How To Do The Sims 4 Legacy Challenge

Most avid players of The Sims are no strangers to The Legacy Challenge. This challenge actually kicked off during the days of The Sims 2 but has remained a popular challenge in The Sims 4. It’s actually a relatively simple challenge but still one that requires patience with your family of Sims. So, here’s how to do the Sims 4 Legacy Challenge if you’re unsure.

How to Do the Legacy Challenge in The Sims 4

If you love a good rags-to-riches story, get ready to buckle up for one crazy journey that will test your Sims’ perseverance. In a world that can easily be controlled and altered with the help of useful cheat codes and mods, The Legacy Challenge gives you a strict set of rules to live by throughout ten full generations.

The challenge starts with you creating one Sim. This Sim will be the founder of The Legacy Challenge and the only Sim you will actually create throughout the entire challenge. You will want to make this Sim a Young Adult and make sure this is the only Sim in the entire founding household. That means you will have to create a family and continue your family’s legacy through more authentic means—finding a Sim to fall in love with and having children to keep your bloodline going.

Once you have created your founder Sim, move them into any empty lot. Older versions of the Legacy Challenge required you to choose a freshly bulldozed 50 x 50 residential lot. But a patch update resulted in substantially higher household bills, which made the extra-large lot extra expensive, so that’s no longer required.

You can move your founder Sim into any lot you wish. Keep in mind, however, that several generations of your legacy family – including spouses, children, and even pets – will have to live on the lot at the same time. While a tiny lot may save you money on household bills in the short term, it’ll get crowded fast. Larger lots are almost always the way to go with the Legacy Challenge.

If the lot you like is occupied by a house or family, you can park your founder Sim on another empty lot. Then return to the world screen, select the lot you want your legacy family to live on, and click the three dots in the lower-right corner of the UI. Evict the family, bulldoze the lot, then evict your founder Sim and move them onto the freshly bulldozed lot.

Once your Sim is moved in, open the cheats menu (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + C) and enter:

money 1800

This will reduce your household funds to §1,800. Prior versions of the Legacy Challenge required players to purchase the Knight of the Octagon Table, which costs $8,200 and toss it into their family inventory. However, this also became prohibitively expensive with the household bills update, so now we cheat away the extra money to keep things fun.

Now The Legacy Challenge begins, and the goal is simple. Go through 10 generations while adhering to the following rules and see exactly what kind of legacy came of your original founding Sim.

General Rules

There are a few rules you must adhere to throughout your Legacy Challenge playthrough:

