I have been extremely addicted to My Time at Portia, especially because I’ve been giving myself a wee break from working as much to focus on finding some hobbies that can help keep me from completely burning out.
Although I didn’t end up streaming My Time at Portia on Twitch I was doing a first time play through of My Time at Portia on YouTube and I quickly realized just how much I wanted to play this game while off camera. My main reasons for this were to simply chill and figure out how I wanted to actually go about making sure my Workshop was the best in the town of Portia.
There’s nothing inherently “challenging” about My Time at Portia as players could essentially ignore everything in the game and can still progress the main story, as Higgins will take on any Commissions that you choose not to accept or complete, though if you’re someone like me you probably want everything to move as fast as possible so you can see what’s next.
One of the biggest limitations players find themselves up against is the amount of Gols that they can receive daily and at first players will feel the need to be as stingy as possible with their resources, though I have to say that resources are extremely easy to come by so don’t sweat too much about it.
By the time I was about 4 hours into the game I started realizing some patterns in the game and started coming up with a plan on how to become the richest Workshop Owner as possible, throwing caution to the wind and just trying things out and this is what I discovered.
The following guide will take you through the best ways to make Gols in My Time at Portia, covering things you can do in the early game and late game to make sure you always have access to upgrades for your Workshop as well as Gols to expand your inventory:
COMPLETE COMISSIONS DAILY
While many players would say that the best way to make Gols is simply completing Commissions, I would say that this isn’t really the most truthful answer. The reality is that players will only be able to accept a single commission a day which will net them a couple hundred to a few thousand Gols depending on how far they are in the game.
Now, this isn’t me pretending that Commissions aren’t important as they are truthfully the most important aspect in My Time at Portia.
Commissions will allow players to utilize their unwanted resources by giving them an opportunity to craft various items in order to sell them for more. They come in most handy when a player is on a low-market streak and can’t seem to sell their resources for marked up values, though Commissions are also going to be a players consistent way of gaining reputation with the Town as well as the NPCs they want to befriend and potentially marry.
In my opinion, there are two ways to go about Commissions. The first way is to always accept the highest reward yielding Commission (Gols or Reputation) and the second is to only take Commissions from characters you want to get closer to (of course accepting any Commission that’s appealing to them if none of the characters they are interested in appear). If players choose the latter option, it’s also a good idea to understand which characters are connected as if players get closer to one NPC and advance in their relationship, all their closest friends will gain a boost in your relationships. (ie. Befriending Sam or Remington will help you with your relationship with Arlo.)
I prefer to focus on trying to forge relationships with characters through Commissions rather than making Gols through Commissions as I’ll be honest, the Gifting mechanic, Play mechanic and Talk mechanic are a bit more daunting to me, and I typically focus on them less especially in the early game.
Players will always want to focus on the ranking of a Commission as there are different tiers that provide bigger boosts, they go as follows from lowest to highest:
D
C
B
A
S
SS
To ensure that players have the most options in Commissions, players must make sure that they arrive at the Commerce Guild Before 8:00 as Higgins will speedily make his way to accept his commission at around 8:10. While Higgins’ coding will have him accept a random Commissions, players cannot avoid Higgins taking a high yielding Commission or a Commission from a character they really want to get close to. If players do not make it to the Commerce Guild fast enough they can simply go to the main menu to restart that day as players can only save by Sleeping unless they have a mod.
I personally play at 50% speed as I like to take my time through the days in Portia and can easily make it to the Commerce Guild before Higgins. I tend to take my time taking all the resources I need out of their crafting stations, check my mail and then head to Peach Plaza to start chatting up some of the NPCs.
I always check the Market Price before heading to the Commerce Guild and make sure to talk to my bestie Sonia. If Market Prices are up, I care less about Gols that day and instead simply focus on a Commission that bonds my relationship with my hubby Arlo.
ALWAYS WATCH THE MARKET PRICE
As I briefly mentioned, players are going to want to focus on the Market Price a lot, especially in the early game.
