**REPORTED** Traveling Merchant gets stuck not spawning until an NPC is killed

[PsychoPiper]

Steam or GOG

Steam

Single Player/Multiplayer

Single

Operating System

Windows 10

Terraria Version

1.4.4.9

Controls Used

Keyboard/Mouse

This Reddit thread shows that this issue has seemingly been prevalent for several years now. I'm not sure what exactly triggers this bug, but something seems to get the Traveling Merchant stuck in a state where his spawn checks will always fail until an NPC is killed. After entering hardmode, I spent nearly an entire in-game month without him spawning a single time. This is not the first world this has happened to me on. After fighting WoF to kill the guide, he proceeded to spawn for the next few days without issue, and I haven't had any problems since. I understand that you can just get unlucky, but at a ~20% chance per day on average, it doesn't seem like a coincidence that this many people have experienced this issue, nor that I've experienced it on two worlds in a row now.

 

[Kazzymodus]

This Reddit thread shows that this issue has seemingly been prevalent for several years now. I'm not sure what exactly triggers this bug, but something seems to get the Traveling Merchant stuck in a state where his spawn checks will always fail until an NPC is killed. After entering hardmode, I spent nearly an entire in-game month without him spawning a single time. This is not the first world this has happened to me on. After fighting WoF to kill the guide, he proceeded to spawn for the next few days without issue, and I haven't had any problems since. I understand that you can just get unlucky, but at a ~20% chance per day on average, it doesn't seem like a coincidence that this many people have experienced this issue, nor that I've experienced it on two worlds in a row now.

This is a known issue which I believe has something to do with the spread of Corruption/Crimson invalidating existing homes and making NPCs homeless, but I don't have full confirmation on that yet (as in, I know for a fact that can happen, but I don't know if that's what's happening to everyone encountering this issue).

Were any of your houses/towns close to Corruption/Crimson after the Hardmode spread?

 

[PsychoPiper]

This is a known issue which I believe has something to do with the spread of Corruption/Crimson invalidating existing homes and making NPCs homeless, but I don't have full confirmation on that yet (as in, I know for a fact that can happen, but I don't know if that's what's happening to everyone encountering this issue).

Were any of your houses/towns close to Corruption/Crimson after the Hardmode spread?

Now that you mention it, after entering hardmode, the crimson part of the V spawned directly on top of my jungle pylon housing. Only 2 houses were affected out of about ~20 total in my world, but the 2 NPCs living there were indeed forced to relocate to the main base.

 

[Kazzymodus]

Now that you mention it, after entering hardmode, the crimson part of the V spawned directly on top of my jungle pylon housing. Only 2 houses were affected out of about ~20 total in my world, but the 2 NPCs living there were indeed forced to relocate to the main base.

Alright, that seems to indicate that you were experiencing the same issue. Thank you for the report, we'll do our very best to get it sorted.

 

[PsychoPiper]

Alright, that seems to indicate that you were experiencing the same issue. Thank you for the report, we'll do our very best to get it sorted.

Awesome! Thank you guys for your constant love and care for this game, on top of the quick response to this report. The team never fails to amaze me, you all have more than earned the top spot on Steam's best reviewed games. Keep up the fantastic work!