Let's Get Mystical

[coolsim9999999]

Great strategy, @Deveroux! 

I skipped this challenge, but I'm doing the next one .

[reggikko]

The problem for me was getting rare crystals. Despite giving my Sim a nature aspiration for the Collector trait and giving him the Geek trait, I only managed to find 2 or 3 (I'm at work and my notes are at home) rare crystals. I even spent one day in the Scientist career just digging for crystals and only found one. I came just short of finishing Jungle Explorer--I should have prioritized that sooner. I also used the strategy of going home and then starting a new vacation to reset the temples, bought all of my common and uncommon crystals on the computer, and maxed the Selvadoradian culture skill early for the ability to purchase relic parts and machetes. Once I bought the common and uncommon crystals, I immediately sent them all off to be refined.

[BallerinaHippo]

The biggest problem for me was the Balampalsoh relics.  I only got one of those in my scoring run.  I also maxed Selvadoradian Culture right away (unlocking the secret supply interaction was worth it) and I bought my uncommon crystals on the computer.  I also figured out pretty quick that I needed to activate relics on myself as soon as possible because many of them give a cooldown period after you cure the curse.

[Metropolis Man]

I PM'd Rainbow Dash, so we should hear her strategy soon. She is not a regular challenge participant so she may not be familiar with the protocol of the winner promptly posting strategy.

[Rainbow Dash]

Posted by: Metropolis Man
« on: April 01, 2019, 05:08:10 PM » Re: Let's Get Mystical
« Reply #48 on: April 01, 2019, 05:08:10 PM » I PM'd Rainbow Dash, so we should hear her strategy soon. She is not a regular challenge participant so she may not be familiar with the protocol of the winner promptly posting strategy.

I wasn't aware I had to post my strategy on the same day the challenge was announced officially closed, as it stands, that was the middle of the night for me so this evening was the best time for me to post. (It's early evening here). Sorry guys, time zone differences generally mean that I'm not usually around when a challenge closes but I'll try to be quicker in the future. I hope you all understand, I'll post my strategy soon. 

[Rainbow Dash]

Indiana maxed Archaeology quickly by being very focused every time she dug for treasure, using cereberries and fossils, upon hitting level seven of the skill she established every dig site she came across, I found a lot of relics that way. I worked on the Selvadoradian Culture skill too, but only when she needed to socialize, she eventually maxed it although not as early as I had hoped.

In between vacations I had her return home for very short periods of time to reset the vendors, jungle and temple, during those times she bought all common and uncommon crystals from the computer, sent them away to be refined and activated a few relics. I got some rare crystals by traveling through the jungle gateways.

My Sim almost never slept, showered or ate a proper meal, I assembled and activated all three Balampalsoh Death relics on her at different time so she was a skeleton for about half of the challenge, which took care of most of her needs. The rest of the time she took care of her needs on the go by using energy drinks, harvested food and waterfall in a bottle. I also bought her the Steel Bladder, Seldom Sleepy and Independent rewards as early as I could which helped with needs. I knocked out whims and milestones relating to the Jungle explorer, Achaeological scholar, Curator and Fortune aspirations to get those points. (She sent everything she found away to be authenticated and then sold them).

As for the relics themselves, I admit I got lucky, I found four whole relics, where the base and relic were already fused together. I activated all my relics in batches, I made my Sim stand by that statue in the marketplace, curse herself with a relic, then click on the statue for an instant cure, rinse and repeat. The relics that blessed her were the ones done at home, I always made sure to do the ones that turned her into a skeleton last, right before she headed back to the jungle, because it gives a blessing that last a few days.

I think luck had a lot to do with my success, although being a skeleton for most of the time certainly helped.  It's been really interesting to hear about other peoples strategies, there were a lot of ties so it was very close. I'd love to hear some funny stories, I have a few myself but I think they should wait, as this post is long enough as is, lol. This was a fun one, thanks @Metropolis Man

[Elinoee]

Congratulations to everyone finishing the challenge,and especially to Rainbow Dash!

