When you are near him on the map, a bag icon will show up on it.
Then you'll know where he is.
In the meantime, keep searching. He can't be too far away from your starting point, but you still may need a boat.

Maybe there is no Trader and it is only a 1 April joke.

Originally posted by Potato Cat:

Originally posted by Frostbringer:

Yes, he spawns randomly on your map so you have to find him.

He dont spawn randomly, he got 6-9 places he can spawn, when you get close to one of them he spawns there, so you can controll where he spawns, if you know where they are.

where these places are located is random though unless you want to argue that true randomness is theoretically impossible in a deterministic universe

Originally posted by luponix:

Originally posted by Potato Cat:

He dont spawn randomly, he got 6-9 places he can spawn, when you get close to one of them he spawns there, so you can controll where he spawns, if you know where they are.

where these places are located is random though unless you want to argue that true randomness is theoretically impossible in a deterministic universe

Are they not always the same on each seed?

Yes every seeds has a few fixed positions they can spawn.
But globaly/generally its like random where these spots are, even if allways the same spot on a specific seed.

@ to
3 options you have

1: The legit way by explore a circle in arround 20-25% worldrange, Check every Dark forest on that circle Arround 90%+ of the seeds have a traderspot on that circle

2
Name your seed and we can give you a hint where the trader is

3: Check it out yourself
https://valheim-map.world

Originally posted by Frostbringer:

Yes, he spawns randomly on your map so you have to find him.

He dont spawn randomly, he got 6-9 places he can spawn, when you get close to one of them he spawns there, so you can controll where he spawns, if you know where they are.

If you don't mind losing a bit of the mystery, there's a valheim map viewer online. Otherwise, post your seed and someone might be willing to give you a 0-60 minute direction from your world spawn.

Yes, he spawns randomly on your map so you have to find him.