Best Sims 4 Challenges
While life simulation games like The Sims 4 can be fun for the first few hours, playing aimlessly can result in boredom. Adhering to goals and player-defined scenarios is both creative and fun, and it removes the barriers of boredom and frustration.
RELATED: Sims 4: New Packs We Still Want Before The Sims 5 Is Released
Challenges are a great way to shake up your gameplay and discover parts of The Sims games that you normally wouldn’t discover. Challenges have long been a part of The Sims community as far back as The Sims 2 and have been adapted for The Sims 4. They have their own rules, themes, and requirements. Some take place over generations of sim lives, while others for just a portion of one.
Updated on July 24, 2022, by Ritwik Mitra: The Sims 4 is one of the deepest and most engaging life simulation games around, but even hardcore players will get bored of the game’s offerings after a point. Thankfully, this is an issue that the Sims community has identified in earnest, with the host of fan-made challenges being a great way to spice up the overall experience. Keeping this in mind, here are some of the best challenges that members of the Sims community can check out for themselves.
20/20 Rags To Riches Challenge
The Rags to Riches challenge is one of the most popular challenges in The Sims 4. It basically entails that Sims start on an empty lot with no possessions or money whatsoever.
Players will have to sleep in public spaces and at their friends’ places before they can afford a house of their own. It’s a pretty tough challenge but one that Sims players will have a great time with.
19/20 Live The Farm Life Challenge
The Sims 4: Cottage Living is a pretty great mod that lets players enjoy the farm life with their Sims. It also lets them accomplish a challenge of their own which can be pretty tough yet rewarding.
Basically, all the rules of the Rags to Riches Challenge are implemented in the gameplay of Cottage Living, forcing Sims to live off the land in the most extreme manner possible. This challenge can be pretty tough but doable with the resources that players have access to.
18/20 Globetrotter Challenge
The Globetrotter Challenge is easily one of the hardest challenges anyone can attempt in The Sims 4. Players need to have their wits about them and keep their Sims as content as possible, especially since they’ll be moving every time the Seasons change!
Players need to complete their main aspirations by the time the first round is over. There are a total of eight rounds of moving, where players will access almost all the neighborhoods in the game.
17/20 Happy Sim Challenge
This challenge has one of the most straightforward yet hardest objectives out of all the fan-made challenges on this list. Basically, players need to ensure that their chosen Sim never gets sad during their lifetime, which is easier said than done.
RELATED: The Sims 4: Insanely Beautiful Homes (& How Much They Cost)
Basically, no negative moodlet should ever plague the Sim during a playthrough. This can prove to be a major undertaking, with many things happening outside the player’s control that can lead to the Sim feeling dejected over time.
16/20 ISBI Challenge
The ISBI Challenge is one of the most unique and tough challenges on this list. Basically, players need to go through ten generations of a family while only choosing one Sim to actively control throughout this experience.
Given the issues brought about by Sim Autonomy, it’s easy to see why many people might tear their hair out while playing this challenge. With enough perseverance and dedication, players can definitely pass this challenge with flying colors… and immense satisfaction at dealing with one of the hardest Sims 4 challenges.
15/20 Homeless Challenge
The Homeless Challenge is just what it sounds like — create a Sim, remove all their money, and have them rely on the public facilities available to them.
The challenge in the Homeless Challenge comes with having very limited funds and utilizing public facilities in creative ways.
Your Homeless Sim is not allowed to get a job but may earn money through hobbies, fishing, collecting, and gardening. The challenge ends when your Sim earns enough money to build a house.
14/20 Big Brother Challenge
The Big Brother Challenge is based on the reality TV show Big Brother. The goal is to place a variety of Sims in a single household, and once per week evict the Sim that has the least friendships with their housemates. Randomizing the Sims competing and giving them clashing personalities makes the challenge all the more interesting.
RELATED: Sims 4: Most Futuristic Homes On The Gallery
Another fun element of this challenge is building a mansion worthy of being the Big Brother mansion and all that title carries.
13/20 Bachelor/Bachelorette Challenge
This challenge is also based on a reality TV show, except it’s focused on romance rather than friendship.
Create one male or female Sim, and give them five possible love interests. Move them all into the same household, and once per week evict the Sim that has the lowest romance score with the main Sim.
