Pathea Games left Early Access with My Time at Sandrock on 2 November 2023, moving the Portia formula into a desert town where water is rationed and the last workshop just closed. You collect a Builder License from Matilda at City Hall, then take commissions from Yan at the Commerce Guild while Mi-an competes for the same board. Progress runs through machines rather than through farming: a Recycler breaks down scrap, a Furnace smelts bars and glass, a Grinder makes gears and rivets and a Processor cuts planks, all feeding an Assembly Station that rebuilds the town.
Starting My Time at Sandrock can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
My Time at Sandrock is a simulation game built around Commission board and workshop ranking and Machine chain from scrap to parts. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Build
| Build | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Commission specialist | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Salvage and ruin diver | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Machine automation engineer | Excellent for beginners | Spend every Data Disc as it arrives, and expand the yard footprint before expanding the house. |
| Farm and ranch supplier | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Museum and relationship completionist | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Salvage and ruin diver. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Museum and relationship completionist as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn Commission board and workshop ranking
After registering your workshop at City Hall during Becoming Official, the Commission Board inside the Commerce Guild opens up. Yan posts jobs from townsfolk and from other city-states in the Alliance, and Mi-an takes the ones you leave. Your workshop ranking rises with completed commissions, which is what gates later story missions.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Commission board and workshop ranking works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to Sandrock
The town itself, holding City Hall where Matilda issues the Builder License, the Commerce Guild where Yan posts commissions, Owen's Blue Moon Saloon, Fang's clinic, Qi's Research Center and Burgess at Water World. Almost every mission chain starts inside these few streets.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Bronze Sword and Shield: it's the most accessible early upgrade. One of the easiest strong weapons to acquire, either crafted at a forging station or bought at Hammer Time once The Show Must Go On is finished. The shield makes it the forgiving option for a player's first hazardous ruin.
Step 4: Understand Machine chain from scrap to parts
The Recycler turns salvaged scrap into usable materials, the Furnace smelts ore into bars, bricks and glass, the Grinder produces pipes, wires, gears and rivets, the Processor cuts planks, plates and boards, and the Blender mixes medicine, sandfishing bait, cooking ingredients and fertiliser. The Assembly Station sits at the end and cannot be upgraded by interacting with it directly, you use the Construction Junction catalog or Home Editing Mode.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Eufaula Salvage
The scrapyard run by Rocky and Krystal, and the gateway to the Eufaula Salvage Abandoned Ruins behind it. The ruins open after the Picking Up the Slack mission installs the Crane Lift, and they run eleven layers deep.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Commission board and workshop ranking
After registering your workshop at City Hall during Becoming Official, the Commission Board inside the Commerce Guild opens up. Yan posts jobs from townsfolk and from other city-states in the Alliance, and Mi-an takes the ones you leave. Your workshop ranking rises with completed commissions, which is what gates later story missions.
Machine chain from scrap to parts
The Recycler turns salvaged scrap into usable materials, the Furnace smelts ore into bars, bricks and glass, the Grinder produces pipes, wires, gears and rivets, the Processor cuts planks, plates and boards, and the Blender mixes medicine, sandfishing bait, cooking ingredients and fertiliser. The Assembly Station sits at the end and cannot be upgraded by interacting with it directly, you use the Construction Junction catalog or Home Editing Mode.
Data Discs and the Research Center
Data Discs pulled out of ruins are spent at the Research Center to unlock blueprints and machine upgrades. The Ore Refinery costs 10 Data Discs and converts ores into rarer materials and crystals, and the Dew Collector costs 8 and produces one Dew every eight in-game hours. Research order matters more than raw money in the first thirty days.
Stamina, water and sandstorms
Sandrock rations water, which is why Burgess and Water World exist as a plot point rather than a background detail. Stamina limits how much salvaging and mining you can do in a day, and sandstorms close parts of the map and interrupt outdoor work. Planning a day around one ruin run plus one machine reload is more productive than trying to do both badly.
Relationships and Civil Corps missions
Every named resident has a relationship track fed by gifts, conversation and mission choices, and several are romanceable. The Civil Corps, with Justice as sheriff alongside Unsuur and Pen, runs the combat missions into hazardous ruins. Those missions are where the better weapon blueprints and the story beats around the town's bandit problem come from.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Treating Sandrock as a farming game
Crops are a support economy for the Blender, and the actual progression runs through commissions, machines and Data Disc research.
2. Leaving machines empty overnight
The Recycler, Furnace, Grinder and Processor all keep working while you are out, so an unloaded yard is a wasted in-game day.
