ELC: How to Keep Score
Along the bottom of the spreadsheet document are a bunch of tabs. Click a tab to open that sheet.
In the Score sheet you will see a list of points you can potentially earn, broken up into sections of base game & packs, & then hard mode additions below.
The “Current” column is how many you have of something or what your lot value is, “Points” is what that is worth score-wise, & “Max” is the potential number of points you can earn in the 20 generation time frame.
At the bottom you can enter your start & completion dates, & see your current score, which should automatically add up as you go.
On the right side of the score sheet are milestones, showing how many of each item you need to earn each point. Use fill colour to mark each cell of the milestones you have reached. This isn’t required, but it’s a quick view method to see what you’ve completed.
Family Tree Sheet
The Family Tree sheet is where you can track your family progress & history. I use the generation colours listed here to fill completed cells on other pages to see which generation was in control when I completed/collected something.
Below the family tree is space for the occults/supernaturals in the family. Below that is a space to track your pets & livestock. To the right is your bills & lot value. Tracking this is up to you but it’s a great way to see your progress, plan your family’s financial strategy, & filling it out acts as a great weekly reminder to update your game progress into the sheets. If you choose to fill this out, also fill in your progress at the midweek point where your generation changeover happens, & move the “gen 2 begins!” text to beside that. Handy hint: Frugal is a trait you can purchase with satisfaction points, & lowers your bills while that sim is alive & living on the lot.
If tracking your weekly progress feels like too much, just input your family lot value straight to the score sheet whenever you remember to check it, so that you can earn the points for lot value.
Traits Sheet
The Traits sheet is a place to mark down what traits the generator rolled for your sims, & what unique traits your spouse has.
To easily track which traits your spouses have joined your family with, colour the cell with the name of the trait in. This way you can see at a glance what you have already had, so you aren’t trying to remember G1 spouse’s traits when you’re trying to find the perfect G16 spouse.
For your family members, use this page by inputting their generated traits so you can reference them as you reach each lifestage at birthdays to select the correct trait for the sim. List traits as 1 for child, 2 for teen, & 3 for young adult.
If you adopt, keep the traits the sim comes with & when you use the generator only note the ones after the ones the sim already has. For example: if you adopt a child, ignore the infant, toddler, & child traits & the child aspiration from the generator & note down what they should have for teen & young adult so you can add those to the sim when you get to those birthdays.
Aspirations Sheet
The Aspirations sheet works in much the same way as traits – colour in the cell of a completed aspiration. When you generate a sim’s traits & aspiration, mark it in as “1” in the column with their name for the row of that aspiration, so that you can reference this sheet when your sim grows into that option. When a sim completes an aspiration, colour in that numbered cell. If it’s the first time that aspiration has been completed, colour in the name of the aspiration in the left column.
Points for aspirations are not just the first time an aspiration is completed. If 6 of your sims complete the Social Butterfly child aspiration, that’s 6 completed aspirations which count towards the milestones needed for legacy points.
Sims can continue to complete aspirations after their first for the duration of their lifetime. Once they have completed their first aspiration for each lifestage you may choose a second in that lifestage… & third & fourth & so on. A sim who completes 4 child aspirations, 2 teen aspirations, & 3 adult aspirations will have added a total of 9 completed aspirations towards the overall goal of 100.
Your total aspirations on this page will also prefill the “current” column on the score sheet.
Skills Sheet
The Skills sheet lists all the skills available in the game, including toddler & children skills. As before, colour in a skill name on the left when it has been completed for the first time, so that you can see at a glace what you have left to complete for the All Skills completed point.
All skills listed here count towards the overall goal of 300 skills maxed in the challenge. Update as you go, at the end of each play session, just before birthdays, or when the bills arrive – whichever works best for you. Input the level of the skill each sim is at in the column named for them. A skill counts as “maxed” in game when it is highlighted with a gold bar; skills could max at level 3, 5, 7, 10, or 14. The spreadsheet has a formula that is coded to look for each skill’s maximum level, & it should update the totals at the bottom of this sheet for you when you type that number into the skill for the sim.
