Wandering Trader should progress with the world

[-Variant]

The Wandering Trader was an unexpected, but honestly very welcome addition.
I rather like him, I like the idea of him being off someplace surviving on his own. I really like the trades, and I think the limited quantity factor is really unique! However...

His current trades are a bit skewed, and I'm worried he'll fall off as the world progresses.
In the latest Rhymes with Play, it was mentioned that his trades should change as the world progresses, but currently, that's not actually the case.

Aside from all his basic resources trades, the only exotic things he can offer are Red/Blue gems, and Moonglass.
Otherwise, every 2 days he'll replenish his trades and have a chance to offer up a gem.
Some of his trades stick, and will gain in quantity, which is nice, but comes at the cost of the limit dropping heavily in some seasons. (He keeps what he's holding. So for example, grass, his max is 16, if he's more than that when it hits Summer, he'll hold onto it until you buy him out, but then can't gain more than 4, which is the new max for the season.)

Something I REALLY want to see with him are more situational trades that go in tandem with the world itself.
Currently he offers WAY less during harsher seasons like Summer. I personally think this should be flipped. Have him offer resources that are harder to find during whatever season it currently is, it'd makes him way more valuable and worth actually hunting him down!

He should offer up various other common resources for items/structures/clothing, too.
Like seeds for birdcages, maybe some moleworms he dug up in his spare time.
Or, potentially in older worlds, he could straight up offer equipment like rain coats or parasols? Maybe...
A really big change would be him offering biome-specific resources!!
Have him offer tentacle spots in the Swamp if you find him there, or Cactus flowers/Bones/Teeth in the deserts during Summer... stuff like that!

Now, here's an idea that's a bit of a stretch... but I'd love if we could help him set up Trade Routes.
Something like, if we trade with him enough, he'll give us the chance to place down markers in the world that he can use as pit-stops when he's wandering.
That way, we can influence where he may wander, and what he might pick up as he wanders. Say I have him go between a swamp and a desert, he could accumulate items as he goes and through said biomes, allowing us to buy what he might've picked up when we bump into him again. Think of Carrat Racing posts, to a degree. Here's a rough mock up.

The idea is that while he won't stick to any of these places permanently, he can travel between them picking up items from the area.
This'd not only give him more things to trade with, but might also let players give him routes that have items they'd specifically want him to sell!

Anyways those are some of my thoughts, I'd love to see what others think, and how they could go about changing up his trades!

[ChintzyGnat]

A new source of scrap from him after a lunar progression but not after cc would be nice to make multiple cc fights a little easier pre rift.

[FillerText]

I honestly think the trader is one of the best additions of this update. Klei has struck gold with him, and I personally think there could be a lot of interesting stuff done with him.

What if you could give the trader a bundling wrap blueprint as an upgrade letting him sell more items, including perishables? It absolutely wouldn't be that useful, but I think it would be cool to have some form of "helping each other" progression with the trader. Mayyybeee it could be made more obvious to the outsider by having him say random flavor text if you have bundling wraps in you inventory. 

I think it would also be interesting if the Trader could actually interact with the Balatro machine, and slowly gets better at playing the game as the world progresses. Combined with the Bundling Wrap blueprint you end up frequently seeing him with various banana crockpot dishes, or just bananas in general.

I think it would fit for him to also simply give out items like Nightmare Fuel, because he is wary of it, and wants to get rid of it.

Edited June 15, 2025 by FillerText

[Ridley]

Currently, he sells nothing I am interested in. I would buy Moleworms, Fireflies, and crops from him though.

[00petar00]

It is a missed opportunity to only have wandering trade be somewhat barely useful in the early game.

The more players trade with him the higher his stock should be and why shouldn't this scale infinitely? 

So many items can be added and this could be another form of progression, for example maybe the more we trade with him he keeps showing up with new items.

Edited June 15, 2025 by 00petar00

[Brago-sama]

Maybe he gets better stock if you upgrade/help him?

Imagine he gets harder and harder to find as you make his disguise better and better / his store more useful lol

Then again, that derpy beefalo suits iconic lol

Edited June 15, 2025 by Brago-sama

[SDavid]

I have a 7000+ days old world. He currently has nothing to offer to me and on top of that I can easily spend days looking for him just to be able to buy 6 grass and 4 flint... 

