World Handyman Championships II

[brennan068]

I went with a witch - conjured apples for eating when needed.  I was able to easily get to the charms to look after needs; potent invigorating potions for sleep until I got the moodlet manager.

The midas touch provided the cash.

I experimented with a queue of umbrellas, but found I could crank out more with just a single one.  I took that on vacations with me and just kept on flipping back and forth.

I managed to get the food replicator but not enough lth for the teleporter too.

[Vesper]

I just wasn't quick/ accurate enough to play at full speed with one umbrella so had to use three for sanity's sake even though time is lost walking between them. Yes I did test this and sanity points won over potential score.

[brennan068]

I wasn't quick enough for it at full speed either, so I ran the challenge at speed 2 instead of 3...

[Teresa]

Teresa- I read on the Sims Wiki that Genies learned skills faster, and in my practice run I thought my genie learned handiness pretty quickly, but after you asked I just had to be sure. So I went in game and had three Sims start learning a skill at the same time at night. The vampire still was the fastest, and the Genie was no faster than the human. So, sorry about that. How quickly my Sim was going to learn handiness did not really matter to me in this challenge so I guess I just didn't get around to testing that hypothesis. 

Well, thanks for checking it out.

[saltpastillen]

I'm so proud of myself for actually taking enough time to research before I jumped into a challenge. (It could have had something to do with the fact that I was stranded for a week without a siming computer and used all my time to prep in order not to go insane from sims abstinence.)

Anyway, I used a regular human because I didn't feel I knew enough about the different supernaturals to play them comfortably. My sim was handy, ambitious, loner, hates the outdoors and over emotional. Hates the outdoors because it meant I didn't have to worry about the heat (I only played summer) and since weather wasn't a factor in the vacation destinations. My sim had the Swimming in cash LTW because I had worked out that it gave the highest pay out while being the most likely one to complete on the first day. I really wanted the motive mobile as fast as possible. I played in moonlight falls since it has an empty lot very close to where the elixir shop is. It's also across the road from the consignment store which was my backup for getting enough money to complete my LTW in case the elixir shop became bugged.

I visited the elixir store and got lucky scoring both a wish enhancement serum and midas touch on my fist try. Spent about one hour more buying vials off bliss and invigorating potions (they freeze the energy bar). Then I went home to get enough money to buy all upgrade-able objects I could get hold off. I also bough the motive mobile and the prepared traveler LTW since I didn't want to waste time on trying to score visa points. That still left me about halfway to getting the food replicator. I held off on any more LTR's untill I could buy the transporter and the replicator. I spent the rest of the morning joining the fire fighting career, taking a handiness class and went home to tinker in my bathroom. As soon as I reached lvl3 I started on my upgrades.

I was lucky enough to avoid fires, both at work and at my home lot. I quit firefighting on day 3 after completing all the relevant upgrades and then proceed to waste about a day and a half befriending an alien and trying to get it to land it's space ship on my lot (my one weak spot in my research). As soon as I popped a wish for traveling I was of to china, went to the market and upgraded the cookie machine, then stayed the rest of the 6 days out by the edge of the home lot upgrading a ring of umbrellas I had placed on the ground for easy access to and from the motive mobile. Once home I upgraded umbrellas for about a week more before having enough LTWP's to buy a food replicator. Once that was done I went to France for 2 vacations where I stayed at the end of the nectary lot upgrading umbrellas. Buy the end of the challenge I had managed to get enough LTWP's to get steel bladder and hardly hungry as well, which made things even more efficient.

When it all came down to it I think there were three factors which brought success.
1. Getting enough LTWP's to buy the essentials (the reason the moodlet manager was out of the questions - it was too expensive)
2. Saving as much time as possible by eliminating anything that wasn't upgdading.
3. Getting enough money so you could buy anything you wanted and needed asap.

Also, I spent a lot of time searching the forum for information, and reading up on last years handyman challenge really helped me a lot.