Your total skills maxed on this page will also prefill the “current” column on the score sheet.
Social Events Sheet
The Social Events sheet has two sections, as the wedding pack adds another type of event which runs in a similar manner to holidays, with “activities” that you can set of your own choosing.
In Goaled Events, bronze medals are worth 1 point, silver are worth 2 points, & gold medals are worth 3 points. This sheet has been designed to do the math for you – so all you need to do is input how many bronze, silver, or gold medals you earn on events & it will allocate the correct number of points for you.
If multiple members of the household are present at the event, it’s still counted as only one medal.
Eg: your married couple have a gold medal date – that only gives you 1 gold medal & 3 points, because it was 1 event.
However, for the point for having a single sim getting a gold medal on all goaled events – every sim listed as host (or both date participants) can count as having hosted a successful gold event.
If you have the Wedding Stories game pack, there is a change to the “Wedding” event; it moves out of the goaled events & becomes an activity social event instead.
To earn points in this challenge for these Wedding social events, it’s based on how many activities your event has & are successfully completed during the event. Again, the sheet will work out the points for you based on which number of activities you completed, so that you don’t have to math.
Cake or Death Sheet
The Cake or Death sheet lists all of the deaths available in game, & enables you to track what a sim died from. I tend to write the age they died, but you could just mark it with an “x” if you prefer. Some deaths work from child through elder, though keep in mind that some things won’t kill a child & will instead result in the Fancy Green Sparkly Lights of Child Protective Services (& penalty points!).
There are legacy points for having 10 unique unnatural deaths & also points for collecting every death. If you’re playing Hard Mode your Sims can’t move out & must meet their death to make room for new sims. Just like the Hotel California, they can check out any time they like but they can never leave.
Also in Hard Mode, you’ll be collecting ghosts too! Each death has a different ghost! Have fun!
Below the Death list is our Cake section. Why wouldn’t you choose cake?! To earn points for a “Fully Caked Sim” you need to make sure they only age up from birthday cake for every birthday starting from when they are an infant until their final birthday party leaving their adult life behind them. You’re not allowed to age a sim up early but don’t worry – you can find their birthday in your calendar. You can keep track here of who had cake on their birthday, so that you don’t need to try to remember. Challenge Hint: birthday parties go well with cake, & will earn you event points.
Animals Sheet
The Animals sheet is where you can track the pets & livestock of your household.
Cats & dogs have traits, behaviours, & tricks. Horses have traits, skills, & awards. Cows, llamas, & chickens have awards.
You can also keep track of your goats, sheep, rodents, rabbits, & foxes. And cowplants, because they need love too.
This isn’t a points area, it’s just optional family information should you wish to keep it.
Collections & Experiences
This is the heart of this challenge!
These take up 3 sheets because there is just so much there!
The Collections sheet is where you’ll find the trackable lists of how many items are in each collection over the next two sheets, how many have been completed, & how many legacy points you’ve earned from them so far.
There’s a tracker to aid with the completion of the postcard collection, because each postcard has multiple steps to receive one (unless you are randomly gifted one along the way). Fun fact, those postcards are the worlds from TS3! There’s also one to track the emotional paintings, as those have 3 level options & only 2 levels count for points. You can keep track of how many masterpieces & potions of youth you have on lot on this sheet, as well as story progress for certain packs.
The collections are split into two types:
- The in-game collectibles, which you can view via the diamond icon in your sims’ inventory
- Experiences & collectibles that the game does not track for you
The in-game collectibles are further broken into two lists, as there are the base level items you can find from the pack the collection is from & then the “extras” list for any which are added to the collection from subsequent packs. For example, the Gardening collection has 32 items to count as complete in game (it will show golden the same way maxed skills do in your game once it counts as complete) but there are an extra 60 items that have been added in packs like Seasons, Outdoor Retreat, Realm of Magic…. Etc.
