The wiki may be misleading as about 1/4 of all my serpant encounters have occured during the daytime (calm full sunlight day). Their respawn rate might be similar to that of a blue troll in the forest - they won't spawn in the same location the very next day, there will be multiple days required before you want to check the same area again - and... a bit of luck, but I have also learned to sail at medium to low speed as to not accidently bypass chance encounters that haven't rendered properly on screen yet.

Originally posted by SuperDave:

The wiki may be misleading as about 1/4 of all my serpant encounters have occured during the daytime (calm full sunlight day).

100% chance they were already spawned during a previous storm. Night spawns despawn at day, storm spawns stay forever. The games mechanics are known. This is why I say they don't necessarily agro and you need to keep an eye out...

Originally posted by jonnin:

Its random, but sounds like you are on track, get out in the ocean where the biome indicator changes, and storms are better. Try making some noise.

How does one make noise on a ship? Sing sea shanties?

I was just sailing for an hour, for exploration.
I saw ONE serpent and 5-6 leviathans.

Serpents seem very rare on my server as well.

According to the wiki serpents only spawn in full ocean biome at night or in storms. Also their spawner has a 1000s cooldown so you shouldn't recheck any particular spot more than once every 17 minutes.

https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Serpent

I'd take a longship and just cruise around exploring. Try to stay with the wind so you can cover more ground, use moder power if you got it.

apparently there are 2 spawn locations, a regular location and increased random locations during storms, the regular location will spawn without a storm n worth marking, apparently

Its random, but sounds like you are on track, get out in the ocean where the biome indicator changes, and storms are better. Try making some noise.

Originally posted by TS42119:

I can't find anything in the patch notes about serpent spawn rates.

It is worth nothing serpents seem to spawn like the turtles do. Meaning, they have set locations.

If you are checking the same spots, you may never find one. I could be wrong.

we mostly went into undiscovered territory, no serpents :/

Are you constantly moving? Grab a tail wind at night - during a storm is better still - and just keep going. Keep an eye out, chances are at speed they won't agro, or at least won't catch up.

No I don't think so, I catch heaps of them whenever I get caught in a storm, sometimes even 2 in a single night if I'm quick with the harpoon but they do spawn a fair bit.

Sounds like you are looking for them at the right times, but not having any luck. Just keep sailing around til you find them, and make sure when you look at your map, it is ''Ocean'' biome, otherwise they won't spawn in shallow water.

Originally posted by Happy:

No I don't think so, I catch heaps of them whenever I get caught in a storm, sometimes even 2 in a single night if I'm quick with the harpoon but they do spawn a fair bit.

Sounds like you are looking for them at the right times, but not having any luck. Just keep sailing around til you find them, and make sure when you look at your map, it is ''Ocean'' biome, otherwise they won't spawn in shallow water.

Yep, we made sure to specifically stick to the Ocean biome, we went out of our way to go for storms and that weird darkness that sometimes overtakes part of the map.

hmm... i suppose we've just had a weird and extreme stroke of terrible luck, in that case, because i swear i used 3x3 food buffs and had them all time out without seeing a single sea serpent.

Originally posted by Archdeacon Monseigneur:

Originally posted by Happy:

No I don't think so, I catch heaps of them whenever I get caught in a storm, sometimes even 2 in a single night if I'm quick with the harpoon but they do spawn a fair bit.

Sounds like you are looking for them at the right times, but not having any luck. Just keep sailing around til you find them, and make sure when you look at your map, it is ''Ocean'' biome, otherwise they won't spawn in shallow water.

Yep, we made sure to specifically stick to the Ocean biome, we went out of our way to go for storms and that weird darkness that sometimes overtakes part of the map.

hmm... i suppose we've just had a weird and extreme stroke of terrible luck, in that case, because i swear i used 3x3 food buffs and had them all time out without seeing a single sea serpent.

Also optional I usually stick 3 sorts of stamina foods in the boats cargo hold, so I can quickly gulp down some stamina food in a hurry if I need to, helps after harpooning the serpent, and keeping it on the rope. Stick to the best 3 stamina foods you have access to.

Originally posted by FissionChips:

Are you constantly moving? Grab a tail wind at night - during a storm is better still - and just keep going. Keep an eye out, chances are at speed they won't agro, or at least won't catch up.

They do aggro at speed. I typically sail around them if at full wind, I can circle them if the wind is just right, & cruise back to paddle speed so as to let the Serpent keep up with me temporarily, until it begins the chase animation, then simply speed up again, harpoon about 50 feet or so from shore, while alternating ship speeds to allow continued aggro of Serpent.

Bonus points for hapooning the Serpent to some tame wolves on the shoreline who can then proceed to tear the defenceless Serpent apart in a matter of seconds.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2004697838480630770/4CB83022A8A2C4B10CE6A6A583B3104C0AE393D8/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

I was asking myself the same question Archdeacon Monseigneur. Now that the Sea Serpent Trophy is required for Heavy fishing bait, I have been trying to get one. I checked out all my map icon locations, and finally after 2 weeks finally chanced upon 1. No trophy of course, they are extremely rare in my experience, after over 4000 hours of play I have only ever got 1. I have never had so much problem farming Sea Serpents. Prior to the Mistlands update, I farmed them over a couple of days obtaining enough to make 3 full stacks of Serpent Stew for my son, nephew and myself.

PS: Gulping down stamina potion if one gets low on stamina while reeling in either Sea Serpents or fish works to regenerate low stamina. I always eat Blood Pudding, Bread & Eyescream while fishing or hunting serpents, and have had to gulp stamina potion a few times, especially while reeling in lv 4 or 5 Trollfish. I keep my distance to 16 metres, but if I see a large lv fish coming for my bait I will reel it in to 10 metres before it takes the bait. Fishing skill is currently at 30.

no

I can't find anything in the patch notes about serpent spawn rates.

It is worth nothing serpents seem to spawn like the turtles do. Meaning, they have set locations.

If you are checking the same spots, you may never find one. I could be wrong.