Switch One

By: IllusoryThrall

February 12, 2017

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:

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.
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.
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.
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.