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Switch One | Switch Two | Switch Three | Switch Four | Switch Five | Switch Six

The Apartment Switch: Switch Three

You now have an heir and you’re ready to move on to Switch Three. Split the household, move your heir into 1312 21 Chic Street, and reduce funds to 0 just like we did in the last Switch. (again, “testingcheats on”, “money 0”, then “testingcheats off”) If you don’t remember how to do this, check the Switch Two post for a tutorial.

Okay, now you’re ready to play and again have three goals:

One: (once again) get your apartment value up to within the target funds amount and move to the next apartment until you get to the last apartment.

Two: (also again) Have your heir ready to start the next Switch. (This was explained in Switch One, refer back there if you’ve forgotten.)

Three: Get to max level on one of your sims (other than the heir) in either branch of the Critic Career (Arts or Food). I leave which sim and which branch up to you. For an additional challenge, you’re welcome to attempt to get two sims to max level, one on each branch.

Tips and Tricks:

• Obviously, you’re going to need to make money other than just career money. Depending on which branch you choose, you’ve got a built-in way to make money, just using the skills required by the job. (Writing for food, writing and painting for art.)
• Make sure to give yourself enough time to get to the top of your career before having your heir. Remember that it’s better to have more time than less. Five days until adult will have the baby grow up before your main sim dies, and at about level 7 in the career will give you enough time. Balance somewhere between the two.
• Of the two, I found the Arts Critic to be the easier one, but leveling through the Food Critic went faster and was at better times for raising a family, if that makes sense.  I also made more money as an Arts Critic. This really makes it an interesting choice, and you’ll learn a lot either way. Working from home is a viable way to level the career, but the traditional method of going to the workplace works as well. Some of the “work at home” tasks are tricky, if you have any problems with them feel free to ask in the Switch Three forum post. (“Laud Food” is a particularly tricky one for the Food Critic, it has to be done on a group meal with other people in the apartment. It works kind of like a “call to meal.”)

The Apartments:

The notes from the the first switch still apply to this one. If you’ve forgotten, refer back to Switch One. 

Apartment One: 1312 21 Chic Street

District: Fashion District
Lot Trait: Lively Neighbors
Rent per week: 400
Deposit: 600
Target Value: 8,000 - 10,000

Designed for 1 bedroom, 1 bath, this apartment is far better than the last two starting apartments. At least there’s no rats and roaches. Again, target value is pretty low to keep this in the “starter” category when you move out, so expect to be using pretty crappy furniture.

Apartment Two: 2B Jasmine Suites

District: Spice Market
Lot Traits: Good Schools, On Ley Line
Rent per week: 1,000
Deposit: 1,500
Minimum Move in Amount: 8,000 - 1,000 - 1,500 = you'll 
have about 6,500 to spend on furnishings
Target Value: 16,000 - 18,000

Designed for 2 bedroom, 1 bath, this apartment is the place for raising kids. Of course, you may find you move past this apartment pretty fast, before you even get to the “kid” stage yet. It does pose a little bit of an interesting puzzle when furnishing, however, due to it being a long and skinny apartment.

Apartment Three: 20 Culpepper House

District: Spice Market
Lot Trait: Chef's Kitchen
Rent per week: 1,200
Deposit: 4,800
Minimum Move in Amount: 16,000 - 1,200 - 4,800 = about 10,000 
to spend on furnishings
Target Value: 40,000 - 45,000

This apartment is EA-designed for 2 bedroom, 2 bath, but you may find the wall arrangement a bit weird. I sure did. Feel free to move walls when you get into this place, and for those on extreme, you’ll find there are a lot of ways you can partition the space out. If you planned ahead and had your kid(s) in the last apartment, there’s plenty of room for a second, and even a third bedroom in this apartment. Also, you’ll be spending more time in this third apartment than in the previous switches, because the next apartment is fairly costly and will require some saving before moving.

Apartment Four: 888 Spire Apartments

District: Uptown
Lot Traits: Great View
Rent per week: 7,500
Deposit: 37,500
Minimum Move in Amount: 40,000 - 7,500 - 37,500 = You'll 
be short 5000 simoleons. However, remember the formula isn't 
exact, you should probably have just about 0 if you move right 
when you hit value on three, in other words, you're going to 
want to save some up before moving.
Target Value: 70,000

Yup.. it’s got a pool. Designed for 2 bedroom, 3 bath. If you’re playing on extreme, you’re going to be creating floors as well as walls, and there’s no pool, but the place costs just as much. This will be a challenge, and you should save up for a while before moving in here, or you’ll be living on one floor like it’s a lawn. On normal, you’ve got a lot of decorating to do, and you may very well want to move walls around to make it work. Either way, getting this to value will be a challenge, but if you’ve set up your ability to make money enough to get here through the last three, you should be good.

