Stuck in Portia and need some Tips? You're at the right place!

My Time at Portia is an RPG, simulation, and crafting game that feels like a Ghibli world come to life. I am 200+ hours in the game after completing the main storyline and I still haven’t gotten enough of it! Although I love this game deeply, I do wish I knew some things, in the beginning, to make my gameplay experience more enjoyable.

For any beginner, and also for anyone in the middle of the game who wishes to enjoy the fullest of this gem of a game, I have created this list of tips and tricks that might help you make most of your time in Portia.

1. Patch up your house

​When the player moves into their Pa’s old house, the floorboards are broken, and the place looks dilapidated. I spent a few days ignoring the mess and going about my work but soon realized that the Stamina Bar wasn’t filled to its fullest the next morning.

You will need a total of 33 woods to fix the broken floorboards. Do this as soon as possible to get a goodnight’s rest and regenerate your stamina to the max. Wood should be your best friend. Collect them as you run around Portia for a few hours, and it will be just enough to fix the house.

2. The game only saves while sleeping

This isn’t a drill. Forget this one small fact and lose your entire day’s work in a flash. I have had times when I accomplished so much in a day only to have my progress lost because I closed the game before ‘sleeping’. Don’t worry if you stay up till late at night and pass out, it still counts as ‘sleeping’ and the game is saved.

3. Slow down the game speed

I was appalled at how fast the day passed in the game and I couldn’t get much done. It took me a while to find out that you can actually reduce the game speed in the ‘Options’. Reducing it all the way to 70% gives you around 45 minutes of gameplay in real-time. I turn it down to 60% or 50% depending on the things I need to get done. If I don’t have any missions or quests, I turn it up to 80-90% to finish the day fast.

4. Upgrade your tools pronto

I know that it gets hectic once you start your time in Portia and are given missions to fulfill. Having your axe, pickaxe and sword upgraded will help you immensely in resource gathering. Upgrading them to bronze is good but aim for Iron. This will allow you to cut bigger trees, break larger rocks and defeat loftier monsters to gather more resources.

5. Upgrade Worktable

Upgrading the Worktable will unlock more recipes for crafting, which means, bigger and better commissions and more Gols. This can be done at A&G Construction.

6. Stay up late

The player passes out at 3 a.m. in the game and is transported back to the house. But here is the good news, there is no penalty for this! So, early in the game stay up and collect woods and stones. Wood is needed for everything! Even to refuel the furnaces. Early in the game, I stayed up day after day to collect wood and stones to refuel my furnaces and keep them running.

7. 999 stones for 999 Wood

Stones aren’t used as much as wood, except for crafting specific items. If you have too many stones and you don’t know what to do with them, head over to A&G construction and trade the stones for wood. Mining is easier than chopping and you collect too many stones than you know what to do with. Don’t throw away the stones, instead exchange them for wood.

8. Endless storage boxes

You can never have enough storage boxes. Especially when you explore the ruins and go mining, you will be surprised how quickly your inventory gets full and you are made to leave some stuff that you can’t collect. Make as many storage boxes as possible, designated specific names to them to sort them out. For example, keep metals and related stuff in one or two storage boxes, Wood and wooden thing in another, raw materials in yet another one, ingredients, etc. The Worktable and other machines in your workshops are able to use the materials directly from these boxes.

9. Spend money on Inventory Slots

This is pretty expensive but worth it! There are so many things to collect in Portia that you will find yourself coming up short on spaces in the Inventory. Spending Gols to unlock more slots is a very good investment in the game.

10. Rent a Horse

You will find it frustrating to run to your destination only to miss it by a minute or two. Portia is huge, so it is ideal to either rent or own a horse to get to places faster. Having said that, making a stable, buying a horse, and taking care of it might be difficult and very expensive early in the game. It is a good idea to rent a horse from McDonald’s stable for 500 Gols a week until you have established yourself in Portia and have enough Gols and resources to make a stable.

11. Collect Poop

I know it sounds disgusting, but poop is used in many things in Portia. You even get free seeds occasionally that you can later plant in planter boxes in the workshop. They are also used to make fertilizers which yeilds more crops.

12. Fix the Tree farm

You will get a mission from Dawa regarding the Tree Farm, do this as soon as possible. After this is done successfully, resources like wood, resin, sap, ironwood, hardwood, etc. are dropped at your door each day. You can adjust the fee and the number of resources depending on your needs.

13. Go Dig

You will eventually begin to unlock abandoned ruins. You can get ores and relics which can be used for various crafting needs. This is by far the easiest way to gather resources. You can even trade the stones for wood at A&G Construction. When you befriend Mint, who arrives later in the game, he gives you a drill which will make it far easier to embrace the dig in the ruins!

14. Check Commission Deadlines

It is a given that you will be so engrossed in crafting, building, and fulfilling missions that you might just miss the Commerce Guild Commission deadlines. I have lost friendship points and reputation by missing deadlines before. Be careful of this. Double-check the deadlines by opening the ‘Mission’ tab.

15. Use the Calendar for Alarm/Reminders

After I missed mission deadlines, and birthdays of certain NPCs I liked, I was having no more of it. I belatedly realized that the calendar can be used to set alarms or reminders. If you select a specific time on the event that you need to be reminded of, an alarm icon will appear at the side to remind you of it.

As a player, you are engrossed and busy doing too many things in Portia: building, crafting, fishing, shopping, mining, etc. As much as you try to remember everything, some things slip out of your grasp and your memory. Believe me, keeping reminders like this makes a huge difference. Suffice it to say, I never missed a deadline after I started doing this.

