The Sims Medieval Tips and Tricks

Helpful Hints for Improving Your Gameplay

Got a Tip for The Sims Medieval? Email it to carl@carlsguides.com

Sell Unnecessary Items to Get a Better Bed
If you sell extra chairs, tables, and other miscellaneous objects in your Hero's building, you can come up with some extra cash. Use that to get a better bed immediately. This will give your Sim a better well-rested focus buff after sleeping. The only Hero class that starts with a decent bed is the Spy. You should get Wizards at least the most basic bed for them to get rested. Meditation helps, but it just doesn't give the perks of a good night's sleep.

Begin Eating Better Meals Early
Quest progress is determined by high focus, and you're not going to get anywhere eating gruel. Head to the Village Shoppe to buy some meat, hunt, or fish to get ingredients.

Get High Security Early to Stop Muggings
The Biggest consequence for having Low Kingdom Aspects comes from Security. Not enough of it and muggers will be all over the place, robbing your Sims and causing battles with your fighter-types. This leads to a lighter coinpurse and injuries. It's one of the most frustrating situations to find oneself in. Get a Barracks or Smithy and do quests with those Heroes to work this vital statistic higher. You'll also benefit from better prices at the Shop.

Pace Yourself on Quests for Platinum
Don't rush through quests. Get your Hero's focus up and complete about one step per day. You shouldn't fall behind, and if you do, it's not hard to catch up. On long quests the Quest Performance bar will move more slowly, meaning you need a better track record for your Sim's mood over the long-term. Not only will this earn you more Platinum awards, it'll also increase your Hero's productivity: more time to make money, gain XP, and acquire better gear and other loot.

Get Better Gear
All Heroes benefit from higher quality gear. Look for items with higher power ratings, or in the case of the Bard, a better-sounding lute. This will increase your Blacksmith's success forging items (better hammer), and the Wizard's spell casting success rate (higher power staff). Fighters like the Knight, Spy, and Monarch will benefit from higher power weapons. If two items have the same power but one is lighter, pick the light variant. Spies can't wear armor and have natural defense, but you want as much defense as you can get for your Knight and Monarch. Better weapons and armor will reduce your chance of injury when doing all sorts of activities.

Use the Larder
The Larder is a pain to use, but you can't beat the value of this Medieval Refrigerator. Make a Stew or other Group Meal, and you can get up to 4 total meals from that one pot. This saves resources and is in fact faster in 'Sim time' than cooking from scratch at every meal. The real burden is placed on players. Open the larder, drag the bowl to the inventory, click to eat, and drag the remainder back to the Larder. The bear and boar stew recipes are perfect examples of why this helps. They both cost 1 meat (the most expensive ingredient) -- the same as the faster soup variety -- but four times the food!

Be Time Efficient
Trips across the Kingdom take a lot of time on foot, and there are no cars or horses to see your Sim to their destination. Pick up collecting items on the way, and don't go across the Kingdom with low energy only to be forced to head all the way back for some rest. The same goes for hunger. That Quest step can wait until your Sim is in good shape.

Transfer Items to Other Heroes
You can give items to your other Heroes by dragging them from the Inventory panel to the other Hero. The material, equipment, or item you passed will be available to the Hero the next time you play them.

Know your Hero's Strengths
Tips for specific Heroes can be found in our Hero Guide section. Learn what works for money-making, trait selection, and get general tips for success playing that profession.

Keep Kingdom Goals in Mind
As you play, keep in mind your Kingdom's Ambition. It's easy to ignore, but getting Platinum in this overall goal will give you new items (furniture, clothing) to play with in future games. Check that guide section to get tips on completing all 12 Kingdom Ambitions.

Switch Heroes After Leveling to Make Money
Every Sim Hero gets a Daily Salary. This money only comes in when the Sim isn't being played. So, to increase your Kingdom's overall wealth, play new heroes and get them a level or two. When you're working on your other Sims, these Heroes will earn more money per day. When you come back to them, they'll no longer have trouble affording the finer things in Medieval life.

Trick - Bug Exploit: Free Books for Cash
If you buy a Bookshelf in Buy Mode then sell it, your Sim will be left with dozens of books in their inventory. You can sell these books for money by dragging them into the sell box in the inventory tab.

Bug Troubles - Baby Monarch Achievement
I received an email from Ariel, who told me about a bug with the Baby Monarch achievement. To get this, you need a Large kingdom with a monarch of only level 1 or 2. She wrote to inform me that she had to delete her achievements file in order to accomplish this. It is apparently bugged to the point that you have to get it done on your first pass through New Beginnings.

