The Sims 4 Apocalypse Challenge Rules
Date: February 11th, 21XX
Location: The City of Glassbolt
Program: The Apocalypse Challenge
Project: RRR (Phase 2)
Briefing
Greetings citizen. No doubt you have heard of the devastation. Much of the media reports coming out of the City of Glassbolt has been white washed to gloss over what happened there. We know that approximately 5 minutes after half time of the super bowl, the nuclear power plant of Glassbolt melted down, devastating the entire region. The army core of engineers cites that a simultaneous flush of every toilet in the city caused a massive drop in water pressure, thus causing the plant to lose coolant and melt down. This isn’t your ordinary meltdown. That plant was experimental! The fallout is causing strange and odd problems in the region and we have very little detail about what is going on in there.
What we DO know is that we need a leader, a hero to willingly go in there, establish themselves in the region and help restore the region back to normal. We have one other bit of declassified information. This actually happened 20 years ago. We’ve lost contact with the region. You, citizen, have graduated from our Wonder Child project. You were specially created to be able to solve these issues. So get in there and show us what you are made of! The lost city of Glassbolt is depending on you!
Jump to:
- The Challenge
- Universal Rules
- Getting Started
- The Career Specific Restrictions
- Tech Guru – Start-Up
- Tech Guru – eSport Gamer
- Business – Investor
- Business – Management
- Culinary – Chef
- Culinary – Mixologist
- Astronaut – Space Ranger
- Astronaut – Interstellar Smuggler
- Painter – Master of the Real
- Painter – Patron of the Arts
- Writer – Author
- Writer – Journalist
- Secret Agent – Diamond Agent
- Secret Agent – Villain
- Entertainer – Musician
- Entertainer – Comedian
- Criminal – Boss
- Criminal – Oracle
- Athlete – Professional Athelete
- Athlete – Bodybuilder
- Teen Career – Babysitter
- Teen Career – Fast Food Employee
- Teen Career – Manual Labor
- Teen Career – Retail Employee
- End of the Challenge
The Challenge
The Apocalypse Challenge has many restrictions and is, by design, extremely difficult in the very beginning. The way you
make life easier for yourself is by having Sims reach the tops of careers. Each career branch has its own set of restrictions tied to it. You must abide by all of those restrictions.
However, once a Sim reaches the top of a career branch, the restrictions related to that career branch are lifted. You no longer have to obey them. Even if that Sim quits their job, the act of reaching the top level of a career will permanently lift that career branch’s restrictions.
There is a catch, however. Only one set of restrictions may be lifted per Sim. Even if you can get them to the top of more than one career in their lifetime, only the first one counts towards completing this challenge. This includes teenage careers. If a Sim reaches the top of a teenage career, they are unable to lift any restrictions related to a future adult career.
The challenge ends when every set of restrictions has been lifted. Your “Score” is the number of Sim days it takes you to accomplish this feat, with the fewer days taken being a better score (like Golf).
Universal Rules
These rules are always in effect and are not tied to any careers. These rules cannot be ‘lifted’ and must
be followed during the entire challenge.
1. No cheats, custom content, or mods that would give you an unfair advantage over someone who didn’t have them. The Move Objects cheat is allowed, but restricted by a career-specific restriction that must be lifted before you can use it.
2. You may not age up sims early.
3. You may not adopt infants or children.
4. Play on normal lifespans.
5. You must follow all career-specific restrictions until a Sim reaches the top of that career, at which point the actions and objects previously forbidden by the restriction are now allowed for all sims in the household.
6. You may only play your Apocalypse family in the neighborhood and they may not move to new lots during the challenge.
Getting Started
You start with a single founder Sim. Unlike the Legacy Challenge, this may be ANY sim, young adult or older. This may be a previously played sim with skill points, perks and other advantages. You may download this Sim from the gallery or use your own. In fact, if you’re looking for some very well bred sims, I would suggest downloading a #WonderChild. If a downloaded sim comes as part of a larger household, simply split them off.
Your founder must be moved into an empty lot, but you may choose any empty lot you want in any neighborhood. You may demolish a pre-existing house if you happen to want the lot it was sitting on. (Oasis Springs is suggested as it fits with the theme of the challenge better, but there is no rule requiring it)
Once moved into the lot, your Sim must quit any job they were previously part of. If they were at the top of a career, it does not lift the restrictions associated with that career, nor does it bar them from re-taking that same job. Once a sim has no career and is the only sim on the empty lot, the challenge begins and all of the career-specific restrictions go into effect.
The Career Specific Restrictions
The world has pretty much given up on the city as a lost cause. A few humanitarian suppliers risk the journey in, but they only offer the most basic and meager of furnishings. The region used to be host to some high tech industry, but all of that is abandoned. The little luxuries in life are the last thing on everyone’s list.
Only the worst version of any item class may be purchased or used. For the purposes of this restriction, single and double beds are two different item classes. If another restriction outright restricts an entire item class, that restriction takes priority until it is lifted, even if you lift this restriction.
(Essentially, you can only use the item of each category with the worst stats. If more than one item shares the equally low stats you may choose between them. If an item class has no stats at all (Like doors) You may use any item in that class.
Completion
With a little legal maneuvering and some keen technical know-how, your Sim buys up and revives the previously abandoned high-tech factories in the area. Items made of better materials and constructed using advanced engineering techniques now become available in the region.
The backbone servers and fiber optic cables that used to bring the internet to the region were fried during the meltdown. Now power is scarce, electronics are faulty and computers are crippled in their functionality. Cell phone towers were taken out too, crippling phone functionality to the region.
The computer may *only* be used for daily tasks required by a Sim’s job (if said daily task requires use of a computer) and nothing else. The cell phone may only be used to take or quit a job and cannot be used to play games, chat, text, prank, or invite other sims. TVs and electronic notebooks may not be purchased or used either.
Completion
Fed up with their jury-rigged connection to the outside world, your Sim takes their network connectivity know-how and leads a community effort to restore servers, cell towers, and reconnects the fiber optics. Suddenly, internet speeds are 10 times that of the rest of Sim Nation. Handy not having an ISP monopoly.
Commerce and trade used to be a cornerstone of the Glassbolt region. All of that is in shambles now. While there are some companies importing some basic survival items into the region, nobody is bothering to try and export anything. The assumption that there is nothing of value to export and that whatever is exported might be tainted with the lingering radiation means that nothing of value is leaving the region, and very little money is flowing back in.
You cannot sell Buy/Build mode items or collected/harvested items. Cannot do any interactions with the Geo Council for found items. Cannot publish books (You may self-publish) or songs. Cannot write and sell Jingles.
Completion
The region is ripe with opportunity and your Sim sees this. Flush with cash and strong with clout, your sim convinces a major shipping company to invest in the region, publishing the stories of the survivors, buying excess goods to re-sell as “Survivor Vintage”, and to labs for scientific study. While the new company makes a mint on this new opportunity, it also opens the door for some much needed cash to flow into the pockets of those living there. A true win/win for everyone involved.
It is amazing that some companies have remained in the region. But it soon becomes clear that most of them are taking advantage of the situation and labor standards are being ignored to the detriment of the workers. With unemployment so high, bosses feel free to use and abuse their workers and fire them on a whim knowing they can be easily replaced.
You may not take any days off, either as vacation OR family leave. If your Sim misses work, is late for work or leaves work early they must quit the job and may not re-take the same career ever. If a Sim voluntarily quits their job, or switches to a new job, that Sim may never re-take their old job. Elder Sims may not retire. Sims cannot ‘play hookey’. These restrictions do not apply to the grade school or high school “careers” but DO apply to any after-school teenage careers taken. While at work, you must choose either work normally or “Work Hard” as your Sim’s work mode and may not choose any other work modes.
Note: Sims who have the “Professional Slacker” trait are exempt from this restriction
Completion
Haven risen through the ranks of the business world, your Sim declares that the practice of mistreating workers must end. Your sim’s company has enough business and legal connections to other businesses in the region and pressures other businesses in the region to do the same. Working conditions for everyone improve overnight.
The destruction in the region has cut gas lines and made the electricity grid very unstable. As a result, gas and electrical appliances can’t be relied on to cook and preserve food. The citizens of the area are forced to resort to more primitive cooking methods and living off the land to stave off starvation.
You may not purchase, place, or use any refrigerators, stoves, ovens, or microwave ovens or coolers. Non-fish items may not be cooked on grilled on fire pits. If you do not have the Outdoor Retreat game pack, you may make non-fish items on the grill, but must move a fish in your inventory to the family inventory each time you cook a meal.
Completion
After breaking the Simmish Book of World Records for hosting the largest soup kitchen for the region, your culinary master Sim attracts the attention of the world’s most famous chefs. Seeing the plight of the region they form the global food fund to ship truckloads of fresh food to the region as well as repair the gas lines and electrical infrastructure, allowing the people of the region to once again make and eat good food.
There is something in the water. In fact, there is something in all liquids that are made in the region. The radiation in the air seems to easily trickle into liquids making drinking anything a risky and unhealthy affair. Only the juices and liquids locked in fresh food seem to be safe, which is just enough to stave off total dehydration.
Sims may not drink any drinks made at a bar. They may not drink any Lifetime Happiness reward potions. They may not have drinks from a fridge or cooler and cannot brush their teeth at a sink. Newborns may not be bottle-fed. Your Sim may make drinks to practice, but you must throw them out.
Completion
After ages spent mixing drinks, trying to make something drinkable, your master Mixologist sim stumbles on a genius drink mix that, when added to any liquid, neutralizes the radiation and renders the liquid safe to drink. Cheap and easy to make, your Sim distributes this miracle drink mix to the whole region, allowing Sims everywhere to raise a glass and drink to their health.
The radiation cloud released by the meltdown has taken the form of a dark and grim cloud, blocking out much of the sky and sunlight. The presence of the cloud makes sleeping outdoors unsafe and the lack of sunlight sets the entire region on edge, unable to appreciate the beauty of many objects around them.
All objects must be covered by four walls and a roof and sims may not sleep outdoors. Sims may not travel to or vacation in Granite Falls (If you have the Outdoor Retreat Pack). Sims may not stargaze or cloud watch or use the telescope to watch the sky. You may not enable the mood auras on any mood aura objects. Tents may not be used. Mailboxes, Outdoor trash cans and rocket ships are all exempt from the “Must be covered by 4 walls and a roof” rule.
Completion
With a heroic mission in low orbit, your brave space ranger sim is able to harness the power of the solar winds to pull the radioactive cloud out of the atmosphere and send it into space, clearing the sky and letting the region breathe a little easier and actually see the sun once in a while.
Astronaut – Interstellar Smuggler
The prototype designs for the next generation of objects was stolen from the region’s high tech industrial sector during the chaos and confusion of the meltdown. The knowledge of how to make those unique and special objects has been lost. Worse still, the blueprints for do-it-yourself improvements are missing, rendering the handysims of the region clueless on how to improve the functionality.
Cannot place, sell, or use career reward objects. May not upgrade any objects other than rockets.
Completion
While your Interstellar Smuggler went on an epic quest to steal back the stolen plans, their efforts were ultimately in vain as the thieves were found dead and the laptop with the stolen plans broken beyond repair. Luckily all the gadgets, trinkets and high tech modifications your Sim developed while preparing for their mission were more than enough to replace the knowledge lost. Your Sim releases the plans to the region for all to use.
Art has taken a back seat to survival. Who wants to look at drawings when one doesn’t know where their next meal will come from? Anyone who had artistic talent in the region has forgotten how to make emotionally powerful objects.
Your Sims may not paint mood-aura paintings. Handysims may not create emotional aura items on the workbench. (Items with just a plain environment score are not considered emotional aura items) Authors may not write emotional books.
Completion
Your Master of the Real realizes how to break through the tragic haze in the region and once again master their emotions and put that mastery into their creations allowing the region’s art scene to be revived and develop a unique style of its own.
The outside world is largely cut off from those in the region. Given that there is no market for works of art within the region itself as your fellow survivors care more about food and shelter than pretty pictures, even the greatest masterpiece will go unheeded and the greatest artists unrewarded for their work.
