Between Kits, Neighborhood Stories, and other new features, The Sims 4 has received some good updates in 2021. EA closed the year with Scenarios, pre-made stories that satisfy the sweet spot between guided plot lines and total freedom.
They cover everything from breaking up and breaking even, to toddlers and holiday dramas. If you missed out on any of the limited-time scenarios, TwistedMexi’s All Scenarios Mod lets you access any scenario any time, so it’s easy to catch up on what you missed.
If you’re wondering where to start, our Complete Guide to Scenarios will tell you everything you need to know about what the permanent scenarios are, and how to play. If you want to know how to make an already-played scenario feel fresh again, read on to find every scenario released so far, plus some ideas on how to approach them.
Updated on May 30, 2022, by Marissa Lee: As The Sims 4 continues to be updated regularly new scenarios that we’re excited to dive into have been added. A new In the Moodlet scenario was added with the most recent Sims Delivery Express, and select scenarios can now also be played with existing households. Too Many Toddlers is now a permanent scenario, and if the player completes it successfully, all toddlers involved will grow up with the Happy Toddler reward trait. New difficulty tags were also added, so Scenarios are ranked as easy, intermediate, or hard. Plus, all new scenarios are base game compatible!
15 Making Money
Difficulty: Easy
Step 1: Move into a new place and start off without a single Simoleon in your bank account.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Become a millionaire!
Potential Outcomes
- Have one million Simoleons
Right off the bat, the most obvious way to make money would be to get your Sim a job. But, there are so many ways to make money in The Sims 4 so why not try a more interactive option to make the most out of this scenario.
Selling craftables is a great way to make money, but there are also many ways to make this more challenging such as limiting your Sim to selling only one craftable item. You could even travel to Selvadorada and restore and sell artifacts. Eco-friendly Sims could also use the off-the-grid lot trait and challenge themselves to make a million Simoleons without negatively affecting the neighborhood’s eco-footprint.
Selling items directly is the easiest option, but also the least realistic. Selling items with market tables is more hands-on, for example, selling in San Myshuno’s Flea Market, or in the plaza of Selvadorada hotspot Cantina, El Árbol del Jaguar. Plopsy is another option that doesn’t require leaving home, but it can take time for offers to start coming in. In short, exploring areas of the game that you tend to ignore is the best way to get the most out of this scenario.
14 Finding Love After A Breakup
Difficulty: Intermediate
A messy breakup is even messier for Sims who live together. Is there anything worth salvaging in this relationship or is it time to find new love? Sims will start the Scenario having recently broken up with each other.
Potential Outcomes
- A Sim is Soulmates with someone they’ve broken up with
- A Sim is Best Friends with someone they’ve broken up with
- A Sim is Soulmates with someone they’ve never broken up with
This scenario might require a bit more backstory, but since you have to create a new family for each scenario, imagination is key. How did your Sims meet? How long had they been together, and how long had they known each other before their relationship? Maybe there is drama between your Sims and some existing families in the neighborhood or perhaps infidelity is to blame for their breakup?
Traits are another thing to consider, here. How similar or different your Sims are may affect how well they get along, or how easy it is to get them to spend time together. Three traits may not seem like a lot, but with over 50 traits in the game, the combinations are (almost) endless. The same goes for preferences. Are Sims with compatible preferences always compatible partners? Do opposites attract? It’s up to you.
13 Too Many Toddlers
Difficulty: Intermediate
Can an overwhelmed Sim figure out how to give a bunch of Toddlers all the attention and care they need to thrive?
Potential Outcomes
- Toddlers reach level three in four skills
Keeping one toddler happy is a tall order, let alone three toddlers at once. Your caregiving Sim is going to be outnumbered here, so it’s up to you how difficult you want to make things. If you have a lot of toddler toys lying around these tykes will earn plenty of skills on their own time. Independent toddlers even build skills faster without guidance - especially if screens are involved. Leave food on the counter for toddlers to grab, and cushions out for them to nap on, and they should be set for at least their basic needs.
Some skills will build naturally over time, like movement, potty, and social, but thinking, and imagination are built through more specific actions, so all of your toddlers can have totally different strengths. With each toddler toy building a specific skill, you can always switch toys out as necessary, in order to keep things fresh.
12 Perfectly Well Rounded
Difficulty: Intermediate
Some Sims are extremely impressive: they’re experts in many topics, well-liked by others, and they’ve followed their dreams unapologetically. It’s not easy to be so well-rounded, but it’s a path worth pursuing.
