In a game that attempts to simulate both the mundane and fantastical aspects of human life, it’s no surprise that certain players are drawn to different aspects ofThe Sims 4. You may spend the majority of your time creating lots, or find yourself in the Create a Sim feature for hours.

If you’ve been playing The Sims 4 for a while, it’s likely you’ve heard the term ‘legacy player.’ Particularly dedicated players enjoy creating Sims families that last ten generations or more, called legacies. To make things more interesting, you can participate in challenges that direct the framework of these legacies and test your creative abilities.

An older female Sim with dark hair hugs a young boy Sim with brown hair outside of a home. Overlaying the image is a photo of their family tree, showing that the woman is the boy’s grandmother.

What Is A Sims Legacy Challenge?

In a world of endless possibilities, legacy challenges providestructure, difficulty, and creative promptsmade by yourself or other players.

Since the days ofThe Sims 2, players have been creating and following legacy challenges.A legacy challengeisa set of rules and goalsthat guide you through the process ofrearing a Sim family spanning several generations(typically ten or more).

The image is split in three. The leftmost image is of an elderly female Sim in a purple dress. The middle image shows a young male Sim with short dark hair. The rightmost image shows a young boy Sim with curly brown hair.

You begin the challenge by creating a single Sim, also known as the family’s ‘founder.’ The founder works from the ground up to make a name for themselves and raise children, of which one will become the heir of their founder’s legacy.

The succession order for your legacy will change based on the terms of the legacy challenge you’re attempting, often based on bloodline, age, gender, or relationship to their parent.

Four male Sims stand in front of a blue house, ranging in age from elderly to young child. They all appear to be from the same family.

This manner of succession continues throughout each generation, establishing a clear set of ten (or more) generations who represent the family’s legacy.

Per the guidelines of the legacy challenge, you’ll be required tomeet a number of expectations while playing as each generation’s heir.

These expectations often includecareer achievements, trait acquisition, skill development, and aspiration fulfillment.

Each legacy challenge isunique in its theme and requirements. Some challenges prompt you to recreate the lives of the Greek gods, while others dare you to raise 100 babies.

The other draw to completing legacy challenges is thetough set of rules they bring.

For example, most legacy challengesprohibit the use of cheats, require your founder to begin with very little money, and insist that you don’t jump back to previous save files should something go wrong.

How To Participate In A Legacy Challenge

To try your hand at a legacy challenge, you can make up a challenge yourself, or you can find a challenge to participate in.

If it’s your first time, it may be best to simplyraise ten generations of sims on your own without external rules or goals, so you can get a feel for what it’s like to raise ten generations of Sims.

It isn’t as easy as some would make it seem.

So where do you find these challenges?Legacy challenges can be found all over the internet, especially on social media platforms like tumblr, YouTube, and Reddit.

Of course, you can alwayscheck out TheGamer’s coverageof the hottest new legacy challenges.

To get started on an existing challenge, select a challenge that speaks to you after reading through its rules and goals.

Beware thatsome legacy challenges require specific downloadable content,such as game packs and expansion packs.

Make sure to bookmark the challenge description somewhere in your browser; the last thing you want is to be halfway through a challenge and not be able to find the page where you found the rules.

There’sor throw your name into a hat; you may get started on your challenge as soon as you’ve finished reviewing the guidelines. Just hop into Create a Sim and start working on your founder.

Starting a legacy challenge with a friend or following along with your favorite YouTuber is a great way to make your first challenge even more engaging.

How To Create A Legacy Challenge In The Sims 4

Are none of the existing challenges speaking to you? Maybe you want to leave your mark on the Sims community. Lucky for you, creating your own legacy challenge is pretty simple. There are a few core elements to keep in mind when you create one, though.

Establish A Theme

First things first, you have to decide what the theme of your legacy challenge will be. A common format for creating legacy challenge themes is tochoose a topic and base each generation based off of a component of that theme.

For example, some creators base their game off of a particular fandom, with each generation’s heir being inspired by a character. Others base each generation off of a broader topic likecolors, cities, astrology, or decades.

Alternatively, you could theme the legacy challenge around a particular target, like the100 Babies Legacy Challenge, developed by AndreaCat and Amiisay of Mod The Sims.

As opposed to applying guidelines to each generation, challenges such as these simply dare participants to accomplish an overall goal over time (such as having 100 babies in as few generations as possible).

Determine Expectations For Each Generation

Now that you have your theme, you may determine what is to be expected of each generation in your legacy.

Many challenges prompt participants to verify that each heir accomplishes some combination ofattained career goal, fulfilled aspiration, developed skill, or possessed trait.

Other goals include having a certain number of children, accumulating a sum of money, or maintaining a number of relationships with others.

The best legacy challenges strike abalance that isattainable yet challenging, offering a strong framework while also allowing participants to get creative.

Lay Down The Rules

Finally, you want to set someground rules for the challenge.When developing the rules for your challenge, ask yourself:

These are all important questions, and the answers to them couldgreatly influence the difficulty of the challenge.

Feel free to add as many rules as you see fit, but you may want to play through the challenge with your own rules before prompting others to do the same.