• You can only play as the Legacy Family while partaking in this challenge.
• No cheats, hacks, or mods can be used throughout the challenge if it would give you an advantage over a player who doesn’t have access to these things. This rule was intentionally left vague by the challenge creator to accommodate the wide variety of different mods and cheats that are available to use in The Sims 4. So long as you are not giving yourself an unfair advantage, you do not have to strictly turn your back on your beloved mods and cheat codes.
  Of course, this automatically disqualifies any cheat codes or hacks that give you more money or make it easier for you to get more money. You can, however, use the MC Command Center mod to increase the maximum number of Sims who can live in your household – if you (and your system) can handle all the extra Sims.
• Set aging to “Normal” and do not use any cheat codes or hacks to alter the aging process.
• You are allowed to use an anti-aging item only one time throughout the lifetime of one Sim.
• While you are allowed to plead with the reaper to save a deceased Sim, you cannot bring any Sims back from the dead.
• You cannot change any of your Sims’ aspirations unless they complete an aspiration that you want to replace with a new one.
• You are not allowed to simply restart the game after a bad event has occurred. If a Sim passes away or if an unexacting string of events leaves your preferred Sim out of the running to become the next heir, you just have to go with it and stick to the challenge.
• You cannot combine your legacy with another family.
• Once a Sim leaves the legacy lot, they are not allowed to move back in.
• The Legacy Family must remain on the same lot for the entirety of the challenge.
• Any Sim that is currently the heir in the household cannot move out or be married out of the legacy family.
• You are only allowed to use the Wishing Well from the Romantic Garden Pack once per that Sim’s lifetime.
• If you have the City Living expansion and marry a Sim with the City Native aspiration, you can use the Random Trait Generator to pick a new aspiration for them.
• If you have the Get to Work expansion, you can follow Sims to the Doctor, Detective, and Scientist careers. Your founder and heirs may be Aliens or Vampires if your succession laws allow.
• If you have the Parenthood expansion, you do not have to roll for or randomize upbringing traits.
• If you have the Cats and Dogs expansion, you may adopt pets.
• If you have the Seasons expansion, you may use the weather machine and Patchy the Scarecrow. You may also use the Trait Re-Arranger aspiration reward, but you must randomize the new traits. You may not participate in the Lottery Holiday or use the Money Tree aspiration reward.
• If you have the Get Famous expansion, you may use the Quirk Be Gone potion, give residence keys to friends, and use the Crystal Crown.
• If you have the Island Living expansion, your founder Sim can be a mermaid, and you can use Mermadic Kelp.
• If you have the Discover University expansion, you may send Sims to college, but your heir must go with them.
• If you have the Jungle Adventure pack and you send your Legacy on vacation, all Legacy family members must go.
• If you have the Realm of Magic pack, you cannot use the Potion of Immortality. You may only use the Potion of Rejuvenation once per sim.
• If you have the Tiny Living Stuff pack, you can start your founder in a small, tiny, or micro home to take advantage of the bonuses.

Extreme Start Rules

• Base Game: Cheat your household funds to §0.
• Get Together: Start with a 64 x 64 lot in Windenburg.
• Seasons: Start the Legacy Challenge in Winter.
• Get Famous (Ultra Extreme Start): Bulldoze the Chateau Peak lot, then use the freerealestate cheat to move your Founder Sim in. Purchase the Knights of the Octagon Table, then cheat household funds to §0. Over the Founder’s lifetime, you must buy four more Knights of the Octagon Tables, plus Viva La Landscape painting to pay back the “loan” used to buy Chateau Peak. These objects must stay in the household inventory and not be placed on the lot.

Succession Rules

In order to make your way through 10 generations, you have to accept the fact that your founding Sim will die and need a successor to step up to the plate. This is where the vast majority of detail in the Legacy Challenge lies. There are specific successions laws that you will have to adhere to throughout the challenge. While there are different options to select from, you will not be allowed to change your succession laws once you have started the challenge.

In deciding how you will determine the next heir to your legacy, you will need to take four key laws into consideration: Gender Law, Bloodline Law, Heir Law, and Species Law (for those who have the Get to Work expansion).

Gender Law

• Matriarchy: The Founder Sim must be female and other females will also have priority to become the next heir. Males can only become eligible in the even there are no females in line.
• Strict Matriarchy: This has the same rules as the matriarchy option minus the option for a male to become the next in line. If you adhere to this law, a male can’t become the next heir even if there are no female Sims eligible to become the next heir.
• Patriarchy: The Founder Sim must be a male, and other males will also have the priority to become the next heir. Females can only become eligible in the event there are no females in line.
• Strict Patriarchy: This has the same rules as the Patriarchy option minus the option for a female to become the next in line. If you adhere to this law, a female can’t become the next heir even if there are no male Sims eligible to become the next heir.
• Equality: The Founder Sim can be male or female, and gender will play no role in who is selected as the next heir.
• Strict Equality: The Founder Sim can be male or female, but every new heir must be the opposite gender of the heir that came before them.

