The Purge Challenge
What Is The Purge Challenge?
The aliens are back with a vengeance in Sims 4!
Approximately 3 months ago, alien spacecraft swarmed the skies capturing a multitude of living organisms, including sims, for horrific experimentation. As time passed, their dark purpose became clear. Through their advanced knowledge of genetic engineering, the aliens unleashed a massive contaminate on the world's food supply followed immediately by EMT bursts to scramble electronic devices. Nearly half of all produce farms became tainted overnight. Any sim ingesting contaminated food suffered a painful death. Within a week's time, infrastructure collapsed. Within a month, the only "law" in play was martial. Businesses closed, services were shut down, the devastation was horrifying and the aliens had barely lifted a finger. If that weren't enough, they began sending out scouter drones to locate the survivors and finish the job.
A small band of survivors are huddled together trying to endure these darkest of times. Can you help them outlast the alien threat and battle them back to the hell they came form? Let's find out!
SEtting Up
Step One: The World
This step is super easy to complete. Start a new game in Oasis Landing. No modifications need to be made. Job done.
Step Two: The Survivors
If you've ever watched an episode of the Walking Dead or a survival reality TV show, you know there are certain categories of survivors. Each survivor has good points and bad and brings unique tools and objectives to the group.
Roll a random number between 1 and 18 six times. If you roll a number you already have, re-roll. Go ahead and set up the 6 survivors in CAS and proceed to the next step for assigning traits.
Each survivor type has a specific job they are the best at. While you can use other survivors to fill a void in some cases, they will never do the job as well.
The table below reveals everything you need to know about a role in one convenient location. Use the following key to interpret the headings:
# - The role number used when rolling dice. I.e., if you are setting up the challenge and roll a 16, one of your survivors is a teacher, etc.
ROLE - Name of the assigned survivor role.
TRAIT - Static trait associated with that role (see SETUP)
ITEM - Item that role brings to the base at setup.
NOTE - Brief description of the role and how the influence the base/challenge.
GOAL - Main objective.
REWARD - Obtained when all goals listed for that survivor are completed.
SUB - Substitute for some role functions if you do not have anyone in that role.
SR - Survivor Rating assigned to that role based on their ability to defend themselves (see General Rules).
A WORD ABOUT TEACHERS
If you have a teacher in your group, please read the following carefully. If it seems to complex, just remove the teacher from your challenge.
Teachers may assume one role that you do not have at any given time (only one, you cannot have the teacher learning cooking and gardening at the same time, etc.) They are never as good as the intended role they are learning and can never complete the goal for that role UNLESS they give up being a teacher.
Once a teacher reaches a skill of 7 related to a particular role, either one of two things will occur:
The teacher takes on that role permanently and may never return to the teacher role.
Train another survivor for the role. For example, if you do not have a chef, your teacher can learn the cooking skill. Once she reaches a cooking skill of 7, she can either become the chief or take that useless model you have and convert her into a chief. The model (now chef) gets to start at a skill of 3 in cooking (use the appropriate cheats or mods for setting skills). Once the teacher trains someone to assume a role, she can no longer perform it (and may move on to learning a new role). If a previous role is vacated (i.e. the model-->chef dies), the teacher can go back and assume those duties but cannot continue to learn her new skill until that position is filled.
Note that there are some roles the teacher simply cannot learn (like thief which requires the klepto trait). Here is a quick guide for assuming roles. Also, once the teacher arrives in your group, you may choose one starting item from one of the roles (i.e. microscope for the biologist, stove for the chef, etc.) Once you fill that role with someone, choose the next to be learned and place the starting item for that role if it is a skill developing device only.
If a role is not listed, the teacher CANNOT learn it/fill in:
Biologist - Raise Logic to 7 - No microscopic prints obtained by the teacher apply to the collection.
Chef - Raise Cooking to 7 - May prepare hot meals BUT each serving requires the recipe's stated ingredient (instead of 2 servings per ingredient for a chef).
Computer Guru - Raise Programming to 7 - Place the cheapest computer. Will not gain any benefit to BDR, etc. that an official computer guru would bring.
Leader - Raise Charisma to 7 - Should have at least one mirror in your base, may not use a teacher as a leader replacement in events. May not recruit.
Mad Scientist - Raise Rocket Science to 7 - Once a new mad scientist is trained, the training rocket used by the teacher must be discarded and a new one placed for the new scientist UNLESS the teacher becomes the mad scientist officially.
Pro Athlete - Raise Fitness to level 7 - May not perform lookout function
Handyman - Raise Handiness to Level 7 - Place a workbench. May repair (but not upgrade) items around the base and may use the bench to create sculptures (but not furniture).
Hippie Prepper - Raise Gardening OR Fishing to 7 - May either garden or fish (but not both) following rules outlined in the food restriction section for a hippie. HOWEVER, every other day (after the event), roll 1-100. If the result is 30 or below, a random sim becomes sick (since the teacher is only learning the hippie role, she has a 30% chance of mishandling the process and bad food making it into the colony. A sick survivor is bedridden for 2 days (1 day if you have the biologist). If the teacher is gardening, start her with 1 package of fruit and 1 package of vegetable seed.
Step Three: THEIR ASPIRATIONS
Go ahead and assign any aspirations that seem appropriate for each survivor.