There are a couple of exceptions to this Collection/Extra breakdown: Feathers & Void Critter Cards. These two won’t show as red text extras in game, but I count them as extras in this challenge because they have… special options. In the case of the feathers, you can put them on your sims wall in frames but you can also combine them [like Voltron] to create something special which uses up the feathers – which is why you need to have two of each feather in this challenge, as you must keep one of every collectible. In the case of Void Critter cards, there’s also a limited edition foil option for each card. You can only tell if you have standard or limited edition if you place the card in the world, & there’s no difference between them in the collection list in the sim info panels.
Anything on the Collectibles sheet can only be sold if it’s a multiple of one you already have. You can keep them in sim inventory, display them in the family home, or create a basement or three to store them out of the way. Storing them on the lot instead of in the inventory will add to your lot value.
It is entirely optional to fill out this sheet, but I find that it not only helps me know what I’m searching for quickly & easily, but it also shows me the progress of my family over the course of the challenge. When you find a collectible, at the end of a play session, or at the end of a bill cycle in game: update your spreadsheet, you can colour in the cell of the collectible you’ve found, which shows you at a glance what you’ve found, without needing to pause the game & go through the sim panels for the collections list there.
I fill-colour the cell with the colour of the generation who were in charge when the item was found (ie: green for G1, blue for G2, etc). When you are playing this challenge again, you can compare spreadsheets to see who progressed further in which items, & get a good look at the random nature of the challenge design.
Each list of collectibles on this sheet is listed in order that it shows in the collections panel in-game. The blue line that runs horizontally across the sheet marks the end of a row in the in-game panel, to easily show you the name of the item your missing. For collections such as the frogs, their names will give you a hint for breeding.
The Experiences sheet is made up of a mix of collections that exist in game but aren’t tracked, & also experiences that are worth your sim trying to accomplish along the way through creating their Legacy.
These include Memorable Moments like being eaten by a cowplant or being peed on, a bit of random chance like fishing up a cowberry or gaining superpowers from lightening, & a few collections like cowplant milk, gnomes, & crafted objects. It also contains the full gardening list if you’re aiming for the point for having a perfect garden, which is separate to having each of the plants.
There are locations to explore, memories to create, & hobbies to craft.
Given there is no tracking in-game for most of these things, I recommend using fill colour on the items you’ve collected & experiences you’ve done. It’s up to you if you use generational colours, or just a single fill colour for the entire challenge.
This is a great way to explore things in the game that you’ve never played through before. There’s a mix of random chance & strategy here, & everything is marked per pack as best I can. Have fun!
Food & Recipes Sheet
The Food & Recipes sheet is essentially a collection, but it needed it’s own sheet for the complexity of per sim. Most collections in game give you a little plaque to display, but the food vendor collection in City Living doesn’t, likely due to not being part of the main household collections. At a guess, it’s because it’s unlocked per sim not per household.
The Selvadorada food & drink is also there, though isn’t part of the learning collection. Some of these can be learned however.
I’ve also included a space on this sheet to track your baby food trials! If you want you can track who liked what, especially if you’re playing this with a story telling mindset – that way a sim who hated pumpkin as an infant may not eat pumkin pie as an adult, or may love or hate icecream later in life.
Holidays SHeet
The Holidays sheet is where you can keep track of what holidays your family has, so that you can see them even when it isn’t showing in your sims’ calendar.
The two family holidays that are set by this challenge appear below the table for active holidays. Cut & paste the “Remembrance” holiday to the season that your sim started the challenge, but do not create it in game until the day your founder dies. Create the “Legacy” holiday on the day your founder died & set a tradition that reflects what your founder was like or enjoyed.
Occults Sheet
The Occults sheet is a place to track which skills, talents, quirks, perks, & weaknesses your occult sims have unlocked through use of their powers… whether those powers are fame, magic, or supernatural.
Rewards Traits Sheet
The Rewards Traits sheet lists all the traits you can earn or purchase in gameplay.
From happy toddlers, to gifted children, to confidence & character values, to aspirational & satisfaction related.
You don’t have to track these, but they are here so you can should you wish!
Romance Sheet
Finally, the Romances sheet. This is blank, so that you can fill it out as you are completing the Serial Romantic aspiration. Keep notes on who your sim has kissed or dated, so that you don’t spend time chasing the same sims again later for the interactions not to count towards the aspiration.