[Odie]

All your sim has to do is enter the motive mobile, not even go anywhere (you have to tell them to go somewhere, then cancel) and all their motives fill right up.

I so have to start using that thing!

And to answer my own questions about the world and the money:
Despite of the saving difficulties I decided to play in UC anyway, because it simply had almost every object that needed to be upgraded in town already. (Including the water trog )
I got my money from some stealing, the bookcases in China and France and some quick plundering of the Nectary's hidden rooms, the 3 gnomes in the museum in France and a few simple tombes. I really wish I had known about the Motive Mobile, because my sim just had to sleep every night. I did buy her the LTR for less sleep needed and steal bladder to save time.

It is really nice to hear everybody's strategy, but we haven't heard from our winner, have we?

[Noocherenee]

Well I'm glad to know my strategy would have worked great.  Sadly I killed my sim from not paying attention.  I used a gene as well because I didn't have to worry about showers or eating or a dirty house.  I upgrade the umbrellas like everyone else and bought the motive mobile in week 1 day 6.  I used the Tinkerer as a LTW and used the sleeping potion that cuts your sleep in half until I finished the LTR.  I didn't think about Midas Touch as that would have been the quickest LTW to finish.  I started at the library and basically lived there in a sleeping bag until my Logic was lvl 6 and Handiness was 6 as well about end of day 2.  Then he went home and made the potion and upgraded umbrellas until death smashed him into the earth.

I loved hearing the different strategies but I can't wait to hear the Baby Boomer strategies.

[Chuckles_82]

Reading all the different things people have done, I think I found a new strategy that might compare to the top score. Forgetting the elixir consignment shop was my
mistake. Making even better use of it is my new strategy. Potions required:

- Wish enhancing serum
- Midas Touch
- Vial of Potent Bliss x 3 minimum
*Bottled Mummy Curse*
- Liquid Job Booster - optional
- Skill booster, potent skill booster - optional

0. Place all possible different junkyards (Twinbrook has two unique ones) for maximum chance of spawning a fortune cookie machine, Make elixir consignment shop close to home if possible.
1. Register as fireman.
2. Read handy skill book to level one.
3. Buy out the consignment store until you get all the potions.
4. Drink Midas touch, make lots of money
5. Buy closest lot and place food register and nectar register
6. Buy lots of tomatoes, lettuce etc, and a nectar maker
7. Take 5 days off work
8. Drink liquid job booster, then any skill boosters (not enlightenment pots as these require you to sleep)
9. Drink Mummy's curse potion. Your sim will no longer need to pee or sleep, eating veggies is faster than getting to the motive mobile, showering is optional, so take the slob trait or just ignore the dirty moodlet, if you take the loner trait you should only need 1 potent bliss potion per week, depending on travel.
10 Buy the reinforced personal stage toilet, and give it the self cleaning upgrade. Not only is it fast as someone here discovered, but what they didn't tell us is that it gives a MASSIVE boost to handy skill. Sell the toilet, and then buy another. Repeat until level 10 handiness
11. Continue to upgrade items, placing them directly in front of your sim so you don't have to wait hours for the mummy to limp about.
12. Whenever the spawner pops a cookie machine, teleport there to get it.

Travel: Build a tiny room around your sim and lock them in. Call up the travel agency, and off you go. They will throw a route fail tantrum, but then the travel screen comes up instantly, saving you driving (and limping) time. Make sure you bring an umbrella (and possibly some music)!

[ladyaya]

...But the job boosters only work if you're at work as I have found.

[Chuckles_82]

I'm pretty sure that they work for professions at any time, since they boost the rate at which you get experience. It worked for my singer and magician.

EDIT: confirmed - you can get to level 10 Firefighter career in approximately 16 hours this way, plus a promotion or two. This means that you can fulfill the 'get to level 10' wish without even touching the exercise equipment. Without deviating from upgrading objects, you can have enough LTH points left over for hardly hungry LTR. You won't need the motive mobile. You can get the teleporter, prepared traveller, hardly hungry and food replicator in less than 24hrs!!