Potential Outcomes
- Sim completes an Aspiration, has five friends, and is level ten in three skills
Which aspiration do you want your Sim to complete? The Renaissance Sim aspiration is great for this scenario, since skill building makes up a handful of its aspiration milestones. Speaking of skills, which will your Sim focus on? Will they be a specialist or a jack-of-all-trades?
Next question: where will your Sims make friends? If they have a career-related aspiration, making work friends feels like a good fit. Neighbors are also an easy option for homebody Sims, but Sims 4 neighborhoods definitely vary in terms of how populated they are. Your Sims could try visiting venues to make friends; for an added challenge, try making each of your five friends at a different type of venue - one at a lounge, one at the gym, another at the museum, etc. With so many venues in the game, your Sims certainly won’t be starved for choice.
11 Power Couple
Difficulty: Easy
A married couple working in business have a friendly bet going about who will become CEO first. Can their marriage survive the cutthroat competition? Can they make room in their busy lives for more than their ambitions?
Both Sims will start out in the Business Career as Assistant Managers with some relevant skills.
Potential Outcomes
- Both Sims make it to CEO
- One Sim becomes a CEO, the other becomes an Angel Investor
- Sims are no longer married
It's a shame that you can't play scenarios with pre-made Sims or townies, because this scenario seems absolutely perfect for the Goths, being that they're the perfect Sims power couple. This could also work well with the Landgraabs. Yes, Geoffrey is a secret agent, and yes, Nancy is in the criminal career, but maybe this scenario could be an opportunity to bring back the Alto-Landgrabb rivalry of The Sims 3? Scenarios do prompt you to create new Sims, but you could also save a pre-existing family to your library and then import them into CAS.
From there, this scenario has plenty of room for creativity, given that there are three outcomes. The question is, how invested do you want to be in your Sims' lives outside of work? Do your Sims want to grow a family while growing in their careers? Working your Sims too hard will certainly make their moods suffer, which might make it difficult to maintain a marriage. Divorcing your Sims right away would certainly be the easiest way to complete the scenario, but it might feel like more of an accomplishment to get them to the top of their careers with their marriage still intact; but hey, sometimes The Sims needs some drama.
10 Honeymooners
Difficulty: Intermediate
Two Sims are freelance artists, recently engaged, and recently moved to a new home far away from family and friends. So, they’re on their own with planning a small wedding and, on top of that, figuring out where to go for their honeymoon. Will they make some new friends to invite to the wedding, or keep the focus just on each other? And where will they go to celebrate the start of their new life together, just the two of them?
Potential Outcomes
- Married Sims Woohoo while on vacation
The outcome for this scenario is definitely on the simpler side, and there's certainly nothing wrong with speedrunning for a quick few satisfaction points. But, the backstory adds a lot to this experience; imagine artistic Sims designing the art for their wedding venue. Or, maybe they could give their artwork to their friends involved in the wedding, as a token of appreciation?
Speaking of friends, it's up to you whether you want to even have a wedding in the first place. Even though Honeymooners was released with My Wedding Stories in mind, the scenario doesn't specify that you need to hold a wedding event at all; Sims are totally free to elope, which saves them a lot of money for their honeymoon vacation. It is technically possible to Woohoo in a tent (or a bush, if it comes to that), but your newlyweds will probably be more comfortable in a bed - even better, a cozy bed in a luxury villa.
9 Engaged In Conflict
Difficulty: Intermediate
An engaged couple is rethinking their relationship after a huge fight about how to make grilled cheese. A total meltdown over something so trivial might indicate deeper problems. Will cheesy romantic gestures and heartfelt conversations melt the tension before their wedding day?
Sims will start out as engaged but recently having had an argument, with high romance but not-so-great friendship.
Potential Outcomes
- Sims get married and have no negative Sentiments between them
- Sims get married but have unresolved negative Sentiments between them
- Sims break up before the wedding
- Sims break up during the wedding
If the My Wedding Stories trailer showed us anything, it's that wedding planning can be stressful - and, sometimes, can show your Sim that they might be marrying the wrong person. Luckily, though, this scenario comes with four potential outcomes, making it more difficult not to complete the scenario than it seems to be to finish it. Like Finding Love After A Breakup, how you play this scenario will totally depend on the types of Sims you're playing. Keeping your Sims married definitely seems like a viable option here, especially since you can still complete the scenario even if they have remaining negative sentiments.
