Valheim has three traders, each fixed to one biome and placed when the world is generated: Haldor in the Black Forest, usually within about 1,500 metres of the world centre; Hildir in the Meadows, further out at roughly 3,000-5,100 metres; and the Bog Witch in the Swamp, anywhere from about 3,000 to 8,000 metres out. On a dedicated server they are the same for everyone - one Haldor per world, unlimited stock, prices the same for every player - but the coins you pay with, and the map pin that tells you where a trader is, belong to each character. Most of the confusion groups run into comes from that split between what the world remembers and what each player carries.
This post covers finding the traders on a shared world, what each sells, how boss progress gates their stock, and the habits that save a group repeated trips. Server setup itself is in the Valheim dedicated server guide.
What is shared and what is per player#
Before anything else, it helps to know which parts of trading live on the server and which live on the client.
| Thing | Stored where | Shared by the group? |
|---|---|---|
| Trader location | World file | Yes - same place for everyone |
| Trader stock | Game data plus world keys | Yes - unlimited, nothing sells out |
| Stock unlocked by bosses | World keys on a standard server | Yes, once anyone kills the boss |
| Coins | Character inventory | No - each player's own |
| Map pin for a found trader | Character map | No, until shared at a cartography table |
| Purchased items | Character inventory | No, but they can be handed over or put in a chest |
| Hildir's quest chests | World, as reported by players | See the Hildir section |
Two things follow. First, there is no shared bank. Coins are an item; if the group pools money, it pools it in a chest, and whoever takes the coins out does the shopping. Second, there is no competition for stock. If Haldor sells Megingjord, every player can buy one, and buying one does not remove it for anyone else.
The trader himself is a world object like any other. The first player to walk into his zone owns it and simulates him, which matters only in the sense that a trader standing in a zone owned by a player with a bad connection may feel slightly sluggish to interact with. It never affects prices or stock.
Haldor: the Black Forest trader#
Haldor is the first trader most groups meet, and the one that matters most early on. He stands at a small camp in the Black Forest, almost always within about 1,500 metres of the world centre. A world generates a few candidate spots for him, and he appears at one.
How to find him on a server:
- Explore the Black Forest near the centre first. He is never far out. Spiralling outwards from the spawn stones through the nearest Black Forest is the standard approach.
- Watch the map. When you get close, a trader marker appears on your map. You also hear him greeting you before you see him.
- Pin him and share it. That marker is on your map only. Write it to a cartography table at the main base so every other player can read it - see Valheim cartography tables and shared maps.
- Build a portal next to his camp. A hub portal tagged
traderis the single most-used shared portal on many servers. Designing a Valheim portal hub covers the naming.
If a group wants to know in advance, seed map viewers such as the one at valheim-map.world show trader locations for a given seed. That is a spoiler some groups enjoy and others do not; agree before someone posts a screenshot.
What Haldor sells, at the time of writing:
| Item | Use | Gate |
|---|---|---|
| Megingjord | Belt, +150 carry weight | None |
| Fishing rod | Fishing | None |
| Fishing bait | Basic bait for the rod | None |
| Dverger circlet | Head slot light | None |
| Barrel hoops | Building barrels | None |
| Yule hat | Cosmetic | None |
| Ymir flesh | Crafting material | The Elder |
| Thunder stone | Crafting the obliterator | The Elder |
| Egg | Chickens | Yagluth |
Prices and gates have changed between patches, and later updates have also added more fishing bait types and other items. Treat the table as a guide and check his shop in game against your server's version. Megingjord is the usual first big purchase and is worth it for whoever does the ore runs.
Haldor also buys valuables found in the world: amber, amber pearls, rubies and silver necklaces are the classic ones, with more treasure added by later updates. Valuables have no other use, so on a group server they belong in a "sell to Haldor" chest by the trader portal, not in the main storage.