You may not sell any Sim-produced objects. May not self-publish books
Completion
Having attracted the attention of major international art gallery using their connections, your Sim establishes an art auction house where the artists of the region can go to get real money for their works of art. There is a robust market for creations from the region as suffering and struggle felt by the artists of the region make for very memorable and valueble creations.
The libraries and the bookstores are gone. Only stray books can be found these days. If your Sim wants to read more than the handful of books that come with new bookshelves, they had better hope they know a local author or write one themselves.
You may not order books from bookshelves or online, and may not visit library lots (even if visiting other lots is otherwise allowed).
Completion
The written word is indeed powerful and your prolific author has penned enough books to restock the entire region and setup an ordering service for sims to buy books from the outside world. The money earned from all this is used to rebuild the regional libraries.
The state of the region is terrible. The sanitation system is in ruins, medicine is scarce and the worst part is…the rest of the world doesn’t realize how bad it is. Rather than properly investigate the region, the major media outlets of the world have largely glossed over the events in Glassbolt. The rest of the world doesn’t know how bad it actually is and because of this few seem eager to lend a hand.
You may not purchase or use showers, tubs or, shower/tub combinations. When Woohooing, if the “Try for baby” option is available, you MUST choose it rather than Woohoo. May not ‘take pregnancy test’ on a toilet.
Completion
Your crack investigative journalist Sim manages to do a stellar piece. Gathering photos, quotes, events, and evidence of exactly how bad things have gotten in the region. They then release this to the world. International aid organizations spring into action. Doctors come to help out the sick and provide much needed pharmaceutical items, including birth control and pregnancy testing items. A joint effort quickly repairs the sewage and water sanitation systems, allowing clean…ish and free flowing water to return to everyone still living in the area.
The radiation released by the meltdown wasn’t just your normal, run-of-the-mill radiation. The plant was experimental and the resulting radiation has had some…unique effects on those who were near the power plant when it blew. Zombies. And not just regular zombies, but RADIOACTIVE zombies roam the major streets. It is unclear what makes them tick or what they are after, but it is not safe to travel between neighborhoods, lest the zombie hordes get you. The thread of zombies have made people paranoid about letting anyone into their homes.
Sims may not visit community lots or enter neighborhood houses (They may still wander their local neighborhood, as long as it doesn’t cause a loading screen. This does not prevent Sims from leaving for work. May not move sims out of the household (Besides your initial imported family to slim it down to 1 member if needed)
Completion
After infiltrating the zombie hordes and doing some acts of seduction that your Sim would rather not talk about, your Diamond Agent Sim finds the source of the zombies’ power. The Evil Dr. Vu is controlling them and using the nuclear disaster as a cover. After destroying Vu’s nefarious device, the zombies all return to normal, leaving the streets clear and neighborhoods safe.
Something must have snapped in the mind of Glassbolt’s mayor. When the meltdown took the life of his pet llama, the mayor went a little insane, enacting bizarre zoning laws and mobilizing the region’s fire and police forces to enforce them while ignoring the suffering and other problems that a police force might otherwise be able to help with.
When you start the challenge, you must choose an 8X8 square on your lot. You may only build in this area. Nothing may be placed outside the 8X8 area. You may not sell or delete urns or gravestones or ‘release spirit’.
Completion
Your villain, aggravated by this insane and clearly incompetent mayor’s rules, has decided to take down the figure of authority and seize power for his or herself. Through some careful manipulation from the shadows and some very good use of minions and henchmen, your Sim manages to stage a little ‘accident’ for the mayor mere minutes after being named deputy mayor themselves. While there isn’t exactly a lot of wealth and power to gained from ruling a devistated region, at least your Sim can do away with the previous mayor’s silly laws while they ponder ways to exploit their new-found authority.
The people of the region have difficulty relaxing. Living in a nuclear hell-hole has a way of keeping you focused on the here and now. Music is seen as a waste of time and the local radio stations have all been destroyed in the disaster. People seem more set in their ways and stubborn to try new things or give into their changing impulses.
Sims may only only “Practice” instruments, and may not do any other interactions on them. They may not purchase or use any kinds of radios or stereos. You may not change a Sim’s aspiration, even if they have completed it (Other than the forced change going from childhood to teenager). You may not cancel whims.
Completion
With your Sim filling the air with beautiful music, the people of the region are inspired to rebuild the radio stations just so they can hear your Sim play. Hope is renewed and people feel more at ease and flexible in how they approach life.
The people of the Glassbolt region are a depressed group, and rightfully so. But depression feeds more depression and people become more hesitant to gather together or even look at themselves in a mirror. Nobody laughs or feels they can make merry and everyone is on edge.
Sims may not throw parties and may not go on dates. They may not invite other Sims to their lot. They may only invite in one Sim per generation to join the household. Sims may not use mirrors.
Completion
With a star comedian touring the region , the people of Glassbolt learn to laugh again even at themselves. People may still look like hell, but at least they are more comfortable joking about it. With everyone being a lot less self-conscious, people once again gather for events and are more comfortable joining others.
The one thing that wasn’t destroyed by the blast was the local mob. With law enforcement severely weakened and unable to maintain order, the mob has volunteered itself to ‘protect’ the residents. The upside is that burglaries are non-existent. The downside is that this ‘protection’ has a price – everythMing you made that week. Residents are in such bad shape, that saying ‘no’ is not an option.
Whenever you are due to pay bills, pay them (if able) and then reduce your household funds to $0 using the money cheat. (Open cheat console with ctrl-c then enter ‘Testing Cheats on’ without the quotes and hit enter. Then ‘Money 0’ without the quotes and hit enter). You may not spend any money while you have outstanding bills or once the mail carrier appears on the lot until the bills are paid and the household funds reduced to 0.
Completion
Beating the mob is not an option, but if you can’t beat them, join them. As the big boss in charge, the mob plays by your Sim’s rules. And their rules say ‘no protection payments are to be drawn from my family for life’. And when the boss speaks, the goons listen.
Things are bad, but they seem almost artificially bad. As if the universe was conspiring against the people of Glassbolt at the whim of some cruel otherworldly power. Sadly, the people of Glassbolt are powerless to act upon this paranoid feeling and must go about their lives.
Sims may not use the move objects cheat. You may not download or import any Sims from the Gallery or place any Sims into the neighborhood (other than your founder at the start of the challenge). You must use the money cheat to remove any money brought in by a spouse moving in (if they bring any money in).
Completion
Your master hacker Sim manages to tap into the matrix. They almost go mad from the revelation. They are just a simulation, a computer program. And the state of the region is that way because of some ‘challenge’ being played. Unable to escape from the simulation, the orcacle finds little ways to get ahead and manipulate their player’s computer to make things easier for their family.
As an added bonus, upon lifting the Oracle restrictions, you may legally use the “Kaching” cheat once per Sim day (Other money cheats are still restricted)
Athlete – Professional Athlete
People feel hopeless in the region. The bare minimum is done and nobody thinks they can aspire to greatness. “Good Enough” is the attitude of the day and people think the days of role models and heroes is over.
You may not purchase any reward traits for your Sims.
Completion
After your professional athlete Sim organizes a brand new sport, “Glassbolt Ultra Caber Toss” in the ruins of the old Glassbolt Stadium, people from around the region come to either play or cheer on their favorite local teams. Heroes and sports idols emerge once again and people feel encouraged to give 110% and make themselves even better.
The wave of radiation produced by the power plant turned many people into zombies. Those not turned into zombies found themselves severely weakened. Muscles can barely lift what they used to and people struggle just to stand, let alone haul heavy loads or lift heavy objects.
You may not move or sell any objects that have a footprint larger than 1×1 once they are placed and build/buy mode is exited. Cannot carry more than one stack of objects in personal inventory at a time. You may not remove any items out of family inventory, regardless of size. (You may place items into it, but they may not be brought back out until this restriction is lifted)
Completion
Your bodybuilder and personal trainer Sim devises a rigorous alternate-day body bulk-up routine designed to take make the meek and the weak into the MIGHTY! Organizing a regional gym, your Sim spends their day whipping everyone in the region back into shape.
Modern parenting techniques have fallen by the wayside. Simply feeding and protecting a Sim’s child is hard enough, so no effort is given to raising them and shaping them into a proper citizen of the future.
You must use the random trait generator to pick personality traits whenever an infant/child/teen ages up in the household and gains a new personality trait. You must also follow the random generator’s result when choosing a childhood or adult aspiration when aging up an infant to child or child to teen respectively. You may not use music or fruit to influence the gender of an unborn baby.
Completion
With your young Sim’s new and revolutionary post-apocalyptic childcare techniques, children can once again be encouraged and shaped into little angels….or devils depending on what the parents deem is good behavior.
Teen Career – Fast Food Employee
The modern convenience of fast food has all but vanished overnight. Being able to find enough normal food is now the order of the day. None of the major food chains has any plans to try and return to the region.
May not use the “Quick Meal” option on a fridge or cooler. May not order chips from a bar. May not order pizza.
Completion
After rebuilding a local pizzeria from the ashes of one that had collapsed, the global pizza chain “Little Napoleans” sees a viable market for their product. They make your teen Sim a new franchise owner and start shipping in pizza supplies and other snacks by the truckload, returning fast and yummy food to the region.
Lawncare and gardening are two past times that have really dropped off the radar of importance in the area. Nobody cultivates plants, relying on wild ones for food and trying to stay alive otherwise.
May not plant, grow, graft, take samples of, or level up plants. You may not hire maids. (You MAY harvest ‘wild’ plants, and ONLY wild plants)
Completion
With their house the envy of the neighborhood. Green with plants, clean as a whistle, sims in the region realize that maybe they don’t have to live in barren and squalor conditions if they took just a little extra effort to do some gardening and cleaning. After all, who wants to have their house upstaged by some kid?
The downtown shopping center has been picked clean and the local mall looted. You can still *get* things, you just need to know when the weekly swap meet is. While there is a local market that has sprung up from the ashes of the old one, it is only open once a week. If you need something any other time, you are out of luck.
You may only purchase/build new objects in build/buy mode on Sundays. You may only “replace” broken objects on Sundays. (Brand new games should start on a Sunday, allowing you to get your initial house established). You may not use plan outfit to change a sim’s wardrobe.
Completion
With sharp organizational skills and lightning fast fingers at the checkout line, your teen Sim helps the local market keep itself open 7 days a week. Supplies might still be limited but convenience is back, and with a smile!
With the water supply tainted in the region, the last thing people want is a hot cup of coffee or tea. Even if they did, supplies of coffee and tea to the area have halted and aren’t showing any signs of returning.
You may not purchase or use any coffee or tea related items. May not purchase or use the lump of clay object.
Completion
Between school and work, having no source of caffeine is NOT acceptable to your Barista sim. They engineer a clever little water filter that makes water potable, but sadly only when used for coffee or tea. A more potent purifying method will be needed to make other liquids safe to drink.With this problem solved, the natural order is restored and hundreds of coffee shops appear out of the blue overnight.
You can track your challenge progress on our score sheet found here.
The Challenge is completed once every single restriction has been lifted. For some, just finishing the challenge is enough. But if you want a ‘score’ it is the number of days it took you to complete the challenge, with a lower number being better.
wohoo can’t wait to get started… first to watch the video I’m sure Pinstar will have and read ALL those RULES 😉
So excited to try this! Thanks so much for the conversion. <3
Wow this is such an impressive challenge!! Kudos to Pinstar and imaginingmystic for creating this. I shall begin immediately but I envision many frustrations in the future. Quick question: all the restrictions from all careers are in place when you begin correct? This is going to be such fun!
Yes all restrictions are in place in the beginning.
Do the careers have to be lifted in a certain order or are we free to choose the order in which we lift them?
You are free to choose the order. That’s exactly the point of the challenge: You make your own order and come up with your own strategy for the most effective order of lifting.
Also when we move our founder in are we limited on starting out funds?
Not really. The challenge really heavily restricts what items you can buy at first and you’ll lose all your starting funds to the boss restriction within a week anyway, so starting with slightly more or less cash isn’t really a balance issue.
