The Sims 4 Homeless Challenge: A Complete Beginner's Guide

The Sims 4 features many challenges players can complete to elevate gameplay. From the famous Black Widow challenge to the legacy challenge, there are plenty of difficult challenges you can participate in. One such challenge is the Sims 4 homeless challenge.

The Sims 4 homeless challenge is a popular and creative way to test your Sims’ survival skills in a harsh and unpredictable environment. This challenge strips away the comforts of home and forces your Sim to survive on their own, starting with nothing. In this guide, we’ll explore what the homeless challenge is, all the restrictions of the challenge, and rules and guidelines.

What is the Sims 4 Homeless Challenge?

The homeless challenge in Sims 4 is an intriguing game-play idea in which you live and survive as a homeless Sim. You start as a Sim who has no money, home, or resources, and the goal is to survive the harsh conditions, thrive, and eventually build your own house.

This challenge adds a layer of difficulty and creativity to the game, pushing players to think strategically about how their Sim can earn money, meet their needs, and build a home.

Homeless Challenge Rules and Guidelines

The Sims 4 homeless challenge comes with a set of specific rules that you must follow to successfully complete it. While these rules and guidelines restrict what you can and can’t do in the game, they make for a more interesting challenge by introducing surprising and amusing situations.

1. Starting Conditions

Your Sim starts with 0 Simoleons. You can use money cheats to set your Sims funds to zero. To open the cheat console, press ctrl + shift + C. This will bring up the cheat dialogue box.
Your Sim must not own any property or have access to a home. When getting started, just choose an empty lot in any world and move in there. Don’t build a house!

2. Restrictions on Earning and Making Money

No traditional jobs: Your Sim cannot take on regular careers or part-time jobs. They must rely on non-traditional means of earning money, such as fishing, gardening, collecting and selling items, painting, writing, and basking. However, there are certain restrictions with these methods. For instance, your Sim can start writing books once they afford a computer. Luckily, they can also use the library but shouldn’t fully rely on it.
Your Sim cannot sell items from the family inventory. They can only sell items they find or create.

3. No Access to Basic Amenities

Your Sim cannot use public spaces to fulfill all their basic needs. For example:
- No sleeping on benches in public spaces (unless your Sim passes out from exhaustion).
- Limited use of public showers: Your Sim can only use public gym showers sparingly, and the frequency should be limited (e.g., once every 3 days).
No cooking or storing food: Your Sim cannot use public grills or fridges until they can afford to buy their own.

4. Building a Home

Your Sim can only build a home once they have saved enough money. The cost of the first house (e.g., a small shack) should be at least §5,000.
You must start with a small and ugly shack for a house and then slowly build as you continue earning money.

5. Relationships and Socialization

Your Sim cannot move in with other Sims for financial gain.
You may not move out, get married, or have a steady boyfriend/girlfriend. You can have a baby, though, to add to the harsh realities of being homeless with a kid.
Your Sim can build relationships and interact with other homeless Sims but must maintain independence until they can afford to move into a home.

6. No Cheating

You must turn cheats off, as cheats that provide money, items, or other advantages are not allowed. The challenge relies on the difficulty of earning everything from scratch to create a better life for your Sim.

How to Complete the Homeless Challenge

Now that you’re familiar with the Sims 4 homeless challenge rules, it’s time to get started with the challenge. Create a young adult, either female or male, and dress them up to look like homeless Sims. The clothes must look cheap and worn out.

You can download many mods and custom content to ensure your character looks the part. Some of the ones we recommend are:

After creating your homeless Sim, assign traits to them, move them to an empty lot, and start playing. Note that there are certain rules you have to follow for changing money. Simply press Ctrl + Shift + C to open the cheat console, turn cheats on (if you haven’t already) by writing testingcheats on, and hit Enter.

Then, write money “amount here” (no quotations) and press Enter. You must use this cheat code when buying anything specific in this challenge, such as a new set of clothes or if you earn something as a domestic helper.

You’ll successfully complete the Sims 4 homeless challenge after achieving the following:

1. Own a Fully Furnished Home

Your Sim must build a home with at least one bedroom, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a living space. The home should be worth at least §20,000. Remember, you must start with a basic house with no furniture or the cheapest furniture. Then, you can slowly upgrade appliances and add more furniture as you continue playing.

2. Secure a Steady Income

Your Sim should eventually have a consistent source of income, whether from a freelance career, a home business, or a skill-based endeavor like painting or writing.

3. Achieve Full Needs

Your Sim should be able to meet all their needs (hunger, hygiene, energy, social, fun, and bladder) without relying on public amenities.

4. Reach a Level of Comfort

Your Sim should own some comfort items, such as a TV, computer, or hobby items, and have savings of at least §10,000.

Sims 4 Mini Homeless Challenges

If you want a simple challenge, there’s no need to complete these mini-challenges. However, if you want to increase the difficulty of your game-play, you can do the following mini-challenges:

Get a Job

You may get a regular job to earn a steady income. However, there are multiple requirements to meet to be hired. These include:

You must buy smart clothes and get a good haircut for job interviews, which costs 500 simoleons.
You need to have your own house (a very basic one is okay as long as it has walls and a roof, a shower, toilet, bed, and fridge). The homeless people shelter doesn’t count as a basic house.
You need to have at least three points in a corresponding skill. For example, if you choose to get a job in Culinary, you must have 3 skill points in Cooking or Gourmet cooking).

Building Permit

Once you apply for a building permit, you can build a house on your starting empty lot and buy furniture. But, the permit will cost you 500 Simoleons.

The Community Wants to Help

This mini-challenge tasks you with making friends with other Sims in the community so you can build a homeless shelter for homeless people. To complete the challenge, you must make at least 5 friends. Then proceed to do the following:

Build a shelter on an empty lot (not yours!). It must be an ugly shack with the cheapest furniture available. Ensure it has a fridge, counters, toilet, sink, shower, dining table, chairs, sofa and a couple of single beds. The homeless shelter cannot have any stoves, skill objects, TVs, computers, fancy decorations, etc.
You may use this lot to have a simple meal, rest, take a shower, or use the toilet. But since you don’t own it, you can’t buy more furniture later.

Tips and Strategies

The Sims 4 homeless challenge can be tough. Here are some tips and strategies to ensure success:

Collect items like rocks, frogs, and plants to earn money early on. Gardening is especially lucrative, as you can grow and sell crops or even start a small farm.

While you should limit your Sim’s reliance on public spaces, use them strategically. Libraries can provide access to computers for writing, while gyms offer showers to maintain hygiene.

Prioritize skills that can help your Sim earn money or meet their needs. Fishing, gardening, and painting are great skills for earning income. Cooking and fitness can help keep your Sim healthy and well-fed.

Don’t spend money on unnecessary purchases. Save every Simoleon you earn and focus on essentials like food, hygiene, and sleep before splurging on non-essential items.

Build relationships with the community to gain social interaction and occasional meals. However, be careful not to rely too heavily on others. Independence is key to this challenge.

As your Sim earns more money, plan for the future by saving for a home and essential items. Set goals and milestones to keep your progress on track.

The homeless challenge can be difficult and sometimes frustrating, but stay positive. Celebrate small victories, like earning enough for a bed or cooking your first meal at a grill.

Conclusion

The Sims 4 Homeless Challenge is a rewarding and challenging way to dive into the game. It offers a unique perspective on survival and resourcefulness. Good luck, and happy Simming!