Bloodline Law

• Strict Traditional: This law means that eligible Sims are the natural-born child of the previous heir. Every new heir must always be able to trace their lineage directly back to the founding Sim of the family. Keep in mind that this means adopted children will never have the option to become the heir.
• Traditional: This follows the same rules as the Strict Traditional option except that adopted children will have the chance to become the heir in the event there are no natural-born Sims eligible for that generation.
• Modern: This law will allow both natural-born and adopted children to be named heir.
• Foster: This option turns the traditional option on its head by placing the priority on adopted children. In this case, natural-born children will only be able to become the heir in the event there are no adopted children eligible for that generation.
• Strict Foster: You probably already guessed what this means by now. This law strictly forbids any natural-born children from becoming the heir.

Heir Law

This is the most important law of them all as this determines which Sim will actually be named heir. The previous laws are simply listing the qualification that must be met in order for a Sim to even be considered to become heir.

• First Born: The oldest eligible Sim will become the heir.
• Last Born: The youngest eligible Sim will become the heir.
• Living Will: Whichever eligible child has the highest friendly relationship score with the previous generation’s parents will become the heir.
• Merit: Whichever eligible Sim has completed the most aspirations will be named heir. In the event there is a tie, the Sim with the highest level in one skill will become the heir for that generation.
• Strength: The oldest, eligible child will be named heir but can be removed from power if an eligible sibling beats them in a fight. There is no limit to how many times the title of heir can be overturned based on fights between siblings.
• Random: As you probably guess, this means your heirs must be selected randomly from a pool of Sims that meets the previously listed qualifications based on Gender Law and Bloodline Law.
• Exemplar: This option means you will select your next heir based on a singular trait that should be determined before you start the challenge. Whatever trait you decide on must be one of the founder’s three traits, and the next-in-line must also possess the very same trait. The eligible Sim that also has the same trait will be named heir. If none of the children have this trait, then the oldest eligible Sim will become the heir.
• Democracy: This is a fun option for anyone who will be sharing their experience with the public. If you plan to share your gameplay online or even just blog about it publicly, you will let your audience decide which eligible Sim should be next in line.
• Magical Bloodline: The heir is whichever child has the strongest magical bloodline trait. If no potential heirs have magical bloodline traits, such as in the first couple of generations, or if they all have equal magical bloodline traits, then the firstborn will be the heir.
• Magical Strength. Two or more potential heirs must have a magical duel. The winner becomes the heir. As with the Magical Bloodline law, if no potential heirs have magical bloodline traits, then the firstborn will be the heir.

Species Law

This law is for any players who have the Get to Work expansion. It is also completely optional, so you don’t have to create this law simply because you have the Get to Work expansion.

• Xenoarchy: The line of heirs must consistently alternate between human and alien.
• Xenophobic: Heirs are not allowed to be any species different from the founder’s.
• Brood: Heirs must be carried in pregnancy by the previous heir.
• Tolerant: The species will play no part in deciding who the next heir will be.

Finding Spouses and Raising Children

The golden rule when it comes to spouses in the Legacy Challenge is that they cannot bring any money into the household. So while you are allowed and encouraged to marry and move in Sims, you will need to make sure they are not bringing money with them. In order to do this, you just need to make sure they are not the last Sim in that household. If there is another Sim in the household they are leaving, they will not be bringing any money into the Legacy house. If they are the last Sim, however, simply move them in with another family before moving them in with your Legacy Challenge family.

You are allowed to have as many spouses as you with throughout the Legacy Challenge but the first Sim brought into the household with the sole purpose of marrying the current heir is considered the Primary Spouse. Keep in mind that you may start running out of potential mates over time, so the challenge creator suggests using gallery Sims to replenish your dating pool. You will use #LegacyLoves in the gallery to find new Sims that can be used to keep the love going throughout all ten generations of The Legacy Challenge.

The Legacy Challenge requires you to roll for your Child’s aspirations once they age up out of being an Infant. The Legacy Challenge creator also provides a widget that will give you your child’s first trait. You will use this random generator to find each child’s new aspiration and traits as they age up. Keep in mind that this applies to all Sims, not just those who are eligible to become heirs. It can seem a bit tedious at times, but it does add to the fun of the challenge.