My time at portia main missions

I’ve been toying with this idea since I started a second save, my current story save. The reason I started a second one was that the first felt so rushed. It was fun but exhausting at the same time. I asked on Twitter isn’t there a way to slow it down and nobody seemed to think there was. So, I’m here to tell you there is! These tips are for the PC version. I have no idea if they are the same on the console version, sorry.

Time Limits!

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to mention your first main story quest after you register your workshop is the Amber Island bridge. If you look at it in your missions log you will notice that there is no time limit. I tested this. I played a test save all the way to fall without building that bridge. Nothing happened. Not one fireside meeting. A few side quests that aren’t triggered by the bridge but that’s about it. I was able to take commissions every day if I wanted to and play and do whatever for the most part. The funny thing about this quest and some others is that you have to go to Antoine to report it built. So, you could actually finish the bridge and go to Amber Island to collect things and none of the other main quests and side quests will trigger.

I’m sorry to say that if you decide to play this way you’re going to have to deal with some spoilers. You’ll have to use the wiki. There’s just no way around it. Here is the main mission page. (The titles on this page contain sort-of spoilers.)

And this is what you’re looking for. Click on the link for the next step in the story missions. You want to see what the trigger is for that next mission. As we already know, you don’t get the Amber Island Bridge mission until we register the workshop.

To the right of the overview, you’ll see some information. Yellow is a main mission and blue is a side-story mission. The Amber Island Bridge mission has no time limit.

Under the overview, it shows the required stations. You want to have them all before you start a mission. Especially if it’s timed! You can get to this point without really seeing any spoilers at all. Going past here to see the materials without spoilers is tricky but still doable if you don’t read the text and just look at the materials list as shown below.

You can have all of the materials ready and waiting before even taking the mission. This is extremely helpful in the missions that are posted on the commission board instead of just giving you the mission themselves. In these cases, if you don’t take the commissions fast enough Higgins will! So, you’re not only missing out on Gols but, more importantly, reputation.

Some of these main story quests fly at you at the same time because they’re all triggered by the same event. I find this extremely frustrating. Especially considering the fact that different events trigger unique dialogue from villagers. In one case exiting the Commerce Guild after completing the trigger event triggers the next one! So, if you were to complete the previous mission the night before, go to bed, then leave the Commerce Guild the following morning you lose most if not all of the dialogue. Just something to keep in mind if you’re doing a video, taking screenshots, or just want to see what everyone has to say before moving on.

In most cases, I move on to the next step not because I’m wanting to do it but because I’m just annoyed. The aforementioned dialogue may never go away. Some villagers may say the exact same line until you move on in the story. Certain areas will be off-limits. Like, until the Amber Island bridge is completed and you’ve gone to Antoine to tell him, you can’t get into the Ruins #2 or Hazardous Ruins. In other cases, a villager may be stuck in a holding pattern. Going to the same spot day after day until you give in and move on. This can work for you as well. Like if there’s something that needs to be built and, to you, it should take a long time, you can hold off assuming there is either no time limit or you have a long time limit like 28 days. There is one case that I know of where, until you finish that quest, three villagers will be off-limits completely. This quest when finished triggers more quests. It’s good to be aware of what triggers the next quests and so on to avoid a situation like this where you have to choose between continuing the story faster than you’d planned or losing access to these villagers. Trust me, from experience, it really sucks if you’re courting or married to one of them.

Another reason I’ll start the next step is, like wanting to finish the bridge to get in the ruins, I want to get to the next area the questline opens. If you’ve already played through that quest in a previous save you might just want to hurry and get there. Keep in mind that this may trigger the next area you want to wait for. Another reason might be to gather resources in that area. Like the Amber Island bridge, you can sometimes open that area but not have to start the next part of the storyline without going to tell the person you did it!

Missions that are posted on the commission board are tricky. If you know the materials needed beforehand though you can go there grab a commission, turn it in, grab another, turn it in, over and over and then just hold on to the final one until it’s close to expiring or you just want to get on with it. I actually tested this out for the first mission that’s posted on the board if I took none at all:

• Day one- 3 commissions
• Day two- 1 missing
• Day six- 1 left
• Day eight- None left

As frustrating as it is being rushed through the story like this, it’s just the way the game is. You learn to manipulate it and risk seeing some spoilers or you soldier on and get stressed. My best advice if you don’t want to check the wiki is to have a ton of materials on hand so you’ll at least be able to make things, hopefully, in time. Get the research center researching everything and make the machines right away. Get your worktable and assembly station upgraded to 3 and 2, respectively, as soon as you can afford it. The assembly station level 3 isn’t really required for anything I’ve seen and it’s freaking huge… cool as heck but huge. One thing to remember, you can re-load days. I’ve done it more than once not realizing that finishing something had triggered the next step. Hit the escape key then load and look at the list and find the day before you turned it in.

