Sulliuscep/Strategies
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Training Woodcutting by chopping sulliusceps is one of the fastest ways to obtain fossils and also provides the fastest Woodcutting experience to 99 without using any sort of tick manipulation.
Despite having a designated world (321), it can be beneficial to have as few players as possible when Sulliuscep cutting. Tar Monsters spawned by other players may target you even in ordinarily safe areas, thereby increasing overall damage taken. Additionally, thick vines and rakes cleared by players can mess up your routine or cause pathing issues when you click beyond them but they respawn.
Requirements
65 Woodcutting
- Completion of Bone Voyage
- A minimum of
11 Hitpoints (spine mushrooms hit for 10 damage), although higher Hitpoints and Defence are highly recommended to prolong trips. Note that Saradomin brews can be used to boost HP beyond 10 for low level accounts while running past spine mushrooms, but the majority of damage taken is from Tar Monsters with a max hit of 9.
Setup
- Footnotes
- ^ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Increases experience gained.
- ^ Nullifies poison. Only if holy symbol & prayer book is not being used.
- ^ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Each piece of the Graceful outfit increases run energy restoration rate by 3-4% depending on the item.
- ^ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 Maximizes prayer bonus, for the use of Rapid Heal and Preserve. Less important if hitpoints cape is being used.
- ^ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 Provides ranged defence against the Tar Monsters.
- ^ Only if prayer book is being used.
- ^ 7.0 7.1 Increases health regen.
- ^ Provides damage reduction, ideal for tanking the Tar Monsters' attacks.
- ^ Only if crystal axe is being used.
- ^ Allows you to use the dragon axe spec more often.
Inventory
- Digsite pendant if mounted digsite pendant is not owned
- Prayer book, serpentine helm, or antidote++
- Rake
- Banking teleport such as Varrock teleport
- Food
- Footnotes
- ^ Nullifies poison. Only if holy symbol & prayer book is not being used.
- ^ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 Provides ranged defence against the Tar Monsters.
- ^ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 Maximizes prayer bonus, for the use of Rapid Heal and Preserve. Less important if hitpoints cape is being used.
- ^ Only if prayer book is being used.
- ^ 5.0 5.1 Increases health regen.
- ^ Provides damage reduction, ideal for tanking the Tar Monsters' attacks.
- ^ Only if crystal axe is being used.
- ^ Allows you to use the dragon axe spec more often.
Inventory
- Digsite pendant if mounted digsite pendant is not owned
- Prayer book, serpentine helm, or antidote++
- Rake
- Banking teleport such as Varrock teleport
- Food
Note: the paragraphs below describe a strategy that involves tanking damage from the Tar Monsters. For a strategy that allows for stunning them and not taking damage, see "Alternate strategy - Hoop snakes" at the end of the page.
Tar Monsters deal Ranged Typeless damage, so the goal of this gear setup is to maximise Ranged Defence bonus, utilise the healing potential of the Hitpoints cape combined with the Regen bracelet, and cure poison for the longest possible trips. If using a serpentine helm or antidotes to cure poison, the ideal neck slot item is an amulet of fury to maximise defence, as the holy symbol is only utilised to enable the usage of the prayer book.
Saradomin brews are ideal for extending trips as long as possible; however, jugs of wine are also viable for saving costs. Especially when using the Hitpoints cape and regen bracelet, very little healing is required throughout each run, and as little as one Saradomin brew may sustain a character through a whole hour.
Another option is to use the Saradomin godsword special attack on Hoop Snakes to heal and recharge prayer points lost from using the Rapid Heal prayer and the prayer book antipoison cure, but this means that you will not be able to boost your woodcutting level with the Dragon Axe special attack.
For the longest possible trip, a prayer book is highly recommended as there are only two opportunities to be poisoned throughout a whole run and curing each instance of poison only costs 2 Prayer points. Alternatively, one may equip a serpentine helm when passing a spine mushroom and re-equip their lumberjack hat, or use antidote++, which provides immunity to poison for 48 minutes per potion.
