Heavyweight Fishing Maoshan Merchant: Spawn Times

The rules

Two roaming merchants share one spawn slot:

• Spawn interval: every 30 minutes
• Where: any island except Beginning Isle
• Duration: 10 minutes, then gone
• Which one: a 50/50 between Maoshan and Taoist

That last rule is the one people miss. You are not waiting 30 minutes for the Maoshan Merchant — you are waiting 30 minutes for a merchant, half of which are the wrong one. In expectation that is an hour per specific merchant.

What they sell

Nothing on that list is available anywhere else. The Maoshan Rod is the highest listed Power in the game — five above both crafted rods — which makes this merchant the single biggest gear gate after crafting.

A full clear of both merchants costs 700M Cash. Bank it before you start hunting, because a merchant you cannot afford is a merchant you wasted an hour on.

Practical hunting

Set your respawn with the Set Spawn NPC on whichever island you are farming, and keep a boat available through Spawn Boat. Ten minutes is not long enough to sail across the map after you spot one — you want to already be somewhere useful when it appears.

About the “Taoist Rod”

There is no Taoist Rod. The name comes up constantly in searches, but the Taoist Merchant sells an orb and a skill — the rod is the Maoshan Merchant’s. If you were told to farm a Taoist Rod, the item you actually want is either the Maoshan Rod (300M, Maoshan Merchant) or the Taoist Orb (100M, Taoist Merchant).