I didn't think of maintaining the skeleton blessing on my sim to fullfill her needs,it's a great strategy 
My sim also didn't sleep or eat at all,but I spent all my satisfaction points buying moodlet solvers (I didn't see which other rewards could be more helpful).
She had lot of satisfaction points:she completed the aspirations fabulously wealthy  and jungle explorer,and parts of archeology, collector and group aspirations.

I gave her the geek trait so that she could find more rare collectibles,the "loves the outdoor" trait and the jungle explorer aspiration.
My first goal was to fullfill this aspiration,because it gives a reward trait that makes sims find really more treasures (and relics!) in chests.

The only real strategy that I pulled was to initially raise my Selvadorian Culture skill before going into the woods--lets you avoid some bee/firefly nonsense and opens the secret shop from which you can buy watcher bases and one of the kinds of tops, along with need fillers for food and hygiene, plus infinite machetes.

I activated all my relics in batches, I made my Sim stand by that statue in the marketplace, curse herself with a relic, then click on the statue for an instant cure, rinse and repeat.

I did exactly the same.

I was always afraid of being blessed randomly while wandering through the jungle,because blessings sometimes last a few days and in the meanwhile you can't activate any relic...
So during the last 2 days I stayed in Selvadorada town and digged only there,to avoid the jungle blessings! But unfortunately I did not find anything interesting to me during those last 2 days.

I had no problems to find cat relics,and even had too many! I got all the cat relics except one because I missed a rare crystal. Same for the Llama relics.
Finding rare crystals was the most difficult part to me,and finding bird relics too (only found 5 bird heads).

[GlazeyLady]

Congrats @Rainbow Dash! Awesome job!

I also struggled to get rare crystals, mostly because most of the gate cards needed one of those flowers, and I was only able to buy 3 of them. I didn't think of just going through the gates, resetting them, and going again - that was smart.

The only helpful thing I did that I haven't seen mentioned was using Rally The Troops for needs - whenever she came home and also at the Cantina, since you can start a gathering there.

[Deveroux]

I was always afraid of being blessed randomly while wandering through the jungle,because blessings sometimes last a few days and in the meanwhile you can't activate any relic...

This 100%. Made me freak out when I had like 10 unactivated relics and not very much time, and I was very nervous whenever I opened a chest while unblessed.

@Rainbow Dash  Were you getting the combined top+bottom ones from digging? I only saw a couple from final temple chests, so I didn't know if archaeology could get you some too.

[Rainbow Dash]

Posted by: Deveroux
« on: April 02, 2019, 07:47:45 PM » @Rainbow Dash  Were you getting the combined top+bottom ones from digging? I only saw a couple from final temple chests, so I didn't know if archaeology could get you some too.

No, I only got my combined relics from chests and pop up chance cards from traveling through the jungle gateways. Actually, the very first chest I opened contained a Golden Balampalsoh Watcher Relic, I was stunned! Kind of made up for getting poisoned on the way there, lol. Archaeology doesn't give out combined relics as far as I know at least it didn't for me, I wouldn't rule it out though. I maxed Archaeology as I found more relics by excavating relics in dig sites I had established, having a higher Archaeology skill seemed to increase my odds too. It was also a good way to find more artifacts to sell for the Fortune and Mansion Baron Aspirations.

Posted by: GlazeyLady
« on: April 02, 2019, 11:31:28 AM »
Congrats @Rainbow Dash! Awesome job!

I also struggled to get rare crystals, mostly because most of the gate cards needed one of those flowers, and I was only able to buy 3 of them. I didn't think of just going through the gates, resetting them, and going again - that was smart.

The only helpful thing I did that I haven't seen mentioned was using Rally The Troops for needs - whenever she came home and also at the Cantina, since you can start a gathering there.

Thank you. The Vendors hardly ever had the flowers when I shopped in the marketplace, I did find a few in chests though. I didn't think of using Clubs (Probably because I don't like them, lol), I only let Indiana socialize when she needed to as I wanted to maximize her time in the Jungle.

Posted by: Elinoee
« on: April 02, 2019, 04:21:06 AM » I was always afraid of being blessed randomly while wandering through the jungle,because blessings sometimes last a few days and in the meanwhile you can't activate any relic...
So during the last 2 days I stayed in Selvadorada town and digged only there, to avoid the jungle blessings! But unfortunately I did not find anything interesting to me during those last 2 days.

