Thanks Metro. This was a fun challenge, and I learned some things. I look forward to hearing about what strategies other people used for this challenge. I decided to include a table summarizing what I did for this challenge this time in addition to the writeup, as I have enjoyed looking at LenaLJ's tables in the past.
My Sim Katlyn wasn't allowed to switch aspirations until completing Bodybuilder, so this was one of the first things that she accomplished. The other thing she accomplished very early in the game was getting married to gym trainer Don Lothario. She proposed to him on the first day, and married him on the second. The moodlets given to her by her proposal and their marriage helped a lot early on with maintaining the 'very' version of the ideal mood for skilling, and they could renew their marriage vows anytime that it seemed the extra moodlet would be helpful. Whenever she needed someone to socialize with, for skilling purposes, she invited him over. To start with, Katlyn had Don train her at home while weightlifting to meet all the exercise hours required by the bodybuilder aspiration except the two hours that were fulfilled by jogging. Being very energized while jogging was easy from all of the happy moodlets she had from a new romance, as well as her energy drink. No additional exercise beyond these hours was required for Katlyn to reach her maximum body potential. All other skilling done in order to reach athletic level ten was done by using the discuss fitness techniques option.
Buying rewards that provided bonuses to skilling was the highest priority for satisfaction points after moodlet solvers. By the first night Katlyn had the night owl reward, and by the next morning she had morning Sim. I found that traveling or saving and loading caused the benefits of these rewards to go away, so I avoided doing these things during these hours whenever I could.
Next up was cooking, gourmet cooking, and then baking. I had her do these in sequence for two reasons; doing them could provide strong inspired moodlets, which would take effort to overcome for other skilling activities, and they provide a lot of satisfaction points. For cooking, she mostly cooked whatever the highest level dish she could make was, especially if she had a whim to make one of them. For gourmet cooking, she made caprese salads only. These are fast to make and provide a good skill bonus after making them, so I found them to be the fastest way to level gourmet cooking. Baking she did mostly on the stove, making whatever the highest level dish was. While she was mixing the ingredients, she would tell stories to herself. This made baking fun and each dish take longer, but the skill bar wasn't slowed down by telling stories. The benefit was it prevented her from walking around, thus actually increasing the leveling speed. It was also entertaining to watch. She reminded me of a classic witch brewing a potion and chanting a spell. I included a picture of her doing this. For baking levels nine and ten I had her use the cupcake factory, so that she could generate some simoleans and more satisfaction.
Baking using the cupcake factory did not provide inspired moodlets, so she was able to begin gardening during these last two levels. I had her plant ten plants including some parsley and strawberries to use for later herbalism recipes, some carrots to use for bait and eating, and some sage to use as a grafting base. While they were growing, she worked on baking during the day and mischief and charisma at night. Katlyn leveled charisma and mischief in the same conversations by kissing Don on the cheek occasionally between her pranks. It was just one kiss here and there to make sure that the mood remained very happy, and not flirty. Very happy is the fastest mood to level both skills. With the benefit provided by great kisser, leveling charisma by kissing was very fast. The interactions she used to level mischief were trick with hand buzzer, invite to fake party, and scare. All mischief interactions cause the same amount of level gain, but these took the least time and were reacted to positively.
Shortly before it was time to evolve the plants for the first time, I had Katlyn get midway through level four gardening using first a skill book, and then talking to plants. Evolving the plants brought her to level five, and then it was time to go on vacation. While on vacation, she jogged from plant to plant whenever she was cooperative, since she was lazy and refused to run. She used focused potions bought from the reward store to get very focused, then harvested and took two grafts from every plant she came across. By the time she had done this to most of the plants in the first camping area and Deep Woods, her gardening skill was at the bottom of level nine. Some players have reported grafting breaking from taking a lot of grafts, but that hasn't happened in any of my games. I am careful not to queue up multiple interactions to graft on plants anyway, since I've heard that's the most likely thing to cause a glitch. Both taking grafts and grafting provide lots of gardening experience. Katlyn used three of the grafts she had taken (toxic chamomile and two huckleberry) to make the required grafts for the freelance botanist aspiration. These are also two plants that she used later for herbalism recipes. Once these grafted plants grew crops, she also replanted two of each type in order to have enough for herbalism recipes. Katlyn leveled herbalism as she gained crops by first identifying all unknown herbs, making three insect repellent laminents (useful for a ten hour +1 happy moodlet), a few deodorizing creams, and at least ten clear mind distillations.