Step Four: Their Traits
So you've got that badass ex-military guy looking all pimp and loaded for bear, but we all know you can't judge a book by it's cover. Each survivor has a a static (must have), random good, and random bad trait.
STATIC TRAITS
See ROLES section above
POSITIVE TRAIT
Not all positive traits are listed as some didn't seem appropriate or were restricted to certain survivors.
Roll between 1 – 17 for each survivor and assign the appropriate trait:
(1) Active; (2) Cheerful; (3) Creative; (4) Goofball; (5) Romantic; (6) Self-Assured;
(7) Art Lover; (8) Bookworm; (9) Geek; (10) Music Lover; (11) Perfectionist;
(12) Loves Outdoors; (13) Neat; (14) Bro; (15) Good; (16) Family Oriented: (17) Outgoing
NEGATIVE TRAIT
Roll between 1 - 16 for each survivor to determine their negative trait.
(1) Gloomy; (2) Hot Headed; (3) Childish; (4) Clumsy; (5) Glutton; (6) Insane; (7) Lazy;
(8) Materialistic; (9) Slob; (10) Snob; (11) Squeamish; (12) Evil; (13) Hates Children;
(14) Loner; (15) Mean; (16) Noncommittal
Step Five: Their Relationships
You may choose the relationships or random them as well. I recommend starting with at least one couple.
Step Six: The Base
Your merry band of survivors should set up shop in a location other than a traditional house. Clear a 30x20 lot (one should already be free) and download #purgechallenge. You may edit this if you like (set them up in a factory, prison, clinic, whatever) but the starting furnishings cannot change. I've even left you a half eaten bowl of fruit salad on the table in case you get desperate :)
In addition, most of your survivors will bring something with them to add to the base. See the ROLES section for the item each role brings with them. NOTE: You may need to use the bb.ignoregameplayunlocksentitlement cheat to access some of these items.
If you have a chef, the kitchen should be locked to all but them. If you do not have a chef, the designated cook should only have access.
Use of the computer is EXTREMELY limited and dangerous. Only the leader and computer guru should have access and only as needed. Keep the room locked to everyone at all other times.
You may not have ANY lights at the start. The power is out. Sims using plumbing is considered using water they scavenged.
YOU ARE READY TO GO!
General Rules
BASE DEFENSE RATING (BDR)
There are only two statistics you need to remember in this challenge. Base Defense Rating (BDR on here for short) is the total amount of defense your have amassed at your base. Your brand new base (before any survivors are added) has a BDR of 2. This number goes up and down based on the type of survivors you have at your base, event, etc. I recommend keeping a notepad with a list of what your BDR is and how you calculated that number as you may need to adjust it on the fly if you get attacked while someone is out or bedridden. Note that general sicknesses (the random ones the game generates if you have Get to Work (GTW), do not change your defense rating. Only the "bedridden" status inflicted by some events will change a defense due to illness.
FIGURING IT OUT
Let's say I started with an ex-marine, handyman, chief, hippie, model, and leader. Not a bad setup (except for the model). On the second day, I sent my hippie to another neighborhood for fishing/harvesting wild plants. Taking a look a the ROLES section, I see that my leader and chef don't contribute to my base defense rating so I'll send them with him for backup. My random event happens to take place shortly after they leave and as my luck has it, we are attacked at the base.
Here is now I would calculate my base defense:
BASIC DEFENSE (+2) - Just for having a base, the BDR can never be below 2.
WHO IS HOME:
EX-MARINE (+2) - The ex-marine built a wall around my base on Day 1 thank goodness.
MODEL (0) - Yeah...enough said
HANDYMAN (+1) - He used wood to reinforce the wall.
OFF LOT - Right now my hippie is traveling so his -1 BDR doesn't apply (thank goodness)
BEDRIDDEN (0) - We are just starting out, no one has been incapacitated by an event
OTHER (0) - I don't have any special circumstances, etc. to add to my base defense.
TOTAL (5)
Today's event says our attackers are just two drones with a rating of 4. My guys at he base beat them handily and all is well. If it had been more serious, we wouldn't have been so lucky. Even had the hippie been home, our base defense would have been 4 and we would have still eeked out a win.
If this seems too overwhelming, you can do one of the following to simply:
Disregard the whole off lot/on lot/bedridden aspect and have a more static rating.
Throw out the whole BDR system and just roll random 1-100 for each encounter, whoever gets higher wins. I don't like this because it doesn't reward you for hard work but at the end of the day, the challenge is for your enjoyment. Do what works for YOU.
SURVIVABILITY RATING (SR)
When you are out scavenging, you risk getting attacked by aliens, thugs, etc. You do NOT need to roll on the table for leaving the lot if your sim isn't leaving the neighborhood area. If you have to use the in-game travel system (with load screen) then you must roll. Biologists who wish to go to the outdoor retreat zone to spend one day per week collecting herbalism ingredients only need to roll when they arrive.
NOTE: Make your encounter role right before you travel to home.
FIGURING IT OUT
in our example above, three of my team members are traveling (that hippie, our chef, and the leader).
Using the table under ROLES, I take he SR number listed in the very last column and add those up.