While Dinh's bulwark is ideal for maximising ranged defence, you can also use any tank shield along with an equipped axe - examples include an elysian spirit shield or a dragonfire shield. When doing runs with a Dinh's bulwark, it is optimal to switch to the axe to use the special ability whenever possible.
A Reagent pouch can be used to hold Mort myre fungus collected, though it must be filled manually.
Strategy
You must chop the Sulliusceps in the order indicated in the picture. Every Sulliuscep will respawn in the same exact order (from 1 to 6). After the 6th mushroom is chopped, you should use the Rubber cap mushroom (marked with the red circle) just north of tree #5 to return to tree #1, then repeat. This is slightly faster than teleporting back to the House on the Hill and using the mushroom teleport, but keep in mind the mushroom pit must be filled with 9 mushrooms or you will take an extreme amount of damage (40-50 health). When you return to tree #1, you must refill the mud pit with 9 mushrooms for your next cycle.
Another strategy is to teleport to your house after the last mushroom is cut, use your ornate rejuvenation pool to heal to full HP, then use your Mounted digsite pendant to teleport back to Fossil Island. Using this method, you will never need to bank for food as you won't use food, and if you have 99 Construction, you save on even more inventory space as you can wear your construction cape.
For low level irons or players not using house teleports, mounted digsite pendant, or the mud pit; a third strategy is to run north after cutting down the most northern sulliuscep. Deposit any gathered fossils near the Mycelium pool, then take the Mushroom Meadow mushtree back to the Sticky Swamp. To refill on food, simply run to the base camp bank chest before running north.
Traversing the swamp can be very dangerous. You will need to chop the roots in order to pass farther into the swamp, and one section in the middle (from #3 to #4) needs to be raked. Unnecessary delay between trees should be avoided to minimise damage from Tar Monsters.
Some of the bubbles in the swamp are labelled as "Tar Bubbles." These will spawn level 132 Tar Monsters which have a maximum hit of 9 and deal Typeless Ranged damage, which cannot be prayed against but can be avoided if you stay over 2 tiles away from the moving Tar Bubbles. To minimise damage intake, you may want to switch worlds when passing back through areas with spawned Tar monsters. Turning auto retaliate off will prevent you from running back to attack the tar monsters.
Lastly, there are spine mushroom along the path (notably on the route to and from #2) that have a chance to attack you for 10 damage and poison you. If using a Serpentine helm, this is when you should swap to it to prevent the poison; otherwise, use your Prayer Book or Antidote at this time. There is only one other spine mushroom that may attack you along the whole route; it is located directly west of the #3 mushroom, but you are only attacked by it if you run up to the left side of the Sulliuscep while chopping, so it may normally be avoided.
At 65 Woodcutting, without the lumberjack outfit, you can expect about 55,000–65,000 experience per hour here depending on focus and strategy. At 75 Woodcutting with the lumberjack outfit, experience rates go up to around 80,000 experience per hour. At 90 Woodcutting with a lumberjack outfit, expect about 97,000 experience per hour. At 99 Woodcutting, experience rates can reach up to 100,000–110,000 experience per hour.
Alternate Strategy - Hoop Snakes
Tar Monster damage can be entirely avoided by using hoop snakes to stun them while they are in their "Tar Bubbles" form; this will cause the tar monster to become a "Passive Tar Monster" for around 20 in-game ticks where it cannot attack or move, which is more than enough time to safely pass. A player must wait until the thrown snake has reached the monster before entering its aggro radius to avoid an initial attack.
A hoop snake can also be used on a regular Tar Monster to turn it into a "Passive Tar Monster" and avoid further attacks.
To capture the hoop snakes, set your axe attack option to the Crush style, which will allow you to successfully "Stun" the hoop snakes which can then be picked up by the player (a menu entry swap can be helpful for this). An efficient method is to quickly "Attack", then "Stun", then "Pick-up" the hoop snake.
There is a hoop snake spawn next to every Sulliscep except for the far south spawn, so it is recommended to take at least 5 hoop snakes when travelling there from the Mushtree in order to get there and to the next Sulliscep without taking any Tar Monster damage.