, felling axes with forester's rations add 10% XP, but this guide is for pure F2P accounts. Aside from the axe, you might want a few pieces of food if training at Draynor, and optionally a log basket? Log basket is members only, so not relevant. For F2P, inventory space is all you have; dropping logs quickly with shift-click is essential for efficient training.

Felling axes and dragon axes are members-only, as is the log basket. If you ever upgrade to membership, the dragon axe and felling axes become relevant, but for F2P, the rune axe is your ceiling.

Drops and Loot: What You Actually Get

Both methods produce logs, but the value per log and per hour differs. Willow logs are low-value but stack quickly; yew logs are pricier but slower to accumulate. At current Grand Exchange prices (check live market), yew logs often sell for 3–5 times more than willows, but you cut far fewer per hour. A typical semi-attentive player might bank 400 willow logs per hour versus 120 yew logs at level 70. That means yews could net more GP per hour even with fewer logs. However, when you factor in the XP difference, willows are still the clear winner for reaching 99 fast.

Because this is free-to-play, you won't get bird nests, clue scrolls, or other members-only drops. The only loot is logs. If you are considering buying gold, compare your potential profit per hour against the market rate; sometimes it's more efficient to buy.

Walkthrough: 30 to 99 Without Burning Out

Here's a practical, level-by-level plan that balances XP and sanity.

• Level 30–41: Cut willow trees at Draynor. Bank every inventory; the run is short. Use the best axe you can (iron, steel, etc.). Beware dark wizards; bring food or avoid if low HP.
• Level 41–60: Upgrade to a rune axe. Continue banking willows. If you're getting bored, alternate with oaks? But willows are better. Set small goals like 100 logs per session.
• Level 60–80: You can now cut yews, but your success rate is low. For fastest XP, stay at willows. If you want to start building gold, do a mix: cut yews when AFK, willows when active.
• Level 80–99: By now yews are more consistent, but willows still offer faster XP. Decide based on your remaining time and GP needs. Many players switch to yews for the final stretch to make money while finishing the grind.

Remember to take breaks. Woodcutting is a marathon; consistent sessions beat burnout.

Common Mistakes

Many players sabotage their own progress by making avoidable mistakes. First, using a low-tier axe when a better one is available. Second, attempting yews right at level 60 when your success rate is abysmal and willows are far better XP. Third, ignoring the dark wizards at Draynor and dying. Fourth, not banking when the bank is steps away—dropping willows when you could bank them for profit is only worth it if you can drop extremely fast and value XP over gold. Finally, some players forget that tree respawn timers reset if you stop chopping; if you click away and come back, the timer may have reset, wasting your time.

Additional mistakes include: forgetting to upgrade your axe at level 41 (the rune axe is significantly faster), not using shift-click to drop logs quickly when training efficiently, trying to 3-tick willows without understanding the timing and wasting more time than you save, and ignoring the fact that the Edgeville yews are often crowded, which reduces your effective logs per hour due to competition.

Time-to-Goal & Milestones

The total experience from level 30 to 99 is 13,021,068 XP (assuming you just hit 30 at 13,363 XP). The free-to-play training page lists 189,047 willow logs required from 30 to 99 if you use willows the entire way. At 67.5 XP each, that's 12,760,672 XP, which matches the cumulative XP gain listed in the table. How long that takes depends entirely on your logs per hour. A semi-attentive player banking willows might manage 350–450 logs per hour, while a tick manipulator could exceed 800. Banking yews typically yields far fewer logs per hour—often under 150 at lower levels, rising to maybe 250 at 90+. For a realistic estimate, track your own logs per hour over a few sessions, then divide 189,047 by that number. Most players should expect 200–400 hours for 30–99 if they stick with willows and play casually.

The Honest Shortcut: Gold or Boost

Some players enjoy the grind; others value their time. If you want to reach 99 Woodcutting without spending hundreds of hours clicking trees, you have two legitimate options. First, you can buy gold to afford better skilling supplies or to fund your bond for membership, which unlocks faster methods like teak tick manipulation. Second, you can hire a reputable service to train Woodcutting on your account while you focus on work or other games. Neither option breaks the game rules if you use a trusted marketplace, and both are honest acknowledgements that your time has a price. At GP Trillionaire, we offer live gold rates and power-leveling services. Check the market for current prices.

View live gold rates

If you're also training other F2P gathering skills, compare methods in our F2P Fishing 40–99 guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Woodcutting – OSRS Wiki
• Free-to-play Woodcutting training – OSRS Wiki
• Pay-to-play Woodcutting training – OSRS Wiki