Quick Question: completion of the Criminal Boss doesn’t seem to have a completion method? Or am I reading it wrong? If I pay the bills once right after the mailman delivers them, am I done?
Step 1: Pay the bills
Step 2: Immediately after paying the bills, deplete all money to 0.
You are then free to spend again (once you make back some money). The idea is that you’ll lose all your family cash once a week every time bills show up until you reach the top of the Criminal – Boss career track/branch.
Ah, there’s the specificiation I was looking for, I hadn’t quite twigged it was allied to the career branch…. I can’t wait to try this challenge in Sims 4… but I wanted to make sure I had it straight first!
Im so happy this is here. Apocalypse challenge HYPE! So excited to do this! Great job guys!!
OMG! You sound like James from sim supply!
For the Athlete-Bodybuilder restriction, what exactly does “Cannot carry more than one stack of objects in personal inventory at a time” mean?
Does this mean that if they harvest a strawberry plant so they have strawberries in their inventory, they cannot now have anything else in their inventory (e.g. no repair items, no fish, no pears, etc)? What about things like fishing – where they catch fish of different types outside of your control (short of not fishing anymore)? Or books (seeing as they can’t publish them) – they can only ever have one self-written book in their inventory?
Exactly.
Only one type of plant to harvest.
Fishing – One fish at a time
Books – Stick the extras into a bookshelf
It does make some tasks really inefficient and that is by design.
Are we allowed to have, for example, one of each fish, one stack of strawberries, 3 different frogs in our inventory at the same time since there is only one stack? Or are we allowed only 1 inventory space whether it is a single fish or a stack of fish? Also, are shelves allowed to store extra items? I am using them to lighten the burden of this restriction a little.
One stack of any item. So you can have 20 strawberries, but 20 strawberries + 1 fish is too much. And yes, shelves are allowed.
I decided to try and lift the culinary restriction first but I cannot figure out a way to increase cooking skill. The way I understand the rules is that you can’t cook anything but fish and the grill doesn’t have an option for cooking fish at level 1. So my question is are you allowed to have a t.v to increase cooking skill if no restrictions have been lifted? or have I totally missed a way in increasing cooking skill?
My sim has been harvesting and eating food off plants to survive. I’m hoping this is allowed
The TV is allowed (but only the worst kind until you unlock Startup) so you can use that to get some nominal points of skill. Living off of wild plants is absolutely allowed. Just remember you can only carry one stack of food at a time until Bodybuilder is lifted.
It states in Tech Guru- ESport Gamer no TV’s! Am I missing an exception?
TV’s were allowed when Pinstar wrote his reply but he changed the rules shortly afterward, so TV’s are not allowed any longer.
So then how are we suppose to gain the culinary skill if we can’t grill fish without being level 1 first???we can’t watch tv to start us off, we can’t read books because we can’t buy the culinary book, we can’t leave the lot to go to the library. How can we get past this ?
And what about pools? Can I build it inside the house or not?
As long as they aren’t outside the 8X8 footprint (until you lift the villain restriction) I don’t see why not.
I would have thought they would be restricted under both mixology (there’s something in the water) and Journalism (banned alongside tubs and showers)?
I’m playing with to unlock pools you have to unlock mixology (there’s something in the water) and Journalism (banned alongside tubs and showers) and lifeguard (for pools specifically) since I hate myself.
with the woohoo rule do you mean if I click on the bed to sleep and there is a try for baby icon do I then have to pick that one
No, you can have your sims sleep normally. The rule is meant that if you want your sims to woohoo, if try for baby is an available option, you MUST pick it over woohoo. If all you want them to do is sleep, then you’re free to do that. The idea is that they don’t have any access to birth control.
I’m a bit confused as to how my sim can get to level 10 in the chef career without a stove and fridge. Levels 7 & 8 requires cooking gourmet dishes (I think both levels require gourmet dishes). I know they can level their skill in other ways, but to level up later on in this career, they have to cook. Does the grill or fire pit have gourmet cooking as an option? Or do we use a chat to bypass that particular part of the leveling up requirements?
Last I checked, the advanced levels of the culinary track only require you to “Prepare food” as the daily task.
It DOES require gourmet cooking skill points, and getting those can be tricky. You can do it in one of several ways.
1. Start with a founder who already has an 8+ skill in gourmet cooking and have them lift the culinary restriction first.
2. Have a sim complete the Renaissance sim aspiration to pick up the perk that allows them to write skill books and write a gourmet cooking skill book.
3. Lift the author restriction first, allowing you to order books. Order gourmet cooking skill books and train up using them.
You can also build skills at work now. So that is helpful! Your performance will take a dive though.
You cannot build skills at work unless you’ve lifted the Business – Management restrictions.
“While at work, you must choose either work normally or “Work Hard” as your Sim’s work mode and may not choose any other work modes.”
with the restrictions of 8×8 building area can we make it bigger or is that how big our house will be till we lift the restriction
That is how big the house can be until you lift the restriction.
You ARE allowed to build UP, so long as the 2nd floor doesn’t overhang outside the 8×8 area.
I don’t see a restriction on when a founder can marry. Is there one?
Nope. The only restriction is that you can only move in one outside sim per generation until you lift the comedy restriction.
Keep in mind that besides your founder, you can’t import other families into the neighborhood, so you can’t load the place up with super-skilled spouses. Marrying the in game families (like a goth) is fine.
But I can import families once I have lifted the oracle restrictions?
Yes you may. I *may* put a side rule in there insisting you have incoming spouses from gallery imported families quit their jobs so you can’t use this to auto-complete restrictions. But cherry picking other sims who are well skilled is fine and part of the benefit of lifting Oracle.
Yeah what are the rules for bringing in a spouse?
Are there any other rules for the children? Can spare offspring, who remain in the household as adults lift restrictions, or are they kicked out (if that’s allowed?)
Moving out is restricted by Diamond Agent. You don’t need to worry about “Heirs” or “Spares” in this challenge. Anyone who is in the household can lift 1 restriction. Heck, after you lift the comedian restriction you can start inviting in lots of sims who aren’t related to your family and they are just as able to lift restrictions as blood relatives.
This challenge is BANANAS. Makes me think quite highly of the Legacy Challenge now. lol.
Great job, guys!
So where a category has several types of items such as kids toys or the creative category within activities and skills can I buy the cheapest item of that type such as the cheapest bar or the cheapest big stuffed animal or am I restricted to the first item in the category (eg can only buy the bonsai bush or the toy horse).
I have found that since the December patch that promotions are a lot harder to get. Your sim may be an elder or close to it before they reach the top of their career. Having the entrepreneurial trait does help a little bit but of course reward traits are restricted for anyone but the founder until professional athlete is lifted. Your sim really does need to be in the right mood if they hope to progress in their career. But while there are ways of definitely making your sim focused or playful and some can possibly make your sim confident or energetic making you sim inspired is lot harder. You can’t take an thoughtful shower, view an inspired career reward, buy an inspired book to read, cloudgaze, stargaze, play with the lump of clay, plunk/strum/bow on a musical instrument, browse art on the computer. There are some ways that are trait driven but you can’t choose your traits for your children until babysitter is lifted.
What happens if the sim you want to move in as a spouse has a family? Ive noticed that a lot of the young adult women that the game generates are in families of one young adult female, one teenager and one child. You really need for your spouse to be a young adult if they are ti have any hope of lifting a restriction.
The categories are logical in nature. For music, pianos and guitars and violins are all different categories, even though they are in the literal group.
I explicitly spelled out the difference between single and double bed categories in the rule, but that isn’t the only case where you have different categories in the same object class.
Question: If the sim your founder marries comes in at above level 1 on a career does that mean you have to quit that career so they start from level 1? And if so does that mean they can’t retake that career unless you have lifted the Business – management restrictions?
They do NOT have to quit their career. The only sim who has to quit is your founder (But this is done before the challenge starts, so it does not lock that career from being re-taken by your founder if they want to)
Hi ! Just wanted a precision concerning the tech restriction. Are Sim trying to lift it allowed to use the computer for video games and programming if they need to to get a promotion ? Is the tablet in the same category ?
I’m not sure if this tasks are included in “daily tasks” 🙂
Thanks !
The early levels of tech guru switch up when they have you play video games and program, so as you progress, you’ll have access to both of those. In order to reach the top of the career, you’ll need to reach the required level of one before the other kicks in permanently.
IE If you are going for the Start Up branch, which has programming as the daily task, you’ll need to get your video game skills up to level 8 while you are on the earlier levels of the career.
I’ve got another question :
If my Sim is at level two of the tech Guru career, he needs to have level 2 of the programming Skill to get a promotion. But daily task is playing video games for level 1 and 2 of this career. How can I get the programming skill if I’m not allowed to practice it ?
Is a promotion requirement considered a daily task ?
This is tricky by design. Your best bet is to either use a pre-skilled founder who already has some programming skill to get the career off the ground or unlock the author restriction and gain those programming skill points via a skill book.
That’s what I tought ! Tanks !
Unfortunately, you can’t unlock Author without the Writing Skill, which isn’t the daily task until level 3. Levels 1 and 2 are ‘read books’, so there’s no way to build the writing skill because you can’t practice it unless you unlock eSports Gamer, which you can’t unlock until you unlock Author…
Not even Renaissance Sim will help here, because you can’t use the ‘write skill books’ ability until you unlock eSports Gamer. See previous problematic loop.
The only other way I could see maybe working is unlocking Manager earlier so you can use work interactions other than ‘normal’ and ‘work hard’, but maxing that is hard because you can’t do the daily interaction (it uses a phone which is also locked by eSports gamer).
I suppose it’s possible if you unlock Professional Athlete first and pick up the Connections trait on all your sims to hopefully skip the first few levels?
I’m going to be doing a rules update to help with these skill blocks at low levels. The working rule is “Can use computer to perform daily task OR skill up in a required skill” so carry on with that for now.
If your Sim graduates high school with an “A” they enter professions at higher levels – about Level 3 in my experience. That little piece of knowledge has helped me a lot!
I see that you said the working rule is “Can use computer to perform daily task OR skill up in a required skill.” My founder’s spouse married in to the family at level three of the tech career. I did not get his video game skill high enough for the level six promotion before the daily task changed from play video games to practice programming. He has 5, and needs 6. But the daily task is now programming. Darn. It was a mistake on my part. I should have forced him to stay up all night playing video games until he reached level 6, but in all honesty he got promoted a lot faster than I was anticipating. Do I need to restart this career with someone else, or can I allow him to play video games enough to level his skill for the promotion?
This would fall under the ‘required skill’ provision.
This is really old but i want to answer this question for people that start the Challenge after i posted this. To get the programming skill up you can do a school project as a teenager with that skill or help your kid with the school project that has that skill and get it up. I dont remember what the school project is called but i know that there is one that levels programming. Hope this helps for the new people 🙂
Can the computer be used for building gaming/programming/writing skill before the eSport Gamer restriction is lifted? Or can it only be used long enough to fulfill the daily requirement? It will take an absurdly long time to build a skill to lvl 10 with only skilling 2 hours a day…
If it is the daily task, you may use it as long as you desire, even after the task is finished.
Hi, great challenge!!
I habe a question. Can i buy any decoration?
As long as it is the lowest stat one available (Until you lift the Tech Guru – Startup anyway) Since there are decorations with 0 stats, then you may only decorate with them until this is lifted.
I see with the Space ranger restriction that all objects must be inside except for the mail box and the trashcan must be inside but the Space Ranger (and Interstellar smuggler) careers require space missions as their daily task and the space rocket must be outside.
Yep! That’s an oversight on my part, going to update the rules to allow that.
This is my first time ever trying an Apocalypse challenge and I had a question. How do we go about deleting items without selling them? For example, right now I have nothing unlocked so my sim is only allowed to carry one stack of something in her inventory at a time. She has plumbing parts from fixing the sink, but I want to delete those so she can carry onions instead. It seems the only option is to sell it, unless I’m missing something?
Stick them in the family inventory.