The Sims 4‘s dating system can be used in this challenge, as well as creating a lavish mansion to house the Sims. Vacation packs, such as The Sims 4: Snowy Escape can be used for romantic vacations with contestants.
12/20 Masterchef Challenge
This challenge is based on the reality TV cooking show Masterchef. Create five Sims to be contestants and three judges. The judges must have at least a level five Cooking skill. The contestants must begin with no cooking skills and are only allowed to cook on competition days.
RELATED: Sims 4: Most Breathtaking Castles On The Gallery
On the other days, the contestants are allowed to grow their own herbs to use in their dishes, and they are allowed to improve their Cooking skill through research.
Eliminations occur once a week, where the contestant who created the lowest quality dish is eliminated.
11/20 Asylum Challenge
This challenge involves pitting Sims against themselves. Create an asylum, then place in it five Sims that all have the Insane trait. Their other traits must be randomized, but they cannot have the Self-Assured trait.
Choose one Sim to control, and try to get them to achieve their Aspiration, which means they can leave the asylum. The challenge is won when the asylum is empty.
10/20 Legacy Challenge
The Legacy Challenge is a classic in The Sims community and was one of the first. The rules of the Legacy Challenge are simple: one Sim must be the founder and created in Create-a-Sim. This Sim must be moved into the largest empty lot in the world. No cheats can be used. The founder must have children, who will be the next generation. The challenge ends once the tenth generation is born.
The Legacy Challenge is often used as the foundation for other challenges, but it also tells the classic rags-to-riches story.
Reaching that tenth generation is truly rewarding.
9/20 Black Widow Challenge
The Black Widow Challenge is all about romance and money. Players make a young adult female Sim and place her in a house. She is not allowed to get a job; all her money must come from her suitors.
RELATED:Sims 2 Mods We Hope To Never See In The Sims 4
The goal of the challenge is to find and marry a male Sim, preferably a rich one. Host a dinner party, find your sim’s next paramour, get caught cheating, and murder your husband. Continue the cycle until your sim gets through ten paramours and is fabulously wealthy. As a bonus, your Sim’s traits must include materialistic, snob, and romantic, and her aspiration must be Serial Romantic.
8/20 100 Baby Challenge
The 100 Baby Challenge is another classic. The aim is for a single Sim to have 100 babies. There are multiple variations of this challenge that either make the challenge a bit easier to complete or even more challenging.
Ways to make it more accommodating include stretching the challenge over several generations, with daughters continuing the legacy. Ways to make it more challenging entail not having more than one child per father and, like the Black Widow Challenge, your Sim is not allowed a job.
7/20 Dumpster Challenge
The Dumpster challenge is exactly as it sounds: you buy a dumpster, set your household funds to 0, and your sim survives off everything that (or a community lot) dumpster provides. This includes food and all furniture.
RELATED:Underrated Simulation Games For Playstation 4 (& Others That Are Overrated)
Additional rules include not being able to shower at the gym or use any other community lots for anything else. Everything you use must come from the dumpster. It’s like a Homeless Challenge, only more restrictive. (Note: This challenge requires The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle.)
6/20 Big Sister Challenge
Thanks to a patch, teen Sims can live in a household without an adult.
This opened the door to storytelling and challenging opportunities, one of which is the Big Sister Challenge.
The rules for this challenge involve placing a teen girl on a lot, with a child of any gender as a younger sibling. The goal of the challenge is for the big sister to raise the child and create a home for her sibling. She must have the Big Happy Family aspiration, and she and the child may have any traits. This challenge is great for any stories geared towards the bonds of sisterhood and has great potential for both drama and heartwarming scenarios.
5/20 Runaway Teen Challenge
That teen patch also brought the opportunity for the Runaway Teen Challenge. This challenge involves having a teen-only household and, as the name suggests, tells the story of a teen who has run away from home and all the trappings that implies.
RELATED: The Sims: Each Occult, Ranked From Worst To Best
Players are encouraged to either move from lot to lot or settle down.
Interactions aren’t allowed with adults, only children, and other teenagers. Players must skip school, and they can’t get a part-time job. The teen can earn money by fishing, gardening, and digging. Once they’re young adults and have earned enough money to live in a house, they can get a job. The challenge is in building something from nothing and is a bit of a rags-to-riches tale.
