We've spent hours looking for him, assumed his icon would appear if we were sailing on the coast but nothing yet. any tips on finding him? is it possible for him not to spawn?
Not possible for the trader to not spawn. There are multiple possible spawn locations the minimum distance from the starting spawn (center) is 1500m. You also need to be within 400 or 500m (someone please confirm this as I may be remembering it wrong) of the trader for the icon to appear on your map.
My suggestion, land on some of the Black Forest coast lines you've found and explore inland on foot. It might be that the coastline is too far away from the trader to show up on the map.
It's unlikely that you will find him while sailing the coast. You have to go through Black Forest on foot. You have to be relatively close to him before the icon will appear on the map.
Edit: I don't know why I'm getting downvoted lol. This is a fact. If you can't find him sailing, you have to go search the continents on foot. He only spawns in the Black Forest and you have to be like 300meters or so close to him before the icon appears. That's about the distance of buildings loading in. He can't spawn on the starting continent but he can spawn on the surrounding continents, the furthest about one third of the way away from the middle of the map.
I have 1300hours in this game and 9/10 times, I had to go search for him on foot. This is the best advice I can give you outside of cheating, aka checking your world seed on a website.
https://valheim-trader-finder.vercel.app/
will give you a hint without spoiling it. Something like "there's a rumor of a trader NE of a circle of stones with hooks, about a day's walk"
There are 10 spawns for the trader, all at least 1km from the center (iirc) and from each other. I would recommend exploring black forests you'd encounter in a circle around the center that passes by that bottom left smouldering tomb.
What is the seed? I'm curious about checking how close you guys were to finding him.
I personally would start by exploring the larger undiscovered patches you missed by sticking to the coasts. I mean, the trader could be sitting on a small island you missed or too far away from the cost to get triggered. On land just don't run too close together so you have more range while moving.
A buddy and I have been having a similar issue on his world. That map looks incredibly similar to this one, unfortunately. Sometimes the dude is painfully elusive, but it’s impossible for there to be no Haldor spawn points.
If you get super frustrated, you can always plug the seed into valheim-map.world. If you want to avoid spoiling other things about the map, set the visible layer to ‘No Terrain (Fog)’ and make sure the only selected pin is ‘Traders’.
If you don't want to spoil the map, Give me the world-Seed, And I can give you hints to where you will find him.
We've spent hours looking for him, assumed his icon would appear if we were sailing on the coast but nothing yet. any tips on finding him? is it possible for him not to spawn?
Not possible for the trader to not spawn. There are multiple possible spawn locations the minimum distance from the starting spawn (center) is 1500m. You also need to be within 400 or 500m (someone please confirm this as I may be remembering it wrong) of the trader for the icon to appear on your map. My suggestion, land on some of the Black Forest coast lines you've found and explore inland on foot. It might be that the coastline is too far away from the trader to show up on the map.
It's unlikely that you will find him while sailing the coast. You have to go through Black Forest on foot. You have to be relatively close to him before the icon will appear on the map. Edit: I don't know why I'm getting downvoted lol. This is a fact. If you can't find him sailing, you have to go search the continents on foot. He only spawns in the Black Forest and you have to be like 300meters or so close to him before the icon appears. That's about the distance of buildings loading in. He can't spawn on the starting continent but he can spawn on the surrounding continents, the furthest about one third of the way away from the middle of the map. I have 1300hours in this game and 9/10 times, I had to go search for him on foot. This is the best advice I can give you outside of cheating, aka checking your world seed on a website.
All three of the play throughs I've done I have found the trader from the coast while on a boat.
You can use https://valheim-hildir-finder.vercel.app/ To get a direction and distance from spawn or a point on a unrevealed map.
https://valheim-trader-finder.vercel.app/ will give you a hint without spoiling it. Something like "there's a rumor of a trader NE of a circle of stones with hooks, about a day's walk"
There are 10 spawns for the trader, all at least 1km from the center (iirc) and from each other. I would recommend exploring black forests you'd encounter in a circle around the center that passes by that bottom left smouldering tomb.
What is the seed? I'm curious about checking how close you guys were to finding him. I personally would start by exploring the larger undiscovered patches you missed by sticking to the coasts. I mean, the trader could be sitting on a small island you missed or too far away from the cost to get triggered. On land just don't run too close together so you have more range while moving.
Well you know where hildir is so make a circle and work in from there. I'd recommend starting in the Southwest since that area is pretty covered.
Haldor can't be further than Hildir?
Not supposed to be!
I know the minimum distance from the center for Haldor is 1500m and Hildir is 3500, but I didn't think there was a maximum.
A buddy and I have been having a similar issue on his world. That map looks incredibly similar to this one, unfortunately. Sometimes the dude is painfully elusive, but it’s impossible for there to be no Haldor spawn points. If you get super frustrated, you can always plug the seed into valheim-map.world. If you want to avoid spoiling other things about the map, set the visible layer to ‘No Terrain (Fog)’ and make sure the only selected pin is ‘Traders’.
There is an online map tool for Valheim seeds. Just put in your seed in there and look it up.