THIRD try already! I started with cooking because that’s the restriction that annoys me the most. Once with a Sim who had no gourmet cooking and next with a Sim with level 2 gourmet cooking. Apparently I needed a Sim founder with at least Level 8 gourmet cooking skills because there was no way to get those skills from a grill. Anybody have any hints as to the order of lifting restrictions? I obviously need help. BTW I checked Carl’s site and many of his career paths are still in development after the patch changes. So not a lot of help there for pre-planning. Hints, tips – anyone?
Quick question: I know you have to lift Secret Agent Villain before doing Astronaut Space Ranger. I’m assuming with Space Ranger that you don’t have to put the rocket ship in the house – although that might be interesting….
Seriously, this challenge has made me question my ability to play Sims 4. Well played, Pinstar, well played!
You can put the rocket ship on the roof of the house so you can do one of the astronaut careers before doing Villain.
Just curious, I recently started a legacy journey, my sim has had her first child, which of course is the heir to the legacy, however, I am also interested in the other challenges, and I was wondering if I could incorporate them into the legacy journey, eg: my sim and spouce have had their heir, are they allowed to use the second child as the wonder child?
You could certainly co-opt the wonder child challenge into your legacy. The only issue is that the Wonder Child challenge wants you to start with 2 adult skill-less CAS sims as the parents, and your Legacy Challenge sims probably have some skills under their belt by the time they have their children. That said, don’t let me stop you from trying the modified challenge in your Legacy game. 🙂
Thank you! My house was overrun by plumbing parts!
Hi,
I don’t find the respons to my problem. I have no money for cook anything and I have one fish in my inventory so I can’t take one onion for eat.
How I put my fish in my family’s inventory ? Must I stuff my fish before ?
You could try dragging it into the world (at which point it becomes a mounted fish) and then move that to the family inventory.
Oh well that’s easy enough. Haha. Thanks 🙂
I’m loving my first attempt, BTW. I am using my wonder child who maxed cooking and gourmet cooking to make her chef career a little easier… But it’s still so hard to advance! And her first baby was almost taken away because her father can’t beast feed while she’s at work. Yikes!
Great challenge. I can’t believe I never tried this in the previous Sims games.
I tried the same tactic and just lifted the first restriction. Hooray for fridges and stoves!
On the other hand… maybe showers are even more important? My founder’s eldest daughter set herself on fire while cooking and has been sporting a hilariously burnt look since. I wonder if it’s going to go away on its own 😀
Do kids go to school? I read over the rules and restrictions 3 times and don’t see that addressed.
They do. School is actually treated completely normally in the game. IE nothing bad happens if you miss a day. It would benefit you to do well as ending High School with an ‘A’ can start you several levels ahead in an adult career.
I’ve been over this several times, is it safe to presume that like the first 2 challenges (Sims 2 & Sims 3) Hopelessness, not mentioned above or I’m blind and missed it, must be lifted first before a potential spouse can be moved?
Ps, fish can no longer be dragged into the world. It’s either mount them in inventory and then pull them out or move them into a ($60) fish bowl.
Hopelessness isn’t making a return in the TS4 version.
So can the founder bring in a spouse at any time, or do we still wait to clear a career first?
My sim has two very good friends who keep showing up on their own, one on a daily basis, and well if I can marry off my founding sim now (before clearing a career) and also have the spouse working on a career too, that’s a big game changer.
The founder can bring in one spouse at any time, I didn’t include the hopelessness restriction that was in the TS2 version. That said, you have to meet, befriend and woo said spouse, your founder has to start the challenge alone.
Thanks, definitely a challenge/game changer …. like I mentioned my, non-romantic, founder already has 2 npc townies ‘chasing’ her, showing up at all kind of odd hours 🙂 So geeting one of them woo’d and wed shouldn’t be an issue 😉
So… what happens if you accidentally pick a lot that has no way to fish? I thought the “Affluista Mansion” lot seemed thematic (desert, barren), but turns out, its a little *too* barren…
So far no nearby bushes are harvestable (it took a while for them to spawn to begin with), and there is nowhere to fish. Every other lot I’ve played on had access to fish, so this is a nasty surprise. 🙁
I feel like this means I *have* to unlock Secret Agent (Diamond Agent) to be able to leave the lot to acquire fish to be even able to DO the cooking daily skills required to unlock the cooking restriction – does this sound correct? Or am I missing another alternative?
Once I do have access to fish, how do I keep a single stack of fish without selling them on a community lot? In the neighborhood lots with your house you can use your house as a buffer and put it in the family storage, but I’m not sure how to do that on a community lot… I really hope this doesn’t mean loading screens after every fish to go home and store… 🙁 Any suggestions appreciated, I really hope I’m missing something, I’m pretty happy with the house I just spent a couple hours building. 😛
You may want to try restarting the challenge in a neighborhood that has access to at least a fishing spot. Leave Affluista Mansion as a sort of “hard mode”. There is a reason you are allowed to pick *any* of the lots in the game to start on, even if you has to evict/bulldoze what is there originally.
I know I can’t invite random sims to the lot w/o Entertainer unlock, but what happens if they come to visit me? When I talk to them, they come in and make themselves at home. Do I need to ask them to leave, or can I socialize with them on my lot?
You can absolutely socialize with them.
Other than the 8X8 are there build mode restrictions i.e paint, flooring, windows, doors etc. Also, it looks like we no longer buy the largest lot. Did I miss that? Thanks.
Never mind, I found the answers. So much for my fast reading, slowing down is best. Peace and Joy to you, I love this one.
You may buy any sized lot, big or small, cheap or expensive. Since none of the wall colorings, floor colorings or doors have any “stats” (IE Environment score boosts) they are all available to use even with all the restrictions in place.
Yes, this does mean you can start the challenge with more cash if you buy a smaller lot, but keep in mind that the Criminal – Boss restriction will wipe out your household funds the first time bills show up anyway, and it is impossible to lift that restriction before your first cycle of bills, even if you go for it with your founder.
Right re the size of a smaller lot, however… I like room and seldom play the smallest lots. Never on multi lifetime challenge. My founder (wonder child) died just seconds after childbirth (firstborn). I sat here stunned …thinking hard what can I do??? See, I knew the child is taken without mommy nursing. Then I tried a sims 3 trick and tried to see what dad could do with the reaper. Sure enough his pleading worked! I did not see anything in the restrictions about not being able to save a loved one. (We already know I tend to read fast and skip what I think I can lol).
The other thing I may have done wrong so far is the jump bug got me bad this run. The final straw for me was I had no visual nor control of the child when she grew into child. After trying all the tricks I know, I moved lots into the other hood. (Same game) So far this solved all issues. Yes I did the reset sim, yes I did the right click repair game in Origin. I also reinstalled the game completely,
I want to say again Thanks. My normal game play over the years has been this challenge or the legacy. Now I will be incorporating the wonder child as my top 3 of all time. I love “lawn playing” on large lots lol.
No restrictions against saving a loved one. It was restricted back in TS2 version, but not this one.
Any work-arounds to fix bugs is fine by me.
I am planning on doing a new WonderCchild and then using that wonder child for the Apocalypse Challenge. Once I save that sim into my library, can I bulldoze my house and then move that sims back on to the same lot or do I have to start a brand new game?
Brand new game. The idea is that you can pre-seed the neighborhood with skilled potential spouses (at least until you lift the oracle restriction). The Wonder Child Challenge has no such restrictions, letting you seed the neighborhood with whomever you like. Not starting a new game would give you unfair access to whomever was seeded in the wonder child challenge.
That said, if your Wonder child has any family (living parents, sibilings etc) they are free to move into your neighborhood once you split off your wonder child.
On try number 7. Has anyone actually done this? This isn’t impossible, right?
I tested to make sure none of the restrictions were impossible to lift and that a family could survive even at the beginning of the challenge when all restrictions were in place. That said, some restrictions sting more than others, so experimenting with the order in which you lift them (and the skills of your starting sim) might yield better results.
Do I understand correctly that a sim who has the professional slacker trait can take vacation days, be late for work, and also choose work modes different from “work normally” and “work hard”?
I downloaded a wonder child who has this trait and it seems like a pretty big advantage to start out with so I just wanted to make sure.
That is correct! It only applies to that one sim (all other sims in the household have to obey the restriction until it is properly lifted) but that professional slacker gets it easy.
That’s great, thanks! Also makes me less worried about children starving because their mom can’t get off work early to breastfeed if necessary… 😉
My third generation heir just died. He had moved his girlfriend into the home and they were engaged at the time of his death. Does the challenge end or may I continue with his fiancé?
You can continue the challenge. This doesn’t require a strict bloodline connection to the founder. I’d recommend getting the girlfriend pregnant to an off-lot male sim and continue the challenge with the children. Or use the female sim to lift the comedian restriction (which allows unlimited sims to be invited into the household who can lift restrictions even if they aren’t related to the founder’s family in any way)
Also, I have been playing with auto aging of the neighborhood off. It is weird that my founder’s best teenage friend still comes to visit her grandson’s home as a teenager. What setting should we be using for aging the neighborhood?
I didn’t define a required setting, so you can use whatever setting you’d like.
Are sims required to get an adult career if they’ve already cleared a teen career?
Not at all. They can be unemployed if you want them to.
Try #7 is going well. 50% of my first two generations accomplished their career goals. I finally figured out that location, unlocking strategy and your starting sim and your choice for their career are the keys to this challenge.
If I were a sim my character attributes would be “determined”, “persistent”, and “insane” (doing the same thing over and over expecting different results). Thus try #7.
My sims hate grilled fish now.
I have another question. The Painter career requires you to sell paintings to the art gallery, but you are not allowed to sell any creations until the Patron of the Arts career is completed. By the way, my earlier question about the Chefs required to cook gourmet meals to level up in their career and this one on the painter career, is based on what I’ve read in Prima’s Sims 4 Guide. I am also playing a sim in the Chef branch of the culinary career to test and see if the book is correct, or if it changed since the game came out, and they are only required to have the skill now.
So many things I want to unlock immediately, and only one person per generation that I can use to unlock them. Or, can I also use the spouse in a career to unlock 2 things per generation (assuming of course that I’m able to get to level 10 with the limited amount of time the spouse would have compared to the heir). I know that if I use a teen career for my heir, I cannot unlock anything with an adult career. I can still have them work in any adult job to earn money, but it won’t make a difference as far as unlocking anything.
What am I asking? Sorry for being so long-winded. My primary question regards the painter being required to sell paintings to level up in their career, yet with a restriction stating they can’t sell anything sims create. Do I ignore that restriction just for that particular level? Or do I use a cheat bypassing that requirement? I suppose this question would apply toward any of the careers that are like this. Careers that must be maxed out to unlock something that the sim is apparently required to do to level up in that career. I don’t know that the guide is correct, but if it is, what is the appropriate way around this restriction?
The Prima guide has LONG since been obsolete. I would suggest checking out the updated careers guide I wrote for SimsVip. http://simsvip.com/the-sims-4-careers-guide/
Each Sim can unlock exactly one restriction each, this includes spouses.
It is correct that unlocking a teen restriction means your sim can’t unlock an adult restriction, but they are certainly allowed to take an adult job for the cash.
The careers were changed after the December patch, patron of the arts no longer requires you to sell paintings.
Thank you so much for this reply. I didn’t realize that job requirements had changed with the December patch. I’m actually really happy about this, since it seems like the newer requirements are much easier to manage. There’s actually a much better change that I can max out more then 1 career (not on a challenge, just during normal play) on a normal lifespan. Thank you for the link as well. I’m sure this will help many simmers.
I’m wondering one more thing…have you thought about whether or not you’ll be updating the challenges (especially the Apocalypse Challenge) when expansion packs come out…for example, the Get To Work pack coming in April?
I will be updating the challenges with the new major expansion pack.
I hate myself, so I expanded it for all the careers from all the new expansion packs. It’s here if you want to give it a go. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aFkGSLYeFbIHYt0AGnxEqV3Z1zZNZhpiZyfU3MjHvOs/edit?usp=sharing
I had 8 children, so all of the teen jobs have been busted. Can my other three children take teen jobs and reach the top plus an adult career?
Yes!
Cooking fish on the fire pit doesn’t count for my daily goal of preparing food, can I buy a stove or anything or make sure I can complete my daily goal or do I just have to get my career up by working really hard?
