The Senior Quest - How to Complete it in 3 Days Without Using Lots of LP

The Senior Door

With the newest update, an Adulthood Quest and a Senior Quest were added. I've completed both of them.  I will write about the Adulthood Quest in a separate blog since the Senior Quest is my focus today.

The requirements for the Senior Quest are you need to be at level 21 and you will have to complete all quests that come prior to it.  If you reach level 21 and you haven't completed earlier quests, you will see it in the queue of your tasks pop-up.  Also, since this quest requires you to go to the swimming center and the snow park, you will want to make sure both are complete prior to starting the quest or you will waste valuable time building these items.

There is bad news and good news with the Senior Quest, but you need to follow the instructions in this blog to take advantage of the good news.

First, the bad news: the Senior Quest gives you 3 days to complete the quest to unlock exercise bikes.  You might be thinking, "this doesn't sound like bad news", but it is once you realize that the quest is impossible to complete within 3 days without using a lot of LP.  For those players low on LP, this can be a challenge. I don't think any quest should have a time limit less than the total time required for the tasks, but this one does - not good planning by EA. 

One other point worth mentioning is even you unlock the bikes, they cost $15,000 apiece, so you may decide rushing to finish the quest isn't worth it.

Now, it's time for the good news.  I have tracked each step on the Senior Quest, and based upon the tasks and if you plan ahead, there is a way to complete the quest by using minimal LP.

Let's take a look at each task, how to perform them, and the time needed for each one.

1. Send a Sim to the Swim Center (few seconds). Note: make sure you have your Swim Center built before you get to this quest. Visit the Swim Center from the town map and whistle for your Sim using your Sim Tracker.
2. Feed pigeons (2 seconds). At the Swim Center, you will see a park bench with pigeons, which is normally not there. Click on the bench and select the "feed pigeons" option.
3. Investigate the pigeons (7 minutes). Click on the bench and select the "investigate pigeons" option.
4. Wait for a senior on a park bench (3 minutes, 20 seconds). Go to the park, find a park bench, click on it and select the "wait for a senior" option.
5. Investigate the door in the park (10 seconds). A door will appear in the park to the right of the fishing pier.  Click on it and select the "investigate door" option.
6. Welcome future self (5 seconds).  An old lady will appear in the door, aka "future self". Click on the old lady and select the "welcome future self" option.
7. Talk to future self (1 minute). Click on the old lady and select the "be nice" option.
8. Stand on the X (4 seconds). An X will appear; click on the X to move your Sim to it.
9. Complain to a Senior (1 minute). Click on the old lady and select the "complain" option. At this point, you are probably thinking "so far, so good". The first 9 steps can be completed within 20 minutes, leaving you plenty of time to finish the quest within the time limit. Unfortunately, you will change your mind as you read on.
10. Warn Simanity on a soap box (1 day). Click on the soap box and select the "warn Simanity" option.
11. Complain to a Senior (1 minute). Click on the old lady and select the "complain" option.
12. Be nice to future self (1 minute).  Click on the old lady and select the "be nice" option.
13. Search garbage for cupcake (2 hours).  Go to any house and click on a garbage can, selecting "kick over (2 seconds). Then, click on the spilled garbage can and select the "search garbage for cupcake" option.
14. Search garbage for cupcake of doom (16 hours). Click on the spilled garbage can, and select the "search garbage for cupcake of doom" option.
15. Dispose of cupcake (25 seconds). Click on the garbage again, and select the "dispose of cupcake" option. BTW: You eat the cupcake to dispose of it. Yuck!
16. Send your Sim back to the park (few seconds). Using your town map, click on the park. Once you are in the park, whistle your Sim over.
17. Be nice to future self (1 minute). Yes again! Click on the old lady and select the "be nice" option.
18. Dance with future self (10 seconds). Click on the old lady and select the "dance" option.
19. Be nice to future self (1 minute). At this point you will be very tired of being nice. Click on the old lady and select the "be nice" option.
20. Go to the snow park (few seconds). Note: You will want to make sure you have the snow park built prior to this task. Go to the snow park via the town map, and whistle over your Sim.
21. Go ice skating (1 day). Yes, you have to do the long one! Click on the ice rink and select the "devoted dance" option. Note: you will want to ice skate at the skating rink and not at home or this task will not work.
22. Snowball fight (2 hours with 2 Sims). Snowballs magically appear right behind the ice rink. This is a snowball area that is in addition to the already existing one to the right of the rink.  Click on the cloud with the exclamation mark, which will above the new snowball fighting area, and select the "snowball fight' option. You will have to call a second Sim to the snow park to join in.
23. Talk to a Senior (1 minute). Go back to the park and click on the old lady, selecting the "be nice" option.
24. Build the Bingo Hall (36 hours and $100,000). Go to the Mysterious Island and select the Bingo Hall option, which is directly to the left of the volcano. Select the "build option". Once the Bingo Hall is complete, you will have to click on the icon to make it official. Are you starting to see why you can't complete this task within 3 days without using LP?
25. Have a 24-hour fish-a-thon (1 day). Go to the park and click on the water by the fishing pier. Select the "fish-a-thon" option. 
26. Complain to future self (1 minute). Click on the old lady and select the "complain" option.
27. Get 5 Sims together at a house (few seconds). Go to any house and whistle over Sims until you have 5. Toddlers and teens count too.
28. Wohoo with a Sim (5 minutes).  Pick one of your couples and select the "wohoo" option.
29. Be nice to future self (1 minute). Yes again! But, thankfully for the last time.

