My Time at Sandrock is the type of game where the tutorial lessons stick with you through the entire game. The things you learn as a new player at the beginning of the game are foundational for everything else you do in Sandrock. Unfortunately, this means that the mistakes as you first begin can stay with you as well. With how complex the game can get, there are even mistakes you might not know you’re making when you first start. To avoid these pitfalls, look at the list we’ve compiled below.
1. Cutting Down Trees in Sandrock
If you’re an experienced farming sim player, your first instinct after getting an axe will be to cut down the nearest tree. While this is all fine and good in a game like Stardew Valley, where any tree is at risk of becoming your next victim, My Time at Sandrock is slightly stricter. If you try to cut down any of the trees inside of the town, you’ll get a stern talking to from Burgess about preserving the local plant life. Kicking the trees is fine, though, and anything in the desert is fair game.
2. Forgetting to Check Your Mail
Like in real life, checking your mail in My Time at Sandrock as a new player can easily fall by the wayside. It’s not hard to see why, since a lot of the mail you receive is just newspapers, or letters from your friends back home. And it’s hard to stop and check your mailbox instead of racing to your newest adventure. It’s important to stay on top of it, though, since sometimes you’ll get quests from other villagers in your mail. The quests can pop up at random and they’re occasionally time-sensitive, so it’s essential to check your mail every day. Why would you want to ignore the letters from your mother, anyway?
3. Letting Your Water and Fuel Run Dry
Water and fuel are two of the most important resources in My Time at Sandrock. Without them, every machine in your workshop will stop working until you get them refilled. Unfortunately, losing track of your water tank is an easy mistake since the only way to check it is to interact with the tank. Fuel levels are a little easier to track since every machine has a fuel gauge, but it can still be hard to remember to fill them up. You have to remember to do this unless you want your workshop’s productivity to grind to a halt.
4. Forgetting to Do Commissions
After you get past the tutorial section of My Time at Sandrock, one of the first things the game points you toward is commissions. While it’s easy to ignore this in favor of following the game’s story, commissions are incredibly useful. Available on the Commissions Board in the Commerce Guild, filling out commissions earns money and builds your relationship with the villager who requested it. You’re also paid a fair amount for each commission, so this is an easy way to pad your wallet.
5. Not Building Relationships With the Villagers
Speaking of building relationships, not making friends is a classic beginner’s mistake. As a new player in My Time at Sandrock, it can be tempting to isolate yourself in your workshop and build. Rather than do that, you have to get to know the people in town. Not only is this fun, but as you build relationships with people, you unlock perks. This can range from unlockable side quests to gifts and even shop discounts if your friend is a shop owner. As your relationship grows, so does your discount.
6. Not Paying Attention to the Market Price at Shops
Admittedly, this mistake is an easy one to make. One of the most under-explained features in My Time at Sandrock is how the shop prices can move above or below the town’s market price. In each shop’s menu, you’ll see a percentage highlighted in red or green to show how much their prices are above or below the standard market price. The prices can change by the day, so if you have your eye on a specific item but aren’t happy with the price, check back tomorrow – it might be better.
7. Stockpiling Common Materials Instead of Selling Them for Quick Money
Most farming sim players will freely admit to hoarding every material they can get their hands on, just in case. My Time at Sandrock is no different, and it’s tempting to stockpile all of your materials. However, there’s no need to hoard materials like wood or copper ore, for instance, because all of these materials are super common. Rather than hoard them, you can sell them to a shop if you’re short on Gol, and then go out and collect more if you need them for crafting.
8. Making Certain Materials Instead of Buying Them
In the same vein, it’s a mistake to put a hard line on never buying materials or products from stores. Almost all the refined materials you can craft are also available in the shops, and normally, it’s cheaper to make them yourself rather than spend the Gol. However, there will be points in the game where you either don’t have the right machines or the right resources to make a product. In these cases, it’s often easier to buy the material from a shop rather than jump through the hoops necessary to make it. The price of the material ends up evening out, anyway.
9. Not Exploring the Abandoned Ruins
There’s a lot on your plate when you’re a new player in My Time at Sandrock, and it can be easy to set things aside and forget about them. Between all of the building tasks and story quests, exploring the Abandoned Ruins can seem like a non-important side activity for new players. However, not exploring the Abandoned Ruins is a beginner’s mistake since the ruins are loaded with important Copper Ore, Tin Ore, and Museum Relics. The ores are the base for Copper and Bronze Bars, while the relics can be assembled and donated to the museum to build your reputation.
10. Not Getting Enough Sleep
If you’re a new player in My Time at Sandrock, it can be tempting to boldly embark into the desert without a care for your bedtime. Sure, you might pass out in the middle of the night, but you’ll wake up in bed, right? Unfortunately, this is not the case. While players will pass out once the clock hits 3AM, going to bed earlier than that holds a lot of surprising, long-lasting benefits for players. If you go to bed before 22:00, your Builder will become well-rested and get buffs for more EXP and higher luck.