While waiting for plants to grow this time, Katlyn first worked on mixology by day and comedy over two nights. When I say by day, what I mean is in the afternoon between morning Sim and night owl. She often leveled different day and night skills because some skills I wanted her to level faster than others. She worked on mixology by making twelve prose and pop (eight of which eventually got used), and then fifteen or twenty amygdelights (all of which and more would be eventually used). I stopped after fifteen or twenty amygdelights because I didn't want them to start going bad before they could be used. All of these drinks were stored in the refrigerator for later use. To level comedy, she invited Don over and told lots of quick jokes, making sure not to become hysterical.
Next up was writing, so that there was time to benefit from some royalties, and also to use up some prose and pop. This was done mostly at night, so that less prose and pop was required. Drinking prose and pop caused a 50% increase in leveling speed for both writing and painting. It can be drank quickly by viewing a picture or painting for a short time between each sip. Writing was first leveled up to seven, and painting up to two, and then they were both finished off with socialization. Once reaching level seven, the fastest way to level writing is with the enthuse about iambic pentameter interaction. Once reaching level two, the fastest way to level painting is discussing color theory. These can be easily leveled in the same conversations, since they both benefit from being very inspired and under the influence of prose and pop. Handiness was leveled during the day. The first level was achieved through repairs, and all the rest through the highest level handiness upgrade available. This was the fastest way I found to level handiness. I made sure to have Katlyn upgrade a motion gaming machine at handiness nine with emotion engine to make leveling gaming faster on it.
Once Katlyn had maxed herbalism, she finished the last bit of gardening experience she needed by grafting on to a few plants, and began fishing. This was mostly done at night, except for one initial four hour trip to the park during the day, done to complete two of the location requirements for the angling ace aspiration. It was mostly done at night because it's hard to stay very focused while fishing, without the benefit of a good environment, laser light show, and fireplace. The clear mind distillations were crucial here, and the moodlet from renewing weddings vows also helped a lot. Additional good moodlets were provided when necessary by eating a carrot, reminiscing, or applying insect repellent laminent. Viewing a focused diagram could also help with the first four hours of the fishing trip. After her initial trip to the park, all fishing was done next to the lot she lived on, for easy access and to avoid travel. One or two nights between the trips, when she invited Don over to renew vows, and then spent the night discussing logic puzzles with him while under the influence of amygdelight. This is the fastest way I found to level logic. Logic is leveled 50% faster while under the influence of amygdelight.
Next up was rocket science, programming, and video gaming. The speed of leveling all of these while under the influence of amygdelight is 25% faster. Some amygdelights needed to be made during the day in order to have enough. Rocket science was leveled by making a rocket with the help of two passerbys, and then doing the highest level rocket upgrade available, with partial space missions to bridge small gaps to the next level. Video gaming was leveled using the upgraded motion gaming machine when gaming hours were required for the computer whiz aspiration, and the rest was leveled at the computer by researching advanced gaming techniques. This was easily accomplished since Katlyn was already at the computer and in the right mood from programming. Research advanced gaming techniques is the fastest convenient way I found to level video gaming, with playing games on an upgraded motion gaming machine or watch a gaming livestream coming in second. Discussing the latest games actually may be the fastest, but it was inconvenient because of its cooldown. By the time all of these skills were leveled, Katlyn's mixology skill was almost at level 7. She made a couple more prose and pop, and then got through level 7 by making sour punch. In the evening, she invited Don over and got her last two mixology levels by sharing mixology secrets with him. These levels were gained quickly.
The only three skills remaining were the instruments. These were all leveled by practicing, since this leveled the skills faster than writing songs. This still took a while and was the most boring part of the challenge, and the only part I fast forwarded through. Katlyn only took one breaks to drink moodlet solvers, and shared half of these breaks with changing to the next instrument.
These are the satisfaction rewards Katlyn bought in the order she bought them, not counting potions: night owl, morning Sim, savant, steel bladder, marketable, speed cleaner, super green thumb, great kisser, connections, hardly hungry, never weary, antiseptic, carefree, and independent. The two biggest themes I found from doing this challenge is that conversation is often the fastest way to level a skill, and if skill leveling drinks are available, it is good to use them. I am including a table as a summary of this write-up. The skills on the table are listed in the approximate order they were started. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Katlyn "brews" her baked goods
Main Leveling Methods Used
