My Time at Sandrock is an rpg developed by Pathea Games. it's the sequel to My Time at Portia (which I also love!) and a third installment, My Time at Evershine, is currently in the works.
this game is one of my safe places, and this is where i geek out about it. :3
Sandrock is a cozy Old West-style town sprouting from the remnants of a long-ago apocalypse. cute lil mutants roam the dunes and the red rock bluffs, and there's definitely something weird going on with the lizard people...
we're picking up junk, recycling scrap, and doing our best to bring Sandrock back to its former glory. the sandstorms are getting harsher, but maybe Old World technology can help us re-green the vast Eufaula Desert.
everyone in this game is so stinkin' precious. i adore Stardew Valley, but the social scene in Pelican Town came nowhere near the chokehold that the citizens of Sandrock placed upon me. waking up on my first in-game birthday to a scattering of gifts in my front yard brough a literal, actual tear to my eye, and i've been charmed ever since.
this is one of the friendliest games i've ever played. there are precious few ways to really mess up, first of all, and even if you do, the consequences are rarely dire. that means you can fully ignore the 'intended' gameplay and run around doing whatever you want, and oh my god there's so much to do. gathering materials, clearing out ore in the mines, socializing with the townsfolk, hunting and fishing, gardening, completing commissions for riches and fame, raising livestock, or just gazing out at the desert after dark while the soundtrack hits you directly in the soul... (idk maybe that's just me but the Winter soundtrack goes HARD dude i promise)
you can micromanage your gameplay - if you want, and i definitely enjoy doing that (see below) - but you don't have to. sometimes it's nice to just while away an in-game day wandering around, picking up trash (because of course you can be a good citizen and pick up trash), and the game doesn't punish you for it.
fall damage is a gentle suggestion, which i love. you certainly can die from fall damage, but that requires a drop of several stories at least, so for the most part you're free to parkour your way over rooftops and into medium-sized chasms. my spatially-unaware ass really vibes with that.
this is a collection of things i've noticed and information i've gathered (sometimes painstakingly) from the fandomwiki. i wanted to have everything easily accessible for my own playthroughs and thought someone else might get some use from all of this. i just think it's fun to find efficient ways to do things and figure out what the 'optimal' early game would look like.
it's probably important to note that despite having several hundred hours of play time racked up, i have actually yet to complete the main questline! there's still a ton of this game i haven't experienced so i'm sure i've missed stuff and made mistakes, but this is a ongoing work in progress.
mild(?) spoilers ahead, obviously, so i recommend proceeding with caution if you're on your first playthrough.
don't limit yourself to just one Recycler! in the early game i keep at least two running constantly. Furnaces are also good to double up on. whenever i find myself building a second set of Grinders and Processors to keep up with demand, i beef the Recycler bay up to four or six.
if you want some really quick cash, go to Construction Junction and sell your chimney, sign, and even your roof.
since you can access all of your chests from any of your chests, you technically only need one of them taking up space in your yard. while you're at Construction Junction, scooch your rooftop over to the side and you can hide all your other chests on top of your ceiling. just scoot the roof back when you're done. maybe wait until you've upgraded to the Large Storage Boxes so you don't have to fiddle with them too much.
put an ad in the paper every week! it costs next to nothing (100 Gols) and it gives you a 10% boost to commission income, reputation, and/or experience. you'll get a notification when your ad placement ends.
when you first meet Arvio, he'll give you a 50% discount at By The Stairs for one week, which means you can pick up seven Storage Boxes for half price - around 80 Gols each. when you complete his delivery service quest, you'll get another week of discounts. if you get the second one before the first one is over, i don't think it gets applied properly.
go hunting during sandstorms! enraged monsters drop really good loot.
i'm several hundred hours into this game and only now realizing the joy of the tab menu. once you have a planting kit, a home editing kit, or a mount whistle, you can access all of them from the tab menu without needing to have them in your inventory. life-altering, truly. bonus: when you make yourself a new machine, you can use the home editing kit to place it in your yard straight from your inventory. no hotbar shuffling necessary.
the Stable costs 1k Gols, 10 hardwood sticks, 2 rubber shells, and 5 steel bars.
the total cost for the coop, hutch, and barn is 3k Gols, 20 iron plates, 8 bronze frames, and 20 hardwood planks.
the total cost for all yard expansions 758k Gols!
upgrading to the intermediate assembly station costs 1.5k Gols, 5 steel bars, 10 bronze plates, and 5 microchips.
when you unlock the Intermediate Worktable, build it from scratch instead of upgrading your existing table - it's much cheaper. you can donate your Basic Worktable to the museum. the Advanced Worktable, on the other hand, is very slightly cheaper to upgrade instead of building, especially since by that point you'll likely have spare Machine Upgrade Kits lying around anyway.
when you're processing ore and scrap, try to avoid using the very last one of anything. it'll keep your sorting system organized and make auto-sorting your inventory more reliable.
the reward for donating 30 items to the museum is a Relic Restoration Machine that you can put in your yard. it restores relics at a cost of only fuel and time, which means you can save your precious Data Discs for researching machine upgrades. it's not very hard to rush 30 museum exhibits. there are six donatable items for sale at By the Stairs and five more at Tailor Made. you can pick up another four at the Game Center if you rack up tokens. technically there are also four at Hammer Time, but these are the basic stone weapons, which are pretty trivial to craft.
Amirah's questline can bring the Mysterious Man to town early, which is helpful if you want Large Storage Boxes or an engagement ring quickly.
play Critters! a decent game of Critters is worth about as much as a liked gift, and a great game is on par with a loved gift.
if you have relics in your yard or house, the townsfolk will admire them occasionally and you'll get free friendship points with them.
you can find a few easy loved gifts in the early game:
the most loved gifts in Sandrock are diamonds, sunstones, and specifically the Big Flowered Rhino Horn Potted Plant, all of which are loved by 12 people. the runners up are the Yakboy Bookshelf and the chromium and aluminum versions of the axe and the pickhammer, all loved by 10 people.
of the techno trinkets you collect from the mines from time to time, keep the Techno Calendars if you want - they're liked gifts for Catori - but sell the rest. once you've donated one of each to the museum, the Techno Cup and Techno Floppy Disk Box have no further use.
