Strange things are afoot in the woods around RuneScape. An unusual sapling has been seen sprouting among the trees, and it’s growing at an alarming rate. Aided by a familiar-looking farmer, you could help encourage this burgeoning seedling - but keep an axe and tinderbox handy because it could become…an evil tree!

For the lumberjacks and fire-starters among you, this distraction and diversion offers a new way of training your Firemaking and Woodcutting skills; and there are other rewards up for grabs, too, including seeds, logs, birds’ nests, and gold. Like the Shooting Star, evil trees will only stick around for a limited amount of time, so make sure you don’t miss them or you’ll be waiting a while for the next one.

...And if you find yourself face to face with an evil tree without your axe, miles from a bank, don’t worry! The helpful leprechaun has all the tools you’ll need. He might even bolster your rewards with a special ability that will automatically bank any logs you don’t have the space to carry. This perk will last for between five and thirty minutes, depending on your performance.

Mod Trick
RuneScape Developer

Summary:
How to find an evil tree:

Evil trees can appear in one of 26 forest locations; just keep an eye out for leprechauns and thrashing roots (which might try to grab you). If you have completed the Tree Gnome Village quest, spirit trees will offer you directions, clues and teleports.

Requirements to complete Evil Tree:

There are seven types of evil tree, of varying difficulty: normal, oak, willow, maple, yew, magic and elder.
Woodcutting and Firemaking requirements are the same as those required for normal trees, with a level requirement of 85 for the elder evil tree.
To nurture the sapling you will need a Farming level equal to half the Woodcutting requirement of the tree.

You can interact with the evil tree twice a day.

In Other News...

Some of you may have noticed that we are now asking for email addresses when a new account is created. This information may be used in the future to send you important service announcements, or to help recover a lost password (although we will NEVER contact you by email to ask you for your password).

A priority system has been added to the waiting rooms of Soul Wars. Now, players who have been waiting to join a game will be given priority over those who have not been waiting as long. Please note that the priority system does not override the balancing rules, so you will still not be added to a game if there is no room on your chosen team. If you see on the waiting room display that your current team already has too many people, try joining the other team.

Players who have completed the Animal Magnetism quest and have Ava’s Attractor or Accumulator can show it to Nomad to have him enchant their Soul Wars team capes for them. Once enchanted, your cape will return ammunition in much the same way that the Attractor or Accumulator would. Once your cape has been enchanted you don’t need to keep the Attractor or Accumulator with you for the effect to work in Soul Wars.

The Soul Wars avatars have been granted more power! Now, when the avatars make an attack against a player they will absorb some of that player’s Prayer points!

Players knowingly entering a game of Soul Wars that is more than half way through will no longer be awarded any Zeal for their participation in that game. Note that this will only occur if you deliberately enter a half-finished game – if you have been waiting to join a game and not yet been allowed in, you will not be affected. You will be informed of this when you enter a waiting room.

Players in Soul Wars can no longer pick up bandages from the supply areas while they are in combat.

It is no longer possible to cast the Alchemy or Hunter Kit spells in Soul Wars, or light fires in the waiting area.

Finally, in non-Soul Wars-related news, Lokar Searunner, Captain Bentley and Bill Teach now have right-click options so you can travel around a bit faster.