Once you finish step 29, the quest is complete and you see the following message: "Congratulations, you can now celebrate the birthdays of your adult Sims!"

Now, let's do the math.  To complete the longer tasks in this quest without using LP, it will take a total of 5 days and 8 hours. you can add another hour onto that total for all of the little tasks, bringing your approximate time to 5 days and 9 hours.  If you use LP to fast forward through all of the tasks that are 2 hours or longer, you will use 121 LP.  That's a lot of LPs to unlock the exercise bikes.

However, I believe that I have found a work-around for some of the longer tasks and I would like to share it with you.  I've noticed that when I am completing various tasks for quests, if I just happen to have someone already performing a task, such as growing garlic, baking caramel slice, or watching a movie marathon, I don't need to start the task over with another Sim if it is the next task up in the queue. The game will count the task once it is complete regardless of when it began.  So occasionally, you get lucky because you happen to be performing a task that is required next.

When completing special quests, there is a mix of "normal" tasks, which are ones that you can do any time, and "special" ones, which only appear for that particular quest (such as "investigating the pigeons" and "searching for the cupcakes" in the steps above).  You will notice that 3 of the tasks in the 29 steps are highlighted in red.  These tasks are "normal" tasks that you can do any time with your Sims.

My recommendation is simple.  Now that you know the order of the tasks, you can plan ahead and have Sims performing the longer "normal" tasks while you are completing the other tasks. So, if you know when your Senior Quest is coming up, already have a Sim in the park warning Simanity.  The first 9 tasks will take about 20 minutes to complete, so you will want to try to time it where you have a little less than a day before you start the quest. Note: I have read in a few places that starting the "warn Simanity" before the quest didn't work for some people, but you can still try it.  You will need to be careful, since you will need to go to the park prior to the "warn Simanity" step, you will want to make sure you don't finish the "warning", before completing the first steps, or it will not work. I suggest erring on the side of caution. Even if you have a few hours left to "warn Simanity" after completing the first steps, it is much better than 24 hours. 

The other 2 normal steps will be easier to plan. I would start Step 21 when you finish warning Simanity and I would start Step 25 when you have 23 hours or less left on the "build Bingo Hall" task.

I hope this guide helps.  I know it is long, but I wanted to make sure I explained it well. If you try my suggestions, let me know if they worked for you. 

