Wandering trader could use some kind of progression

[Malfario]

As the title says, the wandering trader as it stands its something i will defenetly check out early game if i am lucky, but something i will completly pass over id say past first winter. But even on that first auttum it doesnt feel really unconsecuential, or exciting, its just a roll for a semi weird material that you will need to find more of anywhere. 

Personally i think its major problems its the stocks are to small and how his better deals are not even that good.

Starting with the stock problem, to be blunt 5 grass is not worth the time it takes to trade for it, and when the traders does have usefull trades like living logs, pig skin, or even gears, it doesnt give you enough for it to be worth carring the randomness materials he asks for. Just by changing how much he sells and not what he sells the trader would be far mor interesting:

3 living logs- enough for ruins rushes or shadow manipulator

40 grass/twigs- stock up for torches and rope and tools for the early game

20 reeds-enough for bird cage and a night armor

With all this the trader can become a major time saver for repetitive grind early game, and could even solve out the problem of not finidng a specific byome for its resource.

Now going on what he sells, Even with the previous aspect mentioned changed, the trader would still fall on almost an early game exclusive feature with maybe ocasional instanes of usefullness in mid to late game. and in trully long worlds i dont see almost any utility.

I think the Trader could get new resources as the world progresses, i dont think the trader should be the main source of anything but i do think his trades should make it so the player always wanna check him out when tey encounters it.

Selling wax paper after you defeat bee queen, selling deer antlers during winter, selling repair kits after the rifts become active, stacks of hounds teeth to recharge your howlitzer ,acid salves for acid rain, already crafted cobblestones for boss arenas etc etc, overall materials that will suffy an aling with the players need and which stock are thought to suffy proper demand

On the topic of what he sells, there is a lot of stuff in this game thats easy to get, but extremly annoying to get, diging up grass tuffs or berry bushes, blowdarts are cool and usefull but getting just 10 of them its a dreadfull chore, the list goes on and on, it would be cool if the trader had trades for this sort of stuff, items that are easy to get, but buying is way faster.

 

A final sugestion, it would be cool if the trader had some a little more, at a lack of a better word, style. Making him react to in world events, have some supicious lines of dialoge, maybe he could drop a lore bit out of nowhere for every character to freak them out, candy cadette style from Fnaf 6 and such, maybe giving him boss loot allows for a scret exclusive black market deal, changing the guardian horn for an exclusive weapon, get a utility gadget to miss use after trading with him the scrap hat from scrappy werepig etc etc etc.

 

Thanks for reading, Enjoying the beta so far, very excited to see what is cooking

Edited July 23, 2025 by Malfario