Hildir: the Meadows trader and her quests#
Hildir arrived with the Hildir's Request update in 2023. She trades in the Meadows, which sounds easy, but she is placed much further out than Haldor - roughly 3,000 to 5,100 metres from the centre - so most groups find her on a sailing trip rather than on foot. Her location gets a clothing icon on the map once you are close enough, and like Haldor's it is per character until shared.
She sells mostly clothing: dresses, tunics, caps and headscarves that reduce stamina use, plus a barber kit for the barber station, decorative items and basic fireworks. Her stock is small at first and grows as her lost chests are returned.
The quests are three dungeons, each holding one of her chests and guarded by a boss of its own:
| Chest | Dungeon | Biome | Guarded by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brass chest | Smouldering tomb | Black Forest | Brenna |
| Silver chest | Howling cavern | Mountains | Geirrhafa |
| Bronze chest | Sealed tower | Plains | Zil and Thungr |
A world has several of each dungeon, but only one of each needs clearing. Carry the chest back to Hildir and hand it in, and part of her stock unlocks. Each return also adds to the world in another way: the hand-ins are tied to events of their own, which some groups notice as unexpected raids after a return.
On a shared server the question everyone asks is whether the quests are per player or per world. Players' reports, rather than any official statement, say that the chest hand-ins are tracked per world: once one player returns a chest, it cannot be handed in again by someone else, and the unlocked stock is there for everyone. That matches how the game handles boss keys, but it is worth checking on your own version before planning around it. An admin with devcommands can run listkeys before and after a hand-in and see whether a new world key appeared; Valheim global keys and setkey explains what that list shows.
The Bog Witch: the Swamp trader#
The Bog Witch came with the Bog Witch update in late 2024 and is the hardest trader to find. She lives in a hut in the Swamp, anywhere from roughly 3,000 to 8,000 metres from the centre, so she may be on the far side of the map from your base. A cauldron icon appears on the map once you are near her hut.
Searching for her is mostly sailing. Swamps often sit along coasts, and following a coastline with Swamp on it is faster than crossing the biome on foot. Bring a group, a boat with room, and gear suited to wherever she turns out to be - she can be past other biomes you have not cleared.
Her stock is cooking and brewing ingredients, plus the serving tray needed for feasts. Much of it is gated on boss keys:
| Gate | Examples of what unlocks |
|---|---|
| None | Serving tray, candle wick, love potion, ivy seeds, potion ingredients |
| The Elder | Woodland herb blend |
| Moder | Scythe handle, toadstool, mountain spices |
| Yagluth | Plains herb blend |
| The Queen | Mistlands herbs |
| Fader | Fiery spice powder |
The exact item names and prices vary slightly across sources and versions; the pattern of boss gating is the stable part. The scythe handle is the one people go to her for in mid-game, since the scythe needs it.
One item deserves a warning on a shared server. The love potion makes trolls more likely to spawn and draws their attention to you. It is a deliberate tool for troll hunting; drunk next to someone else's base, it is griefing. Add it to the server rules if the group is large.
Boss progression and trader stock#
Haldor and the Bog Witch both hold some items back until the world has a particular boss key, and Hildir's later stock is held back until her chests come home. On a standard server, keys are world-wide. One player killing The Elder sets defeated_gdking for the whole world, and the gated items appear for every player who visits the trader afterwards - even a player who joined yesterday and never saw the boss.
That is convenient and, for some groups, a spoiler. A late joiner can buy a thunder stone without ever having fought in the Black Forest. If the group cares about everyone earning their own way, it has to be a rule, not a setting. The details of how keys spread, and what happens when a late joiner arrives, are in Valheim boss progression on shared servers.
There is one setting that changes how keys are checked for some systems: -setkey playerevents makes raids scale to each player's own progress rather than the world's. It was designed for raids. Do not assume it changes trader stock as well; on most versions the trader still looks at the world keys. If it matters to your group, test it: check what Haldor offers to a fresh character on a copy of the world with the key set.
The other direction catches admins out. Removing a boss key with removekey hides the gated stock again, for everyone. Items already bought stay in inventories. Uploading a single-player world where you already killed a boss brings that key, and the unlocked stock, onto the server from the first start.
