Skill booster/potent skill booster - working or not?

[Chuckles_82]

I have occasions where nothing happens after my sim drinks one of these potions. There is no notification. I've tried resetting sim, and deleting caches and such, and every now and then that works, but not all the time. I've clearing my sim's inventory, and tried drinking it from inventory and from the ground - all with the same results. Does anyone have any ideas about what is causing it, or better, what may fix it? EDIT - I've also tried using another sim to throw the potion with no success.

[azokka361]

I read that the Skill Booster automatically levels up a random skill--even one that your sim hasn't learned yet. Thus, it may not be apparent that the elixir is doing something, until the sim learns that skill and gets a seemingly random boost.

[Chuckles_82]

Shouldn't you still get a notification after you drink it though?

[Ricalynn]

I only ever get a notification on the skills I actually know.

[MarianT]

I've never gotten a new skill with this (but I haven't been playing around with it for long). The enlightenment elixir seems to be the one that gives you something new.

My impression is that the skill elixir won't work if you're at level 9 in a skill, and it might not work if you've taken one skill elixir already that day. The potent skill elixir will take you up to max.

[lvrugger]

I've been playing with this for the last few days. Here's my take on what's happening:
- Enlightenment elixirs will give new skills, skill boosters won't.
- Skill boosters randomly pick a skill to add to, even if you have maxed that skill. If you have maxed that skill, you don't get a notice. That means if you have some skills that are maxed you may not get a boost from drinking the elixir.
- You can use multiple skill boosters in one day. I had a Sim start with almost no points and max 4 skills in less than a day. Towards the end there were very few skill boosters that actually did anything since three skills were maxed already.
- I haven't played with the regular skill boosters much, just the potent ones. My alchemist is chained to the bench making them (and other elixirs) all day long.

[Sarabi]

Some of my experiences with the skill booster:

- Whether it does anything seems to be somewhat random.
- I have gotten previously unlearned skills with the skill boosters.  Specifically, 2 points in writing or painting from the potent version, for sims who had never done any writing or painting.  It seems more frequent for the sim to gain in a skill that they have already learned, however.
- There may be some latency involved - I have seen notifications with Charisma that the sim does not have the required relationships to progress, which makes sense for that skill.  Then when the sim creates the additional relationships required, the skill boost shows up.
- I had a sim working on The Tinkerer LTW (max logic & handiness) - starting at logic 6, handiness 6.4 get 2 points handiness from a potent skill booster, then he drank several more with no apparent results.  He then read the handy book to level 9.7, drank another potent skill booster which mastered handiness.  I had him drink one more with logic at 6.0, and it mastered his logic and fulfilled the LTW.  I don't know whether that single potent elixer actually gave him 4 levels of logic (from 6 to 10) or whether there was some latency in the previous ones he had consumed that all showed up at the same time.

Random mysteries are random and mysterious.