HIPPIE PREPPER (+2)
CHIEF (+2)
LEADER (+2)
TOTAL: 6
We're pretty solid but looks like our luck just went form bad to worse. We get into a nasty fight thanks to the encounter table and our foes have a rating of 7. Unfortunately there was no alternative and one of our team suffered a fatal wound. Here's how we figure out who:
Step 1: Assign a number to each party member (I always do so from left to right using the panel at the bottom of the screen with everyone's picture. In this example, I'll say the Hippie is 1, Chief is 2, and Leader is 3.
Step 2: Use a RNG to roll a random number between 1 and 3.
Step 3: I got a 2 so my Chef has died! He is removed form the household IMMEDIATELY and I do not get to remove any of his personal belongings.
Step 4: My two remaining survivors make a run for it and get home safely. They get to keep their stash (but now we don't have a chef to prepare a hot meal)
If only I had brought that damn model...Her SR of 1 would have been enough to tie us up which means a win. She wasn't doing any good sitting home either.
Adding New Survivors
At various points in the challenge, you may have the option to add a new survivor to the team. Unless otherwise specified by the event, you may not customize their traits, regardless of what role they will fill.
The easiest way to add a sim is through merging a household from the gallery. Select someone that looks like they fit the bill without looking at their traits/ambition.
LEADER RULES: If you do not have a leader, you must depend on getting a random event to recruit a new member into the fold. If you DO have a leader, you have another option! Have your leader use the computer and request a pen pal. Once one has answered, communicate with them via secure frequency (or at least that's what I'm calling it). Request a postcard as soon as the option presents itself. Once you have two unique postcards from pen pals (ones you do not already have in your collection) you you will be able to recruit one person. At this point, make a roll on the list of survivors (under the ROLES section or use the table in the ROLES section). As a leader, you get one attempt to inspire the outcome by re-rolling based on your charisma (Charisma 1-5 is 1 re-roll, Charisma 6-10 is 2 re-rolls). If you get something you don't want, you may use your re-roll(s) but you MUST accept the final roll.
Thieving for Dummies
Here are the rules your thief must live by:
If you are booted out of a property, you may not return to it. The dwellers will not want you around their stash of goodies.
It's encouraged that you practice your mischief skill and gain a few points before attempting to rob people blind.
You may not steal large objects (cannot be concealed) until your Mischief skill is level 8 or above and no one is between you and the exit. No sim is going to watch you walk out the door with their bed strapped to your back. Even if you "succeed" at the swipe, if you don't make it out of the house without entering a room with another sim, you can't keep it.
You may open refrigerators and place food in-world to be taken later. You may also steal prepared meals if the sim leaves the room. I had a sim prepare a large meal and stupidly leave it on the bathroom counter. I immediately rushed in, shoo'd her out to use the potty, and took the food instead (mwahahahaha).
Feel free to harvest any food you find in someone's backyard. You do have to adhere to the food restriction (if it is still in place) but it does not count toward your daily quota of wild/grown harvests.
You must enter homes alone. You can bring backup for better group survivability but they cannot enter other homes or assist the thief in any way while stealing (I.e. distracting the residents).
Finally, and most importantly, if you get caught stealing (even if they don't kick you out) you can't keep the loot.
Noone Is Coming
You may not call for any type of service. There are no police & fire departments responding to calls. You will have to deal with your own problems. You may not install any alarms.
Kids & Teens
Keep children home (if there is a mod to do so) otherwise assume that they are somewhere brushing up on their studies during school hours. You will only need to keep their grades high enough to avoid the social worker. Keep in mind that only the housewife role may bear children. All other women are considered sterilized by the aliens.
Aging
Set aging to on and set the age range to normal.
Books
There are no bookstores or even online marketplaces to buy books. You may not use books to raise skills unless your thief gets lucky and swipes a skill book from another lot.
No Fancy Furnishings
Ask yourself, where would you buy a new bed in an apocalypse? Stores would be cleaned out, and manufacturers would stop making them. You may only acquire furniture in this challenge by three means:
Your handyman can make certain items on the workbench (toilet, table, etc.)
Your thief can steal furniture (see "Thieving for Dummies:" above.
You trade Nick the Peddler for it
Some new survivors will bring furnishings
Burning Money
Money is irrelevant in this challenge. You can use money cheats all you like; however, there isn't much you can actually buy that's worth anything with rare exception.
No Playing Good
You may not, under any circumstances, intentionally kill undesirable survivors or pick a survivor you want to get rid of when it comes time for someone to die. Sims should always be selected at random.
Full House
You may wish to invest in a mod that allows more than 8 sims in a house. It's not required, but it can be handy if you are desperate for a particular role.
Closed for Business
All community lots are closed for business. You may visit them but you cannot eat any food there, participate in any services they used to provide and the insides of all business have been thoroughly looted.
Trade
TRADING WITH NICK
If you choose to attack Nick (whether you succeed or fail) you will not be able to trade with him again. If you roll one of his events, re-roll.
Trading is pretty simple. Nick only deals in a few forms of "currency" and he has assigned a value for each. When he offers something for trade, he will provide it's value. To trade, you must produce goods equivalent to that value (it doesnt matter if you give him 5 applies or a large spece rock, as long as your end equals his price).
Leaders can apply their Charisma score to renegotiate the deal.
Charisma Table:
1 – 5: 10% reduction
6 – 8: 20% reduction
9 – 10: 30% reduction
For example, a leader with a Charisma of 7 purchasing a product Nick values at 40 would get a 20% discount. 20% of 40 is 8 (making the renegotiated cost 32).