4/20 Berry Challenge
The Berry Challenge is a colorful take on the Legacy Challenge, where every generation represents a different color and personality. Your sim’s hair, clothing, skin color, make-up, and house décor all represent their chosen color. Each generation and color comes with its own set of personality traits and goals.
An alternative to the Berry Challenge is the Not So Berry Challenge, which forgoes the skin color change. If you don’t want your Sims to be bright pink or blue, this may be a more palatable version of the challenge. Either way, the rules of this challenge make for a colorful twist on the vanilla Legacy Challenge.
3/20 Disney Princess Challenge
The Disney Princess Challenge is yet another alternative to the Legacy Challenge. Each generation tells a different story based on a different Disney princess.
RELATED:Things Cut From The Sims 4 (That Were In The Original Game)
This challenge is fun because of the potential for storytelling. Most are at least familiar with these characters, and the challenge’s limits push the creativity of the player and the mechanics of The Sims 4. Working around these limits makes for gameplay with is far from boring, and the ten generations mean that it should provide hours of content to work through for this challenge.
2/20 Off the Grid Challenge
The challenge here is to live completely off the grid. This means cutting off all your electricity and water supplies from the municipality. While this means fewer bills to pay, it also brings with it a whole host of challenges to overcome.
Certain expansion packs help with this challenge, such as Laundry Day, Jungle Adventure, Eco Lifestyle, and Island Living.
These packs aren’t necessary to live off the grid thanks to a patch, but these packs contain items that’ll certainly make it easier to survive without relying on your local government.
1/20 Decades Challenge
The Decades Challenge is something of a combination of the Legacy and Off the Grid Challenges. It involves ten generations, where each generation embodies a different decade.
Most versions of this challenge begin in the 1890s, which means you have to live without electricity or water for the first three generations or so. Each generation is required to dress in the styles of their decade as well as build and decorate their homes accordingly. It’s amazing how creative simmers are with this challenge, and how the game lives up to the task. Definitely one for history aficionados!
The Sims 4 is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
MORE:The Worst Sims Games Of The Decade (According To Metacritic)
10 Sims 2 Mods We Hope To Never See In The Sims 4
When it was first released, The Sims 2 seemed a massive step-up from the original.
While The Sims 3 and 4 have massively improved graphics from The Sims 2 and new features, the step up from the original game to the first sequel was the biggest lead in the franchise.
RELATED: The Sims 4: The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Stuff Packs, Ranked
With this, however, came a weird side to the fandom. Player-made mods are a great addition to the franchise. They add a personal touch to the game and show how devoted the fandom is. However, not all of these mods can be gems. These Sims 2 mods, some of which are still available, show what can happen when players are left unsupervised.
10/10 Creepy Giant Babies
One of the most celebrated features in The Sims 2 over the original game was the improvements to infants. Sims would become pregnant and babies had more interactions. There was also the introduction of the toddler life stage.
But this mod took those cute babies and made them creepy! This was essentially a giant «baby suit» that could be purchased as male clothing.
When dressed in the suits, Sims would look like giant babies, but move and interact as adult Sims. Including playing and caring for their actual babies!
9/10 No Jealousy…At All
The relationship system in The Sims 2 was a great improvement on The Sims. Marriage and commitments such as Steady for teens allowed relationships to be recognized in-game.
A glitch in the game was that while being in love or having a crush on another Sim wasn’t a commitment, Sims would get jealous if they saw the Sim they liked being romantic with another. Even if they were married to the other Sim! «Jealousy» mods were introduced to fix this. But, this mod removed jealousy entirely! If you want a world of polyamorous Sims, that’s great, but it did cause glitches in the relationship system.
8/10 Hunting Time!
Traditionally, The Sims is a middle-class, suburban fantasy game. Made to reflect the rat-race and relationships of real life. But some people would rather make things a little more basic!
RELATED: 10 Things Cut From The Sims 4 (That Were In The Original Game)
Instead of playing a survival game, or a different version of The Sims such as The Sims Castaway, this mod takes your Sims back to basic survival.