He should have a higher variety of items and a LOT more of them to make me even think about looking for him.

[Evelo]

I'm kind of the opposite, I think the trader simplifies too much of the acquisition struggles with the game. But then again, I don't care enough to truly oppose it. I just want something other than optional bosses as a major update.  

[Milordo]

13 minutes ago, Evelo said:

I'm kind of the opposite, I think the trader simplifies too much of the acquisition struggles with the game. 

Zamn, so I wasn't the only crazy one to think about it?

Look guys, he's cool and all, but I don't like how with just ashes you obtain gears and what not. I will not formulate further with objectivity because I don't know the full datas and picture of him to say if he's balanced or not compared to clockworks/graves and hounds. Also I (we) need to play more and a lot to understand him more, since practise is the ultimate judgement in videogames.

Btw, I also want to add, I dislike the usual behaviour of Klei, since ever, of adding new content instead of reworking, because we still have the official NPC of the first level, Pig King, sitting there with almost zero interactions since 2012 as a fossil, when he could have received sooooo much interactions and trades.

[Lovens]

52 minutes ago, Milordo said:

Zamn, so I wasn't the only crazy one to think about it?

Look guys, he's cool and all, but I don't like how with just ashes you obtain gears and what not. I will not formulate further with objectivity because I don't know the full datas and picture of him to say if he's balanced or not compared to clockworks/graves and hounds. Also I (we) need to play more and a lot to understand him more, since practise is the ultimate judgement in videogames.

Btw, I also want to add, I dislike the usual behaviour of Klei, since ever, of adding new content instead of reworking, because we still have the official NPC of the first level, Pig King, sitting there with almost zero interactions since 2012 as a fossil, when he could have received sooooo much interactions and trades.

I get where you're coming from and yes he seems like he could trivialise some of the resource acquisition. But it's not like tumbleweeds don't exist already where you can get gears for free (and tons of other cool loot). Living logs is a questionable trade, I would rather not have him sell anything that can't be found in a tumbleweed but I also like the idea of having guaranteed living logs in the overworld because it's so nice for ruins rushing. Maybe if we had at least one totally normal tree guaranteed per evergreen forest, that would be a more fitting approach. 

I do think that the suggestions in this thread are cool though and wouldn't be opposed if they were implemented. To me he is actually one of the parts of the game where "if you don't like it just don't interact with it" advice applies very well. If at any point in any of the worlds I'd feel like he is trivialising the game too much or making it not fun to obtain certain resources I could always just choose to not buy them from him. 

My only dislike of his mechanics comes from one video I saw of some streamer create a new world post update and spawn in the world with wandering trader right on top of them the moment they joined the world. They then proceeded to bump into him and couldn't even see their character for the first few seconds and it looked super awkward and weird. I just immediately imagined new players experiencing this on their first playthrough or several first games - I would be terrified and confused. I think a much better approach for him would be to either spawn with the beefalo herd on world's creation, or spawn in a random place in mosaic or starting biome but half a day or maybe even a day after the world was created. This way it would still keep the challenge of surviving the first day and night for the new players instead of trivialising early game for them from the very first step into the Constant, and wouldn't create a wrong impression of the game (it's not an NPC trade and merch game, it's a harsh survival world first things first). 

[Milordo]

Ye ye that's why I said it will needs more time to be accustomed and see his impactful. I don't think, as of now, many people tested and see how much his influence is in the game. 

30 minutes ago, Lovens said:

But it's not like tumbleweeds don't exist already where you can get gears for free (and tons of other cool loot). 

True, although heavily random, true.

31 minutes ago, Lovens said:

Living logs is a questionable trade, I would rather not have him sell anything that can't be found in a tumbleweed but I also like the idea of having guaranteed living logs in the overworld because it's so nice for ruins rushing. Maybe if we had at least one totally normal tree guaranteed per evergreen forest, that would be a more fitting approach. 

See, another thing requested for so many years, totally normal trees rework and dark petals rework. That's why it's tiresome of Klei adding always things on top of each other and forget about them. The percentage of them forgetting wandering trader is very high, almost 99%. About the point "it's so nice for ruins rushing" should not exist unless it's a mechanic so deep, complex and secret that only experienced players can make use of it. This is something new players will found and the game must be balanced and designed with a normal progression and when you play for the first time in mind.