The Baby Glitch - A How-To Guide

The baby glitch at one of my houses.
 

Note:  As of the Life Quest update, the baby glitch no longer works.  You can successfully do the glitch if you have not updated your game with the Life Quest.

After several failed attempts, I figured out how to do the baby glitch by compiling information from various sources.  I would like to share this information with you. 

Preparing for the Glitch

Before jumping in and starting the steps to add multiple babies to your families, there are a few things you need to do to be prepared.  First, you cannot be at your Sim limit.  You need to have at least one Sim available to add.  For instance, I am on Level 47, but I already had 30 Sims and I was unable to add one until Level 50.  I deleted my newest Sim to be below the limit.

Second, you need to decide how many houses and which ones you want to use to add extra babies. You can add babies to one house or more.  I chose to use three houses on premium lots.  Since I will be making large families, I wanted the extra space that the larger lots provide. Keep in mind that you need to pick houses with 1 or no children.  If there are already two children in a family, the glitch will not work. 

Third, you need to make sure that all of your couples where you will add children are married.  I married 3 couples to prepare for the new babies at my three houses.

Fourth, you will need a decent amount of LP.  Yesterday, I went through about 200 LP to get the couples married, to add 3 babies, to bake a cake and to speed up the baking of that cake to grow a baby to a toddler, to add one more baby, and to get a lot of Sims baking additional cakes.

Fifth, start baking your birthday cakes.  Depending on the number of babies you wish to add, you will need to have cakes available to age your babies.  The good news is there is a birthday cake glitch where you can bake cakes quickly without using a lot of LP.  Click on the link to read the blog. Once you make a lot of cakes, be careful with accidentally aging your Sims.  Aging your Sims is very easy to do, so I recommend only making the exact number of cakes that you will need to perform the glitch.  


Finally, one other item that I would like to mention is that I read in many places that to successfully use the baby glitch, you should have all your Sims busy with a task, such as sleeping or farming with the exception of one.  The one Sim should be busy doing a task in another town.  I wasn't sure if this mattered or not, so I chose to follow this step. But, it may actually be for a different baby glitch.  Regardless as to whether or not this step is necessary, it is easier to concentrate on the baby glitch if all of your Sims are situated with other tasks, so I strongly recommend making all of your Sims busy. 

 

The baby glitch is a two-part process.  Complete part 1 at each house before you continue to part 2.


Part 1

1. Go to each house where you want to add babies and put 2 cribs at each of these houses.  I added 2 cribs to each of the 3 houses, for a total of 6 cribs.  When you add the cribs, the baby icon above the cribs should be blue. 
2. Start in one house and click on a crib and pay 3 LP to add a baby.
3. The baby icon above the crib where you are adding the baby turns pink and blue.  Click on this icon to deliver your baby by paying 23 LP. 
4. The icon that was pink and blue turns green.  Click on the green icon and add your baby.  Don't worry about changing the baby's appearance or name, because you will be deleting this baby.
5. Once you add the baby, the game will take you to the town map or another Sim's house.  Using the town map (never use Sim Tracker), go back to the house where you added the new baby.  One crib will show a baby and the second one a green icon. 
6. Make sure the green diamond is over the baby and click on the wardrobe to delete the baby.  Note: To delete the baby, when you are on the screen to make changes to the baby, there is a red icon in the top, left-hand corner.  Click on the icon to delete the baby.
7. After the baby is deleted, one crib should have a green icon and the other icon should be blue.  Do not do anything else to these cribs at this time.
8. Go to another house where you are adding babies and repeat steps 2 through 7.  Once you are done with these steps, all houses where you are adding babies should show one of the cribs with a flashing green icon.