The Market Price will change every day being as low as 70% or as high as 140%, I’d be curious if the Market Price ever goes higher or lower than this, but these are the stats that I personally found without going into game files.
When players see a Market Price that is lower than 100% I recommend that players stock up on random items, trying to choose the most expensive items to buy or simply stockpiling resources such as Ores. Depending on how much Gols a player has, they will probably want to head to Total Tools for Ores (which I purchase daily anyways) or Best Brother for higher cost items.
Players can also purchase extremely expensive items from the Church to sell-back, though I typically avoid the Church unless I’m buying something for my Workshop.
I strongly recommend that a player hoards their expensive items until the Market Price is over 120% as this will give them enough profits from buying items at a lower cost. If players were able to snag up items at 70% then they do not need to wait as long to re-sell them, though I still recommend waiting until Market Prices sky rocket.
Just to make it clear, the Market Prices affects both the purchase price of an item as well as the resale value. I wasn’t aware of this at first, so don’t feel bad if you didn’t notice it either, especially if you are newer to the game.
By far the Market is going to be the best way to make Gols. Take note though, each Vendor only has a set amount of Gols they can give you per day and I’m pretty sure that the Food Store has the most money on hand at always, so start off by selling to them and then move on to the other Vendors.
Note: It’s usually better to buy items that can be crafted into higher items when the Market Price is low as an items resale price tends to be lower. Always make sure you check the wiki to see what a resale value is or checking the item itself as you can lose Gols if you do not wisely resell. I personally only buy full sized items when the Market Price is below 75% and wait until 120% or higher if I’m not strapped for cash. This is typically the best way to go about it, but selling crafted items is a much safer idea.
ALWAYS CRAFT EXTRA ITEMS
While at first I was really worried about crafting too many duplicates, I quickly let go of that fear when I started getting strapped on Gols. My Workshop was getting flooded with crafting stations and I simply needed to buy more land and when I opened one of my chests I saw 4 stacks of Stone doing nothing.
I strongly advise not to sell stacks of raw materials (though you can trade Stone for Wood and vice versa at A&G Construction Store) and I would recommend crafting items with them instead.
In the early game as players discover the Ruins they will realize that they have more Stones than anything. I advise you to turn all of these stones into Stone Stools as they sell for a modest 7 Gols instead of the 0.5 Gols you would get from the raw stone. While 7 Gols isn’t a lot, when the Market Price is high, you can make a couple of thousand off of these easily crafted items and you will not have to wait for them to be made in a crafting station as all you need is your Workbench.
In the mid-to-late game when players have access to the following ingredients:
6 Steel Plates
5 Hardwood Planks
3 Ropes
Players should head to the Research Center in order to buy the crafting recipe for the Training Dummy. These sell for 756 Gols and with a Market Price over 120% you will get a ton more.
Admittedly, Steel Plates can take a while to make and stockpile, especially if you’re not spelunking in the Ruins regularly, but as that’s one of my favourite aspects of the game, this is what I found was the best.
Depending on what it is you enjoy the most, find an item that sells for at least 500 Gols to stockpile on and Sell-Sell-Sell as soon as those Market Prices go up.
DIVE THE RUINS REGULARLY
In the early game, I would strongly recommend that players spend almost all of their time in the Ruins. Not only will players gain a ton of experience simply from mining, but players can get a number of resources that are sell-worthy very early on.
One of these items is the Data Disk. While at first I was very scared to sell Data Disks because I thought they were rare, I quickly ended up with 200 of these just sitting in my inventory waiting to be used. Now, I’ll cover other useful ways to use your Data Disks, but in the early game if you’re in the need for some extra Gols, just sell Data Disks.
Data Disks appear randomly while players are mining in the Ruins and have nothing to do with whether a player locates a relic or not. At first I thought that Data Disks were only found near relics, but as soon as I realized they were randomly given I allowed myself to simply go into the Ruins to get the Ores that I needed as I was still going to find a plethora of Data Disks anyways.