Breaking up during the wedding definitely adds the most dramatic flair, but at the time of writing, this feature seems to be broken, as many Simmers can't even access this option unless their Sims are eloping. The most difficult part of this scenario will likely be contending with all the bugs My Wedding Stories brought to the game, but hopefully these will be worked out in a patch sooner rather than later. On the bright side, at least this is a permanent scenario.
8 Plant-a-Sim
Difficulty: Easy
A Sim has recently acquired the mysterious Forbidden Fruit of the PlantSim. What harm could come from taking a bite or two? It's not like you're going to magically turn green, sprout leaves, and begin your life as a PlantSim!?
Can the Sim reach their best Plant-self before time and the fruits run out? Or, will they realize that the plain old Sim life is their true calling?
Potential Outcomes
- Complete all goals while living the PlantSim life!
PlantSims are a generally neglected type of Sim. They were actually introduced in 2017, but haven’t received much attention since. The Sims 4’s PlantSims are unique, though, in that they don’t stay PlantSims forever. Instead, the effects only last for five days at a time. With that kind of time limit, completing this scenario does require a bit of planning. But, what does “complete all goals” mean?
When you start this scenario, your Sim will have the “wilting” moodlet; bring them outside to keep them as a Plant Sim, otherwise they’ll transform, and the scenario will end. After they’ve basked in the sunlight for a while, your Plant Sim will have seven goals to complete, ranging from eating a forbidden fruit (which should already be in your Sim’s inventory) to harvesting from a perfect quality plant. As long as you keep an eye on your PlantSim's moodlets, and keep a steady supply of Forbidden fruit on-hand, completing your goals should be a walk in the park.
7 No Skills No Problem
Difficulty: Intermediate
A Sim cannot seem to ever get more skillful at... well, anything! It's made everything more difficult, from interpersonal relationships to holding a steady job, and, as a result, they've had to become quite resourceful, figuring out ways to work harder or smarter than everyone else. Can this unskilled Sim figure out how to hack life and earn some sweet Simoleons?
Household funds will be set to §0 after moving in to a lot.
Potential Outcomes
- Have 400,000 Simoleons
The money-oriented goal for this scenario leaves your options wide open. You can really earn money however you want! If you already have a story or Sim in mind, go for it; this is the perfect sandbox scenario to play with an existing household. If you’d rather start from scratch, gardening will be a great way to increase your funds for (hopefully) free. Starting the game in any season other than winter should mean that wild plants will grow around your neighborhood. Feel free to harvest their spoils, and plant them for yourself!
Gardening is great for passive income, since your plants will grow while your Sim does other things. Finding frogs and other collectibles is also a good idea, especially since frogs are infinitely breedable. Once you have a bit of a safety net, your options open up substantially. Start a farm, a business, or a creative hobby! Play for tips, sell paintings, make a video game or app, or become a hacker, depending on your Sim’s interests and traits. You could probably monetize every hour of your Sim’s day, if you were really dedicated. Or, you could just sign up for a regular nine to five.
6 Rom-Com
Difficulty: Easy
Two engaged Sims have a great friendship, but the romance has died. "It's Complicated" doesn't even begin to describe their relationship.
Can an aspiring comedian find humor in their personal life, make it big in showbiz, AND keep their personal life from falling apart?
Potential Outcomes
- A Sim makes it to the Comedian branch of the Entertainer career and got their initial romantic relationship to Lovers or greater
- A Sim makes it to the Comedian branch of the Entertainer career and broke up with their initial partner
- A Sim makes it to the Comedian branch of the Entertainer career and is currently Soulmates with their initial partner
- A Sim makes it to the Comedian branch of the Entertainer career, but their initial partner has moved out or is deceased
The comedian branch of the entertainer career starts at level five, with jokesmith. Promotion requirements are also totally manageable with this career, which means that you’ll have plenty of time to focus on your Sim’s relationship - if you want to, that is. Whether you want your Sims to stay together or part ways, you’ll have to put some effort into moving their relationship in either direction to complete this scenario. Interestingly, both Sims will start with part-time jobs and level two in the Comedy Skill, which means that your aspiring jokester will only need one more skill point in comedy for the jokesmith promotion.
