Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links. That means if you buy something, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read the disclaimer to learn more!
Want to upgrade your workshop or land but don’t have the funds? You don’t have the gols but you want to buy the decorations for your home? This guide will show you how to make money in My Time at Portia.
The Market
Just like real life, the economy changes in this game. It changes every day. Prices can rise and fall. If shopkeepers like you, they will give you discounts as well. Use these to your advantage.
Sell high and buy low when you can. Keep your most income-earning items for as long as you can and sell them when the market is at 124% or higher. The highest is 139% but this is rare. Buy items you want or need at 80% or lower.
There is a skill called business mind that once it is at level 4, you can sell items for 8% more. So that means that if the market price is at 100% then a king ranked fish is now worth 5,400. I would invest in that skill if I were you.
Make friends with the shopkeepers. Now, this doesn’t make money but saving money helps! Here are the shopkeepers that you need to make friends with and what items they like being gifted. Also, I believe that they all love roses as well.
- Gust – Bacon Fish Roll, Five Hundred Creative Designs, The Thinking Can, Structural Aesthetics, Umbrella, Structural Dimension Theory
- Sonia – Vegetable Salad, Magic Lamp, Yellow Sapphire Necklace
- Paulie – Fan, Wall Light,
- Alice – Weird Glass Jar, Honey
- Dr. Xu – Wall Lamp, Talisman, Herbal Mixture
- Martha – Feather Duster, Honey
- Gale – Tea Table, Old Thermos, Galloping Horse
- Django – Joystick, Bronze Sword, Craft Candle
- Mars – Old Thermos, Fisherman’s pickaxe, bubble fish stew,
- Carol – Basic Sewing Machine, Magic Lamp, Vegetable Salad
- Albert – Galloping Horse, Soldier with Scepter, Spicy Fish Soup, Talisman
- Nora – Colorful Swimsuit, Sunny Side, Crystal Hourglass
- Dawa – Fisherman’s axe, Yellow Sapphire Necklace, Old Thermos
- Sophie – Solid Wood Clock, Water Bucket, Busy Farm
How to Make Money in My Time at Portia with Fishing
Let me be honest. There isn’t a lot of legitimate ways in the beginning to make money. However, everyone agrees fishing is a great way to start. You can find caterpillars in plants or by buying them from Sophie for very little gols.
You will not be able to reach many fishing spots in the beginning. The best place to start with is the spot by the waterfall that has the Goliath fish.
Goliath fish, with no ranking, are worth 300 gols. Emperor Goliath Fish are 700 gols each. And if you are lucky enough to catch kings of any kind of fish, they are 5,000 gols. If you can manage to catch 2 kings of the same type of fish, keep them as you can breed fish with fish tanks later in the game.
If you catch 20 non-ranking Goliath fish in a day, you will make around 6,000 gols. This depends on the market.
I had no trouble catching the Goliath fish with the beginner’s rod. (However, I found fishing in this game easier than Stardew Valley.)
The Goliath fish is the second hardest fish to catch in the game, so if you do have trouble that is okay. Move to the fishing spot by the harbor and fish there until Amber Island opens up. You can try for the Goliath fish again once you have the classic rod.
When the desert is available, the best place to fish is the desert oasis. The fish here are less in value than the Goliath but more than the rest of the fish in the beginning areas.
You make more in the same time frame at this spot than the waterfall because you catch more fish. It may seem like time is paused between waiting for a bite and catching a fish, but the game still keeps track. These fish, the wise fish and the gladiator fish, are not hard to catch.
When you unlock the fish encyclopedia skill, you can see what fish or accessory is biting. You have a limit of 3 actual bites on the caterpillar before it is completely eaten. Accessories do not count toward the bite limit.
This way, you can try to fish for king ranked fish. This is actually how I was able to catch my first king ranked fish.
If all else fails, at least make sure you attend the fishing competition. All types of fish appear in the fishing spot during the competition thus giving you the chance to make some serious money in the beginning.
Commissions
Taking commissions every weekday is a great way to earn extra gols. Make sure you take the highest paid commission that you can finish in one day.
Even though you have around 5 days to complete the commission, you can only take one of each type of commissions. (Main story and random daily commissions.) So taking 5 days to complete commissions means you will lose 4 days’ worth of commissions at most. Not very efficient.
To make sure you get the best commission before Higgins, you need to enter the commerce guild right at 8:00 to have a chance to grab the best commission.
Sidequests
As your relationship status increases with your fellow Portians, they will start giving you sidequests. These sidequests can have a time limit so be sure you have the time to complete it before accepting.
Mining
This is how I made money in the beginning because I kept looking for relics and the old world books for Gust. You will find tons of stone, data discs and the upgrade chips for Ack.
I kept a wooden storage full of stone and then I crafted items to sell for gols. If you are like me, you probably read other guides that tell you to make stone stools to sell. At the very start that might be beneficial. However, when you get the skill, Artisan, that lowers your material cost, stone stools are not as efficient.