The Community Lot – The Park

Just like last time, if you’re doing the challenge on Extreme difficulty, as soon as you hit 70k value with your apartment, you’re free to go build your very own City Park. This also opens this lot for traveling to (so long as you have 1k or more in the bank). You’ll be building your park on this lot in San Myshuno:

This area has four frog spawners, fishing areas, and a little food court, so it will be nice to have it open finally. (I would have opened it up for you guys sooner, but the other two lots you’ve built were required by the next challenge.) I would suggest putting in at the very least a wedding arch and reception area for parties (if you’re the type to throw parties for your sims, that is.) Again, have fun with it!

You did it! Now that you have your Young Adult heir and you completed the above apartments, you are now ready to move to the next Switch. If you’ve forgotten how, refer to the top of the Switch Two page.

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Switch One | Switch Two | Switch Three | Switch Four | Switch Five | Switch Six

Go back to the Main Page | Go Back to Getting Started
Switch One | Switch Two | Switch Three | Switch Four | Switch Five | Switch Six

The Apartment Switch: Switch Two

Getting Ready

You now have a Young Adult heir and you’re ready to move on to Switch two. Make sure their inventory is empty, because you have to start this Switch with nothing. The first thing you have to do is get him or her ready to play. Go into Manage Worlds:

Then click on Household Management in the top right of your screen:

Once in there, select your Switch One household and click “Split Household”, shown here:

Create a new household:

Take your heir and move them into that new household (this moves their picture to the right side of the screen):

Then click the check mark. It should now look like this:

You may also want to mark your old household as unplayed:

There is no need to move them out, however, since you won’t be changing that apartment again.

Then, move your heir into their first lot: 1313 21 Chic Street. If another sim has moved into this before you get there (which they will do if you’re on “Normal” difficulty), you’ll need to evict that sim like you did when getting ready for the Switch One.

Go into play mode with your heir, and remove all funds. (If you’ve forgotten, it’s typing “testingcheats on”, then “money 0”, then “testingcheats off” into the cheat box opened with control-alt-c.

Now, my suggestion here is saving a second save file using the “save as” menu, just in case you want to start over for any reason. It’s not necessary, just recommended.

Your Goals in Switch Two

Okay, now you’re ready to play and you have three goals in Switch Two:

One: (once again) get your apartment value up to within the target funds amount and move to the next apartment until you get to the last apartment.

Two: (also again) Have your heir ready to start the next Switch. (This was explained in Switch One, refer back there if you’ve forgotten.)

Three: Complete the “City Native” Aspiration on any sim in your household other than the heir. That means you do not have to do that aspiration on your main sim, you can pick a spouse or a roommate to do it instead – but it has to be completed. You’ll still need to have it done before the heir ages up, though, or you’ll be doing another generation in these apartments while waiting for the next generation’s heir. (Through this aspiration, you will also be getting level 10 Singing skill.)

Tips & Tricks

• Feel free to look up guides on doing the aspiration, or post here if you’re having trouble. This is NOT an easy aspiration, and I do expect some people will have trouble with it. There are some goals in it that are harder to achieve than others, and it is a good idea to begin working on the singing skill before you absolutely have to for the aspiration.
• This aspiration, ultimately, requires a lot of value in your last apartment. Start setting up your ability to make money early – whether by Fishing, Writing, Painting.. anything that will make a lot of money. (I don’t recommend trying to earn it by career alone, because you will most likely have to take more than one generation.) Also, don’t forget that sim-created paintings can be used to raise your apartment value at very little cost to your sims.

The Apartments:

The notes from the last switch still apply to this one. If you’ve forgotten, refer back to Switch One. 

This challenge will be considerably tougher, as it’s the first time you will actually have to save some money before moving to the next apartment. (The apartment in question is the last one. This is pretty much all due to the 25k deposit for the apartment which, combined with the rent will eat up all your money from selling the furniture in the last apartment.) Feel free to move whenever you want, just remember you may be stuck furniture-less if you move without extra funds! 

Apartment One: 1313 21 Chic Street

District: Fashion District
Lot Trait: Needs TLC
Rent per week: 300
Deposit: 600
Target Value: 8,000 - 10,000 simoleons

Arguably the worst apartment in the game due to what looks like a body chalk outline on the floor in the middle of the entryway. You’re left to wonder who died here! It doesn’t help that, in addition to the rats, roaches, wiring and plumbing problems, the apartment is a really weird shape, so it’s hard to decorate. The game says it’s supposed to be a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment, but that doesn’t leave you much room for living space.

