Story
The player (male is by default named Max and female is by default named Lucy) arrives in Sandrock to take over for a retiring builder named Mason. There, they meet several townsfolks such as Mi-an, another builder; Yan, the guild commissioner; Trudy, the mayor; Matilda, the town minister; and Pen, a local superhero.
The player helps with various tasks around town such as repairing a lift at a mine owned by a foreman named Rocky, rebuilding an outdoor stage that was destroyed in a sandstorm; resolving an issue with Grace, the inn cook; and rescuing a scientist named Qi from some ruins. At one point, the infamous bandit Logan robs a train and escapes from Justice, a sheriff who works for the Civil Corps. After fighting off Geeglers, lizard-like monsters, who are attacking a moisture farm, the player rebuilds the farm with Qi's help. The player helps Justice infiltrate the Geeglers' hideout and confront their leader, who intends to invade Sandrock. The confrontation ends with the leader falling down an old bridge and the surviving Geeglers fleeing into the desert. The bridge is later rebuilt by the player with some help from Qi and returning character Mint. Following an attack from Logan that results in the destruction of the town's water tower, the player help s rebuild it and joins Mi-an and her friend Elise to investigate Logan's house to find proof of Logan's true motives, as Elise doesn't think Logan is responsible for an earlier attack on a nearby temple.
The player works with Mi-an, Trudy, and Zeke, the owner of the moisture farm, find materials from an old submarine to build algae machines to help improve the farm. During a demonstration of the farm's new plants, Matilda is kidnapped by Logan and the player works with Justice and Pen to rescue her, though Logan escapes. The player later helps catch Andy, a boy who works for Logan. Musa, a returning character from My Time at Portia, arrives to investigate the town, but when he deems Sandrock unable to survive following an accident, the player is tasked with ensuring the town's future; once successful, Musa agrees to help support Sandrock. The player also help convince two departing townsfolks to not leave town.
The player helps Justice and Pan rescue mole people from Bandirats and a hostile robot called the Magic Mirror. They also learn that Lumi, the Bandirat princess who has deflected from her people, is a friend of Logan's. After defeating the Rat Queen, she escapes while the Magic Mirror is taken into custody. Trudy then establishes a partnership with the mole people with the help of a mole named Ged. During their search for Logan, the player falls down a cliff and is believed to have died. Having actually survived, the player confronts Logan. Grace arrives and reveals that she is an Alliance agent and is helping Logan, also revealing that Logan is really innocent and that Pen is responsible for the recent attacks. Grace is also after a Duvos spy named "Tiger" and reveals that water is being deprived from Sandrock, while Logan explains that his crimes are to actually avenge his deceased father, who was killed by Duvos. With the help of Logan's goat, the player returns to town to confirm to the townsfolks that they are still alive. The player works with Grace to infiltrate a hidden facility where they learn that Pen, Yan, and Miguel, the church pastor, are responsible for the water depriving plot and are working for Duvos.
Later, after Logan's sidekick Haru is caught, Miguel and Pen attempt to frame the player for the entire incident, but Logan arrive and exposes their plan. The player, Logan, and Justice defeat Pen with some help from Andy and Elise. They then apprehend Yan with some help for Rocky. After interrogating the criminals, Grace attempts to communicate with Duvos by pretending to be Tiger to find out more about their plans, but this leads Duvos to launch an attack on Sandrock. Matilda is revealed to be Tiger, who helps the Duvos agents take over Sandrock, and the player is forced to work for them while supervised by a Duvos solider named Stev. Logan and Ged rescue the player and help free the townsfolks. They then confront and defeat the Duvos soldiers and their commander. Noticing that Duvos' airship is still here, the player heads their with the help of Elise's giant bird friend Daisy, accompanied by Grace, Logan, and Justice. They discover that Duvos is looking for powerful engines belonging to ancient ships called Starships, and that the water depriving scheme was a front for this operation. The player fights and defeats Logan and Matilda, who is sent flying into space and dies from lack of oxygen. Alliance jets arrive and attack the Duvos airship, forcing Duvos to retreat. Logan also turns himself in to atone for his actions. After the villains are taken into custody, Yan's twin brother Wei takes over as the new commissioner, a resident named Burgess becomes the new minister, the reformed Magic Mirror is released to work in Sandrock, and Grace leaves town.
Sometime later, the player rescues a friendly Geegler named Larry, who is now the new leader of his people, and Logan is now tasked with dealing with monsters. The player continues to do additional missions such as helping Logan catch men who are pretending to be him, building a school, constructing a plumbing system, building a tunnel that connects to Portia, and constructing an amusement park. At one point, the player meets their parents. When plans to grow trees that can block the sandstorms arise, the player goes with Logan, Larry, and a biologist named Nia to a facility that Larry's people are to get the algae needed to grow them. They confront Larry's evil cousin Gary, who attempts to take over as the Geeglers' new leader, but is defeated. Grace returns to Sandrock after retiring. After helping with one final project: building an airship made from the Starship engines to use as a tourist attraction, Trudy expresses graduate for the player's help in restoring Sandrock.