Relics aren’t really the most important element in the game. While players will want to make sure that they complete them for the Museum players may not want to waste time getting duplicates as they don’t sell for very much. Typically I’ll casually grind out relics and give duplicates to those who benefit the most from being gifted them, but for the output of Gols I don’t find them very worth it.
One of the biggest benefits to the Ruins are the Hidden Rooms as they will give resources such as Data Disks, Accessories and Furniture. I typically sell these during high Market Price days as they are not the most useful to me in the late game. Still, Data Disks are the most profitable, selling for 75 Gols at 100% and don’t take long to farm out.
In the late game, players are going to want to avoid selling Data Disks as the amount a player needs are quite hefty, especially if players want to expedite the time it takes for research to become available. Still, if you’re someone who spends a lot of times in the Ruins you’ll be able to get some good sales.
VISIT THE CHURCH SHOP
As someone who hated the church from day one of the game, feeling like it was very culty, I avoided it altogether. I’m pleasantly shocked to say that this was a mistake.
The Church actually sells some really good items that a player should take advantage of, though many of them will require players to turn in Data Disks or Small Silicon Chips.
You’re going to want the following items to set up a maximum profit farm:
Large Planter Boxes (2 Data Disks each)
Nitra Tree Seed (5 Data Disks each)
Zeolora Tree Seed (5 Data Disks each)
Crystella Tree Seed (8 Data Disks each)
Irrigation Flooring (1 Data Disks each)
Irrigation Tower (10 Data Disks each, though you only need one)
Essentially, Large Planter Boxes will only be obtainable from the Church and depending on how big a player’s Workshop is players will want to place as many as possible.
These Planter Boxes will allow players to grow massive crops that are either sold from the church or the Mysterious Merchant and they tend to yield greater value resources.
Nitra Trees provide Niter, Zeolora Trees provide Zeolite and Crystella provide random rare Gems. At first I would stick to the Crystellas as players can sell these Gems for high Market Prices, though by the mid-to-late game you’re going to want all the Trees available to you. All the other seeds provided at the Church are going to have good value for you, but I find these 3 the most important.
The reason I mention the Irrigation Flooring and the Irrigation Tower is because of their usefulness to avoid you wasting time.
Players will be able to place an Irrigation Tower with Irrigation Flooring under it and all of the nearby Planter Boxes to automatically feed the Planter Boxes with Fertilizer. While players can only put 30 Fertilizer in the Irrigation Tower this should take a number of days to deplete, depending on how big a player’s Farm is, but will always make sure your plants are happy and will provide you with the most crops.
Whether a player is growing Plants from the Church or Plants from outside, this will make sure that you always have enough resources in your farm so you never have to head to the Farm Store for a purchase and may not even need to buy seeds in the future.
CONCLUSION
In my opinion, while it is a good idea to complete Commissions daily, the best way to make money is by crafting using unnecessary items. The two items I typically focus on are Stone Stools and the Training Dummy, though as mentioned, depending on what a player focusses on or enjoys in the game your items may be a bit different.
I recommend keeping a tab on your items and seeing what you have a massive stockpile of in order to figure out what item is the best for you to sell, but the idea that Gols are inaccessible is a lie.
When you’re in a pinch and your Market Price is high, dump a bunch of your Data Disks.
You’re going to be in the Ruins a lot, especially in the early-to-mid game, so expect a lot of these. You also will not need to expedite research in the early game and only when research starts costing more than 10 Data Disks would I recommend that you start expediting your research. Nonetheless, I’m currently sitting with 400 Data Disks in my inventory in the late-game and I have nothing to do.
Make sure you visit the church in the early game as this is a massive game-changer and if I was to ever restart my save file I would do this earlier as I had no idea that I could get such rare items from Trees so early.
But I’m curious, what’s your favourite way of making Gols? Did I miss anything on the list that you think is noteworthy? Let me know in the comments below!
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