[Ricalynn]

My liquid job boosters have totally been having the opposite effect in all my games so the fact that yours works makes me think I need reinstall or something.  Using that potion actually makes me take twice as long in a rabbit hole career. 

[Chuckles_82]

I have also had that particular glitch, and had avoided it for a while because of that.

[Wai]

I didn't have the option of choosing a life state or upgrading umbrellas, I only have three EP's.

I took, handy, over-emotional, loves the outdoors, ambitious and book-worm as traits and swimming in cash for my LTW.  I bought a small lot with beautiful vista.

On the first day I splashed out on the athletic course so that she could jog on her vacations. Bought a portable stereo.  Registered as a firefighter then immediately took six-days leave.  Next I went to the library and read handiness with the stereo playing.  She got the wish to finish a book, read three books and buy a handiness book.  I let her read cooking and she wanted to learn new recipe, buy a cooker, a fridge and a cookbook.  I filled all these wishes but immediately sold back my purchases except the ratatuille recipe which she read for the third book.  I purchased 25 apples after purchasing the books.  I immediatly sent her to china. 

In China on the first day, she jogged to the market, bought an incense burner and a cookie maker.  Then she bought all the gems and metals available in the relic merchant.  Jogged back to base camp and sent the loot for processing. She then upgraded in the camp (with the stereo playing and the insence burning) until exhausted.  (I moved the insence next to her bed.)

The following day she collected the mail then jogged back to the relic merchant where I selected all the gems and metals again, checked the value and sold enough smelted metals to the merchant to cover my selection and allow enough cash to process my loot plus a little extra to cover anything I collected.  Then I returned to the buy screen and made my purchase.  I planned a route around the nearest places I knew were good spots for metals and gems and she jogged to collect those.  Then back to base where I posted off my collectables and had her upgrade another object before going to bed.

The third day was a repeat of day two with the exception of stealing all the books in camp.  (I felt bad about this, but it wasn't specifically banned so decided to do it anyway).

She returned home and immediately transfigured the loot into three spire cut tiberium.  I purchased the good double bed which came with showtime (I think).  Late on Monday she completed her LTW and was very close to buying the moodlet mananger. 

After this, it was pretty much the same as everyone else.  I took my remaining vacation days in France (after getting the moodlet manager)  upgrading the doorbell.  I ensured that she had the incense burning when inside and music playing at all times.  She purchased a few more gems and metals as I did not know how much cash she would need (I should have saved my time) and the nectar maker to upgrade outdoors at home. 

I too found it very frustrating when I couldn't find the last items needed to make the 100%!  Though, trying out all sorts of objects to see if they had an upgrade I was unaware of lucked me into finding the quick upgrade toilet, but too late to make much difference to my score.

[heatherliz2002]

I love to read the strategies and figure out what I missed!  I didn't even think to try elixirs.  I've only had Supernatural for a few weeks, and I haven't had time to fully try it out yet.  But other than that, I'm really happy that I figured out at least part of the strategy!  I've never played with a genie, so I'll have to give that a try.

I played with a werewolf and used her ability to hunt to quickly fulfill the swimming in cash LTW, then bought the motive mobile and upgraded umbrellas like crazy.  I put two on the floor and had her go back and forth between them.  I probably spent too much time fulfilling other wishes to get the other LTRs that have upgrades- the wish enhancement serum would definitely help tremendously there.  I got lucky and figured out the wall mounted speaker upgrade because in one of my practice rounds, my sim got a wish to upgrade one!

This was a fun challenge.  I especially appreciated that it didn't take very long to complete.  With a toddler and a preschooler to keep up with, I don't often get as much time to play the sims as I would like!

[gracieoscar]

Did the wall mounted speaker come with Showtime?