My favourite Sims challenges


The Sims is a game that appeals to a massive range of audiences. Since the original Sims game circa 2001, there have been Sims ‘challenges’ that change the goal of the game. With the rise of social media and youtube, these challenges were documented and posted online and have become even more popular.


Here are my favourite Sims 4 challenges:

  1. The legacy challenge is quite similar to regular gameplay, you start with one sim and cannot use any cheats. The goal of this challenge is to play the same family for ten generations living on the same plot of land and never using any cheats. This is the classic Sims challenge that has been around the longest but is always fun, and you can find a number of variations on this challenge online.

  2. Rags to Riches challenge. Normally when playing the Sims, your Sim will start out with 20 000 Simoleons (the currency of the Sim world). This challenge dares you to start the game, move your Sim onto an empty lot, and deplete your Simoleons down to 0 using the ‘money 000’ cheat. You then have to try to make your sim survive and end up with a lot valued at 1 000 000 simoleons starting from absolutely nothing.

  3. Alphabet Challenge. This challenge dares you to create a family of 26 generations of sims with names starting with each letter of the alphabet. You would start with a sim with an A name, say ‘Allan’, and make that Sim have a child, and give that child a ‘B’ name, say ‘Betty’. The goal is to get all the way down to a Sim with a Z name to win the challenge.

  4. Family portrait challenge. For this challenge, you start with just one sim, and try to develop their family so that you end up with a sim who has a family member of every possible type in Sims 4, and then gather the entire family for a party and take a picture of them together. For this challenge you will need to end up with a sim who has a:

    - father

    - mother

    - brother

    - sister

    - son






    - nephew


    - grandfather

    - grandmother

    - grandson

    - granddaughter

    - step parents
    - step sibling

    - half sibling

    - step child

    - sibling in law

    - parent in law

    - children in law

    It will take you at least five generations to complete this challenge, starting with your original sim. It is OK to have more than one of the same type of relation, but you must have at least once of each.

  5. Living off the land challenge. In this challenge, your Sim cannot get a job and must have the nature aspiration. They can grow plants, use a woodworking bench, and go fishing to sustain themselves. The sim cannot paint or write books to make money. The Sim can get married but their spouse must quit their job and also live off the land. They can have kids but the same rules apply to the kids. This one is harder than you think!

    Try these Sims challenges with Sims 4 which is available for download totally free from EA through EA Origin until May 28th