At a glance: resource damage per hit — Camp Axe 100, Pickaxe 100, Fire Axe 75, chainsaw 50. The chainsaw is the worst wood tool in the game despite its description.
If you have been lugging a chainsaw around because the flavour text calls it a “tree chewing machine of death”, the numbers say you are doing it wrong. Here is the full comparison, and where each tool actually spawns.
Every wood tool, by resource damage
The wiki lists construct damage in four columns — Barricade, Structure, Vehicle and Resource. The Resource column is the one that governs chopping trees.
| Tool | Barricade | Structure | Vehicle | Resource | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Camp Axe | 15 | 10 | 25 | 100 | Campgrounds |
| Pickaxe | 15 | 10 | 25 | 100 | Construction sites and quarries |
| Fire Axe | 25 | 20 | 35 | 75 | Fire stations |
| Chainsaw | 3 | 3 | 10 | 50 | Farms |
Two things jump out of that table.
The two best wood tools are tied at 100, and both are common: the Camp Axe (campgrounds) and the Pickaxe (construction sites and quarries). A Pickaxe is not a stone-only tool — it is exactly as good on wood, which makes it the most flexible pick-up in the game if you are gathering both.
The chainsaw is last, at 50. Half the resource damage of a Camp Axe, and its barricade and structure damage is 3 — essentially nothing. If you picked one up expecting an upgrade, it is a downgrade for every task that involves wood.
Why the chainsaw traps people
The chainsaw is classified as an Uncommon Melee Weapon, which is the first misdirection: it reads like a weapon upgrade. It is not.
The wiki’s own data explains the trade. The chainsaw has no strong attack — “Strong attack is disabled; weak attack deals damage continuously.” Its damage model is built around sustained output against a single target, not burst. It also has a 15% degrade chance per use, a 2 m range and a 24 m alert radius, which is loud: every swing is a beacon.
Put that next to a Camp Axe and the chainsaw loses on every axis that matters for gathering:
- Half the resource damage (50 versus 100)
- A degrade chance on a tool you swing constantly
- 24 m of noise versus a melee weapon you can use quietly
- 3 damage to barricades and structures, so it cannot even double as a raiding tool
The one thing it has going for it is that it is found at farms, which are common and relatively safe. That is a reason to grab one early — but not a reason to keep it over a Camp Axe.
If you want a weapon that also cuts wood, take the Fire Axe instead: 75 resource damage is only 25 below the best, but its 25 barricade / 20 structure / 35 vehicle line makes it a genuine raiding tool as well. See the best weapons tier list for where it ranks overall.
Reading the numbers properly
The gap between 100 and 50 resource damage is not a small optimisation — it is twice the swings for the same wood, and swings are time, noise and durability.
Three more numbers from the tool data are worth weighing:
- Degrade chance. The chainsaw carries a 15% degrade chance, so the more you swing it, the faster it wears out. A tool that needs twice as many swings and degrades on top of that is a bad gathering pick.
- Alert radius. The chainsaw’s 24 m alert radius versus a 2 m range means every swing is audible far beyond what you can see. On a server, that is an invitation.
- Range. At 2 m you must be effectively inside the tree, which is the same reason the chainsaw’s damage model works at all — it attacks continuously rather than in bursts.
None of this makes the chainsaw useless. It makes it a weapon-shaped tool in a game where the actual wood tools are quieter, tougher and twice as fast. Camp Axe or Pickaxe for gathering, Fire Axe when you also expect a fight.
Where to look, map by map
Spawn locations differ per tool, and one map adds an extra spot:
- Camp Axe — campgrounds
- Pickaxe — construction sites and quarries; on the Yukon map also at the abandoned mineshaft entrance
- Fire Axe — fire stations
- Chainsaw — farms
Because the Pickaxe is available at construction sites and quarries on every map plus a fixed Yukon location, it is the most reliably farmable of the 100-damage tools. If you are starting out, the beginner guide and looting guide cover route planning, and the map guide has the landmark types by region.
Turning wood into a base
Wood is the input for your first structures, so the tool choice compounds: twice the resource damage means roughly half the swings per build. Pair this with the base building guide and the crafting guide for what to convert it into, and the survival guide if you are still dying before you can spend it.
One practical rule follows from the numbers: carry a Camp Axe or Pickaxe for gathering and a Fire Axe for fighting. That is two slots, and it covers wood, stone and raiding without ever touching a chainsaw.
A note on version drift
Unturned’s item stats have been revised across versions, and tool damage tables are exactly the kind of number that gets rebalanced. Every figure here — 100, 75, 50, and the barricade/structure/vehicle columns — was read from the Official Unturned Wiki in October 2026. If a swing count looks wrong after an update, recheck the tool’s in-game tooltip before trusting this table.