Apartment Two: 1310 21 Chic Street

District: Fashion District
Lot Trait: Lively Neighbors 
Rent per week: 500 
Deposit: 1,000 
Minimum Move in Amount: 8,000 - 500 - 1,000 = about 6,500 for 
furniture
Target Value: 16,000 - 18,000 simoleons

This apartment is right next door, so you’re not moving far. It was EA-designed for 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom.. and it’s TINY. Expect to have an interesting time trying to fit all the furniture you want into this dinky little apartment. For extreme players, have fun figuring out where you want the walls! If you’re having trouble getting to the target value, don’t forget decorations and artwork on the walls and upper kitchen cabinets.

Apartment Three: 702 Zenview

District: Fashion District
Lot Trait: Home Studio 
Rent per week: 1,200 
Deposit: 4,800 
Minimum Move in Amount: 16,000 - 1,200 - 4,800 = 10,000
Target Value: 30,000 - 32,000

Designed for 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, this is another strangely shaped apartment. Luckily you have at least a little bit more room to spread out, though. I, personally, chose to move a wall or two, but the layout of the apartment is much easier to deal with than the last two apartments have been. Those on Extreme may find setting up a floor plan to be interesting, partially because the stairs really can only go in one general location. A quirky, but fun spot to build with space for a nice-sized balcony.

Apartment Four: VIII Landgraab

District: Uptown
Lot Traits: Great View, Serviced Apartment
Rent per week: 5,000
Deposit: 25,000
Minimum Move in Amount: 30,000 - 5,000 - 25,000 = 0  In other words,
you will want to save up probably around 8,000 for furniture (unless
you want more) before moving in.
Target Value: 100,000

This is the first apartment in the Apartment Switch where you’re best off actually taking some time to save up before you move in. The move-in formula says you’ll be at 0 funds, but that’s not exactly true. I found I ended up with about 4,000 more than I had saved up, but I wouldn’t lock that number in stone, I’m still not 100% sure what the exact formula is, and it probably also has something to do with the amount of stuff you’re selling. Designed for 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, this apartment is the weirdest shape possible. There’s lots of diagonal walls and a big balcony. When playing on Extreme, this will be a challenge when you’re partitioning out the two floors.. but it also leaves you with a lot of options. There’s plenty of space here, too, which will be really nice after the cramped conditions early on in this Switch. The other awesome thing here is that you have a free maid. Very helpful when having kids! The target value here is high because of the City Living aspiration. Remember that high-skill/value paintings from your sim can easily raise the value without you having to spend a whole lot of money on them.

The Community Lot – Karaoke Bar

Just like last time, if you’re doing the challenge on Extreme difficulty, as soon as you hit 100k value with your apartment AND the City Native Aspiration, you’re free to go build your very own Karaoke bar. This also opens this lot for traveling to (so long as you have 1k or more in the bank). Even if your heir isn’t of age yet, you can take a break and build your lot, then come back to playing until your heir is old enough to move on. You’ll be building your bar on this lot in San Myshuno (which should have been sitting here in this sorry state for the entirety of This Switch):

Again, have a good time with it and make it your own!

Finishing this Switch

Once you have  minimum in value on your apartment, AND you have completed the City Native aspiration on one of your sims, you only need to raise your heir to the Young Adult age. Once your heir has this birthday, pause immediately and save your game. You’ll want to have as much time for the next challenge as possible.

You did it! Now that you have your just-aged-up Young Adult heir, and you completed the above apartments, you are now ready to move to the next Switch. If you’ve forgotten how to move your heir out, just refer to the top of this page.

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Switch One | Switch Two | Switch Three | Switch Four | Switch Five | Switch Six

The Apartment Switch Challenge Open For Testers

Today, I went ahead and published the first Switch for the Apartment Switch Challenge. It’s now also linked from my blog, at the left hand menu above the calendar. It’s officially open for a public testing phase… feel free to read the rules and dive right in.

If you’re playing it, I’d love to hear about it. Comment here or message me as IllusoryThrall on the Sims 4 forums and I’ll get back to you ASAP. Questions, comments, concerns.. all are welcome.

