As someone who spent far too much time as a child watching Sims videos on YouTube, four words still instill total horror in me: The 100 Baby Challenge.
It’s basically exactly what it sounds like. You play as one Sim, ideally, and have 100 babies. Which is less than ideal for the poor Sim. Or for you, if you enjoy avoiding gaming-related eyestrain or repetitive strain injury from queueing up the same action approximately two million times.
Looking to do it? I can’t do anything to stop you, so here’s some advice on how to do it best instead.
What are the rules for the 100 Baby Challenge?
Much like other challenges made by The Sims community, the 100 Baby Challenge has evolved over the years. This has happened to help accommodate changes made across different generations of The Sims that have impacted how other rules could (or couldn’t) be applied.
The most recent 100 Baby Challenge was written specifically for The Sims 4 by Snarky Witch. Although the premise is straightforward – give birth to 100 babies and raise them successfully – the rules themselves offer depth and complexity. This includes a bunch of Pack-specific changes and Occult-related alterations that I suggest you check out on the original blog post.
The base rules
According to Snarky Witch’s official blog post, the base rules are roughly as follows:
- Play with aging on and normal lifespans
- Don’t use mods that make it too easy, or any cheats at all
- Your starting Sim must be a Young Adult and they must be able to get pregnant/give birth. They can be any gender you’d like, and have whatever Traits you feel are right. Or wrong
- Don’t use any in-game events or rewards that keep your Sims alive longer, or bring them back to life, like the Potion of Youth
- If your lot has Traits associated with it then you can’t get rid of them. And, if you pick any new Traits, you have to stick with them for as long as you move there. I guess if you want to get rid of a gnome infestation then you’re just going to have to move house
- You can age up your kids once they reach their natural birthdays. However, there are some rules for aging them up prematurely, which is paramount for actually completing the challenge. These rules are kind of complicated. Assuming you don’t have any DLC then here’s a quick rundown:
- You have to wait for Newborns’ birthdays. You’ll get a notification when this rolls around
- Infants can be aged up once they’ve tried all the different baby foods. Yes, even the lemon. No, they don’t have to like it. Thank goodness
- Toddlers can be aged up once they reach level 3 in all skills. Meaning Toddler skills, not like your Toddler has to learn the fundamentals of Rocket Science
- I hope you’re raising top students over there. Child and Teen Sims need to reach a Grade A at their respective schools before they can age up. I’d have been stuck as a Teen for a long time, that’s for sure
- Yay! Your Sim reached Young Adulthood! They can move out now. And no, they can’t come back – not that I’d imagine they’d want to
- Your babymaking Sim can only work from home. That includes registering as self-employed or taking a job that they fit around taking care of babies. I can’t imagine how you’d find the time
- You can, in fact, put Teens to work. I’m sorry
- I should hope this goes without saying: you can’t go killing off Sims or letting them be taken away by social services. You also can’t let an Infant age up with the Unhappy Infant Reward Trait (not exactly much of a reward, I’ll be the first to admit)
- If any of these things happen, it doesn’t count. It could end up being the 105 Baby Challenge, at this rate
- No getting married allowed, at least not at an age where your Sim can have kids
- Every pregnancy needs a different donor. I’m sure you can figure out what that means
- You have to randomise the Traits for all your kids
- You also can’t influence the gender of your babies. You’d think that would be an extension of the ‘no cheating’ rule, but amazingly in the bizarre world of The Sims, that means you’re going to need to avoid eating strawberries or carrots, and listening to pop or alternative music. Best hope you’re not too into CottageCore
- No hiring a nanny. Ever. You can, however, hire maids, gardeners, and repair people, or caterers and mixologists at parties. Imagine having a party with seven crying babies around?!
What happens if my Sim gets too old before they have 100 babies?
Fair question. At that point, you pass the curse onto your youngest kid who can bear children once they reach Young Adulthood.
Worried about the grandparent taking up a slot in the household? You can move them out now. Hell, they can even get married. Go wild.
How can I lose?
Arguably, your Sim has already lost by being asked to have 100 babies. But for you, the player, you need to look out for a few things.
Any major rule violations mean you lose. If you use money cheats, for instance, then you’re out of the game. Even if you’re somehow on baby 99. Same goes for if you have a partner move in or hire a nanny.
Then there are a couple of pitfalls. As mentioned, any offspring who are killed off or taken by social services don’t count towards your total. If they die once they move out as Young Adults, then, well, that’s on them, really. The mistakes they make in Adulthood are their crosses to bear, I guess.
