Handiness - Basic Level-up Rewards/Workbench Craft Item List

[MeesterPepper]

Alright, I got together a list of the basic rewards for leveling up handiness, and the items you can craft on the workbench. But you already knew that, since you read the topic title.

Level Rewards

Level 1 -- Scavenge For Parts from Junk Piles, able to try and repair broken items.
Level 2 -- Able to install basic plumbing upgrades, Talk About Handiness interaction with Sims, can purchase Upgrade Parts on the computer.
Level 3 -- Chance to find rare upgrade parts when scavenging.
Level 4 -- Able to install advanced plumbing upgrades.
Level 5 -- Lower risk of electrocution while doing repairs, able to install basic kitchen upgrades, Brag About Handiness interaction with other Sims.
Level 6 -- Can occasionally find electronic upgrade parts when scavenging.
Level 7 -- Plumbing upgrades will install twice as fast, ability to install advanced kitchen upgrades.
Level 8 -- Ability to install basic electronic upgrades.
Level 9 -- Ability to install advanced electronic upgrades.
Level 10 -- Will always find rare upgrade parts when scavenging, kitchen upgrades will install twice as fast, can mentor other Sims in the Handiness skill.

WORKBENCH PROJECTS
Workbench projects have a quality just like all other Sim-made items in TS4, though I've only seen two qualities. Every workbench project has a material cost, and you can sell the items for profit - Good quality items for 2x the material cost, and Excellent quality items for 4x the material cost. The Marketable reward trait doesn't seem to influence these numbers (despite, y'know, the icon being a wooden chair...)

Name - Material Cost (Level)
Sculptures
Knife Block - $5 (0)
Horse Sculpture -$10 (0)
Bunny Sculpture - $10 (3)
Dragon Sculpture - $10 (3)
Elephant Sculpture - $10 (3)
Large Bear Sculpture - $15 (5)
Large Lumberjack Sculpture - $15 (5)

Furniture
Barstool - $15 (2)
End Table - $52 (4)
Dining Chair - $45 (6)
Dining Table - $157 (6)
Bathtub - $377 (9)
Toilet - $55 (10)
The Bathtub and Toilet can be given upgrades just like the ones in the Buy catalog.

Instruments
All instruments require Handiness level 8 AND level 8 in the instrument you want to craft. I don't think you can craft Pianos - my test Sim has level 10 piano and handiness and still doesn't have the option, even when Very Inspired or Very Focused. May have another prerequisite I haven't discovered yet, but it seems unlikely.
Child's Violin - $45
Violin - $212
Guitar - $300

UPGRADES
I haven't take the time to take down a list of the available upgrades on items in TS4 (and I don't know if I will), but some preliminary playing around tells me that, yes, unique expensive objects like the Microscope have unique upgrades, and, yes, the most expensive stoves/toilets/showers/tubs/etc have unique upgrade options from their cheaper counterparts. But the best part is, unlike TS3, you're not limited to one upgrade per object - if your Sim has the skill and the needed Upgrade Parts, they can install all possible upgrades to the object. (Amusingly, if you install an 'unbreakable'-style upgrade on something, you can then still later install a 'break less often' upgrade to the same item.)

MORE TESTING
(Extra things I might look into if I have the time)
-Is it possible to craft more items at the Workbench based on your Sim's other high-level skills or their current emotion?
-Can other skill levels influence object upgrades? I.e., some computer upgrades require programming/video game skill levels?
-Is the Marketable reward not adding value a bug with this test Sim, or does it genuinely not influence Workbench Project sale prices?

And that's all, I wrote.

[Joria]

Very nicely done.  My Sim is basically "accidentally" increasing her handiness so these are good to know in case I want to focus on it more.  Thank you for the hard work.

[Playalot]

Great research  I'm loving the multiple upgrades, especially the fridge. I had thought I should write all the available upgrades down... but then I got too involved playing. 

