Quick answer
Valheim's three traders, Haldor, Hilde, and the Bogwitch, are crucial to getting a variety of useful and unique items in the game. Found in the swamp, the bog witch is discoverable just like Haldor and Hildir before her, but this time with a round cauldron like symbol. In comparison, Hildir has the smallest range of all three traders, being found between 3,000 m and 5,500 m from the center of the world. Keep in mind however, the skeleton surprise can only occur after you defeat bonemass, and shes hot on your tail after returning the brass chest to Hildir.
To maximize your efficiency you will want to wear two pieces of clothing provided by hildir that reduces stamina usage while using the cultivator. Another new vendor can now be found in the meadows to accompany the Bog Witch and Haldor in Hildir. Since the Hildir’s Request update, there is a new way to acquire eggs and grow your chicken farm. By equipping the full harvester armor set purchased from hildir you increase this skill by 25 and since the recent call to arms update you can get another +25 by triggering yagluths forsaken power.
But, they're not always the easiest to find. As you approach the hut, you will see a friendly greydwarf outside who as it turns out is an imposter! Lastly, the new Bog Witch can also be found from 3,000 m from the center of the world, but has a slightly larger extent than Hildir, stretching out to about 6,500 m. After finding Hildir and interacting with her map, navigate to one of the smouldering tombs and slay her.
NPC basics
So, I thought I'd make a quick video laying out the trader spawning mechanics, and hopefully pointing you in the right direction. The true witch is found inside accompanied by her broom mate Kvastur. Haldor can be found beyond the outer half of this first segment, whereas Hildir and the Bog Witch have the best chance of being found in this second segment. As an alternative, cultists do spawn in a raid following the delivery of the silver chest to hildir as I’ll touch on further in a moment.
If you're relatively new to Valheim, you might not know that there are currently three different traders. While the broom appears friendly, I’d have to warn you against attacking it but…I’ll elaborate more on him a bit later. Alternatively, fenring will spawn during the Geirhaffa raid, added to your raid pool after returning his chest to Hildir. They each offer a range of items and crafting ingredients that you won't be able to get anywhere else in the game.
Once interacting with the witch you will find a vast list of new ingredients enabling new recipes and useful items available for gold. Sixth is the second of Hildirs minibosses in Geirhaffa found in any one of the Howling caverns placed on your map again with a 100% drop chance. These traders are Haldor, who sells general goods like the strength belt and fishing rod, his sister Hilde, who sells mostly clothing items, and the Bogwitch, who mainly sells potion ingredients and herbs needed for feasts. Be sure to check that out.
Where to find them
Seventh…and kind of eight is one of the weirder ones from the third hildir miniboss. Each of these traders have their own separate camps, which are pretty accessible during the early game. The first use case for the items found here are feasts, a brand new food type that augments the food system like the hearth and home update before it. The first of these traders you're likely to find is Haldor.
Moreover, what elevates this update in my opinion, is that it is as forward looking as it is backward in adding feasts for early game biomes as well as late game. As of these three traders, he can spawn the closest to where you start the game. The ingredient required to craft each of the 8 feasts will become available in the witches shop following the defeat of the biomes corresponding boss, and for the Sailors bounty, after defeating a serpent. But, as soon as you get the carved boat, the other two will also be within relatively easy reach, and give you a real advantage going forward.
This is a new tool that when equipped opens a menu with tabs associated with the consumable type allowing you to cycle through and place those foods, meads, and feasts from your inventory. On every Valheim world seed, there are 10 possible locations each for Haldor, Hilde, and the Bogwitch. Feasts, must be placed before eaten but, can be consumed a total of 10 times to keep both you and your compatriots well fed. The first of these 10 locations that you come within 300 m of will become the sole and permanent location of that trader in your world.
Items and trades
While the feasts grant great buffs to your stats like previous foods, where they truly shine is their duration being a whopping 50 minutes long! And when that happens, you'll notice an icon appear on your map. But now you might be wondering, where do I craft these feasts? A bag icon will appear for Haldor, a t-shirt icon for Hilde, and a cauldron icon for the Bogwitch.
In short, the cauldron received significant rework with food recipes now being split between it and two new cooking stations in the food preparation table, and mead kitill. Finding one of these 10 locations may seem rather daunting, but there are a couple of variables that will substantially narrow down your search area. Going forward, uncooked food recipes will be found at the table, cooked foods at the cauldron, and mead bases at the kitill, including, the new potions covered shortly. Each of these three traders will only spawn in a specific biome.
To craft the table you will require iron, finewood, and leather scraps while the kitill, requires tin, copper and again, leather scraps. Haldor only spawns in the Black Forest. Multi-crafting has been introduced enabling the crafting of multiple instances of the same item!. Hilde only spawns in the Meadows.
Quests and unlocks
When at a crafting station hold down shift to craft 5 of the item of your choice, granted you have the resources to do so of course. And the Bogwitch will only spawn in the Swamps. And no – this is not restricted to food as all crafting stations now have this functionality! Second, is the distance from the sacrificial stones or near abouts the center of the world.
In a similar fashion, many of the bog witches ingredients enable the crafting of powerful new potions at the new mead kitill, and fermented as with existing meads. In total there are 7 new potions to be crafted and a mysterious 8th which is purchasable and covered last. First is the Berserkir Mead which makes you go…well…BEZERK!. You can create reference points for these distances by roughly dividing your world into four segments.
With this mead popped you take increased damage from slash, blunt, and pierce BUT get a massive reduction in stamina usage by 80% while attacking, blocking, and dodging. Just mark halfway from the center of the world to the edge and then halfway again between these points. This thing is BONKERS but is high risk, high reward if you can avoid being hit. Unfortunately, unlike most other meads, its effect lasts a mere 20 seconds.
Tips
So, now you know roughly where to look, how should you look? Second is the Tonic of Ratatosk which might be my personal favorite granting a 15% increase to movement speed while also increasing your run skill by 10. There's still a lot of area to cover before you're likely to hit one of these 10 possible spawn points and the fastest way to travel in Valheim is by boat. Imagine this combined with the Fenris armor, or asksvin cloak!
My top tip, if you're struggling to find either of these traders, is to sail your boat or ship close around the coast in areas that align with that specific trader's spawn parameters. Third, granting you mad hops in the Lightfoot Mead increasing jump height by 20% and reducing stamina usage while jumping by 30%. But, before you set off, make sure you bring some portal materials with you. Fourth, the Draught of Vananidir which just might make swimming viable with its massive 80% reduction in stamina consumption while doing the breaststroke.
This way, you'll be able to quickly travel back and forth between these traders in your base. Fifth, is the Mead of Troll Endurance granting you troll strength increasing your carrying capacity by 250. As you progress through the game, each of the traders will add more and more items to their stock. Sixth, making you friendly to wildlife in the Brew of Animal Whispers which reduces the taming time to half.