Items with a (*) mean Nick will only accept only one per event (he only has the one horse you know).
If you can think of anything else, you can add it. Objects MUST be valuable to you and more expensive items must be harder to come by.
Events
RANDOM EVENTS
Every other day you must roll on the event table between 4AM-6AM. You may increase this to daily for added challenge.
Note that you will often be asked to "randomly select" a survivor to be affected by something. In those situations, I just assign each a number based on the order of their portraits at the bottom of the screen and then make a roll from 1 to however many survivors I have. You may never just "pick" someone. If you don't want to random, you'll have to always choose your most valuable survivor.
Random 1 – 100
(1 – 2): One of your sims has become gravely ill. Randomly select one of your survivors to be affected. If you have a biologist, the sim is bedridden for two days (cannot perform any tasks beyond basic needs). If you do not have a biologist, the sim passes away (remove them from the lot, you may take items in their inventory).
(3 - 5): One of your survivors fell in the yard and hit their head on a rock and now has total amnesia. Re-roll their role and designate traits using the rules in the SETUP section and ROLES table.
(6-10): You had a bit of luck today while looking for food. Use the bb.showhiddenobjects cheat and type in the desired food in the search box (I.e. tomato, bell pepper, onion, lettuce, etc. If you already have everything, harvest double what you normally would from one plant (I.e. during restriction, harvest two grapes instead of one, etc.).
(11-15): Bad luck, one of your beds just broke beyond repair. Discard it.
(16-20): You awaken to noises coming from the street near your base. It's two alien tracking drones looking for sims! If everyone is inside the base and not making any noise, the drones pass by without event. If anyone is outside or moving around inside, you are discovered. The drones attack you at a 4. If your base can withstand it, you manage to put them down without incident. If your base defenses are below 4, you manage to take them out but not before they wipe out your entire garden!
(21-25): HIPPIE REQUIRED. If you don't have one, re-roll. Dammit, the fridge went out and no one noticed. You awaken to the rancid smell of spoiled food. Remove ALL food from your fridge (raw and prepared) and discard it. The hippie will get it fixed soon so start storing fresh food right away.
(26-30): Over an early breakfast you hear a knock at the door to your base. Everyone draws a weapon and prepares for the worst only to discover a rolly polly man with a horse and 2 bigger men behind him. The horse is carrying a large sack. He introduces himself as Nick the Peddler and asks if you are interested in trading. What do you do?
-- Attack: Compare Nick's survivability (8) to the survivability of everyone who is currently at home. If your total exceeds 8. If you win, get the contents of Nick's bag.
-- Trade: Today, Nick's pack contains:
OBJECT (VALUE)
1 cot (20)
2 of each of onion, tomato, and potato (costs 2 each)
1 large space rock (7)
1 plumbing upgrade part (5)
1 common upgrade part (5)
1 small generator that runs one small light source (30)
1 small light (cheapest) (5)
See the TRADE section for exchange rates.
-- Not Today: Politely tell Nick you don't need anything today but please stop by another time.
(31 – 35): Nick shows up at your base again but this time he only has one item for trade, a medium sized generator and 2 accompanying light sources (cheapest lights)! He's trading it for a song and dance at a mere cost of 50! You have the same options as the ones stated directly above; however, if you attack him, he only has the generator and lights today.
(36 – 40): Your cook awakes early today and heads to the kitchen to start breakfast. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots a face staring at him through the window!! With a jump he runs from the kitchen and wakes everyone up. It's not even light out yet. Some of your group go outside to investigate and find a young man standing at the garden consuming today's ripe vegetables (if you have one). You may:
-- Get angry and throw the guy out immediately (you'll lose half of today's vegetable harvest)
-- Listen to him while he polishes off the veggies. Looks like he might just be what you've been looking for! You'll lose all of today's veggie harvest from the garden but you'll potentially gain a missing role. Look at the list of roles at the very top of this challenge and remove any that you already have (you can keep ex-marine in if you like, can never have too many). You should have a good shot at getting something you need. Also, your new sim can be male or female but must keep their traits (if downloaded from the gallery) or be assigned random ones if you design him/her yourself.
(41 – 45): HIPPIE REQUIRED. If you don't have one, re-roll.
Dammit, your hippie prepper is stoned off his ass today. You found him passed out in the spinach patch. He's not going to be able to tend the garden at all today. Your other sims are too afraid of messing up your most important food source to jump in.
(46 – 50): You awaken to find a small basket of ripe red apples on your doorstep. It's either the work of a conscientious survivor or something up to no good. What will you do?
-- Toss 'em. Better safe than sorry I say
-- Choose a sim at random and have them take a bite (random 1 – 3 below)
(1) The apple was black inside. Your sim becomes deathly ill and is out of commission for two days (1 if you have a biologist).
(2) The apple was juicy and delicious. Add 4 apples to your stockpile (bb.showhiddenobjects).
(3) The apple is exceptionally yummy and your sim feels a warm sensation as he swallows the bite. Looks like it was treated with some kind of potion. There is enough for all of your sims and they all have their needs set to full (use testing cheats and shift+click the mailbox, choose make household happy).
