Traveling Merchant

The Traveling Merchant is a unique NPC vendor who randomly visits the player's town for one day. His inventory is randomized and different every visit, selling 4–10 / (average 5.47 / ; see below for details) different items listed below.

In order for the Traveling Merchant to spawn, at least 2 other NPCs must already be present. The Guide counts as one of these, but the Old Man and do not. He will not spawn during Eclipse, Goblin Army, Frost Legion, Pirate Invasion, or Martian Madness. He does not require his own house in order to spawn, and will instead spawn next to NPCs, including town pets, spending the day walking around them.

Once the criteria are met, the Traveling Merchant has a 22.12% chance of spawning each day, appearing at a random time between 4:30AM and 12:00PM. The chance of him appearing is just as likely if all players are sleeping. He leaves the same day at 6:00PM, but can only do so once he is off-screen. He despawns if the world is vacated any time after he spawns.

If threatened by enemies, the Traveling Merchant will defend himself with a Revolver. Once Hardmode begins, he upgrades to a Pulse Bow.

Items sold
Due to elaborate randomizer functions and dependencies upon several variables, it is nearly impossible to state an exact chance of an item being sold by the Traveling Merchant. However, it is possible to group them in six rarity "slots", ranging from "Common" to "Extraordinarily Rare". Note that these slots do not correspond to the Traveling Merchant's shop inventory slots – all sold items may be from only one slot. They are only meant to provide a rough, comparative estimate of an item's rarity. Each shop slot will roll a 1/n chance of being for every possible item where n is 100 * the rarity slot. This chance is affected by the luckiest player currently in the world. When multiple items pass this chance, the item that was tested, the latest will be the selected.

Within the slots, items higher in the list below have a marginally higher chance of being sold, e.g., the is sold slightly more often than the Water Gun (on average), because it is higher in the list.

Number of sold items
The following tables list the chances of the numbers of items sold by the Traveling Merchant. Only "base" items are counted, i.e., Dynasty Shingles and Team Platforms are excluded from this number, since they are always sold together with their "base" items Dynasty Wood or Team Block, respectively.

These chances reveal that the average number of sold "base" items is /.

Tips

 * The Traveling Merchant departs by simply disappearing while off-screen. If the player keeps him on-screen when he would normally depart, he will remain until he is off-screen again. If he is kept on-screen until dawn, he will not depart until he is off-screen after 6:00PM the following evening. This does not, however, change his inventory.
 * In Journey Mode, if you pause time when it's between 4:30 AM and 12:00 PM, the Traveling Merchant will instantly spawn (provided all the conditions are met, i.e. at least two NPCs are present, and no invasion is happening). Leaving the world while time is still frozen and then returning will reroll the Traveling Merchant's current stock and location (if there's more than one town in the world). This is a great way to farm for his rarer items.
 * Another way of farming the Traveling Merchant in Journey Mode is increasing the time speed multiplier until he appears and then freezing time. Changing time to midnight and then immediately back to dawn will depart the old merchant and a new one will arrive instantly. The off-screen despawn rule still applies, so changing locations before changing time is required.
 * Note that this method will still trigger invasions like Goblin Army and Pirate Invasion when the time is set to dawn, making the Traveling Merchant stop "respawning".
 * Killing the Traveling Merchant, and then quickly un-pausing time and pausing it back, will spawn a new Traveling Merchant with a new set of stock.

Quotes


When Merchant is present:

When Clothier is present:

When Guide is present:

During a :

During Rain :

During a :

During a :

When in a :

Trivia

 * Many of the things he sells are of Asian origin, often from the.
 * Many of his wares may be a reference to the, and to the goods that were brought to Europe during the age of discovery in general.
 * The name Willy is most likely a reference to the 1949 play  written by American playwright, where the main character is Willy Loman, a traveling salesman.
 * His quote "" is a reference to the Pakistani trader and recording artist Muhammad Shahid Nazir, also known as, who found fame as an internet sensation for his viral video "".
 * The quote "" is a reference to the 1992 American animated musical fantasy film Aladdin.
 * His quote "" is a reference to the ongoing joke of how Angel Statues are one of the most useless statues in the game; this is also referenced by a quote from the Merchant.
 * Along with the Cyborg and the Zoologist, the Traveling Merchant is one of the only NPCs to sell a new item post-Moon Lord, which is Not a Kid, nor a Squid.