I plan to release at least every other week until all six Switches (mini-challenges) are published. I’m trying to give this Switch a little bit of a “soft” launch, without making a topic on the Sims Forums just yet… I want to see if I can get some feedback from testers before I do that, and I also want to make absolutely sure I can keep up with the publishing schedule. I’m in the final stages of testing for this first Switch, just polishing, really, (read: challenge completed and just waiting on my heirs to age up) and will be starting testing on Switch Two in the next couple of days.

EDIT: I plan to fully release Switch One to the Sims 4 forums Sunday, February 19th.

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Switch One | Switch Two | Switch Three | Switch Four | Switch Five | Switch Six

The Apartment Switch: Switch One

Now that your starter sim is all ready to go, you’re ready to play the first Switch. Your “job” now is to make money.. because all you have for your sim is a blank apartment and no funds. If you’re playing on extreme difficulty, you don’t even have any walls in your new apartment!

You now have two goals:

• To get your apartment value up to within the target funds amount (That’s explained in a minute) and move to the next apartment until you’ve completed four apartments.
• To have your heir ready to start the next Switch.

So – your first order of business is to make money. In this switch, how you do so is completely your choice, and that’s where the fun begins.

First, I’ll explain the heir, then I’ll explain what you have to do to complete each apartment to get to the last apartment and “win” this Switch.

The Heir:

• Must be made via “try for baby” with your starter sim and another sim who lives on your lot. They don’t have to be married, just living together.
• Is the first born child to your main sim. Should this heir die, because you can play everyone, the next oldest child would now be the heir.
• Cannot be adopted or alien birth (in other words, it needs to be a biological child born to two parents.)
• Must stop play as soon as they age to Young Adult.. so if they get there before you have the apartment value completed, you’ll have to wait for the next generation to move on instead! (If you’re playing for points, this will get you a whopping -50 points, so avoid it if at all possible.)

The Apartments:

Of Note on all Apartment listings:

1. I show the walls-cutaway pictures of what they look like when moved in on the Normal, “unfurnished” difficulty. For those playing on Extreme, feel free to use them as a guide – or not. Part of the fun of playing on extreme is being able to configure the apartment however you’d like.
2. When figuring out how much you’ll have to spend, the formula is as follows: previous apartment value – weekly rent – apartment deposit = what you’ll have to spend when you move in (add to this anything you have saved in your sim’s bank.) If it comes out as a negative number, it means you’ll have to save up money before moving in because you won’t be able to afford the purchase price.
3. The bedrooms/baths number I list is what EA built when they furnished their lot. By no means is that what you have to build. Feel free to change the configuration as much as you like within the confines of the shell you’re given.
4. Remember, if your rent bill has come due, you must pay it BEFORE you move – you can’t get out of paying rent by moving to the next apartment.

Apartment One: 910 Medina Studios

District: Arts Quarter
Lot Trait: Needs TLC
Rent per week: 400
Deposit: 500
Target Value: 8,000-10,000 simoleons

This starter apartment is a real dump. It’s designed for 1 bedroom 1 bath, and there’s no room for more! Plus, there’s rats, roaches, wiring and plumbing issues and sometimes a nasty green goo oozing out of the grate in the floor. It’s also quick and easy to get to the target value. You can move on pretty much as soon as you get there – without saving any extra money – so you won’t have to deal with this apartment for too long!

Once you get to the target value, you’re ready to move your sim to the next lot. Using your sim’s phone, click on the “car” icon, then “Move Household”. Choose the 19 Culpepper House apartment and then click the moving van in the lower right-hand corner of your screen. Then, if you’re playing on Normal difficulty, choose the “sell furniture” and “unfurnished” options, shown here:

If you’re playing on Extreme difficulty, instead of “unfurnished”, choose “bulldoze” (although it should already be bulldozed from your bulldozing spree before starting this challenge.)

Apartment Two: 19 Culpepper House

District: Spice Market
Lot Trait: Needs TLC
Rent per week: 600
Deposit: 550
Minimum Move In Amount: 8,000 - 600 - 550 = you'll have about 
6,850 to spend on furniture.
Target Value: 16,000-18,000 simoleons

This is a considerable upgrade from your last house. Designed for 2 bedrooms 1 bath, there’s even a nice sized balcony! It still has the rats, roaches, and wiring and plumbing issues, but at least you have some room to actually decorate. Also a plus is the fact that you should have quite a “nest egg” from moving to buy furnishings.

