There are quite a few succession laws to choose from in The Sims 4 Legacy Challenge. How do you know which one will work for you? I have compiled a list of all current succession laws and ranked them in order of difficulty within their category. Hopefully this helps you decide!
Gender Law
- Highest Difficulty- Strict Matriarchy/Patriarchy/Equality: These three choices are your most difficult options for the Gender Law category as they require that your Sims have a certain gender child in order to progress the Legacy. If you choose a Strict Patriarchy succession law for instance, your current generation MUST have a son for the Legacy to continue. This could sometimes result in many children before the coveted boy is born. The same would go for Strict Matriarchy and Strict Equality (which requires the opposite gender every generation). If you are up for the challenge and don’t mind the possibility of your Sims having many children, then this one is for you!
- Medium Difficulty – Patriarchy/Matriarchy – The non-strict versions of Patriarchy and Matriarchy are not quite as difficult and time consuming as their strict counterparts as, if a certain gender isn’t born, your choice will then default to the first born child regardless of gender. This particular option is good for those of you that want to attempt to have only a certain gender represent their Legacy heirs, but aren’t concerned with sometimes needing to switch things up if the specific gender doesn’t appear.
- Easiest Difficulty – Equality – Equality is the easiest choice in the Gender Law category as you are free to choose your heir regardless of their gender. This one is for those of you that don’t want to worry about gender when choosing an heir and instead can either rely on a different succession law or keep things easy by being able to be more flexible with your choices all around.
Bloodline Law
- Highest Difficulty – Strict Traditional/Strict Foster – In the Strict Traditional Succession Law all heirs must be naturally born (not adopted) from the previous generation. In Strict Foster, the heirs MUST be adopted. These laws in and of themselves isn’t too bad, however if you pair them with Strict Matriarchy/Patriarchy/Equality you will add yet another layer of difficulty to getting the heir that you need to progress as you will be unable to choose the gender in either natural born or adopted children.
- Medium Difficulty – Foster/Traditional – These two succession law options are less difficult than their strict counterparts as you can choose to adopt or birth a child if you can’t get an heir from your chosen law (which can’t be done in the strict version)
- Easiest Difficulty – Modern – The Modern Bloodline Law is the easiest option as you can choose to adopt OR birth the next generation. There is no restriction on which one you choose. This law is a good choice for someone who wants to do a Strict Matriarchy/Patriarchy/Equality Legacy, but wants the flexibility of being able to birth or adopt the heir.
Heir Law
These succession laws work a bit differently than the others in that there really isn’t any inherent difficulty in them, it’s more which laws are more simple to keep track of and which are more complex and require more work and tracking on the part of the player. So for this section I will list them by either “Simple” (requires little work to track by the player) or “Complex” (requires more work to track and more management on the part of the player).
Simple:
- First Born
- Last Born
- Random
- Democracy
Complex:
- Living Will
- Merit
- Strength
- Exemplar
- Magical Bloodline
- Magical Strength
Species Law
The Species Succession Law is optional and only for those of you that have the Get to Work expansion pack. This law revolves around whether aliens will be in the Legacy or not. The easiest of these is “Tolerant” as the species doesn’t play a role in determining the founder at all. All of the others are more in the difficult range as they require your Sims to either remain aliens throughout the challenge or to alternate between human and alien.
I was wondering if I were to do a wizard or werewolf if it would be the same rules as the aliens or if it matters?
Yes, you can use the same rules for them if you wish!
What happens if the heir dies before the previous heir dies eg. 1st born kid dies before parent would the 2nd born then be heir?
I’d imagine so. It’d depend on what you were going for. Son only, or Daughter only, but if one dies. You gotta King Henry VIII it until you get what you’re looking for.
Would it be allowed to create a spouse in CAS, but randomizing their traits and aspirations? (Creating only a single spouse per gen and sticking to that one).
Answer to Able – It states the only two rules are
1 – Founder sim MUST be young adult age
and…the answer to your question as well…
2 – MUST start with only the founder as the ONLY person in the household = meaning no spouse in CAS.
(Gotta go out there, start a relationship, and get jiggy the ol’ fashioned way. Sorry.)
Hello! I wanna start the challenge but I wanna know how does the succession work? If I make 3 kids per say and choose the eldest as my heir, do I kick out the other 2?
Hello! I don’t know if anyone’s answered your question yet, but I’ll go ahead and give my opinion anyway.
As per most Legacies, it’s up to you what happens (Whether you want to kick out ‘spares’ or not), but if you’re not moving people out at the next generation, your household fills up fast! Remember, you’re trying to get to the 10th generation!
What I like to do on Legacies that I’m not keeping track of points (Mainly for fun), is once my chosen Heir comes of age, I move them out of the house and build them a whole new one. That way, money stays down (It’s more fun for me when Sims are low on cash, so I can save for things I want them to have) and my other Sims aren’t as in the way.