3. Diving deep into a ruin with no stamina food
Stamina, not health, is what usually ends a ruin run, and running out on layer eight means walking back up with an empty pack.
4. Skipping the Crane Lift commission from Picking Up the Slack
Without it the Eufaula Salvage Abandoned Ruins stay closed, and those eleven layers are the main early source of Data Discs.
5. Entering hazardous ruins with only a Pickhammer
The Breach and Gecko Station have real enemies, and a bronze sword and shield from Hammer Time solves the problem in one purchase.
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Commission board and workshop ranking and Machine chain from scrap to parts
- Choose Salvage and ruin diver as starting build
- Clear Sandrock main content
- Acquire Bronze Sword and Shield or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Eufaula Salvage
- Spend Data Discs before hoarding them. The Ore Refinery at 10 Data Discs turns ordinary ore into rarer materials and crystals, and the Dew Collector at 8 produces one Dew every eight hours, which compounds across a whole save.
- Machines run while you are away from the yard, so the correct last action of every morning is loading all of them. A day spent salvaging with an idle Furnace throws away half the day's output.
Tips for New Players
- Spend Data Discs before hoarding them. The Ore Refinery at 10 Data Discs turns ordinary ore into rarer materials and crystals, and the Dew Collector at 8 produces one Dew every eight hours, which compounds across a whole save.
- Machines run while you are away from the yard, so the correct last action of every morning is loading all of them. A day spent salvaging with an idle Furnace throws away half the day's output.
- The Assembly Station cannot be upgraded by walking up to it. Use the Construction Junction catalog or enter Home Editing Mode, which catches out a lot of players who assume the interaction works like the other machines.
- Mi-an takes commissions you leave on the board. Check the Commerce Guild first thing in the morning, because the high value jobs do not sit there waiting for a convenient day.
- The Eufaula Salvage Abandoned Ruins hold explosive barrels and the Gecko Station Ruins hold electric fences. Both are avoidable hazards that will end a deep run instantly if you are running with low health.
- Hammers exist to drop the Break Bar, not to deal damage. Open a fight with the Motivational Hammer to stagger, then switch to a dagger such as the Bee-wing Blade for the actual damage window.
- Paradise Lost Hazardous Ruins can only be entered once and cannot be revisited after the associated mission ends. Strip it thoroughly on the single visit rather than assuming you can come back.
- The bronze sword and shield can be bought at Hammer Time after The Show Must Go On rather than crafted, which saves a full bronze production chain at the exact point in the game when bronze is scarce.
- Water is a genuine constraint in Sandrock, not flavour text. Burgess and Water World sit at the centre of that, and a Dew Collector removes a daily worry that otherwise eats commission time.
- Relationship gifts are cheap compared with their return. Several residents unlock recipes, discounts or mission access at higher relationship tiers, and Owen, Grace, Fang, Elsie and Unsuur all sit near the systems you use most.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did My Time at Sandrock fully release?
Pathea Games released version 1.0 on 2 November 2023 after an Early Access period that began in 2022. It is the follow up to My Time at Portia rather than an expansion of it.
Who gives out commissions?
Yan runs the Commission Board at the Commerce Guild, posting jobs from townsfolk and from other Alliance city-states. You need the Builder License from Matilda at City Hall first, which happens during Becoming Official.
What is the best weapon in the game?
The Solarflare, found on the final level of the Dead Sea Ruins. The Bee-wing Blade on the third level of the same ruin is the strongest dagger, and the Motivational Hammer remains the best tool for breaking enemy Break Bars.
Which machines should I build first?
The Recycler for scrap and the Furnace for bars come first, then the Grinder for gears and rivets and the Processor for planks. Research the Ore Refinery at 10 Data Discs and the Dew Collector at 8 as soon as discs allow.
Does the game have co-op?
Pathea added a separate online co-op mode with its own save, distinct from the single player story campaign. The main commission and story progression is designed around the solo save.
More My Time at Sandrock Guides
- My Time at Sandrock My Time at Sandrock Overview
- My Time at Sandrock Best Builds
- My Time at Sandrock Tier List
- My Time at Sandrock Walkthrough
- My Time at Sandrock Tips & Tricks
- My Time at Sandrock Weapons Guide
- My Time at Sandrock Combat Guide
- My Time at Sandrock Boss Guide
- My Time at Sandrock Maps & Locations
- My Time at Sandrock Crafting Guide
- My Time at Sandrock Classes & Characters
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