🪵 Scratching guide, 1 to 99

Scratching is clawing posts, trees and curtains for bark, fibre and wood. Weaving and Clawsmithing use what it makes.

The quickest route

Doing the action with the most XP an hour at each level, back to back, Scratching 1 to 99 takes about 160 hours (13,034,431 XP). Life skills carry on while you nap, action by action, so much of that happens while you're away.

Levels	Do this	Where	Time
1–10	Scratch the Old Post	Hearthmeadow Fields	7 min
10–20	Shred a Birch Trunk	Thornbriar Thicket	12 min
20–30	Rake the Great Oak	Thornbriar Thicket, Reedbank	23 min
30–40	Unpick the Sewer Ropes	B3: Rattlecourt	45 min
40–50	Strip Driftwood Logs	Smugglers' Cove	1.6 h
50–60	Claw the Moor Gorse	Ironcollar Barracks, Wreckers' Cove	3.5 h
60–70	Scratch the Peak Pines	Windscour Ridge, Wreckers' Cove, Kelp Cathedral	7.9 h
70–80	Unravel a Giant's Basket	Tabletop Plateau, Kelp Cathedral, The Drift Meadows	18.2 h
80–88	Shred the Oasis Palms	The Shimmering Dunes, The Drift Meadows, The Spice Groves	30.7 h
88–94	Scratch the Ironbirch	The Shimmering Dunes, The Spice Groves	41.3 h
94–99	Scratch the Grey Trees	The Whitewind Steppe, The Ashfall Slopes, The Heroes' Road and 3 more	55.3 h

Set your own levels and bonuses in the life skill calculator.

Every action

XP an hour at the action's own level.

Level	Action	Makes	Where	XP an hour
1	Scratch the Old Post	Sisal Twine	Hearthmeadow Fields	10,452
10	Shred a Birch Trunk	Birch Bark	Thornbriar Thicket	16,457
20	Rake the Great Oak	Oak Shavings	Thornbriar Thicket, Reedbank	23,400
30	Unpick the Sewer Ropes	Frayed Rope	B3: Rattlecourt	32,000
40	Strip Driftwood Logs	Driftwood	Smugglers' Cove	40,320
50	Claw the Moor Gorse	Gorse Wood	Ironcollar Barracks, Wreckers' Cove	49,745
60	Scratch the Peak Pines	Peak Pine Bark	Windscour Ridge, Wreckers' Cove, Kelp Cathedral	58,800
70	Unravel a Giant's Basket	Basket Wicker	Tabletop Plateau, Kelp Cathedral, The Drift Meadows	68,677
80	Shred the Oasis Palms	Palm Fibre	The Shimmering Dunes, The Drift Meadows, The Spice Groves	78,171
88	Scratch the Ironbirch	Ironbirch Bark	The Shimmering Dunes, The Spice Groves	86,108
94	Scratch the Grey Trees	Ashen Bark	The Whitewind Steppe, The Ashfall Slopes, The Heroes' Road and 3 more	92,104
99	Shred the Throne-Room Curtains	King's Velvet	The Whitewind Steppe, The Ashfall Slopes, The Heroes' Road and 3 more	96,300

Tips

Fibre and wood are always wanted by crafters: sell the surplus.
Scratching pairs well with Weaving and Clawsmithing if you want to make your own gear.
At a Scratching spot, tap Play for Claw rhythm, a 30-second minigame. A gold score (90 points) gives +25% Scratching XP for 15 minutes while your cat keeps working, and the first gold puts a look in your wardrobe.
Each week's contest features one life skill; the three cats who gain the most XP in it win big gold prizes.

More on Scratching: its wiki page, and the other life skill guides.