Part 2

1. After you complete Part 1, go to one of the houses where you are adding babies and click on the flashing green icon to create your baby Sim.  You will be keeping this baby, so make sure you name it and choose its appearance.
2. Once you add the baby Sim, the game will automatically take you to a different house.  From the town map, go back to the house with the baby.  You will see that one crib has a flashing green icon and the other crib has the baby. See the above picture for an example.
3. Click on the baby  and select "have a birthday" to grow it to a toddler. When you grow the baby to the toddler, the crib where the baby was will have a grey icon, while the second crib will still have a flashing green icon.  Note: If you do not have a birthday cake made, you will need to make one before completing this step.
4. Once the baby is a toddler, go to a different house using the town map, preferably one where you are not adding babies, and whistle the toddler to that house.  Note: Don't forget to have an adult at this house or you will not be able to bring over the toddler.
5. Go back to the toddler's house using the town map and the second crib will have a flashing green icon, the one where your first baby was will be grey. Add another baby by clicking on the flashing green icon over the second crib. You will be sent to another house after you add the baby. When you go back to the house using the town map, you will notice that your baby has switched from the crib with the flashing green icon to the crib that had the grey icon.  The crib where you added the baby will have a flashing green icon again.
6. Repeat steps 1 to 4 for any additional houses where you are adding babies.  As you grow each baby to a toddler and whistle him/her to another house, you will be able to add another one.

I think it is important to note that even though you have 2 cribs in each house, you should have only one baby at a time.  It is the second crib that makes the glitch work.  I call this crib the "baby portal". As long as you have one baby and one crib flashing green, you will be able to continue using the glitch.

 

A few other things to keep in mind is if you haven't completed the baby quest, you will not be able to use this glitch.  Also, I think this glitch is better for those who have 15 or more adult Sims in their town.  Otherwise, you won't have enough adults available to bake cakes, earn LPs and perform other tasks.  However, with the adult update, you can make it work with less Sims since you can age your Sims as you make them.

So far, I am at 74 Sims. I may not add anymore.  A downside to so many Sims is that it becomes hard to juggle them.  I have aged all of my toddlers to pre-teens with the exception of 2 of them.  The preteens go to school, dive and ice skate to earn LPs and XPs.

Thanks for reading.  I will blog again about this topic once I build my families.  Let me know if this guide helps or if you have any questions or advice of your own.  Feel free to submit a comment in the comments section.

What is in the Weekly Quest Fortune Box?

Rare prizes in the Fortune Prize Box

The first 3 weeks that I completed the weekly quest, I immediately used my key to open the curiosity prize box.  It contained a few nice prizes, but I really wanted to know what you would get for collecting 10 keys, saving them week after week, battling the temptation of using them earlier.  I felt like a kid waiting for Christmas, but Christmas came and went and I still didn't have enough keys.  It became even more difficult to hold the keys when I was low in money or LPs, because I figured that I would at least get these as part of my prize box.

Anyway, the wait is over.  I finally earned my last key.  To help those that are going through the same debate that I was, I made a list of the items that were in the Fortune box.  I'm guessing that the items will change each time the box is opened, but the value should be equivalent each time.

Standard Prizes

• Total of 9,000 XP
• 1 gold bar
• Total of 7,500 Simoleons

Premium Prizes

• Total of 49 LP
• Total of 20 SP
• 3 Pearls

Rare Prizes (see photo)

• Neo Tokyo Chest
• Wedding Dining Chair

So, now you can judge for yourself whether you want to hold out until you have 10 keys or if you are satisfied with using your keys on smaller boxes.  I have yet to open a 3-key or a 5-key box, so if you have, let me know how you feel those prizes compare to the other boxes.  Thanks for reading.  There will be more posts to come!

How to Create a Pet Farm



My Pet/Hobby House

Note:  As of the Life Quest update, the pet glitch no longer works.  If you have not updated your Sims game with the new update, you can still take advantage of this glitch.

Do you want a pet farm?  If so, here is a step-by-step guide on how to create one. 

