I wanna break stuff!

[Metropolis Man]

Ha ha. Not in real life of course. But, I'm trying to figure out the quickest way to obtain the Plumbers and Electricians challenges for the MAX Skills tourney. Money isn't an issue so should my character just buy the cheapest stuff possible (toilets, showers, etc)? He's already mastered the Handiness skill, so I don't know if Tinkering is a great option in hopes of something breaking.

[PJSim]

I'm not sure either.

I played the challenge twice and the first time I had the cheapest shower and the second time I had the expensive one with the tub; they both broke only once during the whole challenge. The cheap toilet always seems to break a lot though.

I think you just need to use things to make them break. I've played a house with 8 sims and stuff was breaking all the time!

I personally don't like tinkering because it always seems to backfire, like accidentally doing the unbreakable upgrade when you were hoping for stuff to break.
And I've had a sim tinker with a sprinkler until he supposedly gave it the auto-water upgrade except it didn't work. It never did turn on by itself and I never got the option to do the upgrade properly so I had to buy a new sprinkler.

[Pam]

Metro -

The public facilities often break and your Sim can repair those.  You'll find them at the library, the gym, and the park for sure.  And I think the art museum.

PJ -

Automatic sprinklers only come on at 4:00 a.m. for a couple of hours.  Did you check them at that specific time?

[PJSim]

The public facilities often break and your Sim can repair those.  You'll find them at the library, the gym, and the park for sure.  And I think the art museum.

Oh that's right, I always forget that! When you go to the gym something is usually broken.

Automatic sprinklers only come on at 4:00 a.m. for a couple of hours.  Did you check them at that specific time?

Yeah I know and it just didn't work. I had two sprinklers in that game; the first was upgraded by tinkering when the sim had low skill and the second was upgraded the normal way when the sim had high enough skill. The second would come on like it's supposed to and the first just didn't. And I couldn't do the upgrade again, so weird.

I suppose it kind of made sense, the sim didn't know what he was doing so the upgrade wasn't done correctly?
Well, I had to get a new sprinkler to get a working auto water upgrade so I was just happy it was something cheap.

[Carl]

I'd throw parties with cheap toilets... cheap stereo, get other Sims to break stuff.

[Metropolis Man]

I'd throw parties with cheap toilets... cheap stereo, get other Sims to break stuff.

Good idea. And the tip about stuff at public lots is good too. Those computers in the library break all the time on me.

[Honeymooners]

I think it is safe to say the more sims around the more likely things are going to break.  Since in the challenge it is only 1 sim in the house they are going to have to go to the bathroom a lot before the toilet breaks. 

Everybody has some great ideas!

[Metropolis Man]

I think it is safe to say the more sims around the more likely things are going to break.  Since in the challenge it is only 1 sim in the house they are going to have to go to the bathroom a lot before the toilet breaks.

Very true. I wonder if it's a totally random thing, or if there is some kind of "usage" element in determining if something will break. Using the toilet constantly despite the fact that my challenge character had Steel Bladder did finally get me the Plumber's Challenge. And in the last couple of days before I finished my Sim threw a party and someone broke the cheap stereo, and that was my 10th Electrical item needed for that Challenge.

[Carl]

It has to be random, I've had toilets break way too much for it to be some set count. Sad when everything in the bathroom breaks at once, but it happens... I'm glad my computer breaks nowhere near as often as it does in the game, but it is Friday the 13th!

[Pam]

I don't have any data to back this up, but it always seems that something breaks at the worst possible moment.  The shower breaks just as a party is starting.  The dishwasher breaks the moment labor starts.  Things like that happen all the time for me.

[PJSim]

 

Poor Pam.

It has to be random, I've had toilets break way too much for it to be some set count.

Me too. And then other times it just won't break at all when you want it to.

[kiko94]

I know I'm reviving a very old thread, I think I have a useful information, stuff break if you start the tinker action, then cancel it after some time, also stuff break if you use them when they are dirty, my sim is also level 10 handiness, I was thinking of upgrading the sink and then the carpool arrived, that's when I canceled and the sink was broke, I think it also goes for fires, a fire starts if you cancel the cooking

[grimsoul]

The Electricians challenge is easy to do if you have the Technophobe trait. They can break electric items. Have them break it, fix it, break it, fix it and so on 10 times and you got it.

 

[kiko94]

Guess the clumsy trait would help too?

[SimPoseyYum]

Clumsy didn't work so well for me  .  I was hoping Clumsy would do for plumbing what Technophobe did for electronics.  The best I could do for plumbing was to set up a wall of toilets and have my poor Sim sit, sit, sit her way through them all, over and over, for about a day.  Sinks work, too and I think it takes slightly less time to Wash hands than it does to Use the toilet.  So maybe a wall of sinks would be a bit faster.

Hmmmm seems like a test is in order...