Huge List of Other Random Tips:

• Change the game’s time speed. The default speed (100%) goes really fast. About 15 minutes per day. Before you have a riding mount this means you’re spending probably half of that just going from one area to another in this huge open world. Toy with it and see what’s right for you. Mine’s normally at 70% but if I feel like just chilling in the ruins for a long time I put it all the way down to 50%. Keep in mind that the game only saves when you sleep so you’ll lose more gameplay by changing the speed if your game or computer crashes.
• You don’t need to get your builder’s license right away! The game makes you think and probably expects, that you will do this on day 2 when you wake up and start taking commissions immediately. And therein begins the rushed feeling. You have no materials and commissions require equipment you don’t even have so you’re rushing to get all of that too! Even putting it off for a day or two will help.
• Spend at least a day diving in the ruins and collecting ore and stone before you get your license or, at the very least, start taking commissions. Make yourself a few stone furnaces and start smelting. Get a saw going making wooden boards. Get your grinder making some copper then bronze pipes. You will get commissions for pretty much anything the game thinks you will have the equipment to make even if you don’t yet.
• Trade Gust in the builder’s office to the left of the Commerce Guild wood for stone. Assuming you’ve been ruin diving you should have a ton of excess stone. Go to the little cash register to the right of his desk. You can trade up to 999 daily. That’s a lot of trees you don’t have to bother chopping down!
• Keeping your stamina up is a pain. You can collect apples for free by kicking apple trees. There are a few in front of the tree farm and a few more in front of papa bear’s house. Still, that takes time and stamina. Martha sells bread that gives stamina but then you’re spending Gols when you barely have any. The first two skill points I take are the ones at the top in the middle branch for less stamina used with the pickaxe.
• When I’ve used up my stamina for the day I usually run around town looking for the chests that are everywhere. Some of them even contain stamina-boosting items!
• You could also take that drained stamina time to socialize with the villagers. All of them have their own stories and, from what I’ve seen so far, story quests independent of the main storyline. Another perk if you don’t care about that is getting discounts or bonus attributes by befriending them. You can view this in the social panel.
• Sprinting does not use stamina! You sprint by holding down the shift key plus your movement key. For example shift+w to go forward fast. Sprint as often as possible. You’ll get tired from it and have to stop holding down the shift key until the circle refills but then you can sprint some more. The map is huge and going from one place to another takes a long time at first.
• While you’re doing all of that running here and there like a crazy person stop and collect every single darned thing you see, assuming you have some stamina left. Herbs are good for health and usually have a caterpillar you’ll need for fishing tagging along. Animal poop (the game calls it feces) is not only needed to make fertilizer but also often comes with some free seeds. The sticks and stones aren’t really worth the stamina after you take the lower stamina pickaxe and axe skill points.
• Since we’re on the subject of seeds and poop, you’ll get a quest very close to the beginning of the game from the farmgirl that lives across the field from you, Emily to make a planter box and grow some seeds. Gardening in this game is sooo easy. Make a few planter boxes, not too many because you’ll need fertilizer, and plant at least one wheat to show her. The church gives you some cotton seeds for giving them the first data disc. They also sell some seeds. And you’ve likely gotten some from the animal poop by then. When you right-click on your planter box you’ll see a bar and a green arrow on it. Always keep your fertilizer level above the green arrow for the best harvest. This likely means buying some fertilizer from Emily’s granny Sophie’s farm store until you get a blender.
• Which brings me to my next point. Your first day in the ruins you should get at least two data discs. Take one to the church and get your free seeds. Take the other to the research center. They don’t give you anything free but after that, you can give Petra 5 data discs and they’ll start researching new equipment diagrams for you. I’ve found that giving extra discs to speed up the process isn’t really worth it especially when you aren’t in a rush. Do it in order though. 5 discs until there’s no option left for 5 then 10 until there’s no option and so on. I made the mistake my first time and didn’t give her the 5 right away. Then, I didn’t get the plans for a blender and cooking station and needed them. The day you get the diagram in the mail, run straight to the Research Center to start the next one. Another fun thing about not rushing the discs is that, in most cases, you can see what they’re making you on the center workstation thing.
• You can trade discs and silicone chips at the church store for seeds. You can use rainbow flowers in the blender to make pigments to change the colors of your stuff but other than that they don’t have much use early game. Sisal doesn’t grow until fall and I’ve not seen much use for it. The trees, on the other hand, are a great help. You have to trade discs for the large planter boxes. They will grow without fertilizer but their first harvest will probably be small. The fruits you can eat raw, make juice in the blender, or sell right away. The other tree “fruits” like crystals just tuck away into a chest. You’ll need them eventually and will be very thankful for the surplus. I wouldn’t bother with the church store until you have enough data discs to keep the Research Center working non-stop on building plans for you though.
• Petra will ask for data discs for quest research as well. Just keep the darned things in your inventory. It’s worth the cost of more inventory space to save the headache of running home. When your inventory is open click on a locked row and pay to unlock it if you’re low on space.