By selecting the pile of spears you can make your Sim «go hunting.» They then leave the lot and, depending on how the hunt went, will come back with meat that can be cooked.
7/10 Cenotaph Of The Tribal Covenant — Babies For Sale
One of the darker mods made for The Sims 2, this one offered a solution if your kids were getting too much for you! Or if you’re building a fantasy world in-game.
When purchased, Sims could select the helmet and summon an ogre named Gunk. Parents can then sell their unwanted babies or toddlers to him, or just give them up if you’re not interested in the money! Other Sims could also purchase any children that had been sold. While most of these mods can no longer be found or were released over a decade ago, this mod is still used having been updated in 2017!
6/10 The Giant Gnome
A small quirk in The Sims 2 was the gnomes. There were cheap and many premade homes could with them already in the garden.
The gnomes themselves weren’t overly interesting, but if another Sim didn’t like you, or if they were just a jerk, they would take your gnome and run away with it. Sometimes a Sim would leave the lot to retrieve the gnome—sometimes it was gone for good!
If the gnome stealing gets irritating for you, you could download this giant creepy gnome. No-one is running away with that, but it’ll probably steal your soul in your sleep!
5/10 Royalty Career Path
The Sims has been criticized, rightly so, for its simplified portrayal of careers and real estate. In any of the games, it is much easier than in real life to find a job and work your way up. While a realistic portrayal of climbing the career ladder would make for a very boring game, this Monarchy Career Mod is just laughable.
RELATED: 10 Secrets Behind The Making Of The Sims
Your Sim becomes a Prince or Princess by applying for it like any other job and «work» their way up the career ladder.
This is done by making friends and building skills, rather than killing off your family. If you want royal Sims, try playing The Sims Medieval instead!
4/10 Adult Entertainment Career
From an unrealistic career path to a far too realistic one!
This career path allows Sims to pursue a career in the «Adult Entertainment» industry. Again, this job is found like any other, from having your Sim look at jobs on the computer or check out an ad in the local paper! This career comes with chance cards. (One example involves your Sim deciding whether or no to do a scene with another Sim of the same gender. This chance card comes regardless of your Sims’ sexual orientation.) It even appears as a recommended career when choosing your university major!
3/10 A Town Of Bed Wetters
This mod, titled «All Kids Bed Wet» does offer some realism to the game. Bedwetting is a common problem for most children and some teens. An interesting development with this mod is that teens will only wet the bed if their aspiration level is very low.
But, as the title suggests, this mod makes all children wet the bed if their bladder need is only slightly less than perfect! Which is pretty much all the time! This mod is inspired by another that takes a more logical route, as only children who weren’t potty trained as toddlers wet their beds.
2/10 The Spanking Rack
This is where things get incredibly weird. The Spanking Rack, which can no longer be found online, could be used to either change a Sims personality or for two Sims to «WooHoo!» When bending over the rack, which can be bought from the «party section» in buy mode, another Sim will paddle their victim’s behind! By selecting the rack, you can choose which trait will be improved by the spanking, such as «neatness» or «playfulness.»
To make things weirder, you don’t need to know a Sim too well to «WooHoo» on the rack! The option will appear shortly after the introduction!
1/10 Barbecue Your Children!
This mod is simply called: OMGWTFBBQ.
And rightly so!
With this mod, after a baby is added to your household, you can select the barbecue and roast the little bundle of joy! It starts off with the same animation as changing the baby’s diaper. But then the lid is closed to let the baby cook. After its done, your Sim just serves it up! It’s very disturbing to think that somewhere out there a fan of the game thought that this is exactly what the game was missing!
NEXT: The Sims: Each Occult, Ranked From Worst To Best
The most unusual Sims 4 challenges
Content
- No amenities
- Hurry!
- Alphabetical Family
- Decades
- Homeless
- Wolf Pack
We talked about the darkest Sims 4 challenges, now let’s talk about the unusual ones. We have already talked about some of them separately, and we will tell about some in the future. Each challenge has a unique set of rules that define the core aspects of your gameplay. These rules can be funny and fun, or they can be just hard!
Read our Top 6 most unusual Sims 4 challenges that we have put together on SimsBase especially for you.
No amenities
The Island Living expansion has given us a lot of fun new features in the game. From a brand new, tropical island world to mermaids, and even a new No Amenities lot property, this pack has a ton of fun and exciting game elements.