16. Befriend Everyone

Increasing relationship with the NPCs in the game provides you with certain perks. NPCs who have stores give discounts when purchasing there once you reach ‘Buddy’ level. For example, Albert at A&G Construction, Django at The Round Table, Nora at the Church Store, Sophia at The Farm Store, etc. Befriending Antoine will grant more Gols after completing commissions.

Increasing relationship status with certain NPCs also unlocks unique missions with them. Befriending McDonald will unlock a mission where he seeks the player’s help to build a burger stall. Likewise, reaching ‘Lover’ level with Phyllis will unlock a quest to help build Phyllis’ Clinic.

Pro Tip: Instead of trying to find/craft the most loved gifts for different NPCs, invite them on playdates. To get relationships easily and quickly, take them to Round Table, order their favorite foods and talk with them. Then go to the tree in Central Plaza and sit on the bench and talk with them again. Fetches around 20+ friendship points in one playdate.

Check out the link for perks associated with relationship levels with the NPCs here: https://mytimeatportia.fandom.com/wiki/Relationship

17. Gifting during Birthdays or Festivals

Gifting NPCs during festivals multiplies the relationship points by two. On Birthdays, the relationship points earned are multiplied by three. That means, if gifting a crystal necklace to certain NPC fetches +10 relationship points, the player will receive +20 relationship on festivals, and +30 during birthdays. So, check your calendar constantly to keep track of the birthdays of NPCs you want to increase your relationship with.

18. Putting furniture and relics in the house increases stats

Decorating the house isn’t just for fun in Portia, it is pragmatic too. You will find many things when exploring and mining in ruins that you can place in your house for aesthetic value as well as to increase HP, SP, Critical Chance, Defense stats, etc. Don’t sell those leather sofas that you might occasionally find in the ruins, it will add to your defense. Furniture is your new best friend if you want to be formidable in Portia. Keep an eye out for crafting recipes that sometimes pop up in the shops. You can mostly find them in Best Brother shop, or the arbor Trade Station.

19. Want to get rich? Go Fish

After you craft your first fishing rod, you can buy the bait in bulk from Sophia’s Farm Store. The Goliath, commonly found in the fishing spot near the waterfall, fetches 350 Gols. You can make small fishing tanks and breed your catches and sell them. The Eufaula Desert Oasis is another sweet spot where you can find many different fishes.

I would recommend participating in Fishing Day events. You have a better chance of catching the rare king fishes on this day. Each King Fish is worth 5000 Gols. Try to catch two king fishes of each species and breed them. You will become the richest person in Portia in no time!

Pro Tip: If you manage to get the ‘Fish Encyclopedia’ in the Gathering section of the Skill Tree, you will be able to see which fishes you have caught before reeling them in.

20. Economy is important

After you have been exploring and mining, you will notice you have tons of stuff that might not really be necessary for you to keep. Of course, my first impulse was to sell them all to free up my painstakingly bought inventory slots. I recommend you wait till the market price goes up. If it is below 100 %, the items won’t fetch much Gols. Sometimes, the Market Price reaches almost 120%.

Be patient. Buy the items you need when the Market price is below 100% and sell when it is up to 120%.

21. Commission Civil Corps

As a builder, the player lives a busy life in Portia. Sometimes it isn’t feasible to go ruin diving to gather materials. The Civil Corps takes commissions for various items. The great thing is that you can adjust the days and the amount of Gols you are willing to spend for the items you need.

Marrying Arlo gives a 50% bonus on all materials commissioned by the player at the Civil Corps.   

22. Doesn’t hurt having extra of everything

Whenever you build a machine, like an industrial furnace, industrial cutter, grinder, etc. make an extra set. It doesn’t hurt to have an extra machine to craft some other item while another one is busy. The same goes for the metal bars. At least make them in stacks of 20-30 at a time. Copper Bars, Iron Bars, and Carbon Steel Bars are some such items that you need throughout the game and you keep running low on them. Keep those furnaces running and keep producing Carbon Steel Bars.

23. Plant, plant, and plant more

Get some large planter boxes from the Church Store and craft some small planter boxes and place them in your workshop. It is recommended to plant one tree of each variety to yield products that will be needed throughout the game. Especially, Crystella, Zeolora, and Nitra trees.

24. Don’t bother spending extra Data Discs

Spending extra data disc to speed up research is tempting, but it doesn’t make much of a difference besides speeding the research only by a day or two. Unless you have 100+ Data Discs in stock, don’t waste them on speeding up research. Trust me, you will need lots of data discs to keep unlocking various machine recipes. Keep them data discs close.

25. Food, fruits, and salves

​Stock up on food items especially when going to ruins infested with monsters. It doesn’t matter how full your HP and SP bars are, they will run dangerously low when you fight monsters and get hit. There are various food items that are easy to make which will increase your HP or SP. Dried Blade fish is easy to make if you have a drying rack. It only requires blade fish and salt and grants 160 HP. Keep them handy. Pumpkin Shrimp Soup will grant 40 SP.

If you are lazy to find ingredients and cook these foods, just collect herbs that you find lying around and turn them into Herbal Mixture or Herbal Juice at the Worktable for HP. Bamboo Incense and First Aid Kit from Dr. Xu’s store restores 300 HP. Keep the apples in the inventory, they restore 5 SP when eaten while aroma apple restores 20 SP.

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