If there’s one thing that The Sims community loves, it’s gameplay challenges. Gameplay challenges can spark new life into your saves by setting goals and targets for you to strive for. A lot of different challenges have popped up over the years, including the infamous 100 Baby Challenge and the more recent Very Veggie Legacy Challenge.
One relative newcomer is James Turner’s Every Occult Challenge. This challenge gives you a fun way of experimenting with a bunch of the different occult types you can expect to find in your digital dollhouses.
What is the Every Occult Challenge?
The Every Occult Challenge has three main challenges:
- Build up a household of eight Sims, including one human and seven occults (more on that later)
- Have pairs of NPC occults visit your home
- Transform your human Sim into special, temporary lifestates
That might sound straightforward enough, but it’s surprisingly tricky. For starters, you have to hit certain goals even to be ‘allowed’ to add occults to your household. Secondly, you might not expect how tricky it is to pin down Temperance and the Flower Bunny all at once.
Which occults do you need to add to your household?
In addition to your human Sim, you’re going to need to get these guys to join your household:
- Alien
- Vampire
- Servo
- Werewolf
- Ghost
- Spellcaster
- Mermaid
Don’t worry about adding them in any specific order, though, as you can complete the challenge in a non-linear order.
What tasks do I need to do to add them to my household?
Just inviting those occults to your household wouldn’t be much of a challenge, so there are a few stipulations before you can add them to your household:
| Occult | Rule |
| Alien | You can either meet and befriend or give birth to an alien for this one. The easiest way to give birth to an alien baby is by having a Sim who can’t normally get pregnant be abducted. This can take a really long time, though, as it’s up to chance – meaning you’re probably better off just making friends with an alien roommate instead. For the purpose of this challenge, you’ll need to go to Sixam yourself to find an alien buddy, or figure out a way of contacting them. No heading to the bar on Alien Night. |
| Vampire | You’re going to have to maximise the Vampire Lore skill and befriend Vlad. Yes, big scary Vlad who lives out in Forgotten Hollow. The one who constantly looks like he wants to kill you with hammers. |
| Servo | This one goes roughly how you’d expect it to. You have to build your own Servo. You can build Servo using a Robotics Workshop if you have a high enough Robotics skill. |
| Werewolf | Managed to befriend Vlad yet? Great! Now you need to befriend Greg. Oh, and both werewolf packs. Good luck avoiding being eaten. |
| Ghost | Sorry, you’re not getting out of this one with clean hands. You’re going to need to kill a Sim. And it can’t be the human Sim you started off with. No wishing for ghost children at the well, or hitting up the local graveyard for dearly departed flatmates. |
| Spellcaster | You’ll need to gather the ingredients for an immortality potion. That’s Mandrake, Sage, Morcubus, and a Diamond. Surprisingly, this one isn’t really too bad if you’re happy to spend a lot of time shopping in the Magic Realm and San Myshuno. |
| Mermaid | This one, on the other hand, might take you a while. You’ll need to collect some Mermaidic Kelp from the cave (buying it with Aspiration Points is cheating), clean Sulani up enough that you get the first pop-up message about it, and catch an invasive fish. At least you get to spend time in Sulani. |
Which occults need to visit your home?
You’re going to have to be visited by a long list of weirdos:
- Flower Bunny
- Temperance
- Night Wraith
- Patchy
- Tragic Clown
- Grim Reaper
- Father Winter
- Guidry
- Bonehilda
Any other rules?
Yep. They have to visit in pairs or more. If they come on their own, then it won’t count.
So, for example, if Temperance swept by your house (unlucky you) but Guidry was nowhere to be seen, then it wouldn’t count.
Despite that, they don’t have to come in any order, and it doesn’t say anywhere that you couldn’t count the same paranormal visitor twice. So, you could make it easier for yourself by being ready to summon the Tragic Clown or Bonehilda whenever any of those harder-to-come-by occults swing by.
How to get occults to visit your home
They’re a fussy bunch of guests, these lot. Here’s how to get each of them to come over:
| Occult | How to get them to visit |
| Flower Bunny | Set up a holiday in the calendar with the Flower Bunny Tradition and wait for them to arrive. |
| Temperance | Live in a Haunted House Residential and wait at least five nights. |
| Night Wraith | Have the Spellcaster in your household receive the Curse of the Night Wraith and wait for him to show up. |
| Patchy | Develop a relationship with Patchy the Straw Man using the eponymous item from Build/Buy Mode. Once you’re close enough to him, he’ll eventually come to life. |
| Tragic Clown | Grab a Tragic Clown painting from Build/Buy Mode and have a Sim view it while they have the Sad Moodlet. Alternatively, hang around town for long enough and one might appear. Not creepy at all… |
| Grim Reaper | This is self-explanatory. And, well, you do need to kill a Sim anyway… |
| Father Winter | Set up a holiday in the calendar with the Father Winter Tradition. He should show up around 8pm, near a fireplace or Christmas tree. |
| Guidry | Claude René Duplantier Guidry (no, not like Project Rene) comes around a lot if you live in a Haunted House. The odds of him appearing when Temperance does are pretty good. |
| Bonehilda | Sims with a level three Medium skill can summon Bonehilda using a seance table. It’s a little trickier than back when you kept her in a coffin in the corner, but it’s more fun this way. |
What are the temporary life states your human Sim needs to get into?
Just in case they haven’t already been through enough, your human Sim is also going to need to become a Skeleton and a PlantSim. Temporarily.
You’re going to need to follow these steps to finish off the Every Occult Challenge:
| Life State | How to become them |
| PlantSim | Sims will need to reach a level 10 Gardening skill, and then purchase the Rare Seeds. You can do this directly by clicking on a planter, or in the Outdoor Activities section of Build/Buy Mode. You’ll need to keep buying these packets until you eventually collect all six magical beans. I promise I’m not lying to you. Next, you need to stick those beans in the Magic PlantSim Stump and water it. This will grow the Forbidden Fruit of the PlantSim. Eat that and boom, you’re a PlantSim for a limited amount of time. |
| Skeleton | You’re going to need to take a vacation to Selvadorada for this one. Head into the jungle and start excavating any dig sites and opening any chests you can see. You’ll eventually find a Death base and a Balampalsoh top, which you can combine to make a relic using the Archaeology table. This makes the Balampalsoh Death Relic. Add a crystal – any crystal – to it to activate it. Before you know it, you’ll be bones. |
Which DLC do I need to complete the Every Occult Challenge?
Astute Simmers will have noticed that ticking off this challenge requires rather a lot of Expansions, Game Packs, and even a Stuff Pack.
You’re going to need to have the following DLC to finish off the challenge:
- Get to Work
- Seasons
- Island Living
- Discover University
- Vampires
- Jungle Adventure
- Realm of Magic
- Werewolves
- Paranormal Stuff
There isn’t an alternative set of rules for Simmers without those Packs right now. However, the main aim of the game is to have a household full of occults – and a long line of weird villagers – which you might be able to achieve by chopping and changing which Packs are included. For example, you could replace any of the DLC listed above with Enchanted By Nature and use Fairies instead.
