The Sims 4 Decades Challenge

Are you up for some time traveling in Sims 4? The Decades Challenge will help you experience history through the Sims 4 lens. Discover how to play it to accurately replicate different eras in your favorite game!

What Is The Sims 4 Decades Challenge?

Welcome to the Decades Challenge! This challenge will take you from the 1890s to the 2020s, letting your Sims experience major historical events. Prepare for restrictions regarding gender, race, and class, grow strong in times of war, and warm up to welcome new technologies! There are 14 generations you have to play, and all are a decade apart. All of these come with a set of specific rules to help you accurately replicate actual historical eras in your favorite game. Let’s begin!

General Rules and Guidelines

The original challenge was created by ZombieCleo and updated by kakeru_naruse. Every decade you’ll be playing has some rules on careers, aspirations, and objects allowed in each era. To check these details, the latest rules, and updates, go to CuteCoffeGal. These are some general guidelines:

• Fashion & Interior – Do your research on fashion and interior styles through the decades, so that you can accurately replicate homes and looks in Sims 4.
• CC & Mods – Aesthetic custom content is allowed, and so are the MCCC and mods that contribute to historical accuracy.
• Cheats – Cheats are not allowed unless specified otherwise.

More on SNOOTYSIMS: Are you fascinated by history and love Sims 4? If so, then you will love every minute of playing the History Challenge! 

Creating And Moving In Your First Family

The legacy starts in the 1890s, but before you jump in and start playing the era, you need to create and move in your first family. You can start the challenge with two married young adults, or one single young adult, and find them a spouse when you start playing. You are allowed to create parents for one of them and have them live with your couple.

Feel free to move your first family into any home they can afford, and any world but Del Sol Valley or Strangerville. You are beginning the challenge with starter funds only, and all money in the challenge needs to be generated organically. To keep it realistic, make sure there are no supernatural occurrences or occult beings in your game.

You will need to find, plant, and grow a healthy cow plant before the 1910s, as you will need it for war times. So make sure you find and plant it as soon as possible when you start playing. Now, onto the challenge!

1900 – The Edwardian Era

Most rules from the 1890s still apply. You are now allowed to have wallpapers, upholstery, plumbing, and electricity, and you can use lamps to light up your home. Married women are still not allowed to work, unless widowed or divorced. This is the first era in the challenge where vacations are allowed, and Sims can play music on phonographs. Make sure you have a fully-grown, healthy cow plant in your backyard, as you’ll soon need it!

Allowed careers:

1910 – WW1

WW1 is knocking on your Sims’ doors. All male teens, young adults, and adults, as well as those who age up to teens during this decade in your town, must be sent to war. If they are all old enough, men are allowed to ”Try for Baby” with their spouses before they are recruited.

• Going to war – To simulate war, you’ll be sending them to a random lot, where you’ll need to feed them all a piece of Cow Plant. Roll the dice to see which males will get to eat cake the second time. Those with odd numbers will die, and others will be sent back home.
• Life after war – Survivors will have traumas, and get one of the following traits when they age up: Gloomy, Hot-Headed, Clumsy, Erratic, Lazy, Mean, Paranoid, or Noncommittal. If all men from your active family tragically die, the eldest daughter’s husband who survives the war will become the heir. In this case, this family will have to move into the active lot to continue the challenge. If all men die, make the eldest daughter remarry.

Wedding parties are now allowed, and women can join protests for the first time. Scouting is now a thing for kids and teens, and teens who underperform in high school (below C) would be sent to a reformatory school, so you’ll need to move them out if their grades get bad.

Allowed careers:

1920 – Women’s Rights

For the first time in history, women can become heirs and don’t have to move out when they marry. Women can now vote on Neighborhood Action Plans. Girls don’t have to have the creative trait anymore. Active school days and proms are now allowed, and so are radios and talk radios. Alcohol, such as nectar drinks, is forbidden in this era.

Allowed careers:

1930 – Great Depression

The big crisis is here. All your Sims must lose their jobs for a week, and 40% of their household funds must be taken away with money cheats. Bills must be paid only if electricity is cut off (or when water is also cut off).

All teens who don’t go to school, young adults, and adults will have to make simoleons by collecting (rocks, plants, fish) for a week. Resources were running thin in this era, so everyone could eat only one meal from a stove per day, and eat fruit to satisfy hunger. Poverty will make all Sims who grow up into young adults in your home either Gloomy, Evil, or Noncommittal. Life is tough, so alcohol is allowed again. Luckily, high schools no longer have fees.