• As you get plans for equipment make it. At least one of each. And start all of them working on stuff. Copper bars and bronze bars copper pipes and bronze pipes. Wooden planks and hardwood planks and copper and bronze plates. Fiber cloth. Click on the machine, look at the list of things it can make. Try to have some of every freaking thing on that list. The number over the picture is how many you have.
• This brings me to my next point. Don’t take a commission if you don’t already have the materials to make it. Don’t do it. You’ll end up spending the day working on it when you could be doing other things. If you aren’t sure if you do, you can search on the wiki. Just google “my time in portia whatever the item they’re asking for.” If you aren’t sure run home and check. It doesn’t take that long and will save a headache. Better to be sure than search for the person the next morning to turn it in because they were in bed by the time you finished it.
• Once you have your license, take a commission every day. You want your workshop rating to go up to C level quickly. I did it on my current save in spring without getting my license until around halfway through. As far as I can tell, it goes by the reputation gained.
• Once you have a C rating you can do inspections on Saturday and Sunday mornings at the Commerce Guild. There will be four tables set up with various objects. Do well on these inspections and you will be rewarded with things in the mail the next morning. Some of these things are really helpful. I have two tips for inspections. First, have a look at the items on the table before you interact with the table. Sometimes you can see what’s different right away. Once you interact with the table you’ll see the two items up close. The correct one is on the left and the defective one is on the right. You have to click on the defects. I’ve never understood what the timer is for but I try to be as quick as possible. Getting it wrong lowers your score. If you fail completely you get fewer goodies in the mail. Once you’ve upgraded your worktable you can use some of the glass you find ruin diving and rubber fruit which you get kicking certain trees to make magnifying glasses. To use it click your center mouse wheel. A flashing circle will show where the defect is. Some of them seem impossible to find! Like data discs, I keep the magnifying glasses on me all of the time. Takes an inventory slot but it’s well worth the reward.
• This does remind me that you do want to upgrade your worktable as soon as possible. You can do this by interacting with the sparkling book on Albert’s desk in the builder’s office. You’ll need to buy some land before upgrading your assembly station. This one isn’t as urgent but you’ll need it pretty darned quick for one of the beginning side-quests. This quest has no time limit though once you get it so don’t stress over it much.
• There are tons of money-making guides out there that would do a much better job at it than me. My only real advice here is to buy low/sell high. When you interact with a cash register it’ll show a percentage in the middle. I try to buy at under 80% and sell at over 120%. There are times you just can’t get around it like if you need to buy an upgrade kit from Mars.
• Things you might want to stock up on… From grannie Sophie- caterpillars, fertilizer, seeds, and cooking ingredients. Cheap soda from Sonia. The aforementioned upgrade kits from Mars and fireworks if you’re into the play or date thing. It’s better to have these just sitting in a chest bought cheap than paying a fortune for them when you need them and have no choice.
• One of the reasons you want those cooking ingredients is for villager’s wishes. These show on the map like a red asterisk. When chatting with them they will say something like “I’ve had no appetite lately I sure could go for some seafood noodles.” This helps in two ways. A large relationship boost and you learn one of their favorite things. It’ll now be listed on the social panel. And sometimes they give you something back in return. If you don’t know a cooking recipe google it. Once you make it you’ll “learn” it and can see the ingredients next time you interact with the cooking station. Some recipes can have different ingredients like any kind of vegetable but will only show the ones you used in the known recipes tab.
• Which brings me to yet another tip. Get in the habit of opening your map each morning to look for new quests and wishes. Some quests, like delivering milk for grannie, only show for a few hours in the morning. Some can be done quickly and some take a long freaking time. You can say that you’re busy. I did this one time with Nora and she had the quest again the next day but I’m too afraid I’d lose out on it otherwise. I’m sure you can find out on the wiki but, despite what I’ve said here, I really don’t want to know. Knowing too much about a game’s mechanics removes the immersion, I feel. And hey, if you’re keeping things slow and doing your commission that you already had the materials for first thing in the morning a little silly villager quest shouldn’t be a bother at all!
• More advice on that topic: Make the most of your time! At 3 am you pass out wherever you are. You wake up at 7 am in your bed without any penalties. It’s weird and unrealistic but that’s the way it is. If I’m not ruin diving I like to spend that time on random stuff I don’t want to waste my time on during the day. Re-arranging and dyeing furniture, collecting herbs and poop, killing ladybugs and llamas for their awesome drops, making sure all of my machines have fuel and are set to make something, cooking because it takes freaking forever, fishing, kicking or chopping down trees… stuff like that.
• I almost forgot! Put relics in your yard. Yes yes I know they give boosts if put inside your house but if you want more relationship points with villagers it’s a great help. Depending on how much you have out there, you’ll have someone wander over every morning. You gain around 30 relationship points with them and, if you’re nearby, can gain even more by chatting with them and if you’re ambitious giving them a gift.

I hope that these tips helped in some way. If you have more you can leave them in the comments. It really is a great game and even better when you can remove some of the stress the missions cause and just pursue all the game has to offer. Although, I have decided to make another save and do everything as quickly as possible to see how fast the story really goes without holding stuff back.

How long is the main story in My Time at Portia?

How many levels are there in Portia?

How do I progress in My Time at Portia?

Does My Time at Portia have time limits?