My Time at Portia: Complete Guide

A practical guide to thriving as Portia's newest builder: your first weeks, crafting machines and commissions, mining the ruins, combat, farming, relationships and romance, and how to climb the workshop rankings.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the final PC version (the game is complete; Pathea's newer entries are My Time at Sandrock and the upcoming My Time at Evershine). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

1. Your stamina is your day. Chopping, mining and crafting cost stamina. Plan each day around the one or two things you most need.
2. Kick trees and chop small trees early. Kicking trees drops wood and sometimes fruit; you'll need huge amounts of wood for your first machines.
3. Check the Commerce Guild board daily. Commissions are your main income and reputation source early.
4. Talk to everyone once a day at the start. Relationships unlock discounts, gifts, help and story beats.
5. Build the machines in your handbook as soon as you can: a Worktable, Assembly Station, Stone Furnace, and later a Cutter Machine and more. Machines work while you do other things.
6. Get into the ruins. Mining in the Abandoned Ruins gives ore, stone, and the Data Discs and relics you'll trade for new blueprints.
7. Visit the Research Center with Data Discs. Research unlocks new diagrams (blueprints) for machines and items.
8. Eat to recover. Food restores health and stamina; cooking and fruit keep you going on long mining days.
9. Upgrade your house and workshop when you can; storage space and machine slots are a real bottleneck.
10. Don't try to do everything on day one. There's no failure state; progress at your pace.

Your First Week: A Simple Plan

Every day: check the board, chat with a few villagers, and queue machines before bed. That habit alone keeps your progress moving.

The Core Loop

1. Gather: wood (chopping/kicking trees), stone and ore (mining nodes and the ruins), plants and fibers.
2. Refine: turn raw materials into bars, planks, and components with your furnace and machines.
3. Craft: assemble larger items (machines, furniture, commission orders) at the Assembly Station or Worktable.
4. Deliver: complete commissions and main story missions for Gols (money), reputation and relationship points.
5. Upgrade: better machines and tools make every loop faster.

Commissions

• The Commerce Guild posts commissions each day. Each has a deadline, a reward and a reputation bonus.
• Pick commissions you can finish with machines you already own. Missing a deadline is a lost opportunity (and reputation).
• Main story commissions from Presley at the Commerce Guild drive the plot and open up new areas and machines. Prioritize them.
• Workshop ranking: your workshop competes with Portia's other workshops (including your rival Higgins). Completing commissions raises your reputation and rank.

Machines and Crafting

Tips:

• Queue long jobs before bed. Machines process overnight while you sleep.
• Keep fuel stocked. A furnace without fuel wastes a day. Wood and later better fuels power it.
• Build duplicates of bottleneck machines once you can afford them (two furnaces double smelting throughput).
• Keep storage organized. Put storage boxes near your machines and group by material.

Mining and the Ruins

• Abandoned Ruins are mining areas. Enter with your pickaxe and the Relic Scanner, which points you to buried relics and Data Discs.
• Dig down layer by layer. Deeper layers hold better ore. Watch your stamina: carry food.
• Data Discs go to the Research Center to unlock diagrams. Relic pieces can be combined into complete relics for rewards and displays.
• Upgrade your pickaxe as soon as better bars are available; it speeds mining a lot.
• Hazardous Ruins are combat dungeons with enemies and bosses rather than mining sites. Go in with good armor, a strong weapon and healing food.

Combat

• Combat is action-based: light attacks, dodging and consumables. Weapons include swords, blunt weapons and more, each crafted or bought.
• Dodge out of wind-ups; many enemies telegraph attacks.
• Upgrade armor with your crafting, not just weapons. Survivability matters most in Hazardous Ruins.
• Carry healing food and eat mid-fight.
• Sparring: many villagers will spar with you. It's good practice and raises friendship (and some reward items).

Skill Tree

Leveling gives skill points in a tree with three branches:

Early priority: Gathering skills that reduce stamina costs and increase yields, because materials drive everything. Add Fighting before Hazardous Ruins; Social later or if you're romance-focused.

Farming and Ranching

• My Time at Portia farms with planter boxes you place around your yard, plus semi-automatic irrigation systems you craft later.
• Crops give food, cooking ingredients and commission materials. Some seeds are seasonal.
• Animals (in a coop or barn) provide products such as eggs and milk. You can ride a horse or llama around town once you get one.
• Farming is optional income: don't let it eat all your stamina early in the game when commissions pay better.

Relationships and Romance

• Talk, gift, play and spar. Daily chat, gifts they like, and activities (like Rock-Paper-Scissors and sparring) raise relationship levels.
• Gift preferences vary; villagers react differently to each item. Your handbook/social screens and trial-and-error reveal likes.
• Birthdays are the best days to gift.
• Relationship rewards: higher relationships can bring discounts, help, gifts and unique story events.
• Romance: several villagers are romanceable, including Emily, Alice, Ginger, Sam, Arlo, Remington and Gust. Date, propose, marry, and eventually start a family.
• Social branch skills boost relationship gains if you want to romance quickly.

Money (Gols) Tips

• Commissions are the steadiest early income.
• Sell refined goods, not raw materials, when you have spare machine time.
• Don't overspend on furniture early. Furniture has stat bonuses, but machines pay back faster.
• Upgrade tools before cosmetic items.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Spending all stamina before noon on low-value tasks.
• Ignoring main story commissions. They unlock new areas, machines and ruins.
• Running out of storage and leaving materials on the ground or selling things you'll need.
• Leaving machines idle. Always queue something before bed or before a long ruin trip.
• Forgetting fuel for furnaces.
• Entering Hazardous Ruins underequipped. Upgrade armor and bring food.
• Neglecting relationships entirely. Many conveniences and events depend on friendship.

Advanced Tips

• Batch production: build multiple of your most-used machines and queue parts you'll need for upcoming commissions.
• Stamina economy: eat high-stamina food on mining days; use Gathering skills to cut stamina costs.
• Plan the Research Center pipeline: keep Data Discs flowing so research never stalls.
• Complete relic sets from the ruins for their rewards.
• Keep an eye on seasonal events and festivals in town; they often have minigames and unique rewards.
• Save before big decisions like dates or proposals if you want to try different outcomes.

If You Enjoy Portia: The Series

• My Time at Sandrock (2023) is the full sequel with a desert setting; characters Gust and Ginger appear in the wider series (they later visit Starsand Island in a collaboration).
• My Time at Evershine is Pathea's next entry; a new trailer was shown at Summer Game Fest in June 2026.
• Pathea has run Steam bundles with Portia (a "My Time at Doloc" bundle with Doloc Town, and a "My Time at Starsand Island" bundle).

FAQ

Is My Time at Portia still getting updates? No new content is expected; the game is complete. Recent Steam posts are about sequels, collaborations and bundles.

How long is it? Many players take dozens of hours to finish the main story; completionists (relationships, relics, rankings) spend much longer.

Can I get married? Yes. Build a relationship to the right level, date, propose, and marry. Several villagers are romanceable.

What should I build first? Worktable and Assembly Station basics, then a furnace for bars, then the Cutter Machine for planks and blocks. Follow the main story commissions; they guide you through machine tiers.

How do I get more stamina? Level up, eat food, and invest in Gathering skills that reduce stamina costs.

Is it like Stardew Valley? Partly (life sim, farming, romance), but Portia's core is crafting, construction commissions and mining ruins, in 3D.

Sources

• My Time at Portia on Steam
• Steam news: My Time at Evershine trailer, Starsand Island collaboration, Doloc bundle
• My Time at Portia — Wikipedia