The Woodsman is one of three classes added in the Classes Update for 99 Nights in the Forest, alongside Escape Artist and Elemental. It is the most expensive of the three at 600 diamonds, and it works differently from most classes because its power sits in a single tool. You spawn with the Woodsman’s Axe, and that axe grows stronger as you use it.
Quick answer: Buy the Woodsman for 600 diamonds when it appears in the Daily Shop, equip it, then chop 250 trees and land 50 enemy kills with the Woodsman’s Axe to push it from Level 1 to Level 2. Keep chopping and fighting with the same axe to reach Level 3 and finally Level 4, the maximum.
Woodsman’s Axe levels and perks
The axe has four levels. Each one changes what you can cut and how much punishment you can deal with it, and the perks stack as you climb.
| Axe level | What changes |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Starting state. Cuts small trees only, with baseline damage. |
| Level 2 | Logs stop counting toward your sack limit, so you can carry stacks far past the normal cap. Still limited to small trees. |
| Level 3 | Giant trees become choppable, and cutting one can drop a Giant Sapling you can plant. |
| Level 4 (Max) | Damage jumps sharply. Small trees go down in two hits, and the axe becomes a genuine melee weapon. |
The sack perk at Level 2 is the one that quietly reshapes a run. Instead of hauling five logs at a time, you can walk back to base with a count well over a hundred, which cuts down the trips needed for log walls and crafting benches.
How to buy and equip the Woodsman class
Note: the class menu also lists an extra perk talent for 100 diamonds, which is a separate purchase from the class itself.
How to level up the Woodsman’s Axe
The axe fills an XP bar from two activities: chopping down trees and killing enemies with the axe itself. The Level 2 requirement is spelled out on the class card as 250 trees cut and 50 enemies killed with your axe. When the bar fills, an on-screen message reads “Your axe has leveled up.”
Both halves matter, so a pure wood-farming run will stall. Wolves near the camp, cultists inside strongholds, and anything that wanders into your base all count as long as the axe is what finishes them. That doubles as practice for the higher levels, where the axe hits hard enough to clear a stronghold on its own.
The co-op credit rule
In a team run, only the player who lands the final hit on a tree gets the experience for it. Two Woodsmen swinging at the same trunk will not both progress, so split up and take separate trees if you both want to reach max level in the same run.
Giant Saplings and giant trees at Level 3
Level 3 is where the class stops being a slower Lumberjack. Giant trees become valid targets, and felling one can drop a Giant Sapling. Plant that sapling and it sprouts the following day, then grows into a full giant tree the day after that. Plant on Day 7 and you have a fully grown giant tree by Day 9.
Giant trees are not quick even at maximum level. A grown one takes roughly two dozen swings with the Level 4 axe. The payoff is the log yield per tree, which is what makes surrounding the campfire with log walls realistic in a long run.
The Woodsman’s Quest badge: 40 trees in 30 seconds
The badge tied to this class asks you to chop down 40 trees within 30 seconds. That is a setup task, not something you stumble into. The usual failure is simply not having enough trees standing close enough together when the timer starts, which is easy to run into on a late-run map that has already been cleared of forest.
Plan for it by planting saplings in a tight cluster near your base and letting them grow, then attempting the quest with a maxed axe that drops small trees in two hits. You will know it worked when the badge quest registers as complete rather than resetting to zero.
Limits to know before you spend 600 diamonds
- The Woodsman’s Axe cannot be dropped, and you cannot replace it with another axe you find. Everything the class does runs through that one tool.
- Level 1 and Level 2 are both restricted to small trees. Giant trees stay off-limits until Level 3.
- Progress is per-run leveling on the axe, so you start each session working the bar back up.
- At 600 diamonds it sits in the same price bracket as heavy combat classes like Necromancer, Cyborg and Pyromaniac, which are built around weapons rather than resources.
If the goal is a long run that ends with a walled base on Day 99, the Woodsman covers both halves of that job: it removes the sack bottleneck that slows wood gathering, and by max level the axe carries enough damage that you are not scrambling for a separate melee weapon.