Challenge offers to settle on a lonely island located in the center of the archipelago. In this case, the property of the site is not deleted by the player, and the heroes have to survive in this place. Sims must earn money in non-traditional ways, such as selling collectibles and doing odd jobs (part-time jobs). Let’s consider it separately.
Hurry up!
Some Sims 4 dynasty challenges take a long time to complete. Many players don’t like to rush into the game, go to great lengths to develop their character’s skills and career, and additionally play different sims before settling down with one hero. In other words, they are preparing the scene of the Legacy.
Challenge «Hurry up!» offers players to go through the dynasty very quickly.
The rules are basically the same as any other similar challenge, except that the lifespan is set to a short duration, so players have very little time to settle down and create an heir. Of course, we will also tell you the conditions.
Alphabetical family
For some people, choosing names for all their characters and their children is the hardest part of the game. There are a lot of names in the world, in books and films, and how many derivatives you can think of can not be counted. You know, it’s hard to pick just one that’s perfect for each of our toddlers!
In the Alphabet Family Challenge, players are asked to name each of the babies born in their Sim’s family with a new letter of the alphabet, going from A to Z. For example, Anya, Boris (Bella), Victoria\Vlad, etc. Further. When the alphabet ends, you can start over, but most importantly, without repeating names. This test may be accompanied by achievements and points, or maybe not — as the player himself will be interested.
And, yes, we will tell you about additional conditions separately.
Decades
For Sims 4 players who love a really fun, creative game, playing the Decades Challenge can be a lot of fun. The game starts with your Sim living in the 1890s, and each new generation of the dynasty is a new decade. Each decade has its own rules and restrictions, which makes this challenge very interesting!
How many decades will your Sim’s family last? It’s an interesting challenge and a fun way to see your Sim’s family grow over the years! We have already talked about it separately.
Homeless
The Homeless challenge is not for all Sims 4 players. This challenge is definitely not easy and has some really unique, complex rules that the player must meticulously follow throughout the game.
The player starts on an empty lot without a house. Unlike other challenges that allow the player to start from a house and use cheat codes to build a starter house, this challenge involves a Sim who has nothing.
It is this challenge that we will talk about in the future, but we already had similar ones. For example: Conquest of distant lands, Genesis (although a small house is needed there).
Wolf Pack
Sims 4 fans got excited after the release of Cats & Dogs with pets and a vet! This challenge is almost entirely tied to this expansion, as are Pet Pedigree and Pet Lover.
Hero Sim lives alone with six dogs and an angry raccoon! The Sim must live on the lot (in the house at all times) and make a living for themselves and their pets while the raccoon tries to thwart their plans. After the raccoon leaves, the challenge ends. How long will your Sim survive in these conditions? Try this challenge, we will definitely tell you about it.
Which challenge to tell first and which one second? We are waiting for your list of the sequence of familiarization with the rules!
Top 10 Sims 4 Challenges
The Sims 4 gets a lot more interesting when you set yourself a specific challenge.
Here are the top 10 fan-created custom challenges!
Life simulation games like The Sims 4 are great fun for the player in the first hours of gameplay, but after learning the basic functions, it’s easy to get bored. When a player sets goals for himself and builds his own stories, it’s fun and unusual. If your own imagination is not enough, fan tests will come to the rescue.
Challenges are a great way to shake up the gameplay and discover parts of The Sims that usually go unnoticed. Challenges have been part of the game’s fan community for a long time, ever since the second part of the franchise. They have their own rules, topics and requirements. Some of them take place over several generations of characters, while others are only part of the life of one Sim. 9Ol000 Dynasty
Dynasty is a classic challenge in The Sims community, one of the first to go viral. Challenge rules are simple: one Sim must be a Founder and created in CAS (Character Creation Mode).
This hero needs to be moved to the largest empty lot in the world. It is forbidden to use any cheat codes (except when using them to fix a game bug, such as getting stuck in textures). The founder must have children who will continue his dynasty. The test ends when the tenth generation is born.