Cooking fish on the fire pit doesn’t count towards the daily goal in culinary chef of cooking a meal, can I buy a stove so that I can complete my daily goal or do I have to just work really hard to get a promotion?
You can use the cheapest grill.
“2. Have a sim complete the Renaissance sim aspiration to pick up the perk that allows them to write skill books and write a gourmet cooking skill book.”
I wanted to confirm something. We can’t have a sim write a skillbook until eSport Gamer has been lifted no? Since computer can only be used for job-related basic functions?
Therefore, the three possible starting careers are Chef, eSport Gamer, and Author? Since without starting as one of these, it’s impossible to deal with the gourmet cooking requirement for Chef? Am I missing something?
I’m updating the rules to address the gourmet cooking issue.
One way to write skill books before lifting E-gamer is to have your sim employed in the writing career as writing skill books counts towards the daily task of writing books. I had one sim who switched to the writing books after they lifted their restriction purely so they could write skill books and the game saw it as part of doing their daily task. The biggest problem though is that sim writing the skill book needs at least 8 point in the skill they are writing the book on. So you could have founder with 8 points in gourmet cooking lift another restriction, then switch to the writing career in order to write a gourmet skill book.
Another alternative is to lift the Oracle restriction early and import a potential spouse who has 8 points in Gourmet Cooking
Just to clarify, and please correct me if I’m wrong, you can use restricted objects if they are required for your daily task?
For example, my sim is heading towards the Diamond Agent, is she allowed to own a PC so she can Browse Intelligence?
Yes
[…] my intention is to carry the story forward directly into an Apocalypse Challenge I’m going to try to make this child into my ideal Apocalypse […]
I’m confused about how to initially raise a Sim’s cooking skill.
Culinary – Chef states that “Non-fish items may not be cooked on grilled on fire pits. If you do not have the Outdoor Retreat game pack, you may make non-fish items on the grill, but must move a fish in your inventory to the family inventory each time you cook a meal.”
You cannot grill fish until lvl 3 cooking skill. How do you get to lvl 3 cooking if you have the Outdoor Retreat pack? For the first 3 lvls can I just pretend I don’t have Outdoor Retreats, and then swap to grilling fish once I get to lvl 3? Or do I have no choice and my founder has to start with some cooking skill?
You mention in another comments that the lowest TV is allowed, but it says in eSport Gamer restrictions that no TVs may be purchased.
Thanks
Updating that rule to allow you to use normal grills even if you have OR.
Would vactioning to Granite Falls be allowed once diamond agent and e-sport gamer are both lifted?
Those two and Space Ranger if you want to sleep in tents.
Hi, I’m trying this challenge for the first time. I haven’t lifted any restrictions yet, but I was wondering if I could grill Fruit cobbler since the requirement for it is to have any fruit in your inventory. I picked some wild apples. I can fish if it’s not allowed, but I wanted a little more variation for my sims to eat. Thanks for your answer.
I’d say that’s allowed if you have to get raw materials for it.
“Entertainer – Comedian
The people of the Glassbolt region are a depressed group, and rightfully so. But depression feeds more depression and people become more hesitant to gather together or even look at themselves in a mirror. Nobody laughs or feels they can make merry and everyone is on edge.
Sims may not throw parties and may not go on dates. They may not invite other Sims to their lot. They may only invite in one Sim per generation to join the household. Sims may not use mirrors.”
If you’ve got eSport Gamer unlocked but not Comedian, and a sim calls you up and invites themselves over – “Sim XXX would like to come over and hang out” – do we have to hit cancel?
You can accept that if they invite themselves over. You just can’t initiate the invite.
So is that correct, that at the beginning sims can use items (such as computer) ONLY for getting job goals and daily tasks but NOT FOR aspirations (for example, without eSport completion sim can’t write books if he doesn’t work as writer but has the aspiration “popular author”)?
And what’s the worst item in the ‘hobbies and skills’ category which I can buy at the beginning? Chess or something else?
Thank you very much!
Don’t think of hobbies and skills as all one category. The chess tables, the pianos etc…they are each their own category. So you are limited to the worst chess table, the worst piano, etc
Would this be the same case for the toys category? As in, are the giant stuffed animals in a different category to the action figures and the doll houses?
Correct. Pretty much anything that shares animations and options can be called similar. Wall mounted TVs and Floor mounted tVs would be the same category, because they’re used the same way. But dolls and giant stuffed bears are used differently, and thus are different.
I’m still confused about cooking or find something to eat. It’s allowed to cook fish on the grill, but I need cooking Level 4 for the fish meal.
– Books are restricted by author.
– TV ist restricted by eSport Gamer.
– No Quick Meal, no pizza, no chips
How can I get Level 4? My Sims eat apples and raw potatos, but than I saw that harvest wild plants is restricted by Manual Labor.
Harvesting cultivated plants is restricted by labor, wild plants are open season.
For making it a bit easier, can you use the mod: “Teen Careers for all ages” ?
In a the idea of an apocalypse i’d think people will take any job, even if they are classified as teen jobs ( and it was allowed in sims3 ).
I don’t think so, that’s a mod I’d think would give you an advantage for lifting the teen job restrictions.
I apologize if I missed this…
Are sims allowed to write or use “The Book of Life” to replenish needs or resurrect a sim?
Would this be the same case for the toys category? As in, are the giant stuffed animals in a different category to the action figures and the doll houses?
Congratulations on making a wicked challenge– it took me a few tries before I got past crashing and burning.
Are gaming mats allowed before completing the E Sport gamer career? They feel terribly overpowered, but I’m not sure what else to use for fun when Sims are too tense for chess or books.
Thanks!
Sleepybirchtree, was wondering if you’d be interested in sharing a few tips or tricks you learned. I’m about to attempt this, and I’d love some basic guidance. What restrictions did you lift first? What skills did you find most helpful to have in the founder? 🙂
Hi Erin! So far, each time I have played I have gone with the culinary-chef career first. I like to take care of my Sim’s basic needs, and it’s a lot harder to unlock if you don’t deal with it first (you will need to unlock the author career in order to get books). Likewise, Tech Guru would be a good start (computers for skill-building and fun, but remember that Travis Scott is already in that career, if your founder is Female) and so would Journalist (cleaning yourself with the sink works, but its time-consuming).
Try never to have more than 5 Sims, 6 at the most. It’s silly how easy it is to let one slip and have them go to work in a bad mood (delaying that promotion) or worse– going to work late! I like to keep one Sim as a stay-at-home at the start, usually a spouse who’s too old to start a career w/ no skills or a Sim who finished a teen career. That way there is always someone who’s sole purpose in life is to fix the broken sinks and cook.
I have a culinary-focused wondersim and a decent starting house on the gallery. Searching #Apocalypse should bring up the latter.
I’m also considering starting a little blog with some more tips and tricks. As a viewer, do you think you would prefer a let’s play or something written?
Best of luck!
Thanks for the response! I biffed my first go because I created my WonderChild for the chef career without leveling gourmet cooking. Doh! Totally earned having to do a re-do with my lack of research. I’ve since gone through all the career requirements with a fine tooth comb to come up with a better strategy 🙂
I’m also thinking to start with Chef (this time with a properly skilled WC). And I was thinking of having his/her spouse do TechGuru, egamer. Great tip about Travis Scott!!
My next plan is to have my first child do the Writer Author career to unlock skill books. Hopefully this will all be fine because he/she can skill up writing once eGamer unlocks the computer. If I ended up not doing that one though it seems like the only way for a SIM to skill writing would be to start the writer career at level three, where the daily task is to write. Am I correct on that?
Was also thinking of doing Secret Agent: Diamond so I can start moving SIMS out (killing them off is a possibility of course but sometimes I’m not in the mood :). Great tip about keeping a teen home to just cook and clean and repair… Def using that.
I’ll check out your house! I was thinking that I’d better go ahead and outfit my house with a rocket ship, athletic gear, and other pricey stuff from the beginning. Before Crime Boss is lifted I’m not sure I’ll be able to save enough mula to afford some of that stuff later.
I’d definitely love a blog about this! With my frenetic schedule of being home with the kids most of the day, a written blog is much easier for me because I can consume it on the sly and in small portions while waiting for the eggs to fry 🙂
Also I’m very curious to see how Pinstar works in the new expansion. My heart is set on tackling this Apocalypse challenge no matter what.
Hi again, Erin!
Sorry it took me so long, but in regards to the Writer career, yes, you can practice a skill on the computer if its a daily task when you haven’t unlocked the eGamer restrictions.
I finally started blogging about the challenge. Hopefully its worth a giggle 😉
https://whatsnewlulu.wordpress.com/2015/04/21/sims-4-and-the-apocalypse-1/
I obviously don’t know about gaming mats (I don’t use them because I also feel like they are kind of in the TV and computer section) but I find that my sims can read a book even when very tense. They won’t love it but at least they’ll read long enough to get to “tense” and then they can play chess again.
Thanks so much for making this, I loved the Apocalypse Challenge in The Sims 2! I have a question regarding memories however, as I didn’t notice anything in the rules limiting reminiscing about them, but that seems to be pretty powerful for any career path requiring the inspired mood. It’s such a simply way to change mood that it seems like there should be a rule covering it? Also, is there anything limiting asking Sims for loans if you start out with a max charisma sim? I’ve also imposed a rule for myself of only related Sims & spouses, since there seemed to be a predominant strategy that took quite a bit of the challenge out.
I might need to limit the memories system, as limited access to desired moods is part of the early game challenge. I don’t see asking for loans as a bad thing.
Me again.
I know you want us to start the challenge in a new game file so we can’t seed the neighbourhood with sims we’ve designed. Are we allowed to make other changes to the world prior to beginning the challenge? I was thinking things like remodeling all the houses in the immediate neighbourhood to fit the appearance of the apocalypse challenge (drab, 8×8 boxes for everyone!), and maybe moving out/deleting the default families that automatically spawn (The Goths live in Willow Creek, not Glassbolt! – I still miss the ease with which you could create a clean/empty neighbourhood with TS2, but I digress). This wouldn’t interfere with the spawning of new families in any way and I don’t see how it would effect gameplay too much.
That would be fine!
With the new patch, are we allowed to boule basements? Would of course really help with space during the whole 8×8 situation. Same question for adding another floor on top.
Yes
Can we use cheats to fix bugs? Since the latest patch my teens can’t advance their grades. Three days in a row at 2:50 they had the promotion check mark. Then they came home and the marker moved backwards and they still had a B. Can I use the promotion cheat to put them to A since they have earned it until EA fixes the bug?
Yes. Any time a bug or glitch occurs that causes problems in your game you may use cheats to fix them.
Does homework count against the “only one stack of items in personal inventory” rule?
Yes.
I plan to do this with a wonder child I’m working on right now, but I saw that I need to start a brand new game to this challenge. When starting this, can I put the family of the wonder child in the neighborhood also? If I don’t seed any sim in the neighborhood during the Wonder Child Challenge, do I still need to start a brand new game? Oh, and what do you mean with “Cannot publish books (You may self-publish) or songs”? There’s an option to publish and self-publish the books or something like it? If so, why you can self-publish? After lifting the Oracle restriction, is it fine to bring Wonder Children to the neighborhood as spouses or you need to lift other restriction? I hope I didn’t ask too many questions ^^’
The restriction on self-publishing is under a different job than the restriction on normal publishing.
You may bring other wonderchildren to the neighborhood once oracle is lifted, yes.
[…] The Sims 4 Apocalypse Challenge Rules […]
Will this challenge be updated for the Get To Work expansion? If so, when do you expect it to be updated? I love this challenge, and have my challenge save on hold until I know for sure if there will be changes. 🙂
Nope no updates for this one 🙂 Legacy and Wonder Child have been updated though. Pinstar made a post earlier today explaining why he didn’t update it.
Have I missed something, or are there no restrictions on life extension bar Mixology locking the potion of youth? (and I suppose manual labor blocks cowplants and death flowers/ambrosia from being utilised). But my founder has the ability to write the book of life, for example. May he use it?