Apartment Three: 121 Hakim House

District: Arts Quarter
Lot Trait: Home Studio
Rent per week: 1,200
Deposit: 4,800
Minimum Move In Amount: 16,000 - 1,200 - 4,800 = about 10,000 to 
spend on furniture
Target Value: 28,000-30,000 simoleons

This apartment is designed for 2 bedroom 2 bath.. and has this really weird wall with a door in it that you can totally walk around. What EA was thinking, I have no idea.. but there’s also a wall in the foyer outside the apartment that they missed painting (it’s got drywall on it.) Pretty funny, really. Furnishing this apartment is a breeze with nicely-sized rooms and a good layout. If you’re playing on Extreme, there’s plenty of room to move the walls around.

Apartment Four: IX Landgraab

District: Uptown
Lot Trait: Great View
Rent per week: 3,750
Deposit: 16,500
Minimum Move In Amount: 28,000 - 3750 - 16500 = about 7,750 to 
spend on furniture 
Target Value: 40,000+ simoleons (there's no value cap on any final 
house, so feel free to decorate as much as you want!)

This apartment is the first real building challenge for people playing on “Extreme” difficulty. You’ve got two floors to play with, and no real guidelines. Originally 1 bedroom 2 bath, this also poses a problem for those on “Normal” difficulty and you might very well find that you want to move the wall configuration around to make one of the upstairs rooms a second bedroom. (Which is perfectly alright for you to do!) Tip: Depending on your family size, you may want to save some extra simoleons before moving in, as with only about 8k to spend on furniture, it may be a little tight. The target value on this apartment will take some work to get to, but it’s completely do-able.

The Community Lot – The Arts Center

If you’re doing the challenge on Extreme difficulty, as soon as you hit 40k value with your apartment, you’re free to go build your very own Arts Center. This also opens this lot for traveling to (so long as you have 250 or more in the bank). You’ll be building your art center on this lot in San Myshuno:

If you’ve never built your own venue, there’s no time like the present to learn. The requirements screen in the top left lot traits menu is really helpful at telling you what you need to make your lot work. Beyond that, it’s all up to you. Have fun with it and name it whatever you’d like.

Finishing this Switch

Once you have 40k minimum in value on your apartment, you only need to raise your heir to the Young Adult age. Once your heir has this birthday, pause immediately and save your game. You’ll want to have as much time for the next challenge as possible.

You did it! Now that you have your just-aged-up Young Adult heir, and you completed the above apartments, you are now ready to move to the next Switch. I’ll show you how to accomplish this in the next Switch page.

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Switch One | Switch Two | Switch Three | Switch Four | Switch Five | Switch Six

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Switch One | Switch Two | Switch Three | Switch Four | Switch Five | Switch Six

Getting Started for The Apartment Switch

This is a step-by-step guide to getting your Sim and game set up for playing The Apartment Switch challenge. I tried to include picture tutorials for everything, so that all the things you have to do are easily understood.

Step 1: Decide Which Difficulty You’re Attempting

There are two difficulties in Apartment Switch – Normal and Extreme. The normal challenge is for anyone who wants to give this challenge a try, no matter your experience with sims. There is no pass/fail with this challenge. If you need to take longer on a particular Switch, that’s perfectly alright, but it will affect your score overall (if, indeed, you decided to keep score). Extreme adds some layers of difficulty and is for more advanced and or brave players who really enjoy building and decorating for your sims.

Normal Difficulty (for people who want to just decorate)

• The walls inside each apartment are already built, although you’re welcome to move or remove them if you so choose. You’ll be moving into each apartment “unfurnished” not “bulldozed.”
• No travel restrictions.

Extreme Difficulty (for people who like building from scratch)

• All you start with is a shell of an apartment. No walls, and sometimes very little flooring (in the case of two story apartments, often the floor isn’t made). In other words, each and every apartment is completely “bulldozed” before you move in.
• You’ll also be building your own commercial lots in San Myshuno, one per Switch. Because of this, travel is not allowed to these six lots until you “unlock” them. Travel to other neighborhoods is not restricted so long as you have 250 in your sim’s bank account. This means that, until you make your first 250, you’ll be staying in your “home” neighborhood. Most times, this will be made by collecting items around the area.

Step 2: Sim Creation

Your first task is to get a sim ready to move into their new home. There are two basic options for doing this:

Option A: Start with a brand new sim

This is pretty self-explanatory. Start a “New Game” from the main menu and create your sim. There are no restrictions on traits or aspirations for your sims. Feel free to create them however you see fit. (ON OCCULTS: Cannot be a vampire, however – I explain why later. Aliens and mermaids are okay, though. Mermaid would definitely make things difficult/interesting, but because they do age, they’re not disallowed. Spellcasters may be a bit cheat-y with all their spells, and the immortality potion is NOT allowed, but I’ll leave their inclusion up to you. As for Werewolves, they’re allowed, but the Immortality perk is banned for this challenge.) One of the Switches does require completing a specific aspiration, but that’s not to say you can’t change out and work on other aspirations. Careers aren’t picked in CAS, so we’ll discuss those later.

