Exactly how rare are golden snowmen, and is snowmen placement random or fixed?

Question

For the Planetside 2 Christmas event on Esamir:

• Exactly how rare are the golden snowmen are compared to the normal snowmen?
• How much XP do the golden snowmen drop?
• Is the general snowmen placement random or fixed?

Answer 1

I have not been able to find any info on the exact ratio of normal to golden snowmen, but apparently the golden snowmen will drop a larger amount of XP, according to this Steam discussion post (emphasis mine):

Regular snowmen normally give 500xp per kill (just shoot em), but with double xp weeknd they're worth a thousand. You get a title for taking out 10 snowmen.

Gold snowmen are normally worth 8,000xp (so worth a buttload this weekend) and you get a golden snowman hood ornament for killing them.

The info I have I gathered from the official forums.

The spawn locations also seem to be fixed throughout Esamir, and a Planetside 2 forum thread shows multiple maps updated differently. However, judging by one of the most recent posts, the locations may or may not have changed.

The map on the front page is highly inaccurate. In the area I searched southern, around Ymir and up the east (and have found 100+ so far + 2 golden) there are at least 15 spawn locations that are not marked that are a guaranteed spawn spot.

Answer 2

They used to be very rare, I remember spending days last 2 Xmases looking for them. This time though I jumped on and found a golden one and a regular one side by side. You get 5000XP (see vid)

Answer 3

There is only ever 1 golden snowman on a continent at a time. When it is destroyed it respawns somewhere else. The spawn locations for all snowmen are fixed, but there are a lot of locations, and snowmen randomly spawn at each location. So it looks random, but after a while you will start to notice them popping up in the same place over and over. When a snowman is destroyed it respawns elsewhere.

The spawn locations do not change year to year, so maps from previous years are still valid. The best way to get snowmen is to get yourself locked on esamir after the continent is locked, use a fighter and go as an engineer because your fighter will run out of ammo eventually, and you'll need to land and get out and shoot the snowmen with your machine gun. Unless your faction owns the continent, of course.