Also, are there any restrictions to childhood toys or activities that I’ve missed? I’m assuming the kids can’t drink poitons they craft at the chemistry table with Mixology still in plac, but other than that I’ve been using the drawing table and chemistry table and Blarffy. My founder and his wife both have the childish trait, so I’m exploiting conversations with the overstuffed toys to get inspired moodlets for the author and chef careers.
There is nothing really locking down life-extending things in this challenge, mainly because you can only lift one restriction per sim, no matter how long they live.
Under the Startup restriction “Only the worst version of any item class may be purchased or used.” If I have Interstellar Smuggler unlocked, allowing career rewards to be used, but I haven’t lifted Startup, does that mean I can’t use career reward items if they aren’t the worst version of their item class?
Additionally, if I haven’t lifted Master of the Real, allowing for emotional auras, can I still use the “View Emotional Work” interaction with emotional career rewards to get moodlets?
The hardest part of this challenge for me is sorting out the restrictions that overlap. Unlocking something under one restriction doesn’t mean it’s automatically unlocked. Diamond Agent may allow you to move sims out, but you need the functionality of manage words -> manage households -> household split which is blocked by Oracle in order to do so. Unlocking career rewards is useless if you haven’t lifted bodybuilder first to allow you to remove things from the household inventory, etc. It’s working out the overlapping order of things that’s messing with my head. I would have been happy to leave Startup until much later in the game before I realized it, on top of Interstellar and Master of the Real, could block me using useful career rewards.
(At the same time, I feel like compared with past Apocalypse challenges, this is one of the easier ones, and I’m kind of disappointed to think that new careers added with EPs won’t necessarily equal more restrictions to lift).
Viewing an item counts as using it, so keep that in mind. If you are allowed to use an item (and thus view it) but you haven’t unlocked emotional auras, you can still view it for the moodlet.
I am assuming that taking medicine – when your sim is sick should be restricted if you have the get to work pack. I would imagine it might work this way:
* Must unlock all computer actions with Tech Guru to be able to purchase medicine on the computer.
* Additionally, you must unlock Writer-Journalist since that’s where “medicine is scarce” is mentioned.
I also assume going to the hospital to have you baby is out either entirely or at least until the doctors arrive after Writer-Journalist is unlocked.
I’m excited to try this now that my wonder child is complete although it’ll probably be another couple weeks before I can really start.
Medicine would be strictly tied to the Writer-Journalist job, since that governs availability of medical supplies. I would also say that visits to the hospital are locked until writer-Journalist is unlocked.
[…] Make-believe. Architect. Challenges. And there is no challenge that gets me as excited as Pinstar’s Apocalypse challenge. […]
[…] not in an Apocalypse Challenge, Dad – this is a Legacy […]
Does upgrading things as a daily task for the boss career follow the same rule as using the computer for daily tasks? I.e. even if I am not allowed to upgrade any objects, I get to do it while it is a daily task?
Or does my soon-to-be crime boss have to upgrade a rocket?
Yes, the daily task and skill gaining requirements of jobs will override other restrictions that would state you couldn’t do that otherwise, so yes you may upgrade your rocket while working on the Boss branch.
Can you upgrade something other than a rocket, or is a rocket the only thing we are allowed to upgrade for this?
You can upgrade other things once the appropriate restrictions are lifted, but while they are in place, upgrading a rocket is the way to go if you need to build that skill.
Hey, I was just wondering if this challenge was going to be updated for the new expansion pack that has just come out???
No, it will be for the base game only.
[…] The Sims 4 Apocalypse Challenge Rules […]
If we forget or overlook a rule is there any penalty? For example, using a lump of clay without lifting the restriction. Since I’m doing an LP, I do not want to restart the challenge, but viewers keep pointing out minor things to me. ^_^
No need for a restart, it can be tricky to remember everything 🙂
When you say we may not age up sims early, do you mean we can’t use cake to age them up even on their birthday (assuming we’ve lifted the culinary restriction)? I just had to have my founder’s wife quit her job because she left early to age up.
When their age bar is glowing, you may age them up via cake if you’ve unlocked that restriction. You just can’t age them up before that. The main purpose of the rule is that you can’t race through infancy/childhood/teenhood to make a newly born sim instantly able to enter a career.
Is this going to be updated with restrictions from the Get To Work expansion pack?
Pinstar decided not to include the professions in this challenge. When he did this in the Sims 2 it made the Apocalypse Challenge far too difficult and it became a bit unwieldy. The Apocalypse Challenge will be for the base game only. That being said… you are welcome to add your own self-imposed restrictions if you wish.
Wow, this challenge looks, well, challenging. I want to try it. I think it needs a support group.
I wanted to double check a rule. I have lifted Tech Guru: Startup, so I can now purchase items better than the worst quality. However, it looks like I cannot move my stuff out of the house until I lift Athlete: Bodybuilder. I understand I can’t sell my old cold to make room for a new one, but it looks like I cannot move it into family inventory either until Bodybuilder is lifted. Is that correct?
Loving the challenge. So. Much.
Thanks!
Correct. Bodybuilder is meant to make it difficult to redecorate and modernize by keeping your old stuff around until you lift it.
A friend of mine had a craddle for her baby to come. But they were two babies and the new craddle has been placed automatically between the wall and the bed, so that she cannot feed the baby. Is it considered like a bug or must she wait for the social worker to take all their children ? Can she make an exception and turn the craddle over ?
I’d say you’d get one ‘grace’ movement of the baby carriage if they’re auto-placed for you, since you didn’t control their placement.
Thank you so much
I was looking at the rules, I noticed you can’t change aspirations until musician is unlocked. Does this mean if you finish an aspiration you can’t pick another?
You can pick another once it is finished, but you can’t change it until then. Once you unlock musician, you can freely change them at will.
Thank you.
Another quick question, with the patio expansion will hot tubs be added to the banned list until journalism is completed.
Yes!
Couple quick questions.I never done a challenge before.
How does scoring work? I mean are there set score points? I don’t see that listed in the score sheets on how many points you get.I see some sims on the gallery that say like 405 score or 310 score etc.
Where can I find the information on how big the house has to be and not being able to make changes until sunday.I saw this in a LP but I couldn’t find it on this page.
Your “Score” on the Apocalypse challenge is how many total sim-days it takes you to lift all the restrictions. Like golf, this is a game where a lower score is better.
Hello, I have one of my Sims who drowned because he was on the verge of exhaustion in panic with another Sims I begged the Reaper. Is it considered cheating? The Sims drowned having already released a teenager career.
Do we have the right to beg the Grim Reaper?
You are allowed to beg from the reaper.
I have a new question, with some other french players we have noticed that there are 11 levels in the career Secret-Agent Evil. I wonder if you unlock 10 or 11 😉
thank you in advance
10
How do you track the number of days played in the total game? Sims 4 does not have it like Sims 3 did and I can’t find a mod to track it.
I just note the starting day of the week and make a mark for myself every time the game rolls around to that day again.
Are there any restrictions regarding aliens? Thanks!
None
Hey Pinstar!
I have a quick question!
In the teen career of Retail employee it says You may only “replace” broken objects on Sundays. Are we allowed to repair them anytime tough?
Correct!
Is our founder sim allowed to be pregnant?
Yes!
Is having your founder sim be pregnant allowed?
Hmmm, I’ll allow it, since I did say you could use a founder in any prior status. So one with a bun in the oven is fine.
Pinstar,
What are your thoughts/regulations on the NanoCan Touchless Trash Can; I’m assuming this is restricted?
Or does this item come down to player’s choice? (ie. if you’re looking for a challenge, then yes: restricted. If you’re finding it challenging, then no: unrestricted)
It is restricted under the “lowest class of item” restriction, since it is a trash can (essentially) but there are cheaper trash cans available.
I have a questions regarding Spa day : are our Sims allowed to do yoga and meditate ? And is the Spa and the use of massage tables and such restricted ?
Yoga would be restricted under weight lifter (too weak to hold themselves in yoga poses) as would massages (not strong enough to do them properly) Spas would also be restricted.
This is a really hard challenge, and I’ve done a few! It didn’t help that my female founder sim had triplets!!! The only time I’ve ever had triplets in the whole 3 years playing Sims!!!! Not sure if we will survive yet?? Doing my best, but she is now an Adult and is only level 6 in her Chef career.
I was just wondering if anyone had finished this challenge???
Hi! Wow, triplets: that’s intense! I’m about to finish the challenge. I’m on my final generation with about six restrictions to lift. Needless to say things get a lot easier as you progress! I did need to restart a few times due to strategy errors or just bad luck. Enjoy and stick with it! It’s so rewarding to see my Sims and their neighbors finally living the good life again!
Surprisingly we all survived 🙂 It was lucky that I had a close by fishing spot, but that poor girl had a VERY rough two days when they were babies, the amount of times she was stuck in the red meter for energy! The triplets are now young adults. I love them. As for my girl she did reached level 10 of the culinary chef career and it was a blessed relief to finally have a fridge and stove. She did very well and I’m proud of her. She’s now an elder and only has a few days left. She played her part, and the toughest part. It didn’t help that she had Don Lothario for a partner either, but at the time that was all she could find 😀 God he was the biggest pain to play with, constantly tense. I gave up on getting him to stick to one career and he’s much happier these days being the repair man around the house. At least I found a useful purpose for him.
I’m glad to hear that someone has nearly finished this! I’ve only lifted one restriction and still have a long way to go.
No Restriction for Get to Work, Luxury Party, Perfect Patio, Spa Day?
Restrict the new objects based on the themes of the restrictions. I’m not formally updating the Apocalypse Challenge with every new release and Stuff Pack. I learned the hard way from TS2’s Apocalypse Challenge that it becomes an unreadable mess. Just take the themes presented by the restrictions (Tainted Waters, Lack of Supplies, Mafia is active) and Restrict the more luxurious objects accordingly.
Too bad the ApocaBorg aren’t around anymore, that’d be the perfect solution.
can we use stairs to expand upwards/downwards in that 8×8 area? Or are we restricted to one floor?
You may go up and down a floor, yes!
Couple of questions that need answering if you don’t mind. 1. I removed all my money after paying bills and didn’t have to work for 2 days so I found some wild strawberries and ate them. My sim is pregnant so now I may have forced her into having a girl. Is that restricted and if so, do I fail the challenge? I couldn’t find it anywhere but wanted to double check. 2. If I have a single female sim having a baby, is it ok for the baby to go to daycare or do I need to invite somebody to move in to take care of the baby while she is at work? Thank you so much. Very difficult but fun challenge, I get bored easily so I hope I can finish this one.
1. You’re fine.
2. Daycare is fine. An oversight on my part but you can roll with it.
[…] had initially built the bunker to specs for an Apocalypse Challenge, convinced that the Get to Work game pack would bring about the End Times. It hadn’t, but […]
Hi, I have a question about my challenge. A elder Sims was kidnap by aliens and fell pregnant. Just after the baby alien was born, the father died.
