If you go down to the Grove today
The fort is coming along well, if we do say so ourselves, with the Raptor's help the local undead are kept in check and it is time to think bigger and for that, we are gonna need a lot more wood. Thankfully a dashing lumberjack has shown up on your doorstep at an opportune time.
This update will see you setting up a little Grove of your own to help supply the Fort with the raw materials it will need to sustain itself and pick up a few Woodcutting tips and tricks along the way.
- Step into the Woodcutter's Grove, an enchanting thicket of logs and lumber!
- Located right outside your Fort it is one of the most convenient spots to work on your Woodcutting levels
- Level up the Grove and unlock access to more trees and the brand - new T80 Imcando Hatchet
- Use the new Wood Boxes and Wood Spirits to harvest logs en masse!
- Play it live June 19th!
Chop Chop
With our defences fortified and new threats seemingly looming in the shadows, it's a good time to stock up on resources and push out into the Wilderness to reclaim more of the land.
With the help of Oak your new Lumberjack/Grovekeeper we will push just outside of our gates and begin setting up a Grove to help supply the fort with lumber.
Woodcutters' Grove & Cabin
As with the previous updates, there is a new shiny extension to the Fort, this time in the form of a domicile for your new Woodcutting friend and the adjacent Grove he will be managing and cultivating for you.
Don't forget to build the Eastern Gate from your Miscellaneous menu to let you upgrade to tier 2!
Updates to Woodcutting
With this update, we will be giving Woodcutting a modest refresh to bring it more in line with other skills. A lot of this involves behind the scene rearrangements of systems that will allow us to more easily and actively update aspects of the skill - such as adding in new Hatchets or Trees and other rewards. We will continue to improve on the core skill in the future and updates like this help to streamline that process.
With that said, there are plenty of updates that players will be able to sink their hatchets into.
Hatchet Rebalance
Alongside adding in the new Imcando Hatchet, the requirements for hatchets have been re-tiered (no more needing odd levels like 41) and some of the previous tiers have been rebalanced to better reflect this new tier scale.
Looking at how we could add the Imcando hatchet - and better hatchets in future - gave us the opportunity to review the previous balance of the tiers and smooth them out. Previously it was more inconsistent going from Adamant → Rune, which was a massive difference, than Dragon → Crystal which is a noticeably smaller jump.
- Hatchet rebalance
- Dragon: T55 → T60
- Crystal: T57.5 → T70
- Hatchet requirements are re-tiered
- 1 to 80 instead of requiring odd values like 51
Tree rebalance
One of the biggest aims of this update is to add more consistency to skill, so we have rebalanced the tiers to update every 10 tiers and promoted Acadia to a "core" type.
- Log levels and requirements are re-tiered
- Wood 1 → 1
- Oak 15 → 10
- Willow 30 → 20
- Teak 35 → 30
- Maple 45 → 40
- Acadia 47 → 50
- Mahogany 50 → 60
- Yew 60 → 70
- Magic 75 → 80
- Elder 90 → 90
- Quick notes for the above information
- No XP numbers or amounts are being shown as this is a representation of the differences between live and rebalanced numbers.
- Not all trees are being shown here to help illustrate this update to the core trees.
- The player woodcutting level is presumed to be 99
- The "live" value is based on the assumption we did the same dragon→crystal power increase for crystal→imcando
- These numbers are based on 1500 cuts per hour. With trees being felled players will realistically hit lower values, but it's best to have a consistent baseline to compare.
The aim is to keep the current status quo at the top end of the XP rate and then reduce that back down gradually for trees that give more desirable resources, this raises the "floor" of the skill making different trees more useful for different goals.
| Tree | Chop Speed | XP per cut |
|---|---|---|
| Hollow | Reduced - but more likely to succeed at higher levels | |
| Maple | Significantly Increased | |
| Mahogany | Increased | |
| Arctic pine | Increased | 140.2 → 145 |
| Eucalyptus | Increased | |
| Yew | Significantly Increased | 175 → 187.5 |
| Magic | Significantly Increased | 250 → 365 |
| Blisterwood | 2000 → 2650 | |
| Elder | Increased | 3250 → 4250 |
| Crystal | Changed to follow regular formula | 4345 → 3500 |
| Golden bamboo | Changed to follow regular formula | |
| Jadinko Lair (Roots near queen) | 1400 → 1616 | |
| Acadia | Increased slightly | 920 → 800 |
Rewards
| Building | Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woodcutter's Grove | Access to normal trees and oak trees in the Woodcutters' Grove. Ability to store log spirits in the Wood box. Log piles in the Woodcutters' grove can be used to deposit logs directly to the bank. Bird's nests found whilst woodcutting are automatically placed into the backpack. |
Access to willow trees, yew trees and choking ivy in the Woodcutters' Grove. Access to a fairy ring in the Woodcutters' Grove. Access to a Farming tree patch in the Woodcutters' Grove. Bird's nests can be stored in the wood box. Bird's nests found whilst woodcutting are automatically stored into the woodbox. |
Access to an elder tree in the Woodcutters' Grove. Ability to obtain Imcando Hatchet pieces from bird's nests. Bird's nests obtained from woodcutting after completing this upgrade have improved rewards. Thurgo can create an Imcando Hatchet will all four Imcando Hatchet pieces and additional materials. |
Trees
It's a whole diverse Grove! There is an abundance and variety of trees from regular all the way up to even Elder!
