Episode 2: An Overview of How to Play "The Sims Freeplay"

Town Map for "The Sims Freeplay"

Hello Simmers!  Episode 2 of my "The Sims Freeplay" guide will provide a general overview of each aspect of the game.  Hopefully, this guide will give you some helpful insights.  I play "The Sims Freeplay" on the Kindle Fire and the layout of the screen is different than on Apple devices.  However, functions are the same.

Introduction to Game Functions and Screen Icons

Real time:  The game takes place in real time, so if you have your Sim perform a task for 4 hours, it will take 4 hours of your time to complete it.  This is important to keep in mind when you are choosing tasks for your Sims.  In general, when you are actively playing the game, put your Sims on shorter tasks, but when you will be away from the game, put them on longer tasks to keep them busy until you get back. 

WiFi connection:  You will need a WiFi connection at all times to play the game.  If you play on your tablet and you are planning a vacation, make sure you find a hotel with WiFi, or you may suffer from "Sim withdrawal".  Yes, it is a real condition.

Game Controls:  The control of the game is similar to other games, so it shouldn't pose a problem.  To pan your view, swipe one finger across the screen; to rotate your view, use 2 fingers and turn them towards the desired direction; and to zoom in, pinch 2 fingers on the screen (pull them apart to zoom out).  Also, you can tap on the magnifying glass icon to zoom fully in or out.  You will tap on the screen to select Sims and objects.  To take a photo to share on Facebook, tap on the camera icon.

Needs and Actions:  Each Sim has 6 basic needs:  social, fun, hunger, hygiene, bladder and energy.  When all of these needs are filled, your Sims are inspired.  These needs are displayed on your Sim status bar (on the bottom, left for Kindle Fire).  Your Sims' needs drain regularly.  To replenish them, tap on items to fulfill the needs.  Look for that needs' icon when you tap on an object and you will know what need performing that activity will fulfill.  For example, if you tap on the sink, you will see the hygiene icon, telling you that tapping on "wash hands" or "clean under your fingernails" will fulfill that need. You will want to keep your Sims inspired, because inspired Sims earn more XP and money.  You can instantly inspire your Sims by using a cupcake, but I recommend not using the cupcake since you will use 5 LP to do so.  Note: Your Sims' needs drain slower when they are kept busy.

Plumbob:  The plumbob is the green diamond over your active Sim's head, which is the one that you are controlling.  To switch controls to a different Sim, tap on the Sim you want to control and tap the icon in the right corner of the "relationship" pop-up that has 2 arrows.  You are now controlling the second Sim and the plumbob will be over his head. Or, you can open the Sim Tracker and touch on the portrait of the Sim that you wish to control.

The Town Map:  From the town map, you can visit houses and community areas, and collect XP and money from your buildings and houses.  Simply tap on the place you want to visit.  If you see the XP or simoleon icons over any of your buildings, make sure you tap on them to collect.  In addition, you can visit the party boat from here.

Game Menu:  You can access the game menu any time by tapping the green box with the "..." on the bottom, corner of your screen (for Kindle Fire). Once in the game menu, you have a few options to choose from: Resume Game, Tech Support (plumbob with ? mark), Save to the Cloud (blue icon with a cloud image), Information (lowercase "i"), Game Options, and Connect to Facebook (Facebook icon).  Tapping the "Tech Support" icon will take you to the EA support website, where you can find answers to your problem.  However, I find asking questions in "The Sims Freeplay" groups as more helpful.  Tapping the "Save to Cloud" icon will bring up 2 options: "Upload Game" or "Download Saved Game".  Your game will automatically upload every time you visit the party boat and it will save for 7 days.  Or, if you are playing the game on 2 devices, you can upload the data on one device and download it onto another.  Tapping the "Information" icon will bring up a submenu and there are two items on this menu worth mentioning.  The "help" option will provide you with a general summary of the game functions, similar to this blog episode, and the "restore purchases" option is used if you have an error and can't access items you bought in the online store.  Tapping the "Game Options" icon, will let you adjust the sound and notifications. In addition, from this menu, if you would like to restart your game, you would select, "Reset Game".  Tapping on the "Facebook" option, will connect you to Facebook.  You will need to be connected to Facebook to visit your neighbors' on the party boat.

The Online Store:  The online store is where you can purchase items for the game using real money.  To visit the store, tap on the purple "shopping cart" icon on the bottom, right of your screen (Kindle Fire users).  Here you can buy simoleon, LP and SP packs, and specialty items like aquariums, escalators, and special clothes.

The Globe icon:  When you are in a house or community property, tapping on the "globe" icon on the bottom, right of your screen will take you to the party boat where you can visit your neighbors beginning at level 9.  Prior to level 9, you can visit the party boat to collect your daily gifts.  The more neighbors you have, the more gifts you get.  When you are in another town, tapping the globe will send you back to your town.

