Dunno... I've only seen one in.... wow... a lot of hours. More than I'd like to admit

Pretty sure its a night only enemy, and maybe possible if your inside a storm, otherwise its quite rng. Have sailed a ENTIRE night, also part inside a storm and no serpent, yet 1 other time I didn't want to deal with serpents and I outsailed past 1, sailed past a 2ND!!!, and a 3rd spawned and decided "f it" and led the thing to shore for some harpooning...finally got serpent shield at least.

You should find one at an ocean! biome (look at biome name in mini map) within 10 minutes (avarage). You where just unlucky probably or not really in an ocean biome. I've found many of them without much trouble (respectively they found me).

night only??? waaaat i found one in the day... so its more frequent at night? man they made them impossible to find

Doesn't necessarily require a ocean biome, maybe be near one but not actually need to be in one, have had a serpent spawn near me when I was just 20 meters from a shore. Granted I have also seen a turtle spawn literally around 30-40 meters from a shore also...coulda rafted to it but a troll was chasing me.
If you found 1 during the day then congratz, I never seen one during the day lol

Originally posted by scavenger:

Doesn't necessarily require a ocean biome, maybe be near one but not actually need to be in one, have had a serpent spawn near me when I was just 20 meters from a shore. Granted I have also seen a turtle spawn literally around 30-40 meters from a shore also...coulda rafted to it but a troll was chasing me.
If you found 1 during the day then congratz, I never seen one during the day lol

oooooh so this is like a night time thing?? ok maybe that explains it

I have seen 3 serpents in 80+ hours, they are the only time in the game i cheated, i just spawned one in and murdered that one.

They do like to run away (or at least mine do) when you get them to around 1/4 or 1/3 hp left, but they apparently don't actually despawn so you can still find them if you try to follow.

Originally posted by scavenger:

Pretty sure its a night only enemy, and maybe possible if your inside a storm, otherwise its quite rng. Have sailed a ENTIRE night, also part inside a storm and no serpent, yet 1 other time I didn't want to deal with serpents and I outsailed past 1, sailed past a 2ND!!!, and a 3rd spawned and decided "f it" and led the thing to shore for some harpooning...finally got serpent shield at least.

Ive been attacked during the day.

That being said i have also noticed being attack by them relatively close to swamp biomes as well (obv on the coast)

mine spawns at the day and always in ocean. But your ship can be actually faster and outruns them so who knows how many spawned and were not noticed. They never spawned when I was not at ocean. But they certainly can follow you there from ocean. Although if unharmed they usully turn away once I'm near shore.

can u stand still in ocean biome and the yspawn???

Technically speaking, you can't simply pass by them usually since they ONLY appear first to then come up and do their roar, but sometimes if you are going fast enough, you actually can go right past them before they even roar and likely not even hear it xD.
Unless they spawn right in front of the boat, which has happened to me twice.

so can i like...just sit in the ocean until one comes or do i have to be actively moving?

Originally posted by Bronx BrowBeater:

so can i like...just sit in the ocean until one comes or do i have to be actively moving?

The serpents are inactive until you cross their aggro range, as far I can tell. So yes, you probably have to sail around.

Sailing near a coast and then in the ocean near swamp/plains islands they seem to always spawn like clockwork. they also spawn in roughly the same spots so it's probably time based. You can also find them in any time of the day in any part, i found one in a canal(next to swamps and a plain).
They are pretty fixed mechanics if you know how to do it. Alternativly you can use the paddle(first speed) to lose some time before going to anywhere.
You could also just see their "normal" spawns and mark them on your map or assume their next spawn. They actually make a splash so you can see them from farther away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM3n8ahNwq0&t=1572s