Allowed careers:

1940 – WW2

History is repeating, and your young adult male Sims (who are already YA) must be sent to war. All war rules from WW1 still apply (cow plan cake, trying for baby, and trauma traits). Survivors are allowed to visit home for wartime leave once a week. Once they come back from war, they have to wait until they are adults to get their first careers.

• Women and men who are not drafted must get a job.
• Every home must have a Victory garden with at least 4 plants. Your family can eat only one meal from the stove a day, vegetables and fruits from the garden.
• Relationships with Sims of different ethnicities are allowed, but they still can’t marry.
• Sims can now take medication when sick.
• Babies can be born at home or at the hospital. Pets can be taken to the vet, too.
• Teens don’t have to go to reformatory if they have bad grades.
• Radios were the main media, and Sims must listen to it for at least 1h/day.

Allowed careers:

1950 – Korean War

Here comes another war. The first male YA child will be conscripted, and the first female YA child will become a volunteer nurse. Both will be fed a Cow Plant cake. All war rules (the cake, trying for baby, and trauma traits) apply.

• Sims can get divorced any time they want and adopt children.
• They can finally get as many hot meals from the stove as they like.
• Cheap, old-fashioned TVs are allowed and can be watched from 6-10 AM, and 6-12 PM.
• Nannies can be hired.
• If you want to, you can now live in apartments.
• Elementary school and high school are now both mandatory.
• Women can work, but should quit jobs when they have a baby, and start a career again once the kid becomes a teen.

Allowed careers:

1960 – Civil Rights Era

Birth control is finally here, so you can have WooHoos, and teens can mess around! Sims can marry anyone, regardless of ethnicity or race. Same-gender relationships are allowed, but same-gender marriage isn’t. Novice moms can now take time off.

However, war times aren’t over yet, and you need to send two eldest kids (female and male) to the Vietnam War. Apply all rules for wars from previous eras (eating Cow Plant cake, trying for a baby before the war, trauma traits). Ladies can wear pants and take maternity leave in their third trimester, and after a baby is born.​

Allowed careers:

1970 – End Of The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War is still raging, so send your two eldest kids of either gender to war and apply all war rules. Those who are not sent to war must have an autonomous job. You no longer have to get married to continue the family line and can have a bastard child as an heir.

This is the era of the Environmentalist and Feminist movement, so every child born during this era must have one of these traits: Active, Self-Assued, Loves Outdoors, Vegetarian, or Outgoing. Festivals are now allowed!

Allowed careers:

1980 – The Yuppie Era

This is the Yuppie era, so make sure one of your Sims has a Business career. All Sims born in this era must have one of the following traits: Self-Assured, Perfectionist, Ambitious, Materialistic, or Snob. Babies have to be born in the hospital, and having a science baby is allowed. ​

Allowed careers:

1990 – Internet!

Cellphones and the internet are finally here! You can now finally use PCs without any restrictions. This is the era of comfort and fun, so spoil your kids with toys. Dress your pets, and organize playdates!

This is when the Y2K occurred, so build a bunker or basement filled with essentials for survival, but buy only cheap items. Prepare it a few days before your eldest teen is about to grow up. You have to spend 3 days before they age up to young adults in the shelter, without exceptions. You can’t take a PC to the shelter or send kids to school at this time, but can use cell phones to send messages.

Allowed careers:

2000 – Climate Change

Welcome to the new millennium! Sims of both genders can now choose any career, and dads can take leave when their child is born. Flat screens, video stations, and earplugs are here, you can buy any item you want.

Allowed careers:

2010 – Where to From Here?

Gay marriage is now allowed, and adoption is much encouraged. Drones and cameras are allowed, and so are all part-time jobs. Being a YouTuber is the ultimate trend.

Allowed careers:

2020 – The Future is Here, And So Is The Pandemic!

There are no more career restrictions for either gender. This is the age of the global pandemic, and it must last a whole year in Sims 4.

• It’s lockdown time, so Sims can’t vacation, go to events, or on dates. They can leave the lot only once a week, but can’t leave the neighborhood. Social distancing is a thing, so you must interact with anyone except your family members.
• Keep all communication online! Every Sim needs to have a personal PC, Tablet, or laptop.
• Only doctors can go to work, but all other Sims must work from home. All Sims who have rabbit hole jobs must quit and get jobs where they can work remotely, and students can’t go to lectures.
• Kids must be tutored at home, and toddlers need to learn skills every day.
  Sick Sims can’t get medicine. Instead, they must be put into quarantine (locked in their room) until they get better.
• You have nothing better to do, so you are obligated to max out at least one skill during the lockdown.

Conclusion

The Decades Challenge is a lengthy one, but you’ll find that the first generations have more rigorous restrictions. As the challenge progresses, you’ll find there are fewer rules, and playing generations becomes easier.

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