On a related note, any Sim who ages up with the Unhappy Infant trait doesn’t count either. I can’t possibly imagine how that could happen.
Amazingly, you don’t have to lose if your main Sim dies or gets too old to have more children before you reach your goal. You just need to be ready to pass the baton on. Lucky kid!
Tips for completing the 100 Baby Challenge
Alright, we’ve broadly speaking covered the rules now. The next thing to think about is how to actually get through them. A small mercy is that there are a few things you can try out to make this a smoother ride. And, they don’t violate the rules at all.
Pick a relevant Aspiration
Your Sim can technically be anyone you want them to be. Despite that, you should figure out who you want them to be very carefully.
I would always try to pick either a Romance or Family-related Aspiration for two reasons. Firstly, and most obviously, you wrack up Aspiration Points nice and quickly. This isn’t just because of the main Aspiration Milestones, but also because you can earn a lot from Whims this way.
No, not Wicked Whims. The general, day-to-day stuff your Sims want to do. Which might be perfectly unwicked.
To heavily paraphrase Homer Simpson, these Aspiration Points can then be exchanged for goods and Free Services. Free Services then mean you don’t have to pay your maid. But, like, ethically.
The other benefit of picking your Aspiration carefully is that should you somehow manage to complete it, your Sim will get a Reward Trait that could help you out significantly. For example, Vicarious Sims will be able to learn from their children, while Seasoned Romantics will be able to seduce Sims with basically no effort at all.
Choose your lead Sim’s traits wisely
Following on nicely from the Aspiration talk: You should be super selective about your Sim’s Traits. They’ll be the only one you can pick traits for, after all.
A few Traits that I would tend to choose for a Baby Challenge Sim might include:
- Lovebug or Romantic: These Sims will be plenty happy to sidle up to someone and ask if they want their children
- Family-oriented: They’ll have plenty of family to orient themselves around
- Noncommittal: This might sound counterintuitive, but at least they’ll be happy with all those flings and breakups
- Outgoing: 100 children is a lot of children to get to know. And the lowest number of coparents you can possibly wind up with is 34, assuming you somehow magically managed to have triplets every single time you conceive
- Freegan: Dumpster diving is this Sim’s favourite pastime. It’s good to have hobbies outside of family. And, you’ll get some free stuff along the way
- Creative: There’s some good odds that your Sim will end up spending a lot of time painting, writing, or doing photography to get by. They may as well be happy while they do it
- Childish: This might not seem like an obvious choice, but Childish Sims enjoy kids’ stuff, like decor, radio stations, and TV channels. They’re going to be exposed to this stuff all the time anyway, so they may as well at least enjoy it
- Mystical: The gardening boost is worth its weight in gold
A few to avoid would include Hates Children, Romantically Reserved, and Unflirty. Unless you enjoy giving yourself a hard time, of course.
Some of the Traits outlined above conflict with one another, meaning you can’t pick them both at once. For instance, you can’t have a Noncommittal Sim who’s also Family Oriented, for perhaps obvious reasons. So, be ready to play around with combinations carefully.
Move into a lot with no Traits, and choose them carefully
You can pick whichever lot Traits you want when you first move in, assuming you aren’t replacing any pre-existing Traits. For that reason, try your best to move into a lot with no Traits so you can have the lion’s share of choices.
Of the lot Traits available across all the Expansion Packs and other DLC, the ones I would choose are:
- Fast Internet, Natural Light, or Home Studio: For upskilling and producing better products to sell
- Good Schools or Study Spot: To support scholarly Sims (so they can age up sooner).
- Penny Pixies: Free money? Yes please!
- Romantic Aura: You’re going to need to be a sweet-talker to convince donors to get involved in whatever this is
- Great Soil: Gardening and selling produce is my favourite way of making a quick buck, and this helps to make those bucks bigger
- Child’s Play: Child Sims skill up in no time with this one, making it great for aging them up quicker. A good childhood is a short one, apparently
- On Ley Line: Boosts your chances of having twins and triplets. In equal parts a blessing and a curse
- Gnomes: Don’t worry about fixing those broken appliances! Gnomes will do it for you. Maybe this is what landlords think happens
- Geothermal or Natural Well: These traits keep your bills down – money saved is money made, after all
- Singles Aura: You’re probably not getting out much – at least, not once you’ve got a few kids climbing around. This way, prospective donors will swing by often without you even having to put the pampas grass or pineapples out
For the love of all that is good, do not put any lot challenges on.