Kingdom Ambitions Tips from a Successful Player

I received some tips from Vivian, a player who managed to score platinum in all of the Kingdom Ambitions. This is the best place to share them. She has a lot of wisdom to share with players who struggle through the game. This is the best place to share her tips:

When making your hero, be careful of which traits and flaws to give them. See Carl's guide. I tend to choose Licentious for fighting heroes and Puny for all non-fighting characters. Next, decorate your heroes' rooms. Be sure to add the cheapest bathtub and a mirror +1. Remove all of the unnecessary items for your merchant so that you have more money to buy merchandise. I move the dining table next to the fireplace to reduce the travel time to put down food to eat. The same with the chamber, bathtub and mirror. For the Monarch I place all the items mentioned in their room as it is a waste of time. I move duplicate items downstairs for convince. You need the chamberpot, mirror and bath near the downstairs fireplace. I also add two training dummies downstairs so not to have to travel to train.

Start out with you hero fully buffed. You need to eat, use the chamberpot, take a bath, gussy up in the mirror and warm your hands. This can add up to create good moodlets in which your hero will be in positive focus. Make sure you keep your eye on your focus and never let it get into the red. It is more important to keep the your focus up than do tasks. I try to get as many levels on a quest as I can. Don't worry if you are lagging in your quest till you have two red arrows showing declining progress. Then do something to proceed the main quest and you will see it the lag go to one down arrow. I shoot for three levels on a quest if possible. If a hero (monarch, Knight or spy can use the Territory Map line up as many practice military tactics as you can in a row and they will level up fast without the loss of stamina.

First collect flowers for seeds, fish or hunt for food. You do not want to eat gruel as it gives you a -5 moodlet for bland meal.

Do not worry so much if you miss the first days task if they are too hard for your hero at the beginning levels. The negative moodlet is not too bad and you can recover overnight while you sleep if you bathe, use the chamberpot, eat a good meal, warm hand, gussy up in the mirror, and read a book before going to bed. Do not neglect resting and eating as the negative moodlets are hard to deal with. Also upon waking, do the same, except do not read a book unless you are okay with your quest tasks. Daily tasks are easy.

For heroes who need to collect herbs and metals for their careers, do so on the first day or you will not be able to fulfill your daily tasks.

When starting new Ambitions you will have your hero where you left off -- many times it might be in the middle of the day. Get them back on track with the day-night schedule so that if you have to talk to a character they are not asleep. If you need to, take naps to make it through the day and sleep only at night.

Merchant tips: I do not bother to buy the hot items as it takes too long and they have a low sell value. Also, I do not bother traveling to trade items on the ship. There is very little money made and the negative moodlet can be dealt with. When buying, have as many higher end items as you can, and still have many items to sell. I try not to go to buy items every day. If you do, you will not get your merchant leveled very fast.

I have my rich heroes buy items and drop them on the merchant for him to sell and the drop the best lute on the bard. I also give the collectors my supply of herbs, metals, water to make potions and food. Be sure to drop all of the mystic metal items on your blacksmith. I make sure my wizard gives the blacksmith all the potions the wizard makes that can be used for blacksmithing. Always keep in mind as the best policy in the game is the share the wealth, food and items for the kingdom's overall good.

For every hero I have them join one church. There are reward points (Achievements) given for all Jacobean or all Peteran Heroes. The same goes for having all your heroes having the whale ate my parents trait. These rewards unlock new furniture and clothing. There are a ton of these reward opportunities available and you can find the list of them in the bottom section of the Ambition screen that is a book called Achievements.

I also have most the heroes get married (except Monarch and one other for marriage quests) and have children. The positive boost for getting married is good to have when you are a low moment in the game. Children can be sent to the market to collect items for you and give you positive moodlet when you talk with them.

When I place the Heroes' buildings I like to place the Knight and the Physician first. Then I place a church, and next the bard, spy, wizard, blacksmith, merchant and then the other church. If you are past the first ambition and need to see what buildings, and level of heroes are needed to perform the quest, look to the Quest interface. If they are grayed out open the quest and look at the second page and click on it. It will tell you the requirements for that quest.

Suggestions for annexing territories: I like to annex Burdley and Adverton first. Next Aarbyville and Yacothia. You want to save RP and QP first and then get more experience and wealth next. To make your hero happy get your sleeping room beautifully decorated room for the +40 moodlet while they sleep. You will need to test and buy objects till you get to the beautifully decorated moodlet. The rest you can do as you like. I have my richest hero buy the two maps from the store for Effenmont and Gastrobury. If that hero does not have time to do the trips to unlock those territories drop the maps on another hero.

The hardest Ambition is Hard Workers, where you must have all 10 heroes get to level 10 to get platinum. Save that ambition until you have completed some of the easier ones. What I did was always use the lowest level hero to do the quest if there are multiple approaches. I also do not use the monarch to do quests as they are used in some quests with two heroes. Remember to share the wealth and the items to the appropriate hero. This will make it easy for all to progress as they do not have to search for good food, minerals, herbs or buy items to sell.

Got a Tip for The Sims Medieval? Email it to carl@carlsguides.com