The Apocalypse Challenge is very complicated and, in the beginning at least, very difficult to play. It is basically a game of strategy, you have to work out what you think is the best order in which to lift restrictions and how to play around them to take best care of your Sims. It is a great way to test your knowledge of the game, learn new things and to thoroughly explore every aspect of it. After years of playing this challenge from Sims 2 onwards, I have one or two tips and tricks you may be interested in using in your own gameplay.
Creating your Sim.
Your founder Sim is the only Sim that you have any say in their traits, at least for a while, so it is important to make sure they are useful ones. I tend to use Cheerful (these Sims tend to be happier than other Sims a lot of the time), Glutton (they can rummage for food in trashcans and can eat spoiled food without getting sick) and Slob (they don't get such bad moods from things being dirty). Other useful traits are Bookworm (they will be doing a lot of reading of skill books, especially in the beginning), Family Oriented (they will be spending a lot of time with their family), Neat (they enjoy cleaning and will clean autonomously but they do get more uncomfortable when things are dirty), Self Assured (on a Sim you wish to build Charisma with as they tend to be Bold more often).
When choosing an Aspiration for a Sim, at least until Artist is cleared, I find it best to give them one of the Knowledge aspirations as they then get Quick Learner which means they build all skills a bit faster. It doesn't really matter which one as it is highly unlikely you will be able to complete any in the beginning anyway.
Creating your Sim.
Your founder Sim is the only Sim that you have any say in their traits, at least for a while, so it is important to make sure they are useful ones. I tend to use Cheerful (these Sims tend to be happier than other Sims a lot of the time), Glutton (they can rummage for food in trashcans and can eat spoiled food without getting sick) and Slob (they don't get such bad moods from things being dirty). Other useful traits are Bookworm (they will be doing a lot of reading of skill books, especially in the beginning), Family Oriented (they will be spending a lot of time with their family), Neat (they enjoy cleaning and will clean autonomously but they do get more uncomfortable when things are dirty), Self Assured (on a Sim you wish to build Charisma with as they tend to be Bold more often).
When choosing an Aspiration for a Sim, at least until Artist is cleared, I find it best to give them one of the Knowledge aspirations as they then get Quick Learner which means they build all skills a bit faster. It doesn't really matter which one as it is highly unlikely you will be able to complete any in the beginning anyway.
General Gameplay Tips
- Until you clear Civil Designer-Civic Planner you have to use the 'Off the Grid' lot trait. The other two traits are up to you but they must be 'bad' ones. I tend to make them 'Volcanic Activity' (either to imagine that the disaster has de-stabilised the planet's crust causing earthquakes or to emulate further nuclear explosions) and 'Gremlins' as this one is useful for making sure there are plenty of repairs to do to level up Sims Handiness skill.
- Until Culinary-Chef is cleared you may only cook one meal a day. The easiest way to make sure no Sims cook anything else once the one meal of the day has been prepared is to turn the grill around to face the wall thus making it unusable.
- When building your bunker it is best to have your toilet and shower in different small rooms to avoid the inevitable embarrassed moodlets. You can then also lock the door to the shower for each individual Sim after they have had their one shower of the day to keep track of that more easily.
- You will inevitably at some point have items that you need to store that you may need later, such as upgrade parts, seeds, fertiliser etc. Until you have Athletic-Bodybuilder cleared you cannot put them into the household inventory and then remove them when you need them. Some simmers put them in the 'attic' under the roof, others build an inaccessible basement beneath their lowest storey. Just make sure you only do this with items that cover one square only as, if Athletic-Bodybuilder is not cleared, you cannot move them once placed.
- If a Sim needs to do a daily task that is currently prohibited you have three choices:
- Allow ONLY that Sim to do the prohibited task and NO-ONE else.
- If it is a task prohibited by another career's restrictions, wait until you have cleared that other career before you attempt the lift.
- Just don't worry about doing that daily task. It is possible to advance in the career without doing the daily task it will just take a little longer (unlike the skill level needed: you won't get promoted if you skill level is not high enough).
- The order in which you do careers is up to you, although some are locked by others that must be done first. However, there are some restrictions that are beneficial to lift early on and others that are not so important, depending on your playstyle.
- Personally, I like to make Culinary-Chef one of my early lifts for obvious reasons. It is also one of the easiest careers to reach the top of.
- Military-Officer is also a recommended early lift. It enables you to visit other lots but you still can't do this until Athlete-Professional Athlete is cleared if you don't have level 10 fitness. However, it does allow you to move Sims out which is way more important than it may appear at first. Until this restriction is lifted you will have to put up with uncontrollable elders and, within a generation or two, a LOT of ghosts breaking things and being generally annoying. You will also have Sims constantly mourning at tombstones or urns until you clear Freelancer-Paranormal Investigator and can move them to a locked room or the household inventory or consign them to the netherworld.