Jobs are easy to change, so that’s not really an obstacle here; however, the deeply wounded sentiment your Sims will share certainly could be. Spending time together will create sad moodlets for both Sims, and it will probably be difficult to get them happy around each other. Unfortunately, sentiments can only be added or changed by spending time together, so your Sims will have to really work on their relationship with each other if they want to stick it out. Plus, given the skills each Sim starts with, career progression shouldn’t actually take that much time away, unless you want it to.
5 Extraterrestrial Researcher
Difficulty: Intermediate
A Sim obsessed with outer space knows we cannot be alone in the universe, and this Sim is determined to discover all there is to know about extraterrestrial creatures. Unfortunately, getting into space is not so easy. You need a lot of spare time, and possibly money, to go looking for these mysterious critters.
The first step: build a DIY rocket that can take the Sim to space and back home again safely (more or less)... how hard can it be?
Potential Outcomes
- Bing back five unique alien critters from voyages into space
Going to Sixam would be cool, but you don’t actually need the Get to Work Expansion Pack to complete this scenario. All you need, really, is a rocket ship. There are three options, ranging from 5,000 Simoleons to 10,000 Simoleons in price, but they’ll all work the same way. Once your rocket ship is fully built (which costs another 1,000 Simoleons), Sims will unlock the option to explore space. Each mission will generate a choose-your-own-adventure popup, and each story produces different results. Sometimes you’ll earn collectibles, and other times it will be rocket upgrades. In less lucky cases, your rocket may come back damaged.
Starting your Sim in the astronaut career isn’t necessary, but it’s also not a bad idea - rocket ship maintenance is expensive, after all, and astronauts are paid pretty well. Plus, at level eight of the career, “space mission” becomes your only weekly objective. These two mandatory space explorations per week should increase your chances of finishing this scenario pretty quickly. All things considered, with ten Aliens and four space rocks to collect, your chances of collecting creatures are pretty good.
4 Troublemaker
Difficulty: Easy
Moving to a new town and a new school could be a fresh start for a teen who's been more interested in causing mayhem than doing homework up until now. Will this teen turn things around and improve their grades at their new school, or turn the school upside down with more mischief?
Potential Outcomes
- Teen is at least a B-student and has five friends
- Teen is an A-student
- Teen is Partners in Crime with another Sim and has done at least one school prank successfully
If you have the Parenthood Game Pack, this is an awesome opportunity to start taking advantage of character values. These aren’t part of the scenario in any way, but they are great for storytelling purposes. Plus, depending on which route your teen takes, their character values will develop accordingly on their own. Regular traits also play a role here.
Becoming an A-grade student is relatively easy in The Sims 4, as long as your teen keeps up with their homework. Completing school projects early also boosts their grade, as does completing extra credit homework. Also, make sure your Sims are completing their grade-level tasks, and building any necessary skills. Becoming a B-grade student follows much the same pattern, except teens must balance academics and friendships. Talking to friends in class will be helpful for building relationships, as will joining a club.
To become partners in crime, mischievous Sims must be good friends with the Sim they want to partner up with. This interaction works the same way as Become BFF: once two Sims are good friends, then become partners in crime will unlock in the social interaction pie menu, under mischief. To perform a school prank, click on your partner in crime and find the mischief pie menu, click prank, and then choose the prank you want to pull. Sims in good moods tend to be more successful with their pranks, but there is an element of luck to prank pulling. If you don’t get it the first time, hang in there, and make sure your partners in crime stay friendly with each other in the meantime, so they don’t lose their relationship.
3 Unlucky Chef
Difficulty: Hard
A Sim is certain their destiny is to become a world-famous chef. There's just one little problem: this Sim is way more likely than most people to accidentally start fires while cooking. It's not merely a lack of skill, it's just some freakish bad luck.
Can the Sim survive the dangerous journey to culinary excellence? Or, will they decide that playing with fire isn't for them, and making fancy drinks seems like the safer route to success?
Potential Outcomes
- Sim becomes a Celebrity Chef, despite the danger
- Sim becomes a Celebrity Mixologist, a safer choice
On most fronts, celebrity chef is a better choice than celebrity mixologist. The hours are more regular, the pay is substantially higher, and your Sim will have to prepare food anyway, which takes care of your work requirements. However, your Sim has a 75 percent chance of starting a fire every time they use the stove, no matter the dish or cooking skill level.
You could technically circumvent this by preparing only quick meals or cold foods, but that will definitely limit your culinary options. Unfortunately, traits won’t help in terms of fire prevention, but choosing the master chef aspiration won’t hurt - plus, you’ll gain extra satisfaction points.