40 minutes ago, Lovens said:

To me he is actually one of the parts of the game where "if you don't like it just don't interact with it" advice applies very well. If at any point in any of the worlds I'd feel like he is trivialising the game too much or making it not fun to obtain certain resources I could always just choose to not buy them from him. 

Unfortunately no. That phrase never works. Well, it works if the game have different modes and private servers I guess, but we're talking about dst vanilla, as always. If, if he will become broken and unbalanced "don't use it" will not suffice and excuse it. We will see.

40 minutes ago, Lovens said:

My only dislike of his mechanics comes from one video I saw of some streamer create a new world post update and spawn in the world with wandering trader right on top of them the moment they joined the world. They then proceeded to bump into him and couldn't even see their character for the first few seconds and it looked super awkward and weird. I just immediately imagined new players experiencing this on their first playthrough or several first games - I would be terrified and confused. I think a much better approach for him would be to either spawn with the beefalo herd on world's creation, or spawn in a random place in mosaic or starting biome but half a day or maybe even a day after the world was created. This way it would still keep the challenge of surviving the first day and night for the new players instead of trivialising early game for them from the very first step into the Constant, and wouldn't create a wrong impression of the game (it's not an NPC trade and merch game, it's a harsh survival world first things first). 

Hmn, do you have the link of this stream? I'm very curious and passionate about these things. 

Ewww, I don't like the chance of him spawning at the florid postern. I like a lot your suggestion of being time gated, because I would appreciate him more if he like spawns even after the first year! Since at that moment new people have surpassed dst ""tutorial"" and know how to moves, thus the game will periodically give them stuff through him to accelerate the process of farming.

[Well-met]

im fine with him just having "emergency" items. That's his reason for existing after all

[Lovens]

42 minutes ago, Milordo said:

Hmn, do you have the link of this stream? I'm very curious and passionate about these things. 

Ewww, I don't like the chance of him spawning at the florid postern. I like a lot your suggestion of being time gated, because I would appreciate him more if he like spawns even after the first year! Since at that moment new people have surpassed dst ""tutorial"" and know how to moves, thus the game will periodically give them stuff through him to accelerate the process of farming.

There, found it. 35:30 if the timestamp I put in the link doesn't work. I re-watched this moment and it looks even jaggier than I remember. He glitches onto the character for the first few seconds and shakes back and forth. Definitely not a good impression for newer players. 

Edited June 15, 2025 by Lovens

[Milordo]

31 minutes ago, Lovens said:

There, found it. 35:30 if the timestamp I put in the link doesn't work. I re-watched this moment and it looks even jaggier than I remember. He glitches onto the character for the first few seconds and shakes back and forth. Definitely not a good impression for newer players. 

Ah, LMAO. It's Jazzy, not the new player I was expecting xD

Ewwww, no okay. When next week (I guess?) Klei will re-open the beta for the missing features I will fight atleast for a time gate for him. It gives me also bad vibes from Terraria, like the tutorial npc, and as you said it "its not an NPC trade and merch game, it's a harsh survival world first things first" 

Edited June 15, 2025 by Milordo

[Lovens]

39 minutes ago, Milordo said:

Ah, LMAO. It's Jazzy, not the new player I was expecting xD

Ewwww, no okay. When next week (I guess?) Klei will re-open the beta for the missing features I will fight atleast for a time gate for him. It gives me also bad vibes from Terraria, like the tutorial npc, and as you said it "its not an NPC trade and merch game, it's a harsh survival world first things first" 

I know he is not new to the game but if it happened in his world it might as well happen in some new player's world, they just probably won't stream their first encounter with it. 

Edited June 15, 2025 by Lovens

[Milordo]

1 hour ago, Well-met said:

im fine with him just having "emergency" items. That's his reason for existing after all

Yes, I'm too but gears, red gems, blue gems, living logs and moon glasses are not "emergency" items but progressive items, therefore it's better to give it atleast a time gate before you can obtain those with just ashes.

