Are you up for a new, dark, and tricky Sims 4 challenge? If the answer is yes, then you should definitely start playing the Black Widow Challenge! Read on to discover what it is, what the rules are, and how to complete it in Sims 4!
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Black Widow Challenge: Who is The Black Widow?
Get ready, it’s time to become a serial killer in your favorite game! Black widows are not just regular widows mourning the loss of their partners. These are widows who killed their partners to inherit their simoleons. The Sims 4 Black Widow Challenge is exactly as dramatic as this definition. Your goal is to seduce, marry, and then kill your Sim’s partners.
This challenge has its roots in Sims 2. The theme of the challenge is similar to the Black Widow achievement, where a Sim can get awarded a trophy when they outlive 5 spouses. However, with this challenge, we are going a notch higher and need to murder not 5, but 10 spouses, all while paying attention to challenge rules. So, if you are ready, let’s dive into it. It’s time for some seduction and crime!
Getting Started: Create Your Perfect Widow
What does your version of a black widow look like? Now is the perfect time to make one in Sims 4! You are starting the Black Widow Challenge with one Sim only – your window.
Although black widows are women by definition, you are totally free to choose any gender for your widow. Make them as alluring or as fascinating as you like. You are also free to date (and later murder) Sims of any gender or orientation. We will use she/her in this guide just for the simplicity of things.
You are free to play with looks to create your version of a perfect spouse-murderer. However, there are some rules and the black widow has to:
- be a young adult
- They need to have Snob, Romantic, and Materialistic personality traits. This psychological makeup will make it easier for her to seduce and get romantically involved.
- Their aspiration has to be The Serial Romantic (Love). You can later use the satisfaction points earned as you please during the challenge.
Once they look alluring and have all it takes for this notorious role, move them in, and start your Black Widow Challenge!
More on SNOOTYSIMS: Looking for a fun little challenge in The Sims 4 that equates to a lot of thrill? The 5-generation Tiny Living Challenge might just suit your taste!
Pick One of the 4 Difficulty Levels
Now that your seductress is ready to charm, it’s time to set some main goals going forward. The main objective of the Black Widow Challenge is to marry 10 times and kill all 10 spouses. The end goal is to complete the challenge before your main character (the widow) dies and max out the charisma and cooking. This is how you play on a normal difficulty level.
The challenge has 4 difficulty levels: Novice, Normal, Specialist, or Legendary. You decide which one to play, but these are not fixed throughout the gameplay, so you can make a progression from novice to legendary level anytime. These are the goals for every difficulty level:
- Novice: complete all challenge objectives, max out charisma or cooking skill.
- Normal: complete all challenge objectives before the black widow dies, and max out cooking and charisma.
- Specialist: complete all challenge objectives and complete the Serial Romantic aspiration by the time your Sim becomes an elder.
- Legendary: complete all challenge objectives and complete the Serial Romantic aspiration by the time your Sim becomes an adult.
The challenge can be completed at any of the four levels. Now, onto the challenge rules!
The Black Widow Challenge Rules
For the challenge to be successfully completed, you must play by the rules. Make sure you have these in mind at all times when playing:
- Playing with a normal lifespan is a must.
- Turn off ageing on all homes, but yours.
- Cheats or mods aren’t allowed. You can only reset a Sim with a cheat if they get stuck. Since you can’t use cheats, expect a lot of drama and mood swings.
- Keep your widow Sim unemployed all the time. She can earn simoleons by selling collectibles or craftables before she marries her first husband. After marrying, she has to rely only on her spouse’s wealth to survive.
- Mary only singles. If a married man catches her eye, you’ll need to delete his family before you proceed.
- Repairs are not allowed! If an item breaks, fixing it will be below her level, so you’ll need to buy a new one.
- The widow is allowed to flirt with anyone when married. Flirt with as many people as you like. Go on dates. Have fun!
- You can, but don’t have to have kids with your husbands. Having them is great for the story, but it’s all up to you!
Although there are some general rules for the challenge, you have a lot of freedom to use features from the DLCs you have installed, as long as they don’t interfere with the main Black Widow Challenge objectives.
