One of the most popular mechanics in any life sim is the ability to romance and eventually marry a character. It’s a staple of many games and you’re likely going to spend a good amount of time planning and working on this part. My Time At Sandrock is a desert community that’s host to a multitude of interesting characters complete with their own backstories. Of these people in town, there are 20 eligible singles for you to bring your friendship to the next level.
You can improve your relationship with the people of Sandrock by engaging with them in conversation, participating in activities and giving them gifts. Good friends will speak with you more as well as offer you gifts and quests. With your potential romantic interests you’ll be getting that and more.
In this My Time At Sandrock article we’ll be going through how relationships work in the game. As well as the introduction of marriage that was included in the game’s March 2023 update.
Disclaimer: My Time At Sandrock was released on the 26th of May 2022 in Early Access. As such information in this guide is subject to changes and additions. We’ll be adding more to this guide as the game updates!
Quick Navigation
- All Marriage Candidates
- Building A Relationship
- From Friendship To Dating
- Romancing Multiple People
- Marriage
- Breaks Ups and Divorce
All Marriage Candidates
You’ll find the full breakdown of the bachelors and bachelorettes of Sandrock here. In those articles, we break down more about them as well as what gifts they like.
| Amirah | Arvio | Burgess | Catori |
| Elsie | Ernest | Fang | Grace |
| Heidi | Jane (WIP) | Justice | Mi-An |
| Miguel | Nia | Owen | Pablo |
| Pen | Qi | Unsuur | Venti |
Building A Relationship
When you first meet someone in town your relationship level starts at 0. But by interacting, giving gifts with them and more you’ll be able to increase your relationship level. After you’ve reached a high enough heart level with someone you can then choose to date them and then marry them. We’ll go through more of that later in the article.
Here are things you can do to gain relationship points:
- Daily conversation
- Gift loved and liked items
- Play Critters with them
- Win a sparring match
- Invite them out on a playdate or date
- Complete missions and commissions for them
- Host parties
- Display relics at your Workshop
Alternatively, there are also ways to lose relationship points:
- Give disliked or hated gifts
- Lose a sparring match
- Cancel a play date activity or performing poorly in front of them
- Making unfavourable conversation choices in missions
- Getting caught dating someone else while dating them
- Breaking up with them or Divorcing them
How To Get Out Of The Friend Zone
Once you’ve reached more than 400 friendship points with one of the eligible candidates, you’ll be able to start dating them. To let your intentions to them be known you’ll need to give them a Heart Knot which can be bought at By The Stairs for 128g.
The person you give the Heart Knot to can either accept it or reject it. The higher your relationship level is with someone, the higher the chance they will accept it.
- Accept: The character will become your official boyfriend/girlfriend and you’ll get +24 relationship points
- Reject: You will keep your Heart Knot and can try again later once your friendship level is higher.
Once you have someone as your boyfriend/girlfriend their dialogue with you will change. And you’ll be able to invite them out on a Date as opposed to the regular Play option. (It’s pretty much the same except you can now hold hands).
Romancing Multiple People
In My Time At Sandrock, you’ll be able to date and romance multiple people at once. That is if you don’t get caught. Here’s an example that was definitely not based on real-life events. You’ve given a Heart Knot to both Grace and Owen and they’ve both accepted. If however, you take one of them on a Date to the Blue Moon Saloon while the other is there, they’ll be hurt by your action.
The consequences of getting caught will be that your date will end immediately and that you’ll get -50 relationship points from each party.
Now depending on who you’re dating you’ll either be broken up with immediately, or some will give you a second chance. For those that are willing to give you a second chance, you’ll need to buy them an Apology Bear within 6 days of the fight. You can get the Bear from the Game Center Shop for 188 Tokens. If they accept it, it will repair the relationship and you’ll go back to dating.
If you fail to give a bear or the character refuses to accept it then they will drop down to a non-romantic status on the social list. They will also give you some unique jealousy lines when you chat with them and during this time period, they will not accept any gifts.
There’s no way to reverse the breakup and you’ll need to rebuild the relationship from scratch once they’ve returned to their normal behaviour after a few days.
| Will Accept Apology Bear | Arvio, Burgess, Heidi, Justice, Mi-an, Miguel, Owen, Qi, Unsuur, Venti |
| Will Not Accept Apology Bear | Amirah, Catori, Elsie, Ernest, Fang, Grace, Pablo |
The Proposal And Marriage
Requirements: Workshop Lvl 5
Once you’ve reached the Lover stage (900-1,100 relationship points), you’ll be able to propose to that person. To marry someone you’ll need an Engagement Ring that you can buy from the Mysterious Man for 2,000g. You can then choose to give it to your lover directly or pop the question on a date.
If your candidate accepts you’ll be able to hold a ceremony immediately at the Church of Light, or seven days later. After you’re married your new husband/wife will move into your Workshop and you’ll be able to assign them tasks to help you out.
In this case, if you’re dating more than one person you’ll automatically break up with the rest and lose relationship points with them.
Note: Pen and Grace are the only romanceable characters in the game so far that will refuse your marriage proposal.
How To Break Up With Someone
There are a couple of ways to break up with someone in My Time At Sandrock. We’ve mentioned a couple previously, but we’ll go through all of them here.
- Get caught cheating and don’t give them/have them refuse an Apology Bear
- Give them a Dead Branch
- Marry someone else
- Give them a Broken Mirror (if married)
When Dating
If you’re dating someone (after the acceptance of a Heart Knot) you can break up with them by giving them a Dead Branch. The Dead Branch can be purchased for 640g at By The Stairs. Once you present them with this no character will refuse it and your relationship status will go from dating down to Associate/Buddy/Friend. Depending on your relationship point level.
At this point, you’ll still be able to interact with the character normally and they will still accept gifts from you. That is, except for a Heart Knot, at least for a week.
When Married
Once you’re married to someone you’ll be able to initiate a divorce by giving them a Broken Mirror. You’ll be able to buy the Broken Mirror from the Mysterious Man when he’s in town for 20,000g. This is a whopping 10x more than an Engagement Ring. I guess it’s true what they say, divorce is expensive.
Once you’re divorced your relationship with your ex will dramatically lower and they’ll move out of your house to their previous home. If you do change your mind about breaking up with them you’ll still be able to remarry someone you’ve divorced if you build the relationship back up again.
Note: Currently this feature does not appear to be functional as of this update.
MY TIME AT SANDROCK
Travel to the desert community of Sandrock and take on the role of a fledgling Builder. Use your trusty toolset to gather resources, construct machines, and turn your run-down workshop into a well-oiled production facility to save the town from the jaws of economic ruin!
My Time At Sandrock is out now on Early Access on Steam and Epic Games.