(51 – 55): You hear gunshots in the darkened early morning hours and jump to your feet, reaching for the weapon you keep under your cot. Suddenly you hear an explosion as the front door to your crashes in and 3 big buys are right behind it. Gunshots ricochet off of walls and equipment. You are under attack and your attackers have an impressive rating of 6.
-- if your base defense is 6 or higher...You beat them back...somehow. The last one standing lets out a blood curdling scream as your bullet catches him in the eye and he falls lifeless. A quick search of the bodies reveals some usable weapons and some kevlar vests. Your base defense goes up by 1 point.
-- if your base defense is lower...You manage to catch one guy in the shoulder while your friend standing nearby nails another. Before the three guy turns to run, the leader shoots and catches your buddy right between the eyes, killing him instantly! Make a random check to see which survivor is killed. That person is gone. You must remove their personal items and kick them from the house.
(56 – 60): You are on patrol this morning and spot a dark figure near the base and sneaks up behind him. He sees the man using a crowbar trying break his way into the front door. You startle him by demanding that he put his hand up or you'll shot him on the spot. He drops the crowbar and puts both hands on his head. As he begins to speak, you realize this guy isn't a man at all but a teenage boy. He stutters, "look man, I didn't realize anyone lived here, I'm just trying to survive". After a brief conversation, you know the boy's parents were killed by aliens and he has been surviving on his own. Turns out he is handy with tools (you notice he almost had the door open) and could grow up to be an excellent handyman or even possibly a thief. You can either let him go (inspection reveals he had only the crowbar) or add a teen (boy or girl) to your group and either choose to mentor them as a future handyman or thief. The teen becomes a young adult in 5 days.
(61 – 70): REQUIRES MODEL. If you do not have one, re-roll. It was bound to happen. This chick is a real flake and she's not only going to get herself killed, she's going to take everyone else with her. Against the rules, she secretly left the base last night to meet up with a young man from a nearby colony to do god knows what. Turns out she couldn't keep your secrets to herself and the other colony decides to kidnap the girl and ransom her off to you for all of your food. What do you do?
-- Let them have her...Find the nearest occupied home that has at least one sim of the opposite sex and use household management to move her. Doing this doesn't sit well with everyone in your group and the drop in morale costs you –1 to your base defense rating.
-- Let them have the food...Clear out your fridge to get your prom queen back.
-- Send in the leader...If you have one, have your leader try to talk the situation down. For every point of charisma, he has a 10% chance of success. Random 1-100 and if the number is equal to or less than his chance of success, the model is returned and the event is over. Otherwise, make another choice.
-- Fight...Find the nearest occupied home with at least one sim of the opposite gender (from the model). For every member of the household, add 2 to their rating (if there is only one person, he has a rating of 4). If you have two nearby houses that fit the description, choose the one with more people. You tell them you are willing to trade and they show up at your base with your bound and gagged model (why didn't you think of that). If your base is stronger than that rating, you win. If your base rating is not high enough, this is not a valid option for you. When you get her back, the model decides to change her ways and fill a more needed role. Have her re-roll on the roles table. If you get model again, keep re-rolling until you get something different. You may then use CAS to edit her traits according to the directions under SETUP and the ROLES table.
(70 – 75): BIOLOGIST REQUIRED. If you do not have a biologist, re-roll. Looks like all of that time spent examining plant slides under the microscope has paid off. You have enough materials to create one dose of medication (purchase from the computer).
(76 – 80): HANDYMAN REQUIRED. If you do not have one, re-roll. All of that work on the workbench has paid off. You've managed to find a way to fortify the base even more! If you do not have an ex-marine, you create a makeshift base-wall out of wood that adds +1 to your base defense. Otherwise, just add +1 to base defense.
(81 – 85): Is that a cat dying? Your curiosity gets the better of you as you open the front door early this morning and peer into the darkness. Nothing...as you go to close the door, you hear it again, coming directly from your feet. You spy a bassinet. What do you do?
-- carry the bassinet to someone else's house and leave it...think of it like a chain letter, pass it on.
-- take the baby in. Download a sim with a newborn, merge with your family, and then boot the adult. This baby takes on the "young child" role.
(86 – 90): Got a collection quest goal that is making you nuts? Well today is your lucky day. Use bb.showhiddenitems to find ONE collection item you are missing and add it to the world!
(91 – 95): The worst has happened, they KNOW you are here. You missed the early detection scouts and have been awakened this morning by an army of aliens coming your way! You only have two choices...
-- FIGHT...You're facing an enemy rating of 10. If you base has a matching or better defense, you manage to beat the crap out of them. If not...well you actually only have ONE choice...
-- FLIGHT...You've got no choice. They are going to be here any minute. Give yourself one minute (set a timer if you need to), starting when you finish reading this paragraph, to get as much of your belongings as you can into your household inventory. Note that you cannot take rockets with you and your sims would not have time to carefully pull plants out of the ground so your garden is toast. Items your sim brought with them at challenge start are required (i.e. microscope, computer, etc.) and may be put into inventory or replaced. Once time is up, immediately move your sims to an empty lot and set up a new home. The starting conditions have to be identical to those in STEP THREE of this challenge although you can choose a different building (clinic, factory, prison, etc.). Good luck and don't forget your collection items!
(96 – 100): Choose a sim at random. That person is having a great day and you can raise one of their skills by 1 using Stats.set_skill_level major_X with X being the level of skill.