[MeesterPepper]

UPGRADE LIST

Compiled a list of upgrades, the items they can be installed on, the upgrade parts required to install, etc.
A few things about the list I've made:

-Many items are listed more than once. "Self-Cleaning", for instance. The reason for this is, most of the objects that can have Self-Cleaning (etc) require different amounts of upgrade parts to install.
-There are some upgrades for the Backyard Observatory and Life Under A Microscope items that I cannot figure out what they actually do.
-> I also do not know whether upgrades on those two objects count as Electronic upgrades or not. I suspect they do.
-I did not separate the upgrades by Basic and Advanced, as that would have required grinding another Sim in handiness and checking each of these objects several times along the way, and I did not feel like doing that.
-I did not look for possible upgrades on career-unlock objects, as this test Sim has not unlocked any of them.
-Upgrades on the Steampunk Flyamajig appear to be linked to the Rocket Science skill and not the Handiness skill, so I did not include them.
-This should not be considered a definitive list; I did not check every single item in the Buy Catalog, only the objects in the Plumbing, Appliances, Electronics, and Skills & Activities tabs, plus Fireplaces. There are probably upgrade-able objects I missed.

Anyway, I cannot figure out an easy-to-read way to list all the relevant information here on the forum, so I put up my notes in spreadsheet form on Google Docs, found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12pxlhGwI87c4lppsRwcBUfbYxNsvHcnQE4OXaIotgWE/edit?usp=sharing

MOAR TESTING - UPDATE
-I've done two more new Sims, quickly cheated some Aspiration points onto them, and compared their sales prices of Knife Blocks to before and after giving them the Marketable trait. Either my game itself is bugged, or Marketable does not influence the selling price of workbench items.
-Have not discovered any new workbench projects from Flirty, Confident, or Playful moods. Do not expect to find new projects from Tense, Uncomfortable, Embarrassed, Angry, or Sad moods and don't plan on testing them. I could be wrong, but I'll save my poor Sim the trouble of being abused like that.
-It appears that any object upgrades unlocked by the Handiness skill can be installed by Sims regardless of their other skills (i.e., computer upgrades can be installed w/o having any Programming skill). The exception is the Steampunk Flyamajig, which is upgraded with Rocket Science skill instead.


And, with that, I've done about as much research as I am wont to do for this skill. I hope I've been of help, and happy Simming!

[grimsoul]

Nice job on getting that info together MeesterPepper. This will be handy. No pun intended. 
And I learned something not related to the Sims also. I hadn't deen Google Docs before.

[kanzaki]

You can craft emotional statues, I made flirty and playful ones.

Do the sculptures come in different shapes? Most of mine look completely different than their icons.

[Playalot]

Good job! This is super cool! <applauds> 

[grimsoul]

When made with maxed skill the stats on some of the furinture is good. I use the dining table and chairs in my sims home.

Dining table - Environment: 6
Dining Chair - Comfort: 6
Barstool - Comfort: 5
End Table - Environment: 3
Bathtub - Hygiene: 6, Stress Relief: 3, Uncomfortable Relief: 3, Reliability: 5
Toilet - Bladder: 10, Reliability: 5, Comfort: 1

[Playalot]

When made with maxed skill the stats on some of the furinture is good. I use the dining table and chairs in my sims home.

Dining table - Environment: 6
Dining Chair - Comfort: 6
Barstool - Comfort: 5
End Table - Environment: 3
Bathtub - Hygiene: 6, Stress Relief: 3, Uncomfortable Relief: 3, Reliability: 5
Toilet - Bladder: 10, Reliability: 5, Comfort: 1

Thats really good to know, I haven't bothered with the workbench yet but this might tempt me too. 

[_Annika_]

I got a hold of some XML tuning files so I can look for handy nuggets of information. The first thing I wanted to find was if your sim stops getting pinched fingers from repairing items. They do indeed. From what I can gather from the sparse information provided in the file (and I mean very sparse - sims 3 xml is a novel compared to this) it appears that they have a 10% chance to get a pinched finger (uncomfortable moodlet) level 2 and under, and a 5% chance from levels 3-5. I can only assume that since handiness is the governing skill here, that is what is required, since the skill in the code is only referred as a bunch of numbers. If anyone wants to know for later handiness is 16704.

[oshizu]

Thank you for the detailed list of Handiness levels.


I have a question about crafting instruments on the woodworking table.
Finally, got the required levels in Handiness and Violin to craft a child's violin. The resulting violin was Excellent quality but, unlike both of the child's violin models for sale, offer no Fun +3 value.
I haven't attempted crafting the adult violin or guitar yet.
Do all the handcrafted instruments lack the Fun value, so we would only make them for profit? (I crafted an Excellent adult violin for $415 which sold for $1,395).
After all the effort, it would have been cool if the crafted instruments offered more fun or something.
Okay, I guess I answered my own question....