You won’t lose the challenge or anything. Your Sims’ lives will just suck even harder.
Grow a garden as soon as you move in
Moved into your new home? Great! Now, start planting.
You can usually find harvestables hanging around most neighbourhoods, so go for a look around and grab any fruit, veggies, and flowers you can find. Don’t sell them outright, but instead, plant as many as you can.
Can’t find any produce? You can always buy some seeds by clicking on a planter, or if you have Cottage Living, you can order from the delivery service included in Cottage Living. It’s really expensive, so it isn’t the best way to start, but it’s not too bad.
Get that money tree
Speaking of gardening. You know Aspiration Points? Save them. Once you reach 10,000, you’ll have the ultimate source of passive income: the magical money tree.
You can grow this tree super easily, and sell money fruit for a minimum of 8,000 Simoleons a pop. It’s like printing money. Or, uh, growing it.
Build up a flexible source of income
Much like in real life, the rat race will get your Sims down eventually. Actually, it’ll probably do it really quickly, especially if they have to worry about their kids all the time.
Unfortunately, they’re still going to have mouths to feed. Like a hundred of them, to be precise. Short of winning the lottery, you’re going to need a source of income, and you’re going to need it fast.
Since your Sim needs to work from home – and will be too busy getting busy half the time anyway – I tend to opt for picking up something that fits around whatever their children will throw at them. Hopefully, metaphorically speaking.
For that reason, I suggest giving them the Freelancer career – and no, I’m not just biased. This means they can pick up gigs that fit around everything else. If you do this in a creative skill, like writing or painting, then it’s nice and easy for them to make a little extra money off of that outside of their gigs. For example, you can sell paintings outright as well as taking on freelance work.
Get on the dating apps
One of the biggest challenges of having 100 babies is finding enough people to coparent with. The Sims 4: Lovestruck has the perfect answer to this in the form of a dating app.
Cupid’s Corner gives you the chance to mingle and meet with other Sims (who may or may not be single), making it possible to hook up without even leaving the house. You can even use it to schedule blind dates, making it easier than ever to meet with Sims you don’t already know.
I mean, there’s no guarantee they’ll agree to having kids with you, but at least it’s a start.
Try your best to increase your odds of having twins and triplets
The Sims 4 is packed with ways of improving your odds of having multiple babies per pregnancy. When attempting a 100 Baby Challenge, you’re going to want to absolutely rinse those options so you can hit your goal quicker.
A few ways of increasing your odds of having multiple babies at once are:
- Unlocking the Fertile Reward Trait using Aspiration Points
- Using the On Ley Line lot Trait
- Getting fertility massages at a massage table (no need to go to a spa – you can buy a table for your house)
- Drinking Elixirs of Fertility using the Herbalism skill
You’ll probably have a particularly hard time handling the last one, since it hinges on your Sim travelling to Granite Falls for ingredients. I’m absolutely sure your Baby Challenge’s theytriarch isn’t going holidaymaking anytime soon.
Do anything you can to speed up your pregnancy
When it comes to speedrunning pregnancy, there are two things you need to know. The first is that taking a pregnancy test will help to skip the first, hidden phase of pregnancy by throwing you straight into your first trimester. It also helps to know if you didn’t woo your hoo successfully, so you can go try again.
The second is that having a bassinet lying around ready for when the baby comes helps to cut down the amount of time your poor Sim has to be in labour. Once they enter labour, it takes a vague and variable amount of time for their baby to show up. Buying a bassinet in Build/Buy Mode gives you the option of rushing through this bit by interacting with it.
Decorate your home with care
As much as you can afford to, you’re going to want to be tactical about which furniture you choose for your Sim’s home. Better furniture fills needs faster, making it much easier to look after yourself in the sub-ten minutes of downtime you get while all your kids are asleep. It also stops furniture from breaking so often, meaning you can save money over time in repair fees.
Another item you should absolutely grab as soon as you can afford is the NanoCan Touchless Trash Can. This bin will set you back by 1,000 Simoleons, but you’ll earn that back in no time. Every time you throw out dirty dishes (or diapers), you’ll get ten Simoleons per Sim in your household.
Try saying that quickly 10 times.
Once your household starts to fill up, that’s kind of like an infinite money hack. At least, it is once you’ve broken even.
