Ever wondered how the Traveling Merchant in Stardew Valley decides what to sell? Players often ponder the randomness of her inventory, especially when searching for specific rare items. Let’s delve into how the game mechanics determine the merchant’s stock.
The items offered by the Traveling Merchant are indeed based on a degree of randomness, but it’s not entirely arbitrary. The game uses a random number generator (RNG) seeded by your unique game ID and the number of days you’ve played in your Stardew Valley save file.
Specifically, for each standard item slot, the game selects a random number and iterates through item IDs until it finds a valid, non-blacklisted item with a category, a price above zero, and isn’t weeds, minerals or artifacts. The price is then determined randomly, and there’s a higher chance for stack sizes to be 1, and a lower chance for 5. This process explains why some items seem more common than others at the merchant.
Furniture stock is determined similarly, using a different range of IDs and pricing mechanism.
In essence, the Traveling Merchant’s stock in Stardew Valley is tied to your game’s unique ID and play time, creating a pseudo-random selection each visit. So, while there’s an element of chance, the game mechanics are working behind the scenes to curate her ever-changing inventory.