Can I keep it? knowing that I can not use baby bottles. I think not but I prefer to ask 😉
[…] The Sims 4 Apocalypse Challenge Rules – The Sims … – The Sims 4 Apocalypse Challenge Rules. Date: February 11 th, 21XX. Location: The City of Glassbolt. Program: The Apocalypse Challenge. Project: RRR (Phase 2) […]
[…] The situation has been altered, but the conditions and rules are based fully on Pinstar’s Apocalypse challenge. […]
My wonderchild has a twin who is her very best friend and I can’t bear to separate them – so I decided to play this challenge with a slight exception/modification to the first generation ONLY! Torin grew up watching his beloved older twin Zairia suffer being a wonderchild science project who never got natural sleep and was constantly pushed to advance. When he found out that she was being sent to Glassbolt to restore a sparsely disaster zone – he immediately signed up to aid her! Finally he could lift some of his twin’s burden! And it was a good thing he did too because due to rampant illness there are no marriagble partners available! She would have been a single sim on her own! As sibling co-founders neither twin may EVER move a spouse in. The only sim that may be added not by procreation is 1 adopted orphaned dim and auto generated by game (1x exception to computer use rule under e-sport gamer rationalizing that adoption would be done in person and there would be a lot of orphans) – even though they cannot marry or move in a partner the twins may have children out of wedlock with outside sims if they can manage it while obeying all restrictions that have not yet been lifted. Since clubs have not yet been addressed at the time I’m starting the challenge I decided for my purposes that I needed to make up some rules for myself – clubs needed to be restricted so that they don’t destroy the difficulty of the challenge but I didn’t want to remove them entirely because that would mean ignoring the leader of the pack aspiration and I didn’t want to do that. I decided that I may only add household members to the club until entertainer comedian is cleared, that the club must meet at home lot until secret agent – diamond agent is cleared, (these rules hold no matter what order cleared) may not purchase any skill boost perk (except homework under group study rationale ) until all five teen career restrictions and astronaut – interstellar smuggler are lifted ( under the career reward rational and knowledge accumulating and passing to future generations rational -also unlocking all 5 teen careers should take awhile since if a sim does a teen restriction they cannot lift an adult restriction and club skill boost needed severe nerfing. Club May not purchase any social boost perk or the famous/infamous options until entertainer comedian is lifted. May not purchase any emotional vibes until painter – master of the real is lifted, may not purchase any club interaction that boost needs such as rally the troops until BOTH writer- journalist which promotes awareness of hygiene and culinary – mixologist which allows reward potions is lifted. I decided for my purpose using Pinstar’s restrict new objects based on theme of existing restrictions guidelines that dj booths were like instruments and dance floors were like stereos. Obviously this is just my adaptation for clubs and I will adjust my gameplay accordingly if/once the official rules are updated. The twin modification is my own twist and I felt it obeyed the spirit of the rule since they may never bring in spouses – essentially the siblings are acting as co-parents and non-romantic partners in sheparding future generations. I felt my one time exception for that first generation only to use the computer to adopt a single random generated infant/child (thus bringing in one sim for that generation just not a spouse ) was fair and justifiable in that they could be an abandoned orphan and I could pretend computer was not used. I recognize I’ve gone outside the official challenge here but I thought it would be a bit more fun to keep my siblings together and I tried to adjust to keep the spirit of the rules intact while doing so.
Hi, I have a question. Rules say:
You may not download or import any Sims from the Gallery or place any Sims into the neighborhood (other than your founder at the start of the challenge).
BTW, can I move existing families from one house to another? Can I build new house at free space?
I don’t think moving existing families would be a problem providing you don’t move them into the Apocalypse lot. You could probably also build on empty lots too. Just don’t do anything to the Apocalypse lot until you meet the criteria to do so.
I just wanted to say, I am loving this challenge. I’m a huge fan of the challenge for Sims 2 and I originally thought this would be easier since the rules are shorter. Though it’s easier to get the job you want, promotions with their crummy moods and limited skilling items is proving to be tricky!
I love that you can add in any sims after you lift Oracle. I was originally going to add a bunch of Wonder Children to my game when I got to that point, but I realized that their skills wouldn’t be suited for the later careers. So I made a lot of sims in another save file that I’ve skilled towards specific careers loading them up with the helpful rewards for this challenge – carefree, slacker, connections, etc. and I will add them to my Apocalypse save file once I lift Oracle. I’m planning on writing a story to go along with my challenge soon, but I want to at least lift one restriction before I commit to writing it. 😀
That got me thinking that I’m not the only one who would think that creating other sims in other saves with oodles of skills would be handy, so I came up with a name for them and a way to locate them on the gallery – by using the hashtag #ApocaSpouse – similar to the idea behind #LegacyLoves
I currently have one sim uploaded that fits that idea in my gallery, my Origin ID is hippielayla86
I hope to see more #apocaspouse sims in the gallery soon. 😀 Thanks for the great challenge Pinstar!
Hello Pinstar and Imagining Mystic,
I’ve just spent the last few weeks creating a Wonder Child to play your Apocalypse Challenge for Sims 4. I have two questions:
(1) Are the Get Together features (clubs, in particular) banned for this challenge?
Having clubs would be helpful but not having clubs would still be doable. I’d just like to know before I start the challenge, so I don’t unintentionally fail it.
(2) Pinstar mentioned it was okay to move the rest of the Wonder Child’s family into the neighborhood. Would it be okay to wait until Orace is completed to move the rest of the family into the neighborhood?
“If you do not have the outdoor retreat game pack,you make nonfish items on the grill,but must have a fish in you family inventory each time you cook a meal”
Just realized I’ve probably been doing this all wrong this whole time but I hope I’ve been doing this right cause i really don’t want to start over(3rd time trying lol) and almost fixing to start working with gen 2 but anyways…….does this mean if we HAVE the outdoor retreat game pack can we make nonfish items without having the fish in the family inventory.
[…] scripted drama. I will be following the rules (more or less…) and you can check them out here. I’m very excited for this story, and I hope you […]
Re: Business-Management Career
Sims cannot ‘play hookey’. These restrictions do not apply to the grade school or high school “careers” but DO apply to any after-school teenage careers taken.
Q: Kids and Teenagers can play hooky while at school. Teenagers cannot play hooky while at work. Is this correct?
Re: Culinary -Chef Career
“Non-fish items may not be cooked on grilled on fire pits.”
Q: I am assuming that you meant “may not be cooked on grills or fire pits.
“If you do not have the Outdoor Retreat game pack, you may make non-fish items on the grill, but must move a fish in your inventory to the family inventory each time you cook a meal.”
Q: What is the limitation if I have Outdoor Retreat game pack? Can I make non-fish items on the gill without moving a fish from my Sims’inventory to the family inventory?
Q: Can Sims eats food grilled by other Sims ? Specifically any grilled food made in parks around the neighborhood?
Re: Entertainer-Comedian Career
“They may only invite in one Sim per generation to join the household.”
Q: Scenario: First career to do in game. My original Sims (1st generation) asked another Sims to move-in and got married. Do both Sims become the 1st generation?
Q: If yes, can they invite someone else to move in? Or must they have a child (2nd generation) and then invite someone else to move in?
Great and very complicated challenge and I love it. Thanks for taking the time to help me with my questions.
Hi Pinstar… I started the challenge yesterday, and I love it! … I have a question though: My understanding is that in build mode, I can place any type of door or railing (for example) regardless of its cost, as long as it doesn’t have any special stats that boost moodlets?
Does creating of emotional memories refer to creating of emotional aura items, which is prohibitted before reaching the top of Artist career?
No the emotional memories are different. I believe you create memories by taking a screenshot and then choosing the option to make it into a memory. For more information on memories and how to make them, check out SimsVIP’s guide – http://simsvip.com/2014/12/15/the-sims-4-memories-emotions/
[…] The Sims 4 Apocalypse Challenge Rules […]
[…] I really like the idea of the Apocalypse Challenge, especially after reading Ephemeral Toast and Candi give it a go. I tried to do it in Sims […]
[…] this Apocalypse Challenge (see rules and regulations here), I opted for a Willow Creek start; my play-testing family went with an Oasis Springs lot, and […]
Has this (and the rest of the challenges) been updated to include toddlers? Or is there really no change as far as the apocalypse challenge goes?
Some challenges, like the legacy challenge, have been updated. This challenge seems to be base game only. None of the expansions, game packs, stuff packs, or updates have been added as far as I can tell. The Breeze Apocalypse link right above your post does add some of the stuff from GtW and GT.
Yeah, but this is in the base game. As far as I can tell, toddlers were added for free.
Hello, I have been playing this challenge for a few days and I have a question. I have read through the comments and rules several times and I understand that if another sim asks to hang out at yours, you can accept. However if they ask you to come to an event that is not at your house, are you allowed to accept?
Thanks
Pheonix
This would be restricted by Secret Agent – Diamond Agent since you can’t travel beyond your neighborhood except for work. (Or enter neighbor’s houses)
Just saying. All problems related to skilling may be solved making the founder or founder spouse an author. That way you will be able to order books on your bookshelves and skill into everything.
Also the cooking problems can be solved keeping fish bowls inside the house. I have five and I make sure they are always full, going to fish whenever I can.
The only serious problem I am encountering is the toddlers hygiene. Yhey need a bathtub and we cant have one since gen 1. Even making journalist as first career the first gen toddlers will have that problem unless we start with a male founder that reqches top of career alone and then finds a YA spouse to make babies with. But it would be a little bit boring….
I’m wondering if going into build mode to put in a cheap tub, use it for toddlers only, and then to go back into build mode and remove it is a workaround. I haven’t tested to see if the social worker comes if the toddler isn’t bathed.
How are you handling feeding them?
Sorry for the ultra late reply but I figured this may help other simmers too.
Unfortunately I think the “adding tub just for toddlers then removing” sounds a bit dodgy – no offense!
Luckily, I’m only aware of toddlers getting taken away for low hunger so they will just have to toddle around in filth until journalism.
As for feeding them, I refuse to give them kid food like applesauce, etc. because I think “where did that come from??” I stick a plate of fish (or something tastier if you’ve unlocked chef) on the floor and then have the toddler grab a serving.
[…] thought and not nearly enough, that I am going to start my first game on the new computer with an Apocalypse style challenge, then will raise my Wonder Child, and move onto the Immigration Challenge to finish […]
I would like to understand one thing: If I finish the cook’s career and I can have forneli and fridge?
How to acquire them if in my account after I paid the bolleto always 0? The same for writers, how do I buy books without lifting the restriction of the Mafia?
I used a translation services I hope they understand me?
Thanks I found the answer
[…] complete list of Pinstar’s Apocalypse Challenge Rules can be found here. Recently, I finished the Wonder Child Challenge for the second time to design a founder better […]
Would the Master Controller mod be allowed? I really only use it for generating population and same-sex pregnancy purposes.
Can I start with a teenage sim lift a restriction and then continue with the challenge solevando other restriction with an adult career?
SOS does not unde
rstand English, but I like the challenge, I comincciato for 4th time and still very doubtful. When children can go to nursery when they have no one at home? The fish I put fruit in the world after I can use?
Can you plan outfits of a sim that has just aged up?
Late reply but may help another simmer.
If you have unlocked Teen Career – Retail Employee then you can definitely plan their outfits.
Side note: The one thing I’m not sure about is that clicking on a dresser or whatever to plan outfit takes you to the CAS screen where you could theoretically change their hair too and other features. I’m not sure if you are allowed to change everything or just their outfits.
Maybe adding make-up or different hair would require unlocking use of a mirror? Hmm …
[…] https://simslegacychallenge.com/sims-4-apocalypse-challenge-rules/ […]
What are the rules about the “Ask to hang out” social? This is available when talking to sims walking around your neighborhood. It isn’t exactly asking them to come over, but they usually do come into your house.
Also, in terms of only allowing one stack of things in inventory at a time, if I had my sim fishing, and just moved the fish out of their inventory and into my house as they are fishing, is that okay? Like, they catch a fish, but instead of making them come back to the house to “put it on the counter,” am I allowed to just drag it out and let hem keep fishing so long as no more that one fish stack is in their inventory at a time?
Another question. Once the eSports gamer restriction is lifted, are sims allowed to hack, do freelance work, make plugins, mods, apps, or video games? Is this a fair source of income?
Grrrr! My Sim aged up and was automatically sent home! I don’t have to count this and make him quit his job, do I? Unlike his wife going into labor, I couldn’t plan for this… This isn’t fair! It *has* to be a bug!
I forgot to mention that I couldn’t age him up manually because the cooking restriction hasn’t been lifted. His wife is working on it now.
Is the top of the Villain career considered level 10 or level 11? The game gave me an achievement for “reaching the top” at level 10, but this career does have level 11. Do I have to go to level 11 for this challenge even though all the other careers use level 10?
I’d say if you got the achievement for it at level 10 then it counts at level 10 and not level 11. I dunno why there is an additional level on that career even though you get the achievement on 10. That’s weird.
Hello. I dont understand the 8X8 restriction.. So our house has to be 8X8 unless we unlock the restriction? I still have to read the full rules… The rest is quite clear to me
I have a male founder that wants to marry a teen. Can I move her in and then marry her when she becomes an young adult?