Encounters
Every time your survivors leave the immediate area of their base (by using the travel system involving a loading screen) they risk their lives for potential food and supplies.
See the GENERAL RULES section for a description of how to calculate your "away team's" Survival Rating (SR). If your group's SR is equal to or higher than the enemy rating, you succeed. If not, you lose one of your comrades (chosen at random) and any personal belongings they had on their body. Your surviving sims immediately return to base with whatever they managed to scavenge.
Random 1 – 100
(1 – 5): You run into a nasty group of thugs with a rating of 6. If you win, they did not have anything on them of value.
(6 - 10): It's a peaceful day of scavenging for you; however, the same can't be said for your base. While you've been out, a band of thugs showed up at the front door insisting that the "rent" is due. They tell whoever is home that if you don't turn over half of your food stash, they're taking it all. If no one is home, they break in, harvest everything in the garden, clean out the fridge, and do some serious damage to the place reduce the defense rating by 1. If there are more people traveling than at the base, reduce your base defense for this encounter by one point.
-- Comply with their demands and give them half of the food you have in the fridge
-- If you have a leader at the base and wish to comply, he/she works their charisma mojo and convinces them to take a third instead of half.
-- Scare them off (requires a base defense of 6 or higher.
--- Kick their butts (requires base defense of 7 or higher) and take THEIR stuff (2 tomoatos and 2 apples)
(11 - 15): You encounter a big, beefy, biker shouting in some scrawny guy's face demanding all his loot. Reminds you of the jocks picking on nerds back in high school. The larger man looks tough and has a rating of 5. If your group can beat that, you haul him off the nerd and give him one of those "behind the shed" beatings. The nerd is grateful as he clutches a box containing his most treasured possession, a computer. Turns out he is a computer guru but he is looking for a group that can defend him.
-- If your base defense rating (with everyone home and active) is 6 or higher, he joins you eagerly joins your colony if you like.
-- If your base defense is 5 or less, he will not join you but if you beat up the bully, he will give you the grilled cheese sandwiches packed neatly in his Star Wars lunch box. Have your chef prepare a serving of 4 grilled cheese sandwiches. If you don't have one, temporarily add a stove so someone else can make them or make 4 servings of a cold dish that doesn't require ingredients.
(16 - 20): You didn't realize it at the time but one of your sims (the one with the most food in their inventory) mistakenly kept a piece of contaminated food they harvested thinking it was clean. The contamination has spread to all food items in this person's inventory and everything has to be trashed.
(21 - 25): It looks like the pressure has gotten to someone. They are running around nearby waving a gun threatening to take everyone out (including themselves). Damn sims and their insanity trait. If you have an insane sim in your group, he/she actually talks them down. Otherwise, the psycho keeps getting louder and louder until he finally points a gun in your direction. His rating is a 1. What do you do?
-- take him out...he's better off in the long run.
-- shoot him in the leg...he drops the gun and howls in agony calling you every name in the book. If you have a biologist in the group, he/she patches him up, you recover the mad man's gun, and he gratefully gives you a old, dirty, common upgrade part in appreciation. Otherwise, he limps off leaving a trail of blood in his wake without sharing his dirty plumbing parts.
(26 - 30): What a stroke of luck! While digging through a trashcan, you spot a hole in the nearby wall big enough to crawl through. Inside is someone's hideout (although it looks deserted). Among a few pieces of spoiled food and various broken objects, you find a cot! It 's going to take some work cleaning it up but you can take it with you and add it to your base or trade it the next time the peddler stops by.
(31 – 35): It's quiet as the grave out here, too quiet. As if on cue, two women come running out shooting pistols in your direction. Rating = 4. If you take them down, you discover one of them had 4 lemons tied up in her apron.
(36 - 40): What's that sound? The group stops and strains to listen. There it is again...you've heard that before...it almost sounds like DRONES you see them, three scout drones that have been following you trying to get you to lead them to your base. As soon as they jig is up, they attack at a rating of 6.
-- Win: If your group survival rating is 6 or better, you take them down. You rummage through their metallic corpses and find two common upgrade parts.
-- Draw: If your group rating is 5 and you have a biologist with you to patch you up on the fly, you manage to survive; however, select a survivor at random. That person is bedridden for one day.
-- Loose: You are massively outgunned but you manage to take one of them out. As if suddenly receiving different orders from "the mother ship", both remaining drones leap into the air and come down surrounding a random survivor in your group. They release some sort of stasis field around the sim, latch on to him, and fly away with the victim. Remove the sim from your household and lose any objects they had in their inventory.
(41 – 50): It's a nice, peaceful day with no one in sight. As you prepare to leave, you see a bucket sitting a little ways down on the side of the road. Upon further inspection, you see it's full of water and has two fish of your choice inside (use the bb.showhiddenitems to pick two common fish you have a recipe for).
(51 – 55): All hell breaks loose as you stumble into a gunfight between two rival colonies. What do you do?