This will be one of the most convenient ways to level up Woodcutting from 1 - 99 and with an ample supply of materials new Planks and Wooden Frames can also be made. Such as:
- Maple
- Acadia
- Yew
- Magic
- Elder
With the addition of these new Planks and Frames we have also rebalanced the Forts Core Buildings material costs.
These changes are being made so we can substantially increase the XP for making the higher Tier buildings in order to make this a viable training method for Construction as intended. To compensate, the material cost has been increased.
| Building | Level req | Frame type | Frame amount | Base XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workshop T1 | 1 | Normal | 8 | 2,880.00 |
| Grove T1 | 5 | Normal | 8 | 2,880.00 |
| Townhall T1 | 10 | Oak | 10 | 5,400.00 |
| Chapel T1 | 15 | Oak | 10 | 5,400.00 |
| Kitchen T1 | 20 | Willow | 12 | 9,360.00 |
| Command Center T1 | 25 | Willow | 12 | 9,360.00 |
| Grove T2 | 30 | Teak | 20 | 21,600.00 |
| Workshop T2 | 35 | Teak | 20 | 21,600.00 |
| Guardhouse T1 | 40 | Maple | 14 | 20,160.00 |
| Townhall T2 | 45 | Maple | 22 | 31,680.00 |
| Kitchen T2 | 50 | Acadia | 22 | 40,920.00 |
| Chapel T2 | 55 | Acadia | 24 | 44,640.00 |
| Grove T3 | 60 | Mahogany | 48 | 112,320.00 |
| Guardhouse T2 | 65 | Mahogany | 26 | 60,840.00 |
| Command Center T2 | 70 | Yew | 26 | 74,880.00 |
| Workshop T3 | 75 | Yew | 48 | 138,240.00 |
| Townhall T3 | 80 | Magic | 60 | 208,800.00 |
| Kitchen T3 | 85 | Magic | 50 | 174,000.00 |
| Chapel T3 | 90 | Elder | 50 | 207,000.00 |
| Guardhouse T3 | 95 | Elder | 70 | 289,800.00 |
| Command Center T3 | 99 | Elder | 80 | 331,200.00 |
Imcando Hatchet
A brand new best-in-slot T80 Augmentable Hatchet! Once you have unlocked Tier 3 of the Grove you will be able to find fragments of the hatchet in birds nests. Once you have gathered all the pieces Thurgo can help you out.
Wood box
Introducing Wood Boxes! The Ore Box’s more sustainable cousin! Use your fletching skill to create these new boxes to store all the wood you will be chopping.
- Basic Wood Box stores Logs and Achey
- Oak Wood Box stores Oak Logs
- Willow Wood Box stores Willow Logs
- Teak Wood Box stores Teak Logs
- Maple Wood Box stores Maple
- Acadia Wood Box stores Acadia, Artic Pine and Eucalyptus Logs
- Mahogany Wood Box stores Mahogany Logs
- Yew Wood Box stores Yew Logs
- Magic Wood Box stores Magic, Blisterwood, Cursed Magic Logs
- Elder Wood Box stores Elder Logs
- All Wood Boxes will store previous-tier materials and so upgrading to the next box will not remove any utility.
You can upgrade these boxes from Basic to Elder, To upgrade your Wood Box, use a previously crafted Wood Box along with the next tier of logs to start crafting!
Log Piles
You will find Log Piles scattered around the Grove that you can use to deposit your logs and empty your Wood Box directly into your bank!
Bird's Nests
Upon building the Grove you will automatically begin collecting Bird's Nests that drop. At Tier 1 they will go into your Backpack, at Tier 2 they will go into your Wood Box if you have one with you. At Tier 3 you will be able to find the Imcando Fragments in these nests and higher tier seeds!
Wood spirits
Similar to Stone Spirits, Wood Spirits are an item that while chopping relevant trees (e.g Willow Spirit → Willow Tree) will be consumed to grant an additional log to increase your logging potential massively!
It's worth mentioning these new Wood Spirits have not been added to any boss drop tables.
Fairy Ring & Tree Patch
Once you upgrade the Grove to Tier 2 you will gain access to the Fairy Ring making transport to various locations even easier and a Tree Patch that you can use to grow even more trees.
What do I need to do to get started?
To get started with the Woodcutter's Grove you will need to have completed Unwelcome Guests and built your Guardhouse at Tier 1. Once you have completed that you can speak with Bill or Aster about the recently arrived Lumberjack and start your new adventure there!
Also you can check out our recent stream for further insights into the Grove!