The Home Store:  You can access the home store when you are at one of your houses. For a Kindle Fire user, the home store icon is on the bottom, right of your screen and it is represented by a living room chair and lamp.  Tapping on this icon will open the store.  You will see 4 main categories: Furniture, House, Outdoors and Inventory.  Tapping one of these categories will bring up that section of the store, and the category is separated into subcategories by tabs.  The furniture tab has all of your indoor items (kitchen, living room, bathroom, bedroom, etc.).  The House category is what you will use to add or resize rooms and pools (upon completing "It's All Going Swimmingly" quest), add floors to your house (upon completing "Multi-Story Renovation" quest), change/add flooring, wallpaper, doors and windows, and to change your roof and your exterior walls.  The Outdoors category has your plants, trees and flowers, outdoor furniture, and outdoor decorations.  The Inventory category contains all of the items that you already own, but are in your inventory.  If you move an item to inventory from one house, you can place it in another.

Sim Tracker:  The Sim Tracker lets you monitor all of your Sims progress at once.  On a Kindle Fire, if you tap the folder on the left-side of the screen, your Sim Tracker will open (if you play on Apple devices, I believe it is on the right).  You will see tabs across the top of the tracker, these tabs allow you to monitor different activities, such as relationships, work, hobbies, current activity status, life dreams (when you complete the "Life Dreams" quest), and the age controller (with "Life Dreams" quest).  Tap on the tab to open the submenu.  If you want to visit a particular Sim, tap on his portrait and you will visit him.  Also, if you are in a house or at a community place like the park, you can use the Sim Tracker to whistle a Sim over to you (tap on the whistle icon), or to send them back home (tap on the house icon with the arrow in it). When it is time to send your Sim to work or school, you can tap on the flashing briefcase icon to send them. Note: you cannot call a Sim to a house, send him to work, or send him home while he is performing an activity.

What You Earn In the Game

 

Experience Points (XP):  Experience points are what you need to level up in the game.  Currently, there are 53 levels.  As you move up in levels, it takes more XP to achieve the next one.  The blue bar at the top of your screen shows your current level and the percent that you have fulfilled towards completing it.  Leveling up will earn you LP and will allow you to unlock additional Sims, houses, business, workplaces, and items for your houses.  You will earn XP as you perform tasks, build relationships, master hobbies, and go to work. Also, you can earn XP for adding rooms and floors to your houses, and for building and enlarging pools.

Simoleons:  Simoleons (represented by the green icon with overlapping S's) is the Sim currency.  You will earn simoleons for completing assigned tasks (from quests), doing hobbies, gardening, baking, working and from your pets when they dig up treasure. You use the simoleons to buy items from your home store and stores in your town, and to build new houses, businesses and workplaces.  At the beginning of the game, be conservative with your money or you will run out quickly.

Lifestyle Points (LP):  Lifestyle points are earned from the party boat, driving and your pets, by leveling up in hobbies, and by completing assigned tasks (from quests and tutorials).  Early in the game you can use LP to skip non-tutorial tasks (do so sparingly), to complete actions and construction instantly (only do if you need to meet a time limit for a quest), to buy pets, to buy cupcakes (don't recommend), and to purchase home store items.  Later in the game, you can use LP to upgrade your Island Monuments and your Teen Idol sign, to build the beach and arcade, and to unlock special content at the beach and arcade.  LP is very important in this game, so I recommend being very selective as to how you use it.  Once you reach level 9, if one of your neighbor's has a pet farm, visit it frequently to replenish your LP and simoleons.

Social Points (SP):  Social points are earned by completing assigned activities in a neighbor's town.  Once you reach level 9, you can regularly visit your neighbor's to earn SP.  SP is used to buy items from the home store, to build certain houses and houseboats, and to build the night club.

Town Value:  Your town value is how much your town is worth.  It increases when you build new homes, businesses and workplaces, when you add/resize pools, rooms and floors to your homes, when you add Sims and pets, and when you increase your level in work and hobbies.  You will get LP rewards when you reach town value milestones.  A percent of your town value is delivered daily to your mailbox (at any of your homes - look for the envelope), but the bonus is capped. Once you hit $7,000 or so, it increases very slowly. When you are in a house or at a community place, you can access the town map by tapping on the "building" icon on the bottom, right of your screen.

General Activities

 

Gardening: To start gardening, purchase a garden patch from the home store for $20.  Gardening will earn you simoleons and XP and is the best way to earn money (outside of a pet farm).  As you level up, you will unlock new seeds with different planting times and earnings.  Some of the plants (like strawberries and tomatoes) are special seeds that pay out bigger XP and simoleon amounts, but planting them is a gamble. They may turn into a "Sim Eating Plant" and if this happens, you earn no money.  Instead, you must wrestle with the plant to get rid of it. Note: only adults can wrestle the plant.

 

Baking:  Baking is another good way to earn XP and money.  To bake, buy a stove from the home store and place it in your house.  At first, I recommend buying the cheapest stove, because the bake times for your food are the same for all stoves.  Simply, tap on the stove and select the item you want to bake.  In addition, some items may catch on fire (represented by a red, fire icon).  If it catches fire, you must extinguish it and you do not collect the XP and simoleons. As you level up, more baking options will be available.





