The Sims Medieval Guide to Focus

Increase your Hero's Mood through Buffs and Improve Performance

Focus is the replacement for Mood in The Sims Medieval. However, it is still a meter of how your Hero is feeling. They perform tasks better while they aren't distracted by the rigors of Medieval life. Seek out Focus Buffs and keep them happy -- that is one of the biggest secrets to success in this game. In this Guide to Focus, I'll teach you how it all works and show you some of the best ways to improve your Hero's focus when you're still dirt poor.

Focus As A Metric
The Quest progress bar is directly tied to your Hero's focus. So long as they aren't falling behind, and are in a good mood, it will tick upward. It gets incrementally faster as Focus reaches maximum, and will move upward with 3 arrows near that point. So, if you want Platinum on Quests to reap the big rewards, your heroes need high focus.

Focus-Driven Activities
Many of the actions that your Heroes can perform will be denoted as focus-driven. You will be given an idea of their odds of success by the colored background of the action -- be it something in the social menu, an adventure in the forest, or crafting an item. Green means you're good to go and there's a high chance the hero will succeed. Yellow means there's some chance of failure, and you'd have to be really lucky to succeed with red. If you max Focus and just can't get it out of yellow, raising your Hero's level will increase the odds in your favor. A bummed out level 10 blacksmith will not fail to make a medium-grade breasplate, but for him to do it at level 5 he has to be in an incredible mood.

Focus Negatives
One of the keys to success is to try to avoid negative (red) focus buffs. These will slam your Hero's mood down and they'll be distracted by what ails them. The most common way this will happen is from your Sim's Fatal Flaw. Learn about your particular flaw and how to combat the mood hits it will bring. Avoid FF's like Hubris as the debuff there is very hard to get rid of. Sometimes, you're just asking for it. If you head to Hunt with low Focus and get mauled by a bear because your Sim is distracted, you'll make the situation even worse and give them a long-lasting injury.

Focus Buffs
Each Buff in the game has a duration. Some are much longer than others. They'll also denote just how much positive focus is being contributed. A short-acting high focus buff is not nearly as effective as a long, mediocre buff. You need the buff to last a good portion of the day in order to keep the quest progress bar ticking upward. Time of day does not matter. You want your Hero to go to bed with decent focus, too.

List of the Best Focus Buffs

Now let's talk about the Buffs themselves. I will identify activities your Hero can partake in to increase their Focus throughout the day. A lot of this depends on their Traits. Fun-Loving Sims might want to sit down for some cards. Vain Sims can gussy up to get a nice buff. Learn about the traits you selected and how to use them to your advantage. Because I poured so much effort into the Traits guide, I won't waste time talking about those types of actions here. Read up and research your selection based on our other work here. Check out the Hero Guides and Aspects to improve your understanding of other game mechanics that can affect Focus.

A Better Bed
The Well-Rested buff in The Sims Medieval lasts a whopping 10 hours, and the degree that it boosts your Focus is based largely on the bed. I would spend some of the Hero's money from the first day to replace their horrible bed with a better one. For the Monarch, if you have any of the bonus throne rooms, they sometimes come with better objects from the get-go. You can actually sleep in other Heroes' beds in this game. It's not a bad idea if your Hero just can't afford to upgrade their sleeping arrangements. Maybe a nice sleep in the Monarch's bed is called for from time to time.

Eat Better Meals
Gruel actually gives you a mood hit. Cooking with even the most basic ingredients will boost Focus. Head to our Recipe List to learn about the foods you can cook and how much they impact focus. At first, a Cooking Pot is fine. Later, a Spit is even better for its long-lasting buffs. +25 for 12 hours is possible, and that is a mighty help for getting your Hero through the day. Head to the village shoppe and buy some meat. Boar and Bear are great. For free food, hit up the fishing spots along the beach. You'll catch swordfish there, which makes a great free meal. Even Eel is better than gruel. If your hero's building came with a Larder, use it. Making group meals is more economical and you'll get four meals in one. It's a pain to get them out of the Larder, but it's worth the effort when the Sim is broke.

Complete Daily Responsibilities Quickly
The faster you knock out your DRs, the longer time your Hero will have the stacking buff. It increases in duration and strength when you've completed two in a row. If mood is already really high, save them for later in the day after other buffs wear down.

Have Fun!
All Sims can play cards. The Knight, Monarch, and Spy can all practice military strategy. Bards can play the lute. Other Sims can buy a Fiddle at the Village Shoppe for $200 (You'll need to queue up a lot of songs to get the fun out of it). The Kingball Court can be accessed by all Sims once it's been built. While the Fun meter isn't visible in The Sims Medieval, it's still there. You just won't see the Sim bummed about not having fun. Play for a while, and the Sim will get a buff that grows (starts at +25). After 4 hours, it jumps to Life is So Fun at +40. Max this out until it says 3 for a little bit, and it'll fall back down through the stages until it wears off. It's even better if the Sim is Fun-Loving, which is a very good Trait choice for beginners.

Drink Some Brew
You should only drink a maximum of 2 drinks, lest your Sim get too drunk. The Buff will last a while, enough to see you through a Focus-Driven activity. I know, a buzz doesn't sound like the best thing for taking on a wild boar, but it helps in the game. Drink too much and the Sim can get ill. If you get them really drunk and determine they're a "happy drunk", go ahead and have a third drink.