Get used to the sounds of lullabies
Unsurprisingly, the Lullaby radio station in The Sims 4 is great for lulling little Sims to sleep. Pop a radio near your Newborns, Infants, and Toddlers, and slam those lullabies on to help get your whole nursery to sleep soundly.
Just watch out for your Sim autonomously deciding they should switch it over to Metal and winding up with a room of screaming babies.
I’d even say to go as far as making your lead Sim have a preference for the lullaby station. That way, they’ll get a mood boost when they hear it, too. It’s a win/win.
Let Toddlers fend for themselves
Look, I’m sorry. It’s not nice. None of this is nice. A 100 Baby Challenge is not going to be nice. But, Toddlers are surprisingly good at looking after themselves.
They’re especially good at looking after themselves if you leave food out. So, try making party-sized group meals and leaving them out for Toddlers to grab from.
Buy a chilled shelf
If you have Get To Work, then you can take your neglect one step further by buying a chilled shelf from Build/Buy Mode. This keeps those group meals fresher for longer. Meaning, you can also ignore your Toddlers for longer.
It’s not just the Toddlers who benefit from this, of course – it’s fun for the whole family – but little ones can’t go in the fridge and grab food for themselves. Chilled shelves, on the other hand, are perfect for little Timmy’s tiny hands to reach into with no bother.
Similarly, do not put Toddlers in a high chair. Ever. They will get stuck until they are freed. And you’re regularly going to be too busy to free them.
Cross everything you end up with Independent Toddlers
Independent Toddlers are the best for a 100 Baby Challenge. They like to be left alone, learn skills better on their own, and get ticked off if you talk to them too much. They also don’t like attention, and can learn from other Toddlers. We love to see it.
Raise iPad babies
Toddlers are surprisingly autonomous in The Sims 4. This is great, considering they’re the main lifestage you need to worry about gaining skills in order for them to grow up quicker.
With that in mind, and as much as you can afford to, leave loads of skill items lying around for them to play with. Think along the lines of building blocks, play equipment, and of course, the humble Wabbit Tablet.
Tablets for tots in The Sims 4 aren’t all sensory videos and Cocomelon. They’re actually really useful for skilling up your Toddlers. And, they can keep them in their tiny pockets (somehow) ready to use at any time.
Let kids take care of each other
Nannies are not allowed in the 100 Baby Challenge. Your children supporting each other is.
This is particularly handy once some kids reach the Child or Teen life stage, as they can start doing more things Young Adults and Adult Sims can do. It’s absolutely not ideal for the kids, of course – by any stretch of the imagination – especially with school to worry about.
But, y’know, it’s a choice you can technically make. Should you want to.
Make use of the Clubs function
Clubs are one of the key aspects of the Get Together Expansion Pack. They let you sort of control other Sims’ activities by setting club activities, which your fellow club members will then complete whenever the group is gathering.
Although at face value you’ll probably picture club gatherings shaping up like scouts meets or D&D groups, they’re actually really useful for skill building, money-making, and even keeping on top of household tasks. You could make a club for all of the younger Sims in your household that focuses on skill building, homework, and chores, to make sure they’re keeping on top of what they need to do on their own.
Or, if you’re happy to get a little unscrupulous about it, you could invite a bunch of Adult Sims to a club and set them away to clean house, repair appliances, and maintain your garden. But you didn’t hear it from me…
Buy school projects to complete at home
If you have the Parenthood Game Pack, then you have the ultimate secret weapon for aging your Child and Teen Sims up quickly: School projects.
School projects are basically the same in-game as they are in real life. They’re take-home activities your young’uns need to complete at home on top of their homework in order to achieve the top grades.
The grade boost they give you is invaluable. Especially if you’re trying to raise top scholars so they can hurry up and move out. Unfortunately though, your Sims will actually be given these extracurriculars pretty infrequently. Particularly in the scheme of a 100 Baby Challenge.
Your best bet here is to assign your kids extra work yourself by heading into Build/Buy Mode and buying up a bunch of projects for each kid. Just watch out for any Destructive Toddlers who might see them and decide to play Godzilla.
Get good at baking birthday cakes
You know what they say: Sims who have 100 babies must really like cake. Or was that about weddings?
Well, either way, you’re going to need to get good at baking birthday cakes because they’re the only way you can easily Age Up a Sim who isn’t already due to celebrate their birthday. If you’re quick enough, you can even reuse the same cake multiple times with different sets of candles, saving you some time.