Let’s Play! Meet Challenge Objectives And Marry And Kill 10 Spouses
Once your Sim is moved in, it’s time to meet their first lover (pardon, victim). The black widow doesn’t want to work. She wants to do as she pleases, flirt, and live a lavish life by spending their spouse’s fortune. Since earning money on her own isn’t a goal, it’s best to opt for the cheapest starter home and get on with the challenge as soon as possible not to waste precious time, especially if you intend to play in the legendary mode. Here is how the story in the Black Widow Challenge must unfold:
1. Seduce And Marry Your First Husband
To become a black widow, your character needs to find a single Sim to seduce and marry. You can, but don’t have to have a full-blown wedding party. In this phase of the challenge, your Sim will need to be super sweet and prove they are a good spouse by making a splendid dinner party, with a silver rating or higher.
Once your main character marries, you can choose to move them into their husbands’ houses. It doesn’t matter where your widow lives, as long as she can keep killing and acquiring money. One thing to have in mind is that keeping tombstones also means keeping ghosts on your lot, so get ready to get spooked.
- A suggestion – If you want to go the distance when playing the Black Widow Challenge, you can make her pine after rich men specifically. The richer the man, the more wealth she’ll accumulate with each death. However, this is not specified in the challenge, so you can make her marry whomever you like.
2. Find A Lover And Become A Cheater
Once you have your spouse’s full trust and love, go on a hunt for a new lover. Your lover can be a random townie, or a Sim you purposefully made for this occasion. When the new partner is under your spell, move them in so that there are 3 Sims living in a home – your Sim, their husband, and their mistress/lover. This is where the drama begins. You are free to flirt and get physical with both. Your Sim needs to get caught cheating on their spouse, which won’t be that hard, considering they will live in the same place.
3. Kill The Spouse
She was caught cheating, and everything is at stake. She is at risk of losing all her (her husband’s) wealth. She must kill her husband! The Black Widow Challenge doesn’t specify how exactly your spouse has to die, so it’s up to you to find the most effective and creative ways to get the reaper to take their life. The only rule you need to abide by is to not lose your husband to natural death, and not to use mods and cheats.
Do your best to make them feel exhausted or have needs unmet. If they are bad at cooking, make them try to cook something. Or, make them play with electronics to test their luck. Do what you need to do. Keep spouses’ tombstones or urns, and inscribe them all with ”(Sim name) Died by Black Widow”.
- A suggestion – If you want to go the extra mile, make at least 5 husbands die a different death.
4. Re-marry And Repeat The Cycle 10 Times
One man’s wealth isn’t enough. After all, your window got away with crime unscratched, so why not seduce and murder more? To complete the challenge, you will need to marry 10 times, and have 10 dead husbands. One husband is gone, so there are 9 more to go. Mary the new lover repeat steps 1,2, and 3 until your widow has 10 graves and a full bank account.
Collect Challenge Points As You Go
As you play the challenge, you will be accumulating points every time you reach important challenge objectives. However, some actions take away from points accumulated. For instance, if your husband dies a natural death, you’ll need to subtract 300 points. Keep track of your points somewhere, so that you know how far you’ve come.
Here is the table with points for every difficulty level of the Black Widow Challenge:
| DIFICULTY LEVEL | ADD | SUBSTRACT |
| Novice and Normal | 1000 – for achieving 7 or more graves 1000 – reaching level 10 (max) in Cooking 1000 – reaching level 10 (max) in Charisma 400 – for every party with a silver metal or more 300 – for every different color ghost that appears 200 – per husband achieved/gained 200 per grave. 100 – for every affair you successfully end in death. 100 – for each date 100 – for every child | 300 – for every partner that dies naturally. 200 – for not reaching level 10 (max) in the Cooking Skill 200 – for not reaching level 10 (max) in the Charisma Skill 100 – for not throwing a dinner party 100 – for every party ending with a bronze metal 100 – for every kid taken away by the Social worker. |
| Specialist | 2000 – For completing the Serial Romantic aspiration 3000 – For completing the challenge before becoming an Elder 3000 – For completing the Specialist Difficulty Level ( and becoming a Sims 4 Specialist ) | 300 – For every extra day you needed to complete the challenge after Elderhood began |
| Legendary | 2000 – For completing the Serial Romantic aspiration 5000 – For completing the challenge before becoming an Adult 5000 – For completing Legendary Difficulty Level ( and becoming a Sims 4 Legend ) | 300 – For every extra day you needed to complete the challenge after adulthood began |
Conclusion
Black widows will take gold-digging to the next level, so much so that they are not afraid to kill time and time again. This challenge is a great opportunity to play a dramatic role and will bring a healthy dose of drama into your gameplay. It’s not easy, especially if you pick advanced difficulty levels, but it’s so worth it. Give it a go and have fun. Happy simming!