The Dynasty challenge is often used as the basis for other quests. In addition, with its help you can win back the story of the enrichment of the family. There are different variations of this test with additional conditions. For example, you can forbid girls to be heirs, or establish a character trait of a dynasty. Then only the Sim who has this trait will be able to inherit.
Black Widow
The Black Widow Challenge is a story about romance and money. Players create a young or adult female Sim and place her in the house. She is not allowed to get a job. All her money must come from suitors.
The goal of the challenge is to find a male Sim, preferably rich, and marry him.
Throw a dinner party, find your next lover, get caught cheating, and kill your husband. The cycle continues until the black widow survives ten lovers and becomes fabulously wealthy. As a bonus requirement, the Sim must possess the Practical, Skeptic, and Romantic traits. Only «Serial Romantic» can be chosen as an Aspiration.
100 Kids
The 100 Kids Challenge has also become a classic in The Sims community. The challenge is for one character to have 100 offspring.
There are several variations of this challenge that either make it a little easier or a little harder. A simpler option is to “stretch” the challenge over several generations, when the daughters of the heroine can continue her undertakings. If you want to complicate the quest, then the mother is forbidden to go to work, and from one man it is allowed to have only one child (or twins, triplets, if randomly decided so).
Dumpster Challenge
To pass Dumpster Challenge, you need to buy a trash can and set the family’s money supply to 0.
After that, the Sim survives on everything that is in this dumpster (or on any public lot). This includes food and all furniture.
Additional rules include no showers in the gym or use of other public areas for anything else. Everything you use must be taken from the dumpster. This challenge requires The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle expansion pack.
Older sister (or brother)
Thanks to the patch, teens can now live on the lot alone, without adults. This opened the door to new interesting twists in the story and unusual gameplay possibilities. Also a new challenge was born — an older sister (or brother).
To start this challenge, you need to create a family of one teenager and one child or toddler. They must be relatives. The challenge is for the older sister to raise the child and create a home for her brother or sister. She needs to set a life goal of «Happy Family», and character traits are not limited in any way. This challenge is great for any kind of sisterhood story and has great potential for both dramatic and heartwarming scenarios.
Runaway Teenager
The same patch for Teenagers also made the Runaway Teenage Challenge possible. This challenge assumes the presence of a family of only one teenager. It tells the story of a teenager who ran away from home, with all the difficulties involved.
The player is offered either to move from lot to lot, or they can choose the land for themselves and settle down on it. A teenager is not allowed to communicate with an adult. You can only talk to children and other teenagers. The player must be truant from school and will not be able to get a part-time job. A teenager can earn money by fishing, gardening and digging. Once the Sim is young and earns enough money to live in the house, they can find a job. The challenge is to build something out of nothing while at a social disadvantage.
Berry Challenge
The Berry Challenge is a reimagining of the Dynasty challenge. Here, each generation stands out with its color and unique features.
Your Sim’s hair, clothing, skin color, make-up, and home decor must match the color chosen for them. Each generation and color has its own set of personality traits and goals.
An alternative to the Berry Challenge is called «Not So Berry». It does not change skin color. If you don’t want your Sims to be hot pink or blue, this might be a more viable option. In any case, the rules of this challenge are a nice refreshment to the classic dynastic challenge.
Disney Princesses
The Disney Princess Challenge is another variation on the Dynasties theme. Each generation tells its own story based on different Disney princesses.
This task is fun because it has a lot of story potential. I want to not only create a dynasty, but also win back my princess, and this helps to treat the limitations with understanding. Ten generations of Disney style will give The Sims 4 fans dozens of hours of fun.
Off Grid
The Off Grid challenge means that the character will live in an area completely cut off from the outside world.
This means cutting off all municipal services, including electricity and water sources. While this results in lower utility bills, it also comes with a host of challenges that need to be overcome.
Certain DLCs help solve this challenge and make it more fun, such as Laundry Day, Jungle Adventure, Green Living, and Island Living. These packs are not needed to live offline thanks to the patch, but they contain items that will certainly make survival easier and help you not rely on the local government.
Decades
Decades is something like a combination of Dynasty and Offline challenges. This test consists of ten generations, each representing a different decade.
Most versions of this challenge start in the 1890s, which means the player will have to live without electricity or water for the first three generations or so. Each generation should dress in the style of its decade and build and decorate their homes accordingly.