Option B: Start with an heir from a previous challenge

If you’re coming right off of, say, the Drifter Challenge House 24 (the final house) or Build Newcrest, you can just continue that family and or story by using an heir from the final house/build.

Do keep in mind, though, that they can’t be older than the first day of their Young Adult stage. I’m not restricting how much they have in skills.. but be smart about it. The challenge won’t be fun to play if there isn’t a challenge, so using a “super-sim” (one with really high skills) will be detrimental to your challenge. As in Option A, there are no restrictions on traits or aspirations. Feel free to create them however you want. Three, they cannot be a vampire – I explain why later. (Aliens are okay, however.) Careers are discussed later.

Also, you have to start with a single sim, so bringing other household members from past challenges is a no-no. (Also, no bringing in past household members to your family after starting the Apartment Switch Challenge. Sims you move in must be either game-created – i.e. NPCs or Townies – or brand new “starter” sims that you pre-populated the world with.) To achieve this, split your previous challenge’s household to separate the heir, and then you’re ready to go on.

Ready?

Once you have your sim created to your satisfaction, save them and move them into Bargain Bend in Willow Creek, shown here:

They’re not going to stay there, but you have some set-up to do before you move them into their first apartment and start playing.

Step 3: Game Set up

There are a few things you need to do before starting play in your challenge. Remember, our starter sim is still in Bargain Bend in Willow Creek.

1. Go to the menu, then to Manage Worlds:

Then, go into San Myshuno:

2.  Evict all sims living in apartments in San Myshuno. Yes, all of them. Eventually you’ll be building/decorating those apartments too, so it’s easier just to make them empty to start with. To do this, click any apartment that has a grey plumbbob over it:

then evict the household through the bottom right menu:

Do this for all the sims living in San Myshuno. There’s no need to delete the evicted households, but you can if you want.

No changes need to be made to any other neighborhood. If you choose, they can even be completely empty.

3a. If you’re playing on Normal, you’re ready to move your sim now. Move them from Bargain Bend in Willow Creek to 910 Medina Studios in San Myshuno. This can be done either in manage worlds or by going into play mode and moving them with the phone.

Either way, you move into the apartment unfurnished:

3b. If you’re playing on Extreme, it’s best to take the time and bulldoze all lots in San Myshuno. To bulldoze, click on the lot, then the “build” button in the lower right hand corner:

Then, once it loads, click the bulldoze button in the top middle of your screen:

Then, lastly, back to manage worlds in the upper right of your screen:

Repeat this for all San Myshuno lots – yes, that even includes the commercial lots!

You will need to place elevators, mailboxes, and trash cans on the two penthouses before exiting build mode on those two lots. (The third “penthouse” is actually just a regular house building lot, so it doesn’t need them.) To do this, just click the requirement while you’re in build mode:

Then place down each item needed. It doesn’t really matter where you put them in the penthouse (or on Stargazer Lounge, just so that it has those three items there before you leave build mode.  The trash chute will require a wall. I stuck down a trash can instead, and it worked, so whichever you do is just fine. For StarGazer Lounge, don’t add anything but those three items, it will show up as an incomplete venue. Your San Myshuno will look like this – terribly bare, but then, that’s the point of the challenge!

Finally, move your sim into 910 Medina Studios:

Move your sim in with the “bulldoze” option selected:

4. Set Game Options as follows:

Autonomy: Full, Auto age (played sims): yes, Auto age (unplayed sims): checked, Sim Lifespan: Normal, and Fill Empty Homes: Checked.

The challenge ui and traditional social menus are up to your personal preference, as are the other options available.

5. Now, go to play mode with your sim and hit pause. Use control-alt-c to bring up the cheat box:

Type in “testingcheats on”, then “money 0” then “testingcheats off”. Use control-alt-c again to make that cheat box close. You should have seen all your sim’s money magically disappear.

6. You’re all ready, now go to the Switch One page to find the rules for your first Switch challenge. I put each Switch on a separate page so those who don’t want spoilers of what’s coming will be safe.

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Switch One | Switch Two | Switch Three | Switch Four | Switch Five | Switch Six

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Completed first apartment (on extreme)

Funny “angry” painting during second apartment:

Completed Second Apartment:

During third apartment:

Married, finally! (I totally should have done this sooner!)

