Wandering Trader Suggestion

[aidancode]

I think that the wandering trader is a perfect opportunity to give use to some resources players don't tend to collect a lot of, as well as serve as a tutorial by encouraging players to gather certain resources. Currently the wandering trader uses resources like ash and pigskin as currencies. Here's some other options and why they'd be good currencies:

 

1. Nitre: in my opinion a long overlooked mineral that I never really feel the need to bring with me. It's far from useless but usually I need so little of the stuff that I just end up only picking it up when I actually need it.

2. Crops: farming is honestly too lucrative for its own good. If you dedicate time to it you make TONS of food but at the cost of not being able to do anything else. And if I'm not going to dedicate a lot of time to it I might as well not dedicate time at all. I would love it if there was more of a reason to grow giant crops and amass huge amounts of food, so perhaps make it so you can trade in spare crops for other resources.

3. Gears: this is more just a mini complaint with how going to the ruins always ends up leading to wayyyy too many gears. Unless you have a WX78 on your team, they're just gonna sit around being useless, so they're the perfect candidate to trade away.

4. Cactus Flesh and Reeds: Every time I look at new players playing DST I see them camp in one area as soon as they can make a science machine, never to find all of the cool biomes throughout the world. Hinting to players that cactus flesh and reeds exist in the first place gives them a better indication of the scale in the game. It basically tells them, "Hey! There's more stuff for you to find! Get exploring!"

5. Eggs: There's two sides to this. For some players, this will prompt them to set up a bird cage and get meat. For some players they'll try to steal from pengulls and promptly die. Both of these options are intended.

 

These are just a few of my ideas. I think it'd be best to have a long list of possible items to trade for and with to make each time you see a wandering trader special.

[ZeRoboButler]

I like the idea of his shop changing based on the season and he ends up requesting items based on said season, crops, cactus flowers, heck even seasonal fish could end up giving them new value outside the value the winter and summer fish equivalents already have. 

The only thing that clashes with this sort of thing is that the trader seems to show up around the world randomly and it could be a bit odd to ask the player to carry around live fish or crops that perish faster (especially fruits and toma roots).  

[aidancode]

23 minutes ago, ZeRoboButler said:

The only thing that clashes with this sort of thing is that the trader seems to show up around the world randomly and it could be a bit odd to ask the player to carry around live fish or crops that perish faster (especially fruits and toma roots).  

The idea is more "oh look the wandering trader showed up let me go back to base and grab the stuff I have there"

 

I don't know if the wandering trader despawns if out of range. If he does this doesn't apply.

[Radicaljoe]

14 minutes ago, aidancode said:

I don't know if the wandering trader despawns if out of range. If he does this doesn't apply.

Yeah when you get like, 7 tiles away from him he disappears.

[aidancode]

13 minutes ago, Radicaljoe said:

Yeah when you get like, 7 tiles away from him he disappears.

dang thats kinda weird honestly usually dst has object permanence (or at least a rational reason for why something would despawn)

[Cassielu]

14 hours ago, aidancode said:

dang thats kinda weird honestly usually dst has object permanence (or at least a rational reason for why something would despawn)

Actually, he didn't disappear, he just leave. He will cycle around the world along a randomly generated fixed travel route. If you have enough patience to figure out what his route is, you can catch up with him along the route or wait for him on the route. There is nothing cooler and more object permanence than this

Edited May 27, 2025 by Cassielu

[Catapult 2.0]

  Having a well-designed trading system in Don't Starve Together would be absolutely amazing. I've experienced some mods that implemented this feature, and the gameplay experience was fantastic.

[Edible Coal]

he should accept tammed beefalo as a deal ! i donno what big reward would he give you tho......