-- Walk away quietly...best not to stick your nose where it doesn't belong
-- Pick the side that looks good to you and join the fight. A couple of guys from the other team peel off and charge you. Rating = 5. If you win, collect 3 items onions from a sack one was carrying (use the bb.showhiddenobjects cheat if needed)
-- Shoot em all...and let their maker sort them out. Gunmen from both sides turn to face you with a rating of 7. You and your allies take them down with ease and the few stragglers bolt off. A man in his 40s, long hair, wearing a colorful tie-dye t-shirt offers a friendly wave in your direction. Thanks a lot folks, they were fighting over who got my garden and storage shed. Getting' harder and harder for a man to make it out here. You look capable. Mind if I join your group? I'm not asking for a handout now. I have fresh fruits and vegetables from storage and I'm good at gardening and fishing. If you need a hippie in your group, now is your shot. He comes with 2 each of tomato, mushroom, strawberry, and apple seeds and the ice box fridge. If you already have a hippie, picking up another does not increase food production, but the extra fridge might come in handy with a trader (worth 20) and they can split up the chores between them.
(56 – 60): You pass what used to be a pizzeria and spot a chunky guy running across the lot screaming that he's being robbed. What do you do?
-- Not your problem...move on
-- Stop and try to help the man but the thugs look too tough for you (Rating = 7) but you give it your best shot and manage to drive them out of his base but one of your team (chosen at random) is badly injured and bedridden for two days (one if you have a biologist). In gratitude, he offers you a cooked meal (serves 8). He refuses the opportunity to join you stating he needs to find someone who can hold their own. If you have a chef, return home and have him prepare 8 servings of an item that doesn't take any ingredients. If not, temporarily place a stove and have someone else cook.
-- You've had enough of people being abused so you decide to kick their butts (available only if you can take down a rating 7 encounter). The man is very grateful but his place has been trashed. He tells you he is an experienced chef and is willing to join you since you obviously know what you are doing. If you allow him to join, he uses his remaining supplies to prepare a large meal for everyone (choose something that doesn't take any ingredients) and he brings the wood burning stove with him to your base (worth 20 to the peddler if you have an extra). If you don't need him, he'll still give you a hot meal that serves 8.
(61 - 69): ABDUCTION! You didn't even see it coming. The light appeared out of nowhere and you felt gravity release it's hold on your body. Select one traveler at random and then make another random roll from 1-100 and follow the instructions below:
-- 1 - 25: A nearby stranger saw the ship incoming and as soon as the ray of light appeared, knocked you out of the way. Unfortunately, the act of heroism caused the stranger to get locked in the beam and abducted in your place.
-- 26 - 50: There is nothing you can do, you see any allies you had with you scrambling to save you but it's too late, you are too high up. The aliens capture your sim and they are never seen again. Remove the sim from the household immediately and lose anything they had in their inventory.
-- 51 - 75: Your body is drawn closer and closer to the spaceship. You may go out, but you're going to take some of them with you! As soon as you arrive onboard the aliens throw you into a cell and experiment on you. No serious harm done yet. The next time one comes by to collect you, you punch it in the throat, drag it in your cell, and quickly change clothes making sure to cover your face with a helmet. Eventually you make it off the ship and back to your party. If a female sim was taken, she finds out she is pregnant with an alien child (males too if you know how to engineer that)). For females, just add a male alien from the gallery temporarily, get pregnant, and send them packing.
-- 76 - 100: Just as the ray of light cascades over you, another sim charges your way grabbing you and you both crash to the ground safely out of the light. Stunned and grateful, you realize that this is no ordinary person. He/she is charismatic, knows what they are doing, and knows how to take charge of a situation. S/he offers to join your group as Leader. If you accept, select a sim from the gallery and give them 3 points in Charisma using the skill cheat (listed under Tables > Cheats on this site if you need it) and add the computer (if you don't have oen) or an extra cot to your base. Your colony can only have one leader at any given time.
(71 – 90): Nothing noteworthy occurs.
(91 – 100): You stumble into a horde of aliens and they see you coming! Their rating is 10. This doesn't look good. If you manage to defeat them you retrieve a signal scrambler from one of their bodies. This allows you to avoid one alien fight (either traveling or at the base). You also recover 2 plumbing and 2 common upgrade parts from their armor. If you are not strong enough, follow the rules outlined for at the top of this page.
Restrictions
RESTRICTION 1 - FOOD
This restriction is intended to be severe. You should have the feeling that you can barely feed everyone once a day, let alone twice. Adding another mouth to feed should be a concern, at least until you clear the chef/hippie goal and/or this restriction.
HARVESTING
Fish: Only half of fish can be brought home (rounded down) and you may only fish for up to 2 hours a day. Keep in mind some fish cannot be eaten so check to make sure you can refrigerate before tossing. Discarding inedible fish does count. If you fish for two hours and yield 2 bass and 2 goldfish, the 2 goldfish can be discarded and the bass goes in the fridge.
Wild Plants: You may only harvest one wild plant of each vegetable and fruit variety per day (assuming you can find them). You may only keep one item per harvest (if you get 10, scrap 9 and keep one).
Gardening: If you are lucky enough to have the hippie, you may plant one of each type of veggie and fruit in your garden. Harvesting these does not count toward your harvest of wild plants but still only yields 1 veggie/fruit each time a plant is harvested. The other 9 must be discarded.
COOKING
The food that you do manage to scavenge is under size and doesn't go as far as it should. A recipe's listed ingredients only provides two servings. If you are making a family portion (4 servings), the ingredient cost is double. If preparing a party portion (8 servings) it is quadruples. FOOD THAT DOES NOT LIST INGREDIENTS MAY NOT BE PREPARED FOR THIS CHALLENGE (however your may have it if your thief swaps a plate from someone else).
