My Time at Portia mixes things up by moving away from the traditional farming system and instead focuses on building. These mechanics help to set Portia apart from other games on the market that simply walk in the footsteps of the traditional farming sim.

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The game also features an incredibly interesting art style that is easily distinguishable from other titles on the market. My Time at Portia can feel a bit overwhelming when you first load up the game, so to help you get started, we have listed some top tips that will help you make a quick profit in the game.

Updated June 11, 2021 by Meg Pelliccio: Earning money is one of the main things you'll be aiming to do in My Time at Portia. Naturally, the more money you have, the easier it will be to do things such as improve your house, character, and progress relationships with others. We've added some additional tips on how to maximize your money-making skills while starting a new life in Portia.

12 Focus On Foraging

When you start the game, you're not going to be given a lot of money or materials to build yourself up with. You should spend the first few weeks of the game foraging to make money and stock up on materials. You can find several different items growing around your farm that will replenish every few days.

You can even battle some of the easier monsters in the meadows behind your home to get some extra items. Make sure to keep the wood and stone you gather as you will need these items to build new items throughout the entirety of the game.

11 Don't Jump Into Romance

While romance is always a big draw for farming sims, you should hold off on trying to get married right away. To begin with, many of the marriage candidates need pricey gifts in order to raise their heart level. You will also need to upgrade your house, which isn't going to help you as much as upgrading your work areas in the early game.

You will also find that by doing commissions; you will naturally increase their affection levels. In Portia, it can also be a good idea to reset your stats so that you can more effectively win over the citizens, but this shouldn't be done until you've built up some money.

10 Focus On Upgrades

As mentioned above, most of your earned money should go directly into upgrading your workshop. You will also want to quickly upgrade your tools so that you can gather new ingredients. A stronger axe will be able to get better quality wood and won't wear you down as much when you use it. In addition, the materials you get access to from tool upgrades are worth more money.

While your sole focus shouldn't be on increasing the level of your utilities and tools, upgrading a few times before reaching Amber Island can give you a definite advantage.

9 Build A Furnace Army

If you have ever played any simulation game that requires you to smelt ore in a furnace, then you know where this is going. Each furnace can only make one item at any given time, meaning it's going to take forever to stockpile ore. If you need to make copper ore instead of iron, though, then you're going to need a whole new furnace to process the different types of ore at the same time.

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Build three to five furnaces to get started so that you can be making a variety of materials around the clock, making your workshop the most efficient it can be.

8 Patch Your House

When you first move into town, you are given a free house. The only problem is that the house is both small and rundown. You will also quickly notice that you don't gain all of your stamina back from going to bed on time. In order to get a good night's sleep and your stamina bar full, you will need to patch up all the holes in your house.

This doesn't require much wood and can be done without consuming much energy. You can even go ahead and patch the holes in the first few days of gameplay. For a small task, the benefit is very noticeable.

7 Prioritize your Stamina

My Time At Portia Food Store

Stamina is super important as this is the stat that dictates how long you can do certain tasks for, such as mining, logging, fishing, etc. The more stamina you have, the longer you can gather for, as once your stamina runs out, you'll blackout for the day.

Of course, the more you can gather, the more money you can make — so prioritize increasing your stamina. You can get stat increases by equipping certain clothes or placing furniture in your home. It's also worth keeping some food on hand at all times, either cooked by yourself or purchased from the store, as this will restore some of your stamina. This is super handy for when you're in the middle of a gathering session, such as down in the mines.

6 Hoard Your Finds In The Mine

When you first go into the mines, your going to find a ton of items, ore, and relics. Whatever you do, don't just go and sell everything, as tempting as it can be. While small motors can net you a lot of money, you aren't going to find them very often in the early hours of the game.

Stockpile any items that you find, and place all acquired furniture in your home to bump your stats. Once you start building up a surplus of the same furniture and relics, you can start to sell them in order to make some extra money.

5 Look Out For Secret Rooms in the Mines

My Time At Portia finding a secret room in the ruins

While mining in the Abandoned Ruins, there is a chance that you can discover a hidden room. These secret little areas will be indicated by a purple marker when wearing the relic scanner.

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Once you dig them out, you have to enter a tube-like building to discover the goodies hidden within. These hidden rooms have treasure chests, furniture, and a couple of low-level enemies inside, so they're well worth looking out for.

4 Watch Item Prices

My Time at Portia features an interesting and lively economy that is always fluctuating. You will need to keep an eye on the prices of items pretty consistently. The screen with the item will tell you how high or low above an item's normal price point you can buy it for. Likewise, the menu will also show if selling your items is a bad idea.

If you wait for prices to increase, you can end up making a 100% profit off of the items you are willing to part with. You can then save the money until a day when buying prices are at their lowest.

3 Start The Tree Farm Questline

Soon after you start the game, you will learn that the tree farm is suffering from a panbat infestation. You will need to build a sound machine to get rid of the annoying enemies and get the tree farm moving. After you clear the panbats, you will receive a quest to build a simple water system that will help the tree farm to get growing again.

Completing these quests will reward you with free wood and tree products for a year. This is a great way to supply your farm with wood as it can be hard to manage exploring, building, and harvesting later in the game. As such, you should prioritize this quest.

2 Upgrade Your Backpack

One of the most annoying issues in most games is the amount of inventory space you have at the beginning. You will have 16 slots when you start, and a majority of these will be taken up by essential tools. You will want to buy more slots as quickly as possible so that you can carry more items out of the mines. Portia makes buying extra slots a streamlined process for the player.

Simply open your menu and go to your item screen. Once there, you can select the grayed-out row of slots and purchase them for a small fee. Consider it an investment, as in the long run you'll make more money from having a larger inventory.

1 Hold Off On Amber Island

The first story quest you will be asked to fulfill is building the bridge to Amber Island. You should hold off on this quest for as long as you can. Once you unlock the bridge, the Dee-Dee stop quest will start, if you don't have all the items to build the Dee-Dees then Higgins, your rival will be able to do the quests barring you from the experience, money, and the associated achievement.

Look up the materials to make the stops ahead of time and stockpile until you have all the materials you need. This way you can ensure you get all of the credit and all of the rewards.

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