Edited June 15, 2025 by Milordo

[Wawchik]

3 hours ago, Milordo said:

Yes, I'm too but gears, red gems, blue gems, living logs and moon glasses are not "emergency" items but progressive items, therefore it's better to give it atleast a time gate before you can obtain those with just ashes.

The wiki.gg says you can't buy rare/uncommon stuff with ashes, except moon glass, which can be bought ONLY during lunar hail. Page last edited June 14

Edited June 15, 2025 by Wawchik

[Tranoze]

He should steal your stuff on ground whenever you not looking, then resell them to you at high prices.

That way he always sell stuff progress with the world, and he is also a trader, not a farmer that make stuff out of thin air.

[Mj-]

As someone who plays only at the late-game stage, I would love to if he starts selling/trading non-renewable structures. Like for example; 

If you have, let's say 10* Cat Tail plus hmm maybe 5* or more Lucky Gold Nugget, you can trade this to have 1 kit structure for Hollow Stump,10 Killer bees for a killer beehive, 5 pig skin for pig torch or 3 empty bottle for marottter den! And why not a 6 walrus tusk for a walrus camp :D. 

I always wanted a way to have the ability to build or have the chance to relocate this kind of structure that is normally pre-built by the world gen or sometimes are missing from worlds. 

This surely will make the Trader more appeased for the mid/late game stage and not just the first year thing and forget about him. 

* These numbers or offers are just examples. I'm not that good at balancing stuff, so I would leave this kind of stuff to the devs to see fit. 

[Evelo]

10 hours ago, Lovens said:

But it's not like tumbleweeds

I completely forgot about tumbleweeds. Well that changed my opinion of the trader real quick. Yeah I don't really see an issue anymore haha.

[Milordo]

6 hours ago, Wawchik said:

The wiki.gg says you can't buy rare/uncommon stuff with ashes, except moon glass, which can be bought ONLY during lunar hail. Page last edited June 14

Oh really??? That's so cool that is locked during lunar hail! That's very balanced. I'm surprised. Love the progression. It wasn't like that when the beta was launched. I'll look at him later when I have time.

1 hour ago, Evelo said:

I completely forgot about tumbleweeds. Well that changed my opinion of the trader real quick. Yeah I don't really see an issue anymore haha.

There are still issues. For once tumbleweeds are extremely rng, him? No and you can find him easily, but again take my point with a grain of salt because ->

13 hours ago, Milordo said:

I will not formulate further with objectivity because I don't know the full datas and picture of him to say if he's balanced or not compared to clockworks/graves and hounds. Also I (we) need to play more and a lot to understand him more, since practise is the ultimate judgement in videogames.

[Wawchik]

3 hours ago, Milordo said:

Oh really??? That's so cool that is locked during lunar hail! That's very balanced. I'm surprised. Love the progression. It wasn't like that when the beta was launched. I'll look at him later when I have time.

There are still issues. For once tumbleweeds are extremely rng, him? No and you can find him easily, but again take my point with a grain of salt because ->

Wandering trader is more reliable in getting the first gear since it has a 100% chance of appearing as a starter trade but overall provides a smaller variety and quantity of items compared to tumbleweeds. Graves provide more items of higher quality. All 3 options are easily accessible but 2 are always in the same place while the trader isn't. He's not unbalanced, rare and uncommon trades are limited to 1 and his common trades aren't very useful either 

Graves:

Tumbleweeds:

All of that compared to trader's 10 items, 3 of which are basic starter resources, 1 is lunar hail exclusive and 1 is a starter trade, all of which are also limited 

Edited June 16, 2025 by Wawchik

[Milordo]

8 hours ago, Wawchik said:

Wandering trader is more reliable in getting the first gear since it has a 100% chance of appearing as a starter trade but overall provides a smaller variety and quantity of items compared to tumbleweeds. Graves provide more items of higher quality. All 3 options are easily accessible but 2 are always in the same place while the trader isn't. He's not unbalanced, rare and uncommon trades are limited to 1 and his common trades aren't very useful either 

Graves:

Tumbleweeds:

All of that compared to trader's 10 items, 3 of which are basic starter resources, 1 is lunar hail exclusive and 1 is a starter trade, all of which are also limited 

Okay but graves are limited and tumbleweeds gives you more but still very rng for higher items. I will not trust 100% paper only and see how in practise this will sorts out.