Starting Out Tips

[Owl->208]

As the title mentions, these are tips to help those players, like myself, who enjoy the game, but are just overwhelmed with quests and missions they can't seem to complete fast enough.

1. Change the length of the day in the options menu to the longest setting, which is .6. This makes the day last longer, giving you more time.

2. Do not advance the main quest story until you are ready to do so. This gives you a LOT of time to build up resources, make multiple furnaces, recyclers, dew collectors, etc. It gives you time to focus on romance and side missions that crop up and takes a more relaxed approach to playing the game. Some people like fast and having everything thrown at them quickly, but I do not. If you are like me, slow things down.

3. Yes there are timed quests and missions, but they will tell you flat out that there is a time limit. Commissions also tell you how long you have, but if you are maxing out gol earning, you are likely trying to fill the commission same day. especially if you have skill points invested. If you slow down the day and do not advance the main story, you will now have the time to focus on those timed quests with a reserve in case you need it.

4. There are daily activities you want to prioritize and do every day, like salvaging at the Eufala Salvage Yard or visiting the mines, especially if you are paying the 200 gold fee at Eufala. You also want to make sure to visit love interests and give them gifts - taking your time gives you more gols in the long run to focus your spending, Investing early on in equipment will guarantee later on that you have the capacity to bypass Yan as the best builder.

5. It is much easier to advance research if you slow things down. Often second and third tier research has a multi-day delay or it costs you more data disks to speed up, so slowing things down gives you time to get things in place before a quest requires it. There are only so many gols to go around - taking your time gives you more gols to spend as you go.

How to execute the Delay Main Quest Strategy

So the next question is where does it make sense game play wise to slow down? I would get the early stories done quickly so that you are a registered builder. I think the mission is called Picking Up the Slack where you want to start your delay tactics. I usually wait 10 days before I complete that mission, giving me time to do things. Once I've upgraded my tools, made multiple machines, advanced my research, etc., then I complete this quest.

Then, the next pause is building the Stage after the sandstorm. This again, gives me time to catch up. Really works out well. When you feel like you are ahead of things, then do main missions quicker. For me, I always pause when I start to feel overwhelmed so I don't miss anything critical. This strategy really increases my enjoyment and takes the work and frustration out of playing the game.

I hope this helps you, because none of the game guides ever mention this as an option.

[✨Bearnwyn✨]

All great points.

I've been writing a guide for hints & tips.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2812709649

This would be a good discussion to continue the conversation.

[Owl->208]

Wonderful Guide you have, Bearnwyn - I highly recommend it - has a lot of very good beginner/starter info all in one place. It is very interesting how Sandrock comes at you in batches.....there is so much in this game! Well worth the cost and I'm unable to stop playing it. Good stuff! Must have a good discussion to continue the conversation -we've just scratched the surface, but clearly share the same approach. For me, Sandrock is much more fun slow and steady, squeezing out every drop of lemony goodness!

[owl]

I slowed down in the 2nd arc after the tutorial arc (missions after building up the blue stage), and it was enjoyable. I am now halting on the mission where I am told to go to a new ruins. Doing daily grinds feel rewarding as I can expand my yard, make more machines, and collect supplies plus gols.

Are there more tips to earn more gols other than doing commish? Maybe there are some easy to make items that are worth selling?

[Owl->208]

Yes, I have a few "ideas" for increasing gol production. Let us break this down into short term and long term because I have only seen guide state what you can do to increase gols and most all of them seem longer term.

Short Term Ways to Increase Making Gols:

Gols will always be an issue because you need them for pretty much everything. What works for me at the start or early stages of the game are as follows:

Buy/Sell on days that give you a better market rate. Each merchant at the bottom left of the sales screen has a market rate icon that can vary from -20% to cost to +20% to cost on items. You sell on days items cost more and buy on days items cost less. Whatever the daily rate is the same for each vendor for that day, so there is no need to check out each vendor since they are all the same. This is why slowing down the game is so critical. You will need more storage either on your personal inventory or through storage containers, that way you can wait until the market pricing favors you.

