User blog:Rainleegen/Tips To Know Before Playing 'Portia'

'''Here are some tips that will any any new player. '''

'''Slow down the game's time. '''You can go into 'game settings' and slow down how fast the game-day passes in real life. Default speed is 100 which means the game will save every 20 minutes. 70 speed will save every 40 minutes and 50 speed (lowest setting) will save every 60 minutes. Any progress made before the game saves, will be lost so sleep in your bed before logging out of the game.

'''Make lots of storage. '''Craft about 10 Wooden Storage to begin with. Keep 1-4 boxes inside your house so you don't waste your precious outdoor space. Keep 1 box next to your crafting station for quick-access. Opening one box will allow you to move left or right viewing the other boxes as well. If you like organization like I do, rename your boxes with numbers and a short item description (1-wood) will help you identify each box so when you later move them (as you upgrade land and shop), it will help you keep certain storage in a specific order.

'''Buy a Massage Chair! '''This is quite valuable early in your gameplay as it will regen 3 stamina points per second in comparison to 1 stamina point per second without it. It doesn't seem that would be much of a difference but it makes a huge difference. Instead of farming the mines once, you'll be able to replenish fast enough to enter a second time before night is over. Try to buy this chair when the market sales are as close to 70% (think it was 4,200g @ 70%)

Place large planter boxes as early as possible! Very important. Farm data disk from the mine and purchase 6 large planter boxes and each of 1 tree seed (apple, apricot, crystella, nitra, Zeolora and rainbow). Purchase fertilizer from Sophie's ranch to increase higher yields. These tree will take 15 to 20 days to grow and produce a ripe crop. You will only need to buy 1 seed as it is the only continuously growing plant, except Rainbow. The only way to stop it is to remove it. Picking up the tree & planter will allow you to move it to another location but if you choose to put it back in your inventory, its gone. It's important to plant these tree early because you will be given missions that will require some of these materials (nitre, zeolite, gems) and you may not necessarily have access to the areas where you can farm these items or are just unavailable through farming methods (apricot, pigment). This also saves your stamina not having to farm them if you get a good supply early on.

Craft 10 small planters. Plant seasonal crops during the appropriate seasons. Rainbow Flower and Cotton is a good place to start. These grow in all seasons and produce pigments (color dye furniture), and cotton fabric. Use fertilizer to double the yield. No watering is necessary-just plant, fertilize and harvest.

Trade stone for wood. Each day, visit A&E construction store (desk with register on it) and exchange 999 stone for 999 wood. You will gain more stone from mining that you would chopping a tree.

Beat Higgins to the community board. The guild opens up at 08:00 and Higgins will be impatiently waiting near the door. Higgins is my rival competitor so when new day starts at 07:00, I run along the brick wall to Central Plaza and I loot 1 bronze or iron bar from his furnace that sits there unattended then I run to the guild. Select the highest paid commission, looking at a commission prevents him from choosing so it forces him to take a lower-paying one.

Use calender notes. You can write yourself reminders and even set them to repeat by clicking on the calender. This feature comes in very handy when you begin breeding fish as you can remind yourself when to collect baby spawns and/or feed them since sometimes you cannot always see how many fish are in a tank.

Pick up the poop. As you progress in your game, you will need this later for fertilizing your seeds. This will help you save on buying fertilizer from Sophie on those expensive market days. You will see Oaks walking around the grassy areas in the morning and the evening times looking for poop to pick up.

RENT a horse! You will save time and running around as this is much faster. It is more cost-effective to rent a horse from McDonald for 500g for 7 days buying a stable (5,000g), horse (8-10,000g), and upkeep supplies. You can use the land space for other needs.

Hold off on adding animals to your estate.  Don't bother with animals early in the beginning as you will need ample land space (100,000), shed (5,00g), chicken coop (2,000), storage shelters to feed the animals then you'll need ot tend to the animals each day with feeding, petting, cleaning their poop, milking the cows, and fetching eggs from chickens. Having a feather duster allows you to pet multiple animals at once. Adding animals is more end-game after you've upgraded your estate because it consumes much of your time each day. Once you unlock Ack, he can do all the tending and make animals more low-maintenance. You can raise and sell animals and their goods.

Eat to increase stamina. Early on, you will lose stamina and sitting on the bench to recharge your stamina will take nearly all day giving you no farming time. The Round Table Bistro has a dine option when you enter. Selecting the Kingly Salad   Vegetable Salad will give you 34 stamina for 10g. Players have said on many the more you eat at the Round Table, the cheaper food becomes but I have not noticed  price change difference (yet).

Save relic pieces. These items can be added to the museum, given to players to increase friendships points, or placed inside your home (or land) will increase your stats. Once you place a relic item in a museum, it becomes permanent. It cannot be retrieved.

'''Buy low and sell high. '''The market value changes each day. The lowest market value is 73% whereas the highest is 136%. Try to sell your good when the market is above 102% or hold out for as long as you can for a higher sell price. You can check any register throughout Portia so view what the market price is for that day.

Earn money! When starting out there are not many options to earn money because you won't even be able to craft most commission items so your easiest money-maker is to farm stone (5g) and turn them into stone stools (7g) then selling them to Paulie or A&G Construction. Keep 999 sand (via mining) and sell the rest. Fishing up "Wise Fish" is the  BEST  money-maker for the first year of the game. Sell your fish when the market is over 120%. If you get tired of fishing, try to catch two King fish and start breeding them so you can sell ($5,000g each). Additionally, after you've completed the mission "The Perfect Trap", you can make a trap (5 steel frame + 4 aluminum) and sell the colorful Llama for 944g (after it's been tamed) so if you wait unitl 136% inflation you can sell them for 1,283g - craft (50) and sell in bulk. Later on, once you've completed "Long-Haul Bus" mission, the South Block Trading Post will become available for you to purchase Golden Ginseng so you can trap a Cotton Llama with Golden Ginseng. Only the Cotton Llama is caught fully trained and ready to sell at a whopping $11,950g!!! One Cottona Llama can be caught daily.

Meet everyone. You can get rid of those pesky ? by talking to them and they will be added to your character list of those whom you've met. Figure out who you want to form relationships with and speak to them daily to increase those friendship points. A developer has confirmed that your social points will decay if you do not interact with an npc after a time limit. A few noteworthy beneficial friendships you should focus on are: Gale (land discount), Albert (home upgrade discount), Gust (homestead store discount), Antoine (more money from guild),  Emily (winter solstice discount), Sophie (ranch discount), Paulie (furniture store discount), Mint (drilling vehicle) and Dana (mining store discount).

Avoid romancing multiple characters. There is a jealousy system in place when you romance multiple characters. If you are on a date with one character and bump into another character whom you also dated, you will send both of them into a jealous state, losing social points and not being able to interact with either of them for at least 7 days. You will then have to regain their trust again.

'''Don't be in a rush to start missions.  Complete '''the first three introductory missions up until you register your workshop then do not complete the first real main mission "Bridge to Amber Island" until you've repaired your workshop and taken your time to gather wood, mined ore, killed nearby llama/beetles (materials & leveling up), fished (money-maker) and crafted your production tables (6 furnace, 2 cutter, 1 skiver, 1 grinder, 1 blender, etc). If you start the main missions too quickly, by the time one year (4 months in-game) rolls around you will feel overwhelmed with main and side missions. Take your time. The main mission's aren't going anywhere. Additionally, main missions present themselves in a specific order however npc side missions do not. They are randomly activated. If you choose not to activate the mission and it disappears from the npc, the mission will not return later. The only way you can better prepare for the mission is to restart your game at an earlier save point, which I've done a lot and sometimes have produced a better outcome.