During Apartment Three:

Nooboo incoming!

Wait.. what’s that behind her??

Yup. Twins. *runs away screaming*

Completed Apartment Three:

During Apartment Four:

It was at this point that I realized that the challenge was going to work much better with six Switches instead of five.. and I rearranged the order you move into apartments. Because of this, the apartments pictured were no longer the right order and my daughter and I started over with the correct order.

Instead of making a second post, here are the pictures from her challenge playtesting done on “Normal” difficulty:

During Apartment One:

Completed Apartment One:

During Apartment Two:

Luckily, neither of us had gotten too attached to our sims, and the files were deleted in favor of our new challenges (and new sim making, yay!)

Back to the Main Testing Page

Updated: 4/5/2023 – Updated for all current packs

The Apartment Switch is a generational challenge all about building, decorating, making money, and most of all learning about the “City Living” Expansion for The Sims 4. As opposed to a normal 10 generation legacy, it is completed in 6 generations and focuses on your family (over time) rebuilding or redesigning all the lots and apartments in San Myshuno. It was heavily inspired by the Drifter Challenge by Vihisha Tak’Nai and the Movin’ On Up challenge by ImaginingMystic. It also could be said there’s a little of a Legacy Challenge by PinStar in it as well. It requires, obviously, that you own Sims 4 Base game and the City Living expansion, but can be completed without any others. The challenge takes place exclusively in the San Myshuno neighborhood in Sims 4, although travel to the other neighborhoods is not restricted. There are also two difficulties available for The Apartment Switch, Normal and Extreme, but I’ll explain more about them later. As for other expansions, having or not having them won’t make much difference in how the Challenge plays. I know that, in particular, the Seasons expansion will make things a lot harder on other challenges, but it definitely won’t “break” The Apartment Switch, since apartments are largely indoors and you don’t have to do much in the way of “Lawn Living.” The only expansion that is expressly forbidden is Vampires, and I just restrict having vampires as a playable lifestate for the purposes of this challenge.

Guess what? I’m authoring a new challenge.

Think Drifter Challenge meets Movin’ On Up. As most of you know, I love the Drifter Challenge and have two (currently) saves going on that. Lately, I have been also playing the Moving on Up challenge, and it’s frustrating .. the way it’s written you bounce back and forth between one bedroom and two bedroom and always take the furniture with you, leaving behind unfurnished shells. For us “Drifters,” leaving behind empty homes after working hard to create a livable space is .. well.. the opposite of drifting. I am writing a more “drifter-style” challenge – where you leave behind fully furnished apartments for other sims to move into.. moving from the smallest apartment to the largest (not necessarily the cheapest to the most expensive like the Movin’ On Up challenge). With the way I’m designing this challenge, it can be played on an existing (finished) Drifter challenge save (if you want to continue your family and building the world) or on pretty much any other save. The only neighborhood affected by this challenge is San Myshuno, so it leaves you flexible to do other challenges with the same family. (ex. Building Newcrest or Windenburg… Drifting would have to be done beforehand, though, because your first drifter house is specifically started on a brand new sim, not one aged through the game.)

My current plan/idea is based around a 5 generation challenge (although testing may prove it’s next to impossible to do it in that short amount of time) .. or a 5 “step” challenge. The basic goal of said challenge is to get all the apartments furnished to a certain value point in the shortest amount of time possible, then the next generation moves onto the next challenge. I split up the apartments based on cost and size (in a big spreadsheet) and came up with five groups of them that are similar in cost and size. (a set of five starter apartments, then low cost 2 bedrooms, etc.. ) Each challenge will start with a “starter” and move through other apartments to a “finishing” apartment/penthouse, going up in value/size for each successive apartment. The first challenge will have a series of four apartments, then 5 apartments for the other 4 challenges (at least, that’s how it’s working out now, it may go to six challenges with 4 apartments on each.) Also, there will be two difficulties. “Normal” where you start with an unfurnished (but walls still there) version of each apartment (there are a couple that will be bulldozed, though, to keep the challenge fair and playable), and “Extreme” where all of the apartments are literally bulldozed and you have to figure out where rooms go inside the shell and everything. My daughter is far less into building than I am and really pushed for an “easier” version, and I can see where it would be nice to have one.