Desert Mushrooms/Herbs can be found in bunches around box trees. These sell for 6 gols or so each and I can usually get about 8-10 of them for 40-60 gols.

Catching Shiny Scorpions can provide 75-80 gols each. You press the E key on the keyboard on the PC to catch the scorpion when it appears, so be ready for them. There is a skill you can get pretty early on that will guarantee that you catch 100% of all Scorpions you encounter. This is a really good way to increase gols because you do a lot of scavenging in this game and this activity is part of your daily routine, especially if you go to the salvage yard. I usually find one or two a day.

Sand Rice/Sand Leaks are another item you can find that sells for several gols and you can find 5-10 of them for another 20-30 gols. Early on these really add up along with everything else.

Sell off excess copper ore. I usually end up with hundreds of copper ores and these can be sold on high market days for several hundred gols.

Sell off extra weapons, tools and armors as you can only wear one of each item. Pretty much do this with any extras you do not need for building. Some you only need a little bit of, the rest sell off, like manure.

Treasure chest hunting - be sure to break up the chest with an axe for more resources after opening it. There is a skill you can get early on that shows you on the map where the treasure chests are. There are also wiki guides like the ones mentioned above on this thread that also show you these locations. You can get a lot of gols from Treasure Chests and there are around 50 in town and even more outside town you can find as you open up more areas on the map.

Go around town when your stamina is too low or at zero cleaning up the town. You get experience and items which you can sell. If your luck is good, you can sometime get a diamond.

Long Term Ways to Make More Gols:

Most tip guides give you these - and most involve skill points and skills that reduce or save gols by lowering costs or giving you more of x, which can then be sold for gols.

Commissions and Side quests - self explanatory. You should be prioritizing the max number of commissions you do each day. Again slowing down the game is key to this because failing to do a commission gives you a real negative hit. Doing them yields lots of gols and benefits. Side quests are optional, but usually give you gols or items you can sell for gols.

Bounties - again this more for mid - later game when you have better weapons and free time. They do pay good gols.

Mining - There are lots of relics and goodies in the mine that you can sell. Early on, there is a quest Rocky gives you for selling him copper after you do the Crane/Lift Quest when you are first allowed in the mine area.

Making/Manufacturing things to sell. Furniture is a fine example. Crafted items sell for far more gols than the resources used to make the item. This is harder to do early on, but as the game progresses and you have excess resource this an easy way to make gols, especially if you've slowed down the games and have a lot of machines.

I may have missed a few, but these should give you some ideas.

[ArmedTerror]

I have been doing combinations of the main missions, side missions, and commissions. Honestly, I have been doing a pretty good job with keeping all my activities pretty equal with each other. The balance and progression in the game is excellent if you are constantly doing a bit of everything. I think I am about halfway through the story and I normally have to wait for more main missions to catch up to my progress. I have more gols than I know how to spend and I usually don't lack resources. I have one of each machine to the second tier. I can definitely understand wanting to build up your buildings and machines before doing the main missions, but doing everything "quickly" feels very natural and resources, gols, and research normally keeps up assuming you keep track of everything everyday. I usually have an excess of energy everyday and I just go do what I feel like might be fun that day. I really love the balance in this game. It is definitely more of a relaxed experience than Portia, even if you do have a pace that others would consider quick. I played a lot of Portia though, so perhaps I am just accustomed to the game mechanics.

[Owl->208]

There is definitely a learning curve and then a comfort curve. Once you completely understand the game and its mechanics - then the game starts slowing down for you. Some people like myself - just plain like slow as our normal speed, Each to his own - the only right way to play is the way you want to play and feel comfortable with. The object is to make sure everyone has fun. Nobody likes buggy broken games that generate frustration. Sandrock is a very good game and an excellent value for your gols.