Running trader trips as a group#
Traders are a shared resource with personal money, which means a little organisation saves a lot of walking.
- Put a portal at each trader. Haldor first, then Hildir and the Bog Witch once found. They are fixed for the life of the world, so these portals never need retiring.
- Keep sell chests. A chest by the main base for valuables, emptied on each trip to Haldor. Whoever goes does the selling.
- Decide how coins work. Either everyone keeps their own and buys their own Megingjord, or coins go into a shared pot for group purchases such as barrel hoops, eggs for a chicken coop and serving trays. Both work; mixing them without saying so causes arguments.
- Write a shopping list on a sign. A sign by the trader portal listing what the group needs next stops three people buying the same thing.
- Do not carry ore to the trader. The trader portal, on default rules, will refuse you if you carry ore or bars. Empty your inventory of metal before you go.
If someone loses coins to a death on the way back, they are in the tombstone like everything else. A tombstone near a trader camp is usually easy to recover, but a Bog Witch run that ends in a deep swamp is not. The death rules are in Valheim death penalty and tombstones.
Traders, old worlds and updates#
Traders are placed as part of world generation. That has consequences on a long-running server that began before Hildir or the Bog Witch existed.
- New traders appear only in ungenerated areas. Valheim generates zones the first time someone goes near them, and new locations from an update are placed only in zones not yet generated. Hildir and the Bog Witch spawn far from the centre, so on many older worlds there is still unexplored ground where they can appear. On a world that has been explored to the edges, they may have nowhere to go.
- Check before you give up. If the group has searched every Meadows and Swamp area and found nothing, the honest options are a mod that regenerates locations or a fresh world. Updates and old Valheim worlds goes into how generation works.
- Upgrade World can place missing locations. The Upgrade World mod by JereKuusela can regenerate locations, including traders, in already explored areas. It is powerful and can delete builds if misused; take a backup and read Upgrade World for Valheim first.
On RE:NODE, backup slots come with every Valheim plan and restoring is one button, which is exactly what you want before running any world-editing mod. A second, cheaper server for testing a copy is also an option if the change is big.
Troubleshooting trader problems#
The trader is not on my map, but my friend found him. Map pins are per character. Have your friend write their map to a cartography table and read it yourself.
Haldor is not selling an item the wiki lists. The world does not have the matching boss key yet, or the server is on a version where the list differs. Check the server version and, if you are an admin, listkeys.
We cannot find Hildir or the Bog Witch at all. The world may predate them and have no ungenerated area left in the right biome and range. See the old-worlds section above.
A trader stopped talking or the shop will not open. Usually a zone ownership hiccup. Step away and back, or relog. If it happens to everyone, restart the server cleanly so the world saves first.
Prices look different from a guide. Prices have been rebalanced in several patches. The shop in your game is the truth for your version.
Hildir will not take a chest. Another player may already have returned that chest on this world, if hand-ins are per world as players report. Check with the group before clearing another dungeon for it.
FAQ#
Can two players buy the same item from Haldor?
Yes. Trader stock is unlimited and not shared out. Every player can buy their own Megingjord or fishing rod, and one purchase does not affect anyone else.
Do coins go into a shared group account?
No. Coins are an inventory item on each character. If a group wants a shared fund, it is a chest, and the rules for who spends it are up to you.
Does Haldor move to a new place after a server restart?
No. His location is fixed when the world is generated and stored in the world file. Restarts, updates and new players do not move him.
Can we use Hildir's clothing on a crossplay server?
Yes. The traders and everything they sell are vanilla content, so Steam, Game Pass and Xbox players all see the same shops.
Is the Bog Witch worth the trip?
For the scythe handle and feast supplies, yes, once the group is past Moder. Put a portal at her hut on the first visit so the long sail only happens once.
Do traders show up in the server log?
Not in any useful way. Finding them is in-game exploration or a seed map viewer; the server does not report trader positions.