--Example
If you want to prepare 8 servings of fish tacos (normally consumes one fish and one veg), you will need 4 fish and 4 veg. That will have meant catching 8 fish (to throw back 4) and harvest four veggie plants.
LIFTING THE RESTRICTION
Complete the Biologist and Mad Scientist goals. Once the restriction is lifted, you are able to keep all harvested/caught and dishes require only the listed ingredients.
OPTIONAL CHALLENGE
If the food situation doesn't seem that hard for you, consider adding seasons to your game (or at least pretend they are there). Plants may be harvested the first 3 weeks and the 4th week would be considered winter where plants are dormant. If you can do this, you're a better person than me. I was barely getting by until I lifted the restriction (and was especially sunk when my one sim got pregnant and immediately after, I got an event and a model joined my group...sigh).
RESTRICTION 2 - ELECTRICITY
You may not have any light source in your house. What little power you do have (from small generators) are used for running the computer, power tools, and scientific equipment. Your base should be pitch black at night until you a) meet Nick the Peddler and get an additional generator, or b) lift this restriction.
LIFTING THE RESTRICTION
Complete the goal for the mad scientist will allow you to use large and unusually large space rocks as a new source of energy. Large space rocks will produce power for one day while unusually large space rocks will last for three. Place the space rock on your lot (if you are using my base, there is a power box on an outside wall I sit mine next to) and when the time runs out, dispose the old and replace with a new if you have it. Do NOT try to pass off your drained space rocks on Nick the Peddler. He will see right through it. Just sell/destroy them when they are drained.
RESTRICTION 3 - COMFORT
You will most likely not have enough beds for all of your survivors. You should have a minimum of three beds and two love seats they can nap on at challenge start. Beds should be first come first serve. If someone "naps" in a bed, you can choose to intervene and have them sleep instead, but you cannot pick and choose who gets a bed and who doesn't (believe me, I wanted to choke slam the model who kept taking a bed from my more valuable survivors).
LIFTING THE RESTRICTION
This isn't a restriction as much as it is a circumstance. While the handyman can make some furniture items, they do not make beds. The most logical source will be from Nick the Peddler or your thief.
RESTRICTION 4 - INTERNET
The internet is being monitored carefully by the alien threat and only a skilled programmer can hack through without being caught. Your programmer should "practice" until he reaches level 10. If an unskilled sim connects to the internet (blogs, sends messages, browses, etc.) you must make a check to see if they are detected. Random 1-100. Anything 50 and below will result in an alien attack on the base at a rating ranging from 4 to 12 (you will have to random that as well). Put cell phones on silent and keep the computer room locked. The chance of attack only applies if you (the player) are careless. For example; you leave the door open or use the cell phone to call a sim, etc.
The following WILL NOT set off this restriction (no need to check for aliens):
If a sim randomly uses their phone without direction from you (just cancel the interaction)
Leader transmissions occur over their own secured wavelength. Pen pal contacts are OK.
If you send the leader/programmer into use the computer for their specific purpose and they end up browsing the net, sending random IMs, etc. Just cancel and set them back to task.
You may use the computer or cell to travel without issue
LIFTING THE RESTRICTION
Once you complete the goals for the Computer Guru and Mad Scientist, you may use the computer and cell phone as you see fit. The computer guru must continue to hack/program for at least an hour a day to keep the bonus to base defenses going from him.
It’s All Random
This challenge is heavily random including multiple instances where you will be asked to make a roll. To do this, you will need a Random Number Generator (RNG). Here are some suggestions:
A random number or dice app on your phone
Using actual dice
Cheats & Mods
This challenges does NOT require the use of mods. There are portions where it might be handy to have a mod, but everything can be accomplished with cheats.
For your convenience, I have included a "Cheats" section:
Occasionally this challenge does allow you to cheat. You can find a full list of cheat codes at http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/cheats.php. I'm only listing a few here that are needed for this challenge.
Note the MC Command Center mod is an even better solution but here are the cheats if you prefer not to mod your game.
To access the command console, hold Shift + C.
testingcheats
Allows you access to many other cheats. Also, shift clicking on sims and mailboxes gives added options.
bb.showhiddenobjects
Many events allow you to add items to your inventory and household that are not normally found in the build/buy menu. This cheat gives you access to just about everything (collection items, food, etc) and should not be used unless the challenge directs you to.
bb.ignoregameplayunlocksentitlement
Some items in the challenge may be locked in build/buy. If so, use this cheat to make them available for purchase.
money x
If testing cheats are enabled, type "money x" (without quotes) where x = the amount you want your household funds to be. This is available to you at all times as this challenge does not give any value to simoleons.
Stats.set_skill_level major_X
There is one time in this challenge where this cheat is permitted. If you are lucky enough to get that event, enter the above in the field with X being the level of skill. For example, if I am raising my sim's handiness to 10, I would enter " Stats.set_skill_level major_handiness 10" without quotes. Note that testing cheats must be on to use this.
cas.fulleditmode
You may need to edit a sim's traits if the challenge calls for it. You'll notice that standard cas (from testing cheats) does not allow you to change certain things. Enter the above in the console to unlock everything.