[…] Rules found HERE! […]
Thank you, Pinstar for this seriously amazing challenge. After years of wanting to try this (way back in my Sims 2 days) but being way too chicken, I’ve finally started my challenge. If anyone is interested, I’m blogging it here: https://ts4priceapocalypse.blogspot.com/. I would love some feedback.
I found your blog site on google and verify just a few of your early posts. Proceed to maintain up the very good operate. I just additional up your RSS feed to my MSN News Reader. Searching for forward to reading extra from you later on!…
Does anyone have any advice for feeding babies while Mom is at work? I haven’t unlocked Chef – Mixologist yet and one of my twins is hungry. Dad is at home but he doesn’t start work until 3 pm, that’s three hours that the baby will be hungry. I don’t want my twins to be taken away, any advice?
You make a video for this challenge too?
I don’t believe we have a video series for this challenge yet, but I’m planning on attempting one in the future!
Can you turn a sim into a vampire?
From Pinstar: ” I would say you can, but you must obey any of the outstanding restrictions and that sim can still only unlock one career’s worth of restrictions, no matter how long they live. “
[…] been released for The Sims 4 I found that the original rules for TS4 Apocalypse Challenge, found here were not enough to cover all of the content, nor were they as difficult as the original version. […]
Is there any idea about when an update for Seasons will be? It has a pretty big impact on the game, so I was wondering if there would be any updates referencing it.
We no longer update the Apocalypse Challenge for several reasons (lack of time, the rules get to be too unwieldy after several expansions, etc), however a fellow Simmer is working on updating the Apocalypse Challenge in our stead. I will link to her site once it’s complete!
Ok. To make sure I understand this correctly.
The goal of the challenge is to unlock each career but it can only be done each generation? Like, I select a career to unlock for my 1st gen sims, they complete it and then the 2nd gen has to unlock another career, and so on and so forth, correct?
Can someone renovate this challenge for the new pack? I think that would be awesome
[…] a huge fan of Pinstar’s Apocalypse challenge. Huge. And last I checked, Pinstar isn’t planning to update his challenge to include all […]
What about the military career that came with the strangerville expansion and the get famous ones?
Can this work with Sacrifical’s Zombie Apocalypse mod for realism? If so, does anyone have any ideas on using those mechanics?
Question about the aquarium:
I’ve been sort of using the cheapest of the big aquariums as a combo refrigerator/TV early game, assuming that it’s just filled from the same water that the fish were already swimming in.
I didn’t see anything explicitly disallowing this; is it therefore allowed?
Thanks for this; I’ve been a fan of the apocalypse challenge since TS3. It’s fun, if nerve-wracking!
Hello, I’d like to clarify the rule about using the grill.
If we have “Outdoor Retreat” GP, we must buy the fire pit and cook fish on it. The question is – are we allowed to buy grill after getting lvl 3 cooking skill, or must we use the fire pit until completion Culinary – Chef?
And another question about the aquarium:
If we have “Seasons” EP and start to play in winter, the weather is often too cold to fish. Are we allowed to buy the cheapest small aquariums (Gumber Fesh Bowl or Fit4Fish Crystal Fish Bowl) and to purchase the cheapest fish (Gummie Guppie) by clicking on a fish tank?
Thanks for the post!
https://carstank.com/vehicle-survival-gear/
I’m working on a revamp of this challenge to include the additional content that has been released over the last few years and posting it to my Tumlr at RedFoxGamesSometimes if anyone’s interested. It’s very much a work in progress and I’m currently playtesting it now. I hope Pinster doesn’t mind
I found your tumblr but the google doc keeps saying “file has been deleted.” I tried on my phone and laptop. Do you have a set of revamped rules anywhere else?
[…] apocalypse unlock rules that includes more/most of the careers that are in the game now than what Pinstar initially created. I’ve also put in all the houses and characters from Brennachan’s Murkland Challenge to […]
[…] Apocalypse Life, I’m playing a modified Pinstar apocalypse challenge. In the challenge, the world and gameplay is restricted and you unlock those actions by reaching […]
[…] unlock rules that includes more/most of the careers that are in the game now than what Pinstar initially created. I’ve also put in all the houses and characters from Brennachan’s Murkland […]
[…] apocalypse unlock rules that includes more/most of the careers that are in the game now than what Pinstar initially created. I’ve also put in all the houses and characters from Brennachan’s Murkland Challenge to […]
[…] for the Apocalypse Challenge by the legendary […]
I am blogging the challenge here:
https://yoki-sims4-challenge.30s.dk/2021/02/22/the-apocalypse-challenge-part-1-building-a-home/
New posts (almost) everyday 🙂
[…] Get more details & Read the rules […]
My toddler won’t eat fish. They end up just sitting there holding the plate. I don’t want them taken away so I’m purchasing a high chair and will feed them something from there. If that is against the rules, I don’t care.
My founder and his girlfriend (party house Eva) had Leonardo after three try for babies and I don’t want him taken because of Sim mechanics.
My founder (Ashton) is in the chef career stuck at gourmet cooking, and Eva is a writer trying to unlock the skill books for him. I really hate how the game makes them drink water/play on their phones while doing other stuff. I’m tempted to turn off free will because canceling stuff I didn’t tell them to do gets old. Eva ended up drinking water while I watched Ashton fish.
Eva went into labor while at work and the game forced her home to have the baby (Leonardo). The game still had her picture at the bottom as being in work, working hard and still making progress so is she still allowed to keep the author career or is that considered “leaving early”? No message ever popped up that she was leaving, the game just forced her home after the “3 hour go time” ran out and her career still had her marked as there. If she has to quit then I’ll have to restart the challenge. She’s pregnant with her second kid right now
I am really confused about something, are we allowed to repair broken objects? I know we’re not allowed to upgrade them because of the Interstellar Smuggler restriction, and it says we can only replace them on Sundays, but i couldn’t find any rule about repairing them… Both of my toilets are broken right now and my sims are regularly peeing their pants, i could use some help here 😀
[…] can find the rest of the career restrictions here. We hope that you enjoyed this challenge! It is definitely very complex, but you can’t deny […]
impressive ideas!! You saved boring sims 4 game!!
Should we evict & delete all the premade families & turn all lots into generic lots to stop townies moving into them? Also should all the business lots & parks be made generic & what conditions would clear these & allow businesses to reopen & families to move back in? Or is it ok to use community lots & businesses?
Also seeing as I have Seasons I’m going to use mods to make it snow continuously until either the tech guru the scientist completes level 10. And the lot has to be off the grid until the tech guru completes lvl10. Some of the off the grid times are more expensive so I’m counting those as cheapest until tech guru is cleared
[…] Baby ChallengeAlphabet Legacy ChallengeAmerican Dream ChallengeAncient Bloodline Legacy ChallengeApocalypse ChallengeApocalypse ChallengeAspirations ChallengeArchetype ChallengeAstrology ChallengeAstronaut Legend […]
[…] The Sims 4 Apocalypse Challenge Rules – Sims Legacy Challenge […]
Hi, Does anybody here know if the monkey bars are allowed for kids? I have a child who needs movement skill and that is the only way I can get it for now. I did a search and couldn’t find anything about it. Thanks!
[…] can find the rest of the race restrictions. here. We hope you enjoyed this challenge! It is definitely very complex, but you cannot deny that it […]
[…] GET MORE INFO HERE […]
[…] + 여기서 자세히 보기 […]
[…] + 여기서 자세히 보기 […]
Holy shit… I’ve been playing sims for ten years and never actually read the official apocalypse challenge, this is INTENSE. Can’t wait to get started.
[…] Challenge – Rank 5) and then find the Unicorn. The first level of the Four Horses of the Apocalypse challenge necessitates charging intoJorge’s Gap while riding Death, as […]
[…] READ THE RULES HERE […]
I think this needs new update because there us new stuff in the game. New careers and neibourghoods like Strangerville. And lot traits like off the grid, that came with Dream Islands. And of course Werewolf and Realms of Magic and the Paranormal stuff. And vampires and Get Job add on. Oh and Get Famous. What is rules for those? Oh and the country life with chickens, cows and llamas? And how about pets, though pets do not have careers. And how about the newest thing, infants?
[…] + 여기서 자세히 보기 […]
This challenge really needs a revamp. It is one of the best challenges but it’s made for base gameplay only and there are too many new updates that cause you to fail before you even start
I love challenges and have played too many to count over the years, some more than once. I briefly tried this gloriously difficult challenge back in 2018, but due to a variety of reasons, did not finish it. I’ve just begun again with a new Sim and have one important question. What are the mechanics for moving in a spouse/partner? I know they need to actually meet and interact, be mutually attracted, in love, etc. But after my Sim has found the one, do they ‘ask to move-in’ or do I simply add this Sim to the household?
The reason I ask is because my Sim met Kyle Kyleson at the garden area by Johnny Zest’s lot in OS, they shared a first kiss, he’s her boyfriend now, etc., but she then had to leave to finish her daily task before work. Unfortunately, she has not seen him since. He did call to ask her on a date, but obviously she couldn’t go. Do I need to be patient and wait for him to show up again, hopefully at her door, or can I simply move him in now?
Thank you ~ Karen <3
As per the original challenge your founder sim must reach the top of their career before you can have a spouse. Please advise if this is missing from the rules, although as it was standard in the basic rules from Sims 2 onwards it really shouldn’t be!
Thank you for your reply Ang! However, in the Sims 4 version there is no rule about completing your founder’s career before moving in a partner/spouse. Kyle showed up again and my Sim invited him to move-in. However, I learned a valuable lesson about the old phrase ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover.’ Despite his physique the Sim has zero fitness skills. Also, since he’s lazy he gets fatigued way too fast when working out. I shouldn’t have picked the Body Builder career for him. o.O D’oh!
Plus, since my founder Sim is Level 10 in Cooking and Gourmet Cooking I should’ve taken advantage of that and had her take the Chef career. Instead, I chose Author so she could buy skill books for future generations. *sigh* Another misstep I took despite what I thought a thorough research job on my part, was starting in Summer instead of Spring which works better for harvestables in the area where she lives. She’s been stuck eating fish or Sage. Sage is a year-round plant but there are only two wild plants in the area, whereas, there are a multitude of Strawberries.
Because of all these factors and a few more, I’m starting over with my Sim in a new Save. Hopefully, my second try strategy I’ve come up with will work out better. Bravo to Pinstar and Mystic for developing this challenge, it’s the most challenging one I’ve ever tried to do, I LOVE it! <3
Wish me luck and Good Luck to all of you trying out this challenge as well. 🙂
Just starting this challenge (end of 2023) with a non-WC werewolf. The firepit (the ‘cooking’ one, not the ‘fun’ one) is the only item that lets me grill fish, and only 1 plate at a time. I used a MyStory sim, since all the townies have roughly the same skills and job level. Even if you find a fish while digging, you can’t add it to your tiny, on-lot fishpond until you catch it, so there’s still no real way to live on fish without a fishing spot in the neighborhood. Many of the newer maps don’t have much in the way of harvestables, and with seasons, they often aren’t available even then (or they are flowers and not edible!), so BE CAREFUL where you start! (I chose Newcrest).
My founder is in the criminal career, so his job is to collect everything into the house (I bought a storage box to stash it all in so it doesn’t use the family inventory) and to father 5 teens, most of whom will have tragic ends as they reach young adult. He married Summer Holiday, who is in the chef career. So when they max, I will be able to cook and to keep my money every week.
Hoping it goes well! Sleeping bags are great, my toddlers can carry their own bedding, even if that’s all they can do. Just have to keep them from sleeping outside.
Rules: You may not purchase, place, or use any refrigerators, stoves, ovens, or microwave ovens or coolers. Non-fish items may not be cooked on grilled on fire pits. If you do not have the Outdoor Retreat game pack, you may make non-fish items on the grill, but must move a fish in your inventory to the family inventory each time you cook a meal.
You can grill fried fish at cooking level 3. All you have to do is move a fish into the family inventory in build/buy.
To make this even more fun I’m going to use the zombie MOD lol
[…] society. When you start out though, things are going to be pretty rough for a while. According to the original rules, you’ll have to work your way to the top of each career before removing each career’s […]
love it soooooooo much
but this challenge needs to be updated……