Prospective Challenge features/rules:

• Like Drifter, you start from absolute zero for each challenge.
• Like Drifter, you move on when the heir is young adult.
• However,  there the similarities stop. There is no “house fail”.. if you’re not done with the challenge in the first generation, all that happens is you lose points and have to wait for the next heir to reach young adult to move on.
• You also don’t go back to zero money between apartments inside a challenge (there are 4-5 apartments for each challenge.) Example: you’ve just finished the first apartment and it was valued at 8000-10000 simoleons like required, so you “move household” through the phone menu, choose “sell furniture” and “bulldoze lot” (for extreme) or “unfurnished” (for normal). This means that when you move in, you’ll have 8-10k funds available immediately to spend on the next apartment towards moving on to the next one. (If this turns out to be too easy, I may have to revert to zeroing funds before moving, but at least you won’t lose your skills and job and such.)
• Yes, that means there will be a CAP on how high the value of the apartment can go for each apartment. If you caught the 8000-10000 it DOES mean that the first apartment in the challenge can’t be worth more than 10k when you move out. Gotta keep the rent reachable for the next sim to move in! (However, the final house of each challenge will NOT have this value cap… build to your heart’s content there.)
• You’ll get to pick any three things to go with you to your next apartment. (These are put in the household inventory so they don’t count on your value tally. – Up to two frogs can be carried with you in your inventory as well. (can’t forget those froggies!) I may allow snowglobes to be brought along, as well, considering they’re low value and fairly useless.)
• There aren’t as many house challenge-type goals. (I.e. specific aspirations and careers to be completed.. I haven’t decided whether I’ll include a couple goals like this or not. If I do, they’ll be the ones specific to City Living expansion so that this challenge can be played with only City Living installed on a base game. – i.e. the three careers that come with CL and the one aspiration. -Obviously, it’ll be more fun with more money making options from other expansions, but they won’t be necessary.)
• You’re building within an existing “shell,” instead of building from scratch each and every time. (There are, though, a handful of apartment/penthouses that will be built from “ground” up.)
• Possibly using a point structure to see how well you did, with a maximum of 100 points per challenge. The only downfall with this  idea is.. well.. nitpicking with the points. So it’s still a big maybe.
• You can use any method of gaining money and furniture that doesn’t involve cheating. i.e. Jobs, collecting, crafting, festivals.. etc.  If you can figure out a way to get a garden in your itty bitty apartments, that’s okay, too. (Just remember you’re only allowed three items and each plant counts as an item – yes, they can be put in the household inventory, too.)
• No bringing in a spouse, roommate or child without them having a place to stay/sleep.
• Any funds a roommate or spouse bring in must be cheated away with the “money” cheat – you have to make the money yourself not get it from moving random sims in.
• All sims in the household may be controlled! (That means they can help contribute to the money being made via job or crafting.)
• Heirs must be made through “try for baby” with someone living in the apartment with your sim. (maybe. I’m still debating on this one.. doesn’t seem fair to allow them to be from outside the apartment when it won’t work that way for male main sims…)
• Lot Traits can be added to the list, but never taken away. The traits that the apartment came with must stay, but you’re welcome to add other traits to fill up the three slots.
• I have not decided about the commercial lots in San Myshuno – whether or not they’ll be part of the challenge. If they are, they will only factor into the “Extreme” challenge difficulty, not the “Normal” (in other words, they won’t be restricted or bulldozed and built in the normal difficulty)
• On that note, Travel is up to your discretion. If you’re doing this as an add-on challenge after the end of a Drifter save, you’d have commercial lots available to you, so you can travel wherever you want. If, however, you want to make the challenge harder, you’re welcome to restrict travel. It does make the challenge significantly harder, though.

What does all that mean?

Wow. That’s a lot of bullet points. When broken down, this challenge will be more of an interior decorating challenge than anything else.  I don’t want to rely too heavily on the “drifter” or “movin on up” themes, I want this challenge to be able to stand on it’s own. Tentatively, I’ve given it the working title of “The Apartment Switch,” simply because we couldn’t come up with anything that sounded better. It may change!

Currently, my daughter and I are already starting some playtesting of this, and since our styles of play are very different, I’ll be able to get a lot of information out of the tests. That’s not to say I don’t need a few other brave souls to test it out once I get a rough draft of the challenges ready.. so if you’re interested, please speak up (the easiest way to say you’re interested is to just reply in the comments below. Alternatively, you can find me as IllusoryThrall on the sims 4 forums or as Wyldhawke on Origin.)

As I get the rough draft of the challenge ready, any and all of this might change, but I’ll definitely post about changes here on my blog. I will also be posting pictures and status updates on the playtests I have running while I get the rough draft ready, so that should be fun.

If you made it through all of that, you deserve a cookie.. so cookies for everyone! *grin*