GlazeyLady, congratulations on your win and great score. I really enjoyed reading your strategy. I too had no idea you could visit the Flee Market several time.
The collections I completed were, in order:
Frogs
Postcards
Geodes
Experimental food pictures
Crystals
Magic beans
Aliens
Insects
MySims
Elements
Metals
Cracker plushies
Plants
Spaceprints
City Posters
I left everything I had installed, just because I didn’t want the bother. I would probably have been better off without Vampires, and maybe Wellness too (altough that only matters for fish, and I didn’t do those. I bought Seasons a few days before the end of this challenge, but didn’t install it until after I finished. I don’t have Jungle Adventures, so 4 aspirations was the max for me. Also, this wat the first challenge I played with Get Together, and I used rally the troops a lot.
My Sim was an alien, which was useful for transmuting crystals, metals and elements, and bringing to life dead aliens. She was also a geek and kleptomaniac and loved the outdoors. Klepto was based on idea from Oshizu’s legacy: you can steal insects from the cottage in Granite Falls! You do need mischief level 8 though, so I determined only to use it and level mischief if I couldn’t find the insects myself in a reasonably time. I did, so there was not a lot of stealing.
She completed The Curator, Angling Ace, Outdoor Enthusiast and Freelance Botanist in that order. One of the first things she did was visit the produce stand in San Myshuno. It makes for a good start on the gardening collection, and when planted, a start on the gardening skill. While working on the Curator I did start to fish, mainly to be able to start fertilizing (pomegranates would have been more efficient, I guess, but I didn’t think of that). It is also a useful activity when waiting for things to spawn (especially city posters). In the first week, she also started work on her rocket, just pausing to write to pen pals, and breeding frogs at the same time. The rocket got her to Sixam, for geodes, alien plants, crystals and metals, and found her some aliens and space rocks. Sadly I never found the large space rock. Aliens were also found on the Science career lot. Once I had found all of the dead aliens, I could revive the duplicate to complete my collection. She did also join the science career after buying Connections. I had planned to work on one promotion, to get the cloning machine. The game refused to create colleagues, however (even after repairing game and clearing caches), so she couldn’t progress enough (or ask colleagues for metals and crystals). The career was still useful for its dig sites. I bought Professional Slacker later on, so she could come back later and not do any work in the meantime.
Her first trip to Granite Falls lasted two days and got her through the first three tiers of OE. She got all of the wild plants, and 19 insects, which was better than I had hoped for. I did check where to find the rare ones, in the guide and other sources. The main one for me to know is the Dust Spirit. It only comes out at night and I’ve only seen it next to a fishing spot in the Forest. On her second trip, after finishing her aspirations, she got the last two, the dragon dragonfly and the fire ant. The dragon dragonfly appears next to the waterfall in either the Forest or the Hermit’s area. Most of the time those places will spawn regular dragonflies. I was lucky on that second trip that the dragon dragonfly spawned right away. The fire ant is actually common, but it took me a while to see it.
It took me a while to figure out how to do experimental food pictures in a reasonable time. I had her go to Chez Llama with her club, but she could only take a picture of her own food, and sometimes of that of the person sitting across from her. This way, it takes forever. The solution: order, then click ‘fishing together’, cancel the action. If everyone is away when the food arrives, you can sit at their chair and photograph. And while waiting for the order, you can pop open some holiday crackers. The staff and other guests don’t seem to think that’s weird at all.
I planted a cowplant fairly early on, but when it had grown, I promptly let it die. Oops… So I was very happy to learn that a dead cowplant still counts for the Freelance Botanist aspiration. After getting gardening to level 10, I started buying rare seed packages. I did the magic bean collection this way, and that enabled me to get the forbidden fruit. Together with the produce from San Myshuno and flowers from the Romance festival (including the UFO fruit, which was a pleasant surprise – I never could harvest anything there pre-patch) this almost completed my gardening collection. The bonsai bud remained elusive, no matter how many rare seed packages I bought. It eventually grew on a grafted plant when I had little time to spare. (And now, with Seasons, I can buy them on the computer, which feels unfair, lol.)
Transmuting as well at the analysis table from the Science career helped to complete the crystals, metals and elements collections.
Space prints I also mainly found in San Myshuno Meadows, while also waiting for posters to spawn. I did get a little lost in translation getting the last space print. Because I play the game in one language and use the guide in another (and didn’t pay enough attention) I thought I was missing a different print than I actually was and kept stargazing instead of searching for the truth. I noticed in time to complete the collection, luckily.
Microscope prints seemed doable, but I just didn’t have the time.
Finally, a big hats off to the challenge team! Even though I only participated in a few events, I really enjoyed them. If I find the time, I might play some of the challenges from this year just for myself.