When you max out the Artisan skill, it only takes 4 stone to make a grinder that sells for 4 gols. With stone stools, it takes 8 stone and it sells for 7 gols. That’s one gol less than selling 2 grinders that use the same amount of material. Paulie happily accepts the grinders along with the extra dirt and sand.
Data discs are needed for research for extra items and main missions or to purchase items at the church or the research center. If you mine as much as I do, you will rack up 1,000 plus data discs. You will run out of items to research and purchase eventually.
Excess data discs are gold to sell. They are worth 64 gols each. Other guides mention to buy items at church and then sell the items. However, they are worth the same value as the data discs. So save yourself some time and sell the excess discs to Paulie.
Ack only needs 1 of each upgrade chip so there is no reason to keep additional ones. Like everything else, just sell the extra chips to Paulie. Is there anything this guy will not buy?
How to Make Money in My Time at Portia with Cotton Llamas
When the Southblock trade post opens, you can buy golden ginseng. This is needed for bait to trap the Cotton Llama. They have expensive tastes, don’t they?
2 aroma apples, 2 golden ginseng, and an advance trap are what you need. Place the trap, behind the workshop and wait a day. If you are lucky, you will catch a cotton llama worth a whopping 11,950 gols. No training required.
If no cotton llama is there, replenish bait and check again tomorrow. Do not forget to check the trap the day after you place it. If you don’t and you caught a Cotton Llama, it will eat your bait and escape.
When you catch one, you will have to tame it in a mini game. You will now own the llama, if you are successful. If you have trouble with the mini game, feed it 5 snakeberries, aroma apples, etc. The mini game will be much easier.
How to Make Money in My Time at Portia with Glitches
The Duplication Glitch
If you really want to make money so badly that you would use a glitch, you are in luck. There are a few that I know works on the console versions. One such glitch is the duplication glitch.
At the time of writing this post, the glitch only works in a shop menu. Grab an item you want to duplicate and put it on your active bar. Make sure you have free space in your inventory and go to a store.
While on the shop menu, go to your item and press quick move and confirm buttons at the same time. If you did the timing right, you should have the duplicate item in your inventory. Repeat as many times as you want.
After you duplicate it several times, stack them. You will get several stacks of the item with a number higher than one. Put all these stacks, except for one to sell, in different chests because if you don’t, they will disappear when you sell 1 whole stack.
With this glitch, you can duplicate and sell a lot of king ranked fish and clear out each stores’ gold. (You can duplicate ocean bounty and the like to overpower your character if you choose.)
I came across this glitch from watching a youtube video called My Time at Portia – Item Duplication & Infinite Money – PS4. XBOX 1 & Switch by Spork The BOAT Gaming. Many people in the comments were saying that it no longer worked at that time, but this glitch only works in the shop menu.
The Party Glitch
Another glitch deals with parties that you can throw after getting the banquet table from the Southblock trade post. I haven’t heard anyone say anything about this glitch but it had happened to me several times.
Throw a party and invite whoever you want. If most of the people do not come, the game still acts like they are there. Dishes will still disappear and need to be refilled so to speak.
After the party, pick up the food. If you had been refilling the dishes throughout the party, you will have lots to pick up. The game however sometimes gives more food back than you put out.
For instance, I have received a range of 300 to 900 plus spicy fish soup when I clear the table. I only had 30 in my inventory before the party. It seems what it duplicates is random and if the food dish quantity goes over 999 then it reverts to a lower number.
I have tried this many times and so far, it works with rainbow lemonade, spicy fish soup, creamy salmon stew, fruit salad, cheap soda and bacon fish roll.
This may be useful if you are planning to throw parties a lot to raise relationship statuses or if the glitch above gets patched. Otherwise, it is more efficient to use the glitch listed previously.
Below is a video for party glitch. It is recommended to watch with subtitles on since that is the only way I communicate in this video.
Tips Review For How to Make Money in My Time at Portia
In the beginning, there are very few ways of making money but more opportunities open up as you progress through the story. Here are ways you can make money:
- Fishing
- Commissions
- Sidequests
- Mining
- Buy Low, Sell High
- Capture Cotton Llamas
- Glitches if you do not mind using them
Pin Me!!
I hope this guide, How to Make Money in My Time at Portia, helps you become a rich builder with a marble mansion. If you found this helpful, share it with others so this post can help them as well. Read 9 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My Time at Portia, if you haven’t done so already. Subscribe for updates and I’ll see you next time.
Amber Borden
Amber is an avid gamer. The first game she ever played was Super Mario Bros on the NES. She has seen many genres of videos games due to her 30 years of gaming. However, Amber typically sticks to RPGs, Sandbox and Simulation.
Since she loves gaming, her first job was at a Gamestop. Also, she has written guides for Gamefaqs. Amber was a full time worker in the retail world, but now she is working on this site from home. No matter what, however, she still plays her video games.
Related Articles
