Possible softlock: old mayor not existing.

[livinghell]

I played game to the end while visiting every island. But I have never seen Old Mayor anywhere. IT should be MORE CLEAR, did I say MORE CLEAR?, I will just say it AGAIN: MMORE CCLEAR that such character exists at all in this game.
I am still doubting it exists, although some guides say, that speaking with him is a natural way to get a good ending...

Perhaps is should be a part of a main story to find him and speak with him.

[Mojo Forever]

My best guess is you have to speak to everyone that will talk about him for him to spawn.

[Rena Ichigawa]

I only talked about the old mayor once, and literally found him by pure coincidence. Not exactly hard to find the dock next to a giant dome ruins.

[Sirius140]

Did you check the islands between Stellar Basin and the Gale Cliffs/ Tangled Strand for a lit campfire that wasn't there before? Or even that lone island just SE of the Devil's Spine?

[Gambit]

At least half the characters in the game have some dialogue for the Old Mayor. He's actually hard to miss. Seems to have four spawn locations too. If you're doing literally any exploration at all you'll find him. If you talk to just about any NPC, you'll hear about him.

[Ziggurt]

I may be wrong - but I think you have to speak with the lighthouse keeper lady to trigger him spawning. This was an extra dialogue option after I delivered second or third item.

[Thoramir]

I found him, shortly after retrieving the necklace, at the campsite in the Twisted Strand. Needless to say, the I got the good ending pretty abruptly after that even though I really didn't think I had uncovered nearly enough of the lore for the game to end already.

[Cocofang]

There are four empty camp sites around the world. These seem to be his spawning locations.

[Aryn11]

Not to necro this post but I have been all over, have talked to a bunch of people, and have been actively looking for him at his spawn points. None of them have a lit campfire. Probably worth saying that i went through an entire playthrough without ever seeing him, and this is my second one where I'm trying to get the good ending. I guess I will keep trying to talk to people and checking his possible locations again, but yeah it's a bit annoying to go to every single one and have him not be there...
Update: i talked to everyone in port again, had a convo with lighthouse keeper about "alternatives", checked each location again, still not there.

[Aryn11]

Putting this here in case it helps anyone else: he did not appear for me until I turned in the 4th item to the Collector. Then I found him at the location NE of Greater Marrow.