Originally posted by undefinedonlife:

more than 100 hours in search of Haldor, where did he hide like that?
the game has gone from survival to haldor search simulator

I found him 3 times in a row in under 2 hours each search by just going up and down the black forests on the ring of islands outside of the starting island running on foot

You don't need to be very close or uncover the whole black forests, it appears on your map once you are close enough.