With Discover University installed, you could enroll your aspiring chef into culinary school. A non-distinguished degree in culinary arts will have your graduate start their career at level six of the chef branch. Earning honors or a regular distinguished degree will start your Sim at level seven, and a distinguished degree with honors will net the best starting position at level eight. However, this is already a hard scenario, so feel free to focus on just keeping your Sim alive.
2 Super Rich Supervillain
Difficulty: Intermediate
Working as a Secret Agent can make a Sim cynical about the world, but it also means a lot of time spent wearing glamorous clothing, playing high-stakes poker, and being very picky about how your drinks are prepared. That luxurious lifestyle is appealing, but why settle for just being rich when you can also be villainous?
Household funds will be set to §0 after moving in to a lot.
Potential Outcomes
- Have 500,000 Simoleons while in the Villain branch of the Secret Agent career
In the secret agent career, Sims can’t choose their branch of the career until they’re promoted to level eight, so start working on promotions sooner rather than later. Looking ahead to the villain branch, charisma, logic, and later, mischief, are the skills to prioritize. Secret agent is one of the highest-paying careers in the game, so once you earn those promotions, 500,000 Simoleons should come fairly quickly. A triple agent, the highest level (11) in the villain career branch, earns 515 Simoleons per hour, which adds up to 2,575 Simoleons every day that they go to work. That's a serious salary, but that’s not counting the time it takes to work your way up the career ladder.
You don’t actually have to reach the top of your career to complete this scenario, but it certainly will help - especially since your Sim has to work their way up from zero Simoleons. Luckily, mirrors (for charisma) and logic books (for logic) aren’t too expensive, so get to leveling up those skills as soon as possible. When you earn enough Simoleons (or sell enough stuff) to start buying things again, a lucrative hobby like painting or gardening can also help things along.
1 In The Moodlet
Difficulty: Easy
Working in Retail can be so stressful! Some Sims just have the worst luck and get all the rude customers. Can this Sim leave their problems at work and unwind at home?
Potential Outcomes:
- Control your Sim's emotions and complete all the goals!
This scenario is painfully relatable for many Simmers, and just as it is in real life, unwinding looks different for everyone. Luckily, this scenario's goals will keep your Sim on track. You'll have to accomplish all of these goals to complete this scenario:
- Get into a positive emotion one time
- Get into a more intense emotional state
- Create three emotional paintings
- Enable the Emotional Aura on an emotional object
- Calm an angry Sim down
- Share Insecurities or Tell a Self Deprecating Joke to another Sim while embarrassed
- Take a shower while uncomfortable
- Call the Sadness Hotline or Cry in the Shower while sad
- Vent or Complain About Problems to another Sim while tense
This is a lot of goals for an easy scenario! But, most of them are fairly easy to accomplish.
Positive emotions are fairly easy to achieve with objects your Sims already have lying around. Get confident by practicing speech in a mirror, inspired by look at (or making) art, and be playful or romantic by interacting with nearby Sims; comedy and romance TV channels also work, if there aren't other Sims around. Negative emotions are tougher, since most Sims have pretty happy dispositions. Traits can come in handy here, though. Loners will be tense around crowds, ambitious Sims will be tense without promotions, and lazy Sims get tense about too much work (or working out). When your Sim goes to work, they'll also usually return with a negative Moodlet, like sadness or stress. Crying in the shower after a difficult shift borders on too real, even for The Sims.
Speaking of showers, these can also put your Sims in all kinds of moods, depending on what type of shower you take. Brisk showers make Sims energized, thoughtful showers make them inspired, and steamy showers make them flirty. If you have Spa Day, baths with soaks accomplish much the same purpose.
Once your Sim is in a mood, have them paint an emotional painting. You'll have to finish three to complete the scenario anyway, but you can also use your paintings' emotional auras to your advantage. Turning on the emotional aura of a painting checks off the "Enable the Emotional Aura on an emotional object" goal, and it will also make it easier to get your Sim in the mood corresponding to the painting.
One thing to note, though: when goals mention a specific emotion (like angry, or sad), the emotion in the goal needs to be your Sim's dominant emotion - the one that changes the colour of the UI around your Sim's icon. So, if they have an uncomfortable moodlet but a dazed emotion, dazed wins out, and their actions won’t count toward the uncomfortable goal. The same rule applies to other Sims, too. Making a Sim angry won't be enough to satisfy the "calm down an angry Sim" goal if their dominant emotion isn't anger.