Have you ever wondered what a Sim’s life was like before they came into existence? When we start a new game with a teen or older Sim, we often miss out on so many of their formative experiences. I’ve always wanted to play a Sim who has lived a full and dynamic life—one filled with highs and lows, triumphs and challenges. But often, we don’t get to see where our Sims came from or who they were during their earliest years.
With this challenge, you’ll get to experience all of life’s firsts and guide your Sim through every stage of their journey. But this Sim’s story begins differently than most.
You begin life fresh out of the womb and placed into foster care, an unimaginable start for any Sim. It is up to you to figure life out without the safety net of a loving family, relying on the care of strangers who may come and go. From their first steps as an infant to their struggles and triumphs as a teen, you’ll guide your Sim through every phase of adolescence and prepare them as best as possible for the moment they step into adulthood completely on their own.
Will you make it to freedom and build the life you’ve always dreamed of, or will you find yourself lost once you finally reach adulthood?
You will need the following packs for this challenge:
Growing Together Expansion Pack
High School Years Expansion Pack
Parenthood Game Pack
General Rules and Guidelines
- Create a household with an infant according to one of the below scenarios.
- Your primary Sim cannot have any familial relationships with the other household members. (No parents, siblings, grandparents, etc.)
- Control only one sim through the whole challenge, this is your infant.
- Achieve the listed goals for each life stage.
- You may not use any cheats except testingcheats on to remove caregivers from household view. This prevents you from controlling the other sims, focusing on the primary sim of the challenge.
- You may not control any sims once you begin playing the challenge.
- You must hire a nanny anytime your infant sim is going to be left home alone.
- No selling items from your Sim’s inventory. You can sell them at stalls or through business avenues (such as Plopsy).
- You may use any lifespan setting you prefer except no aging.
- If your caregiver(s) die, then you must move your foster sim to another household using a different household dynamic from the list.
Getting Ready
Before you dive right in, take a look at the instructions for setting up your household and lot. These guidelines will enhance the challenge and offer different difficulties with each one.
Household & Dynamics
Rules:
- Choose from one of the following dynamics to create your household
- You may use sims from the gallery
- Reminder: your infant cannot have any familial relationship with any of the other household members
Dynamics:
Infant with an elder:
- Raises the chances of autonomous care for the infant
- Risk of elder dying before the infant reaches a teen
- More rules and expectations
Infant in an adultless household with seven children (including at least one teen):
- Reduced risk of autonomous care for the infant
- Less risk of teen dying before the infant reaches a teen
- No rules or expectations
Infant living with a childless couple:
- Raises the chances of autonomous care for the infant
- Less risk of both adults dying before the infant reaches a teen
- Some rules and expectations
Lot
The next step is setting up your foster home for where you will raise your infant. Below outlines the rules and guidelines for building or choosing your lot.
Rules:
- You must start with the minimum funds given at creation of the household
- The lot may only have the minimum furniture and appliances to function, preferably the cheapest options for their budget.
- You must use the Family Bulletin Board to set curfews in the elder household or the couple household
The lot you choose or build is dependent on the household dynamic you chose:
Infant with an elder:
The house must be small (2 bedroom 1 bathroom) You can decorate if you have enough funds remaining.
Infant in an adultless household with seven children (including at least one teen):
The house must be large enough to suit a household of eight but with minimum bedrooms to enforce sharing rooms among sims. You can only have two bathrooms. One part of the home cannot be finished.
Infant living with a childless couple:
The house can be any size. The home must reflect a lifestyle designed for two adults rather than a family, squeezing infant furniture in where possible.
Entering Live Mode
Before you begin playing…
Infants can’t earn income, but their caregivers can! This is the only exception to controlling the adult/teen sims in your household. You may give them a career first to provide income for the household if you wish to- but it’s not required. You cannot do anything to improve their careers, they must start at the first level.
Goals
Below is a list of goals for each life stage you must meet to beat the challenge:
Infant
The main goal of the infant life stage is to achieve certain milestones essential to development.
Milestones-
- Learn Pincer Grasp
- First Finger Food
- First Baby Food
- Lift Head
- Learned to Creep
- Learned to Sit Up
- Learned to Crawl
- Pulled to Stand
- Learned to Dance
- Said First Word
Toddler
The main goal of the toddler life stage is to max out toddler skills and reach certain milestones:
Skills-
- Communication
- Imagination
- Movement
- Potty
- Thinking
Milestones-
- Studied Letters
- Studied Numbers
- Read First Book
- Learn to Dance
- First Childhood Friend
Child
The main goal of the child life stage is to complete an aspiration, have good grades, max childhood skills, and reach certain milestones:
Aspiration-
- Complete any aspiration of your choice.
Grades-
- Become an A Student
Skills-
- Creativity
- Mental
- Motor
- Social
Milestones-
- Lost a Tooth
- Became an A Student
- Made a Best Friend
- Reach Top of Afterschool Activity
Teen
The main goal of the teen life stage is to max three skills, complete an aspiration, achieve good grades, reach level three of a part time job, save money to move out, and reach level three of an afterschool activity.
Aspiration-
- Complete any aspiration of your choice.
Grades-
- Become an A Student
Skills-
- Max three skills of your choice.
Part Time Job-
- Reach Level 3
- Save $5,000
Afterschool Activity-
- Reach Level 3
Young Adult
Congratulations! Once you’ve reached this life stage, you’ve officially completed the challenge! The only thing left to do is step out on your own and begin the next chapter of your Sim’s life.
What path will you choose next? Will you move into a small apartment or work toward building a home of your own from the ground up? Will you pursue a university education or jump straight into the working world? The possibilities are finally yours to decide.
Using Mods
Most mods are excluded from being used for this challenge. I do recommend using a couple of mods, but avoid using mods that would “cheat” the challenge I suggest not using mods that alter income from careers, relationship growth, or care for infants.
Recommended Mods:
I recommend using the following mods for this challenge. While not necessary to complete the challenge, these mods add more layers of realism and challenge and expand options during gameplay.
SimRealist’s Sim National Bank
With SNB you can set up separate accounts for your sims so that when your primary Sim reaches a teen, they can put all their earnings in that account keeping it separate from the household funds. This makes it a lot easier to keep track of the earnings for the challenge and avoid other household members from using the funds.
LittleMsSam’s Foster Family Mod
This mod is not necessary to create a foster home setting, but it does add another layer of gameplay to keep it interesting. With this mod you can register as a foster family and have NPC foster sims on the home lot. This just adds more sims to interact with for the challenge which I think makes it quite fun!
Deaderpool’s MC Command Center
MC Command Center allows you to unhide sims you’ve hidden from your household. You will need this mod if you choose to do this! You may also want to use this to adjust lifespans to fit your liking.
Turbodriver’s Unlimited Jobs+
This mod allows sims to have more than one job at a time which will be useful during the teen lifestage if you would prefer to work through the afterschool activity and part time job at the same time. While it makes some things easier, it also adds another layer of difficulty to the challenge.
