Originally posted by jonnin:

he is almost always within a 2 hour walk radius of spawn :P

Seeing as how the "walk" speed is 13.5 km/h and the entire world is a flat disc with a radius of 10 km, I would say that's fairly likely

always down south from where you spawn :D

Go about 1/4 out from the center to the rim and do a big circle, check any black forest areas. Have your minimap zoomed out twice as his icon appears at 290m, which is outside the default minimal zoom. Profit.

Originally posted by jonnin:

he is almost always within a 2 hour walk radius of spawn :P

Don't know about a "2 hour walk" But took a good long time and a boat ride to get to my closest location.

He is usually no more than one hop from your starting continent. Sail around your continent and your neighboring continents and he'll usually pop up.

Arach

I sailed around my seed on and off for 4 or 5 days until I found him in a tiny nook of black forest between the plains on a tiny island way to the south of my starting island.

Do it the old fashioned way, sail around, he is always in the black forest, and an icon of a bag will appear on the map when you get even remotely close.

There are at least 10 merchants on your map right now, once you find the first one, the rest will disappear.

I found him with the bag icon appearing on my map—the range is fairly generous.

Besides exploring the map. Go to https://valheim-map.world/ then enter your seed. Check the box of what you want to find. Then you'll get the exact locations.

he is almost always within a 2 hour walk radius of spawn :P

Yeah I found him. Thanks everyone.

My dude, just use cheats

There is a website that shows you everything on your seed. Don't remember the name of the website but a Google search will easily find it.