Are you ready to get stuck in an asylum with insane Sims? That’s exactly what you’ll need to do if you decide to play the Asylum challenge! Keep on reading to learn how to play it like a pro.
350 CC Items! Time to celebrate! 🎉
Before we begin: Thank you! We’re celebrating 3 years and 350+ CC items. As a gift, supporters can get all our free CC at once here: ALL IN ONE DOWNLOAD
What’s the Idea Behind The Sims 4 Asylum Challenge?
Get ready, as you are about to start running a mental hospital, and be stuck with 7 patients running wild! The Asylum Challenge is an old challenge from Sims 2 and Sims 3 and has been revamped by Simswithcheese to match the unique game features of Sims 4.
The challenge forces one Sim to stay with crazy folks until they are ready to be included in society as a healthy individual. They will need to prove themselves by completing aspirations, building skills, and surviving in a house of lunacy. Not only will they have to live with some raving Sims in an asylum, but they will also have their basic freedom and budget restricted. Sounds intriguing? Let’s prepare for, build, and enter the asylum!
How To Prepare For The Asylum Challenge?
Before diving into the challenge, it’s essential to prepare for what’s to come and have your characters and an asylum ready. This is what you need to do, step by step:
Step 1: Create Your Main Character And Your Patients In Case
You are starting the challenge with a full house, with 8 Sims, and none of them can be related. However, only one of them will be the lead character. This is the Asylum challenge, so make sure all 8 of them have the appropriate Erratic (Insane) personality trait. This will make them talk to themselves and have unpredictable mood swings. Other traits are completely optional, as long as they are not custom ones, and so are their looks and gender.
The main character can have any aspiration you want, except Successful Lineage, Big Happy Family, Super Parent, Fabulously Wealthy, Mansion Baron, and City Native. The other 7 Sims can have any aspiration. If you’d like to make a vampire or an alien patient, you are totally welcome to do so!
Step 2: Build Your Asylum
It’s time to move your 8 insane Sims to an asylum. This asylum can be located on any residential lot in Willow Creek or Oasis Springs, and has to be a house, as you can’t have a mental hospital in an apartment. In this phase, you are allowed to use money cheats to build your own or re-design a home so it looks like a mental hospital. Choose only the cheapest objects from every furniture category to furnish it, but skip all items that influence how patients feel.
You will be able to replace these cheap objects with those of better quality later on, when you have some simoleons saved. However, you will only be allowed to replace the existing objects with more expensive ones of the same type (e.g. replace an old stove with a new one). Every difficulty level in the asylum challenge has rules regarding objects and furniture, so read more about that in the difficulty mode section below.
Alternatively, you are also allowed to look for an asylum in the Gallery in-game by using the #AsylumChallenge hashtag.
Step 3: Set Family Funds Based On The Difficulty Level
Once you are all set and have your patients in the facility, it’s time to set the funds. If you used money cheats to build and design the asylum, you will need to use the money cheat to set the starter amount for the challenge. To do that, make sure your cheats are enabled with testingcheats true, and type money #. Every difficulty level (see more info about each below) has a specified amount of simoleons:
- Easy mode: $1,000
- Medium mode: $500
- Hard mode: $100
Replace ”#” with the amount of money for the difficulty level you want to play. For instance, to play on medium mode, type money 500, and hit Enter.
You are all set to start playing! Now turn off cheats completely by typing testingcheats false, and let’s explore the rules and begin the challenge!
More on SNOOTYSIMS: Come and play the thrilling Midnight Sun Challenge!
Let’s Play! What Are The Rules?
Here you are in the live mode, and the asylum challenge has officially started. These are the general rules you’ll have to abide by when playing:
- Cheats and mods that impact needs and skills are not allowed.
- Make sure your Sims have free will, and enable this in Game Options. Let them run wild!
- Set aging to normal or long.
- Your main character is the only one you can check up on. You can’t click on patients to check on them. You are not responsible for meeting their needs. Let them be and see how the game unfolds.
- If a Sim dies, keep the grave.
- Keep track of your main Sim’s career only. You can’t make patients work hard.
- Keeping shared objects in inventory is forbidden. You are allowed to pause the game at 12 am and click on patients just to check if they have something in their inventory.
- You can’t rearrange furniture. Once it’s all placed, it has to remain in the same spot.
- Active careers are forbidden, and so is owning a business or a restaurant.