Thanks for the grats. I felt the same way, Indiana was blessed and turned into a Skeleton by a chest she opened about two to three days before the challenge ended, luckily it only lasted for twelve hours, I avoided chests for the last day or so and only dug for relics during that time for that very reason, lol. It;s also why I cured curses with the statue because some of the cures can give your Sim a blessing and I didn't want that.

[Rainbow Dash]

Indiana's Aspiration was the Curator, her traits were Geek, Loner and Loves the Outdoors.

Some notes of interest:


When I was exploring the Temple, I did notice a pattern with some of the traps. For example when I selected the Tree option for one trap, the same choice worked on a couple of other traps in that Temple. In another Temple, I saw a picture of a skull on the wall and decided to activate the Skeleton trap, it worked twice. This pattern wasn't always correct but it seemed to be most of the time, I'm not sure if this was intentional by the developers or it was just chance, I thought it was interesting at least.

One of the reasons why I had Indiana develop her Archaeology skill (I forgot to mention this before) is because it's helps with deactivating traps, the higher the skill, the more triggers you can potentially rule out, it helps to narrow it down.

If you summon the Skeleton Servant in your home (Or Holiday home, it works there too) and go on vacation, when you return it will no longer be there and you can summon it again. And yes you can activate the same relic more than once, I tested this, it does have a cool down period but I forget how long that lasts.

Just some funny things:

Indiana got poisoned by the very first Jungle doorway she traveled through and didn't find any Bone Dust, luckily her immune system fought off the poison and she recovered naturally. She got poisoned a lot actually lol, if it didn't go away on it's own then I had it cured via the statue to avoid being blessed. (Some cures will give you a blessing the statue won't). She also got stung by Bees a lot.

In one Temple, she had to swim to the trap to activate it and then back to the deactivated door, that was kind of funny to watch.

Oh, and this happened:

[img] http://  [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

She had just traveled through a Jungle doorway and had gotten a combined relic or a crystal, I forget which and did a little victory dance, lol. 

[SoulGal7]

Congrats to the winner and also all those who participated. This was a wild challenge!

Digger Jones only got 13 relics, but I thought I would share my strategy anyway. Traits were geek, genius and self-assured. Aspiration was Archaeology Scholar. From my run through, I knew that there were certain skills that your sim needed to get through the traps successfully, so that is what I tried to do on Day 1 & 2. Digger worked on skills, such as fitness, fishing, collecting, charisma, etc. First reward traits I bought were Morning Sim and Night Owl. I got him a job as a scientist because I knew that getting the crystals was going to be a problem. So, had him go to work for one day, ask co-workers for crystals and dug up crystals around the building (which were a lot!). Then went home and sent the crystals away to be refined. While at work, he also worked on rocket science skill and gardening. Bought a cooler, tent and archaeology table and headed to Selvadorada. I actually had forgotten that you can purchase crystals through the computer, that was my error, but crystals weren't a problem for me, it was getting the bases.

Once in Selvadorada, worked on the Selvadoradian Culture skill and headed into the jungle and worked on Archaeology by excavating and exploring the temples. The best thing is when you are at Level 6 of this skill, you can Establish an excavation site. Then you can have your sim just stay there and excavate, and I did get relic bases and tops from doing this. At the traps, you can just avoid things, but sometimes you get a relic or a base from taking a chance or even a rare crystal. I was lucky that I got the Balampalsott top and it was not until nearly the end that I finally got a Death base to get my sim to transform into a skeleton.

Once in Selvadorada, got the Selvadoradian Culture skill maxed to access the secret wares from the vendors. Bought enough Totecallam tops and Watcher bases to complete the three relics right away. I then purchased enough Watcher bases for the other tops to complete those relics (now just to find those tops). Also maxed the Archeology skill. I bought need fixer potions to keep my sim going. I also found it was a lot easier to eat "raw" fruit and vegetables from inventory rather than taking out the cooler all the time.

I would say that finding the needed bases and tops is just luck. On my trial run, my sim had been blessed and turned into a skeleton, and then also found a Balampalsott top and Death base with rare crystal and lasted two days as a skeleton. At the end, I still had 2 Zazatotl heads with no bases that I could use.