First, it is best to plan what kind of pet farm you want.  Do you want the pets on an empty lot, or do you prefer to have them on a plot with a house where you can do other activities as well?  Before creating mine, I visited both types of farms.  In the end (at least for my first farm), I decided to make a pet/hobby house.  I tend to get bored when there is nothing for me to do other than collect money and LPs.  My pet/hobby house is a place where I can collect the LPs and money and have my Sims perform tasks simultaneously.  Also, I tried to include all of the items a visiting Sim would need to complete goals.  A downside to the pet/hobby house is if you add too many pets, they tend to get in the way of your tasks.  So, if you are looking to add a lot of pets, I would recommend putting them on a empty lot.

Second, it will cost you a lot of money and LPs to create your pet farm.  Each time you add two pets, you will spend $13,000 and the LPs that it cost for the type of pets you pick.  If you don't have a lot of LPs to spend at this time, I recommend beginning with a pet/hobby house and buying the cheaper pets or relocating your current pets first.  You can add more expensive pets later. And, as your farm grows, you can move it to a bigger lot. 

Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Get 2 Sims, who live separately without other Sims, 2 pets each by either buying them in the pet store or relocating other Sims pets.
2. Have the Sims become friends and have the one who lives at the house that you don't want to become your pet house ask the other to move in with him/her.  When 1 Sim moves in with the other, the moving Sims' 2 pets are left behind, leaving a vacant house with 2 pets. This vacant house will become your pet house.
3. Click on the vacant pet house and choose "relocate household" ($8,000).  Then, select your 2 Sims that live together. When they move, they will bring their 2 pets with them to the pet house which already has the 2 abandoned pets, making 4 pets.
4. Relocate one Sim back to the newly vacant house ($5,000).
5. Get the Sim that moved out 2 new pets.
6. Have your Sim with the 2 new pets ask the Sim at the pet house to move in with him/her.  This will leave the pet house vacant again, but with 4 pets.
7. Relocate your household into the vacant pet house, now you have 6 pets.
8. Repeat, repeat, repeat. 

I hope this helps anyone who is looking to add a pet farm.  My picture above is my current pet/hobby house. There are more pets than what you see in the picture.  The dogs tend to hang out behind the house and the cats like to migrate towards the sidewalk.  I'm taking a break from adding new pets, because I am using a lot of my LPs on my Mysterious Island.  Once I make the volcano erupt, my next endeavor will be to add 30 black cats to my haunted house since I spend a lot of time in that house ghost hunting.  Eventually, I will create a pet farm on an empty lot.

Please comment with any feedback or additional tips you may have for adding a pet farm.

Welcome to My "The Sims Freeplay" blog posts

Hello everyone!  Welcome to my first blog post about The Sims Freeplay.  If you are reading this, you are probably like me and you are addicted to the game.  I have trouble putting it down, and when I do, I am counting the minutes until I can pick it up again.  I fall asleep playing it at night and it is the first thing I do in the morning before work.  I have been playing the game on my Kindle Fire since the beginning of October, so I consider myself a relatively new player.  But in this time, I have learned a lot about the game.  Currently, I am on Level 46 and I have 29 Sims.

I am starting this blog to share my experiences with you, tricks I learned, and strategies that I have implemented.  As my blog library grows, I hope to be a resource to other new players, so please let me know if you have questions or if there are topics that you would like me to write about.  And, if a more seasoned player has additional advice, please share.

Here are some of the topics that you will see in the coming weeks:

• How To Create a Pet Farm
• The Best Ways To Earn LPs
• What is Inside the Volcano on the Mysterious Island?
• Is It Worth Saving 10 keys to Get the Big Prize?
• How to Get More Neighbors
• What My Favorite Hobbies Are and Why
• Hobby Hints
• The Competition Center and Why It Is Worthless
• What Should I Build Next?
• 10 Things I Hate About "The Sims Freeplay" 

Thanks for reading.  I will be sharing these posts on my Facebook page as well.  Please feel free to comment with any questions or advice.