If in doubt about some DLC-specific rules, you can find more info in the original post here.
Pick A Difficulty Level: Easy, Medium, or Hard Mode
The Asylum Challenge has 3 difficulty levels. All have a specific set of rules you’ll need to follow and you get to pick which one clicks with you.
Your end goal is to meet all the objectives on any of the three difficulty levels. The idea is to complete them as fast as you can, ideally without your patients dying. Now, onto the objectives!
Easy Mode
If you choose the easy mode, you’ll need to complete 2 aspirations to set your main Sim free from the world of madness, and you’re free to purchase lifetime rewards. Everyone is allowed to work. However, while your main Sim can work in any career (unless it’s an active one) all patients must work in the criminal career if you choose to employ them. Even if you do, you can’t control their career progress, and if they lose a job, they can’t get employed ever again.
Everyone is free to leave the lot, collect items, go fishing, and order a pizza. Travel to other lots is allowed only from 9 AM to 3 PM, and can only be done if all 8 sims are going. You can even have a maid hired to help you keep the place spotless. The asylum is allowed to have the following objects:
- 2 sinks, 2 showers(or bathtubs), and 2 toilets
- 6 bed spots
- 8 sitting spots (counts for all sitting sports, such as couches or chairs)
- 1 PC and 1 TV
- up to 5 skill-building objects. This doesn’t apply to the PC, mirrors, the TV, bookshelves, or stoves.
Medium Mode
All that madness is tiring, but your Sim needs to stick around to complete 3 aspirations to leave the house of insanity. If you choose to play in the medium mode, only 2 patients will be allowed to work, and can only have a job in the criminal career. The main Sim can have any job, and they are allowed to use satisfaction points to purchase rewards.
Sims can leave the lot only between 7 AM and 5 PM, and are allowed to fish and collect collectibles, but only if all 8 of them are going. Your insane folks can still visit other lots but are allowed to do so only from 9 AM to 3 PM, and they have to travel in a pack of 8. Pizza delivery and maid service are not allowed. Here are the furniture rules:
- 1 sink, 1 shower (or bathtub), 1 toilet
- 1 PC or 1 TV (can’t have both)
- 5 bed spots
- 6 sitting spots (counts for all sitting sports, such as couches or chairs)
- up to 5 skill-building objects. This doesn’t apply to the PC, mirrors, the TV, bookshelves, or stoves.
If a Sim dies, you must delete 1 seat. Do this for every Sim who dies, until there is only 1 seat left.
Hard Mode
Days in the asylum feel like months. Your Sim needs to complete 4 aspirations to set themselves free, and can’t purchase anything from the reward store. No patient is allowed to work, and your main Sim can only get a job if that’s an essential milestone goal for their aspiration. Pizza delivery and maid service are strictly forbidden.
Traveling to other lots is now forbidden unless your main Sim needs to travel to complete the aspiration, in which case you must bring everyone along. The only time Sims are allowed to leave the asylum is between 12 AM and 5 AM to fish and collect items. These are the rules for furnishing:
- 1 sink, 1 shower (or bathtub), 1 toilet
- 1 PC or 1 TV (can’t have both)
- 4-bed spots
- 4 sitting spots (counts for all sitting sports, such as couches or chairs)
- up to 5 skill-building objects. This doesn’t apply to the PC, mirrors, the TV, bookshelves, or stoves.
If a Sim dies, you must delete 1 seat and 1 bed, and do so for every patient who dies, until there is only 1 seat and 1 bed left.
Scoring System: Accumulate Points As You Play!
If you enjoy keeping score when playing challenges, this is the scoring system for the Asylum Challenge:
| ACTION | POINTS |
| for every aspiration completed | +50 |
| for every skill point earned in the household (8 Sims) | +1 |
| for every 1000 satisfaction points earned in the household (8 Sims) | +1 |
| for every Sim that dies | -20 |
| for every fire that breaks out in the asylum | -20 |
| for every electricity and water outage (per day) | -20 |
The scoring is totally optional, so it’s up to you to decide whether you want to use the scoring system!
Final Thoughts
If you choose to play the asylum challenge, prepare for some erratic behaviors, potential deaths and ghosts, daily frustration, conflicts, and negative moodlets. Although the easy level is relatively manageable, playing in hard mode is tricky and will definitely keep you on your toes, as there are a lot of restrictions at play. Happy simming!