Relationships:  You can build relationships by having your Sims interact with each other.  The type of relationships are friends, enemies, and romantic.  Sims in romantic relationships can live together, get engaged and get married. Only married couples can have children.  Sims in friend relationships can become housemates.  Reaching relationship milestones will earn you XP.  A future blog will explain relationships in more detail. 

Jobs:  Your adult Sims can have careers.  Building new workplaces will unlock that career.  Each career has a unique start and end time.  I recommend building the workplaces that fit with your personal schedule first.  When it is time to send your Sim to their job, their briefcase icon will pulse on the Sim Tracker.  Also, you will get pop-ups to remind you to send your Sim to work.  As they go to work, they will get promoted to new levels, earning them more XP and simoleons.  With each promotion, your town value will increase.  In addition, when your Sim isn't at work, they can practice their career by purchasing the corresponding item from the "Promotions R Us" store.  A future blog will discuss the jobs in detail.

Hobbies:  Your Sim can choose from several available hobbies.  As you progress in the game, you will unlock more hobbies.  The hobbies are woodworking, fishing, figure stating, diving, fashion design, ghost hunting, teen idol, quilting, bird feeding, shell collecting, snorkeling, arcade gamer, pinball, and skill tester.  The goal of the hobby is to find or make all of the items in a collection.  Finding each item earns you money, finding a set of items earns you XP, and finding a collection will unlock new items and will earn you LP.  Also, leveling up in hobbies will earn your Sim money and LP and it will increase your town value.  A future blog will explain each hobby in detail.

Attending School:  Preteens and teenagers can attend school, which is their job.  When it is time to send your Sim to school, you will see their briefcase icon flashing in the Sim Tracker. Simply tap on it and select "yes" when prompted, to send them to school.  Also, you will get a pop-up alert when it is time to send them.  You can choose from 3 different timeframes for their classes (daytime, afternoon or evenings), so select the times that best work with your schedule.

Houses, Community Places, Businesses & Work Places

Houses:  To add a new adult Sim, you must have a house available for them to move into.  You can select a house to build by tapping on a blue "house" icon and select the type of house you want.  Once the house is complete, the icon turns green.  Tap on the green icon to add your Sim.  You will notice that some of the houses have grey icons.  These are premium lots that you will unlock by completing the "Oceanview Real Estate" quest (available at level 9).  More details about houses will be explained in a future blog.

Community Places:  Community places that you can build and visit are the competition center, the park (level 6), the night club (level 9), the swim center (level 12), the snow park (level 14), and the community center (level 15).  In addition, upon completing "The Mysterious Island" quest available at level 9, you will unlock the Mysterious Island.  Community places available on the island are the bingo hall (for seniors), the beach and the arcade (both available beginning at level 24).  Each community place will be explained in more detail in a future blog.

Businesses:  Businesses are places you can visit in your town to purchase items for your homes.  These businesses are Costume & Swim Store, the Salon, Promotions R Us, Car Dealership, Supermarket, Pet Store (level 11), and the Children's Store (level 8). The businesses will be explained in more detail in a future blog.

Work Places:  The work places are the stadium, recording studio, movie studio, science lab, fire station, art gallery, town hall, elementary school (level 13) and real estate office (level 9).  Each place of work has different start and end times.  Tapping on the workplace from the town map will tell you the hours for the job, the starting wage, and XP points for each day worked.  When selecting a work place to build, select ones that correspond with your personal schedule first.  The workplaces will be explained in more detail in a future blog.

Life Phases, Life Dreams & Orbs

Life Phases:  Initially, you can only add adult Sims by tapping on an empty house and selecting the "Add Sim" option.  As you complete quests, you will be able to add babies, age them and eventually move them on to the afterlife.  Their are 6 distinct life phases: baby, toddler, preteen, teenager, adult and senior.  At each phase, your Sim is capable of performing different tasks and hobbies. 

Life Dreams:  Once you complete the "Life Dreams & Legacies" quest, your Sims will be able to move on to the afterlife.  You will select a personality for your Sim (sporty or geek) and based upon the personality, they will need to complete tasks to achieve their life dream.  With each life phase, they will be given a new task to fulfill the dream.  Once the dream is fulfilled, your Sim earns their life orb.

Life Orbs:  There are four kinds of life orbs: bronze, silver, gold and platinum.  When you move your first Sim on to the afterlife, they will pass on their bronze orb to your next Sim.  Then, the second Sim will work towards earning their silver orb.  When the second Sim moves on, they will pass on their silver orb to another Sim and that Sim works towards obtaining a gold orb, passing it on. Finally, the last Sim will work towards a platinum orb.  Giving a platinum orb to a Sim will make them immortal.  So, if you want to keep a favorite Sim around, this is the way to do it.  The phases, life dreams and orbs will be explained in further detail in future blogs.


In closing, I hope this blog provided you with a good summary of the game.  I know there is a lot to learn, but there will be more blogs coming to help you with each aspect of the game.  Feel free to comment or ask questions.  Happy Simming!