My Garden of Eatin' Smells Fishy!

[ClayMask]

Upgrading the meal quality on the stove helps, too.

[Alexandria_]

There are some great tips here!

I didn't know about the special seeds having different values. I did spend a lot of time and effort taking care of plants I didn't need in the end
I also didn't know that the fridge from the culinary career gave moodlets or made most meals perfect, otherwise I would have kept it rather than sell it!
And using perfect death fish for all the opportunities was a genius idea. That never occurred to me.

I too avoided the consignment shop. I've only ever had bugs there, and I didn't want to risk it. Plus, my sim never really had the time to get over there anyway

As for strategy that hasn't been mentioned, I had something that I was going to say, but I completely forget it now! I'll post back later if I remember it

[malteser60]

I found getting perfect meals wasn't that much of a problem, especially with the fridge and perfect plants. I left most of the recipie making until the latter half of the game. At one point I made about 5 new perfect dishes in a row first time ever. The only one I had lots of problems with are the hot dogs. I think I must have cooked about 35 hotdogs before I got a perfect one.

I wish I used the consignment store now. However whenever I've used it in other games it seems to take forever to sell something. In another game I had my inventor take gadgets to the store and they would be sold over a week later.

I also made two ponds and stocked one with deathfish and one with the bait for deathfish (alleycat fish I think). So I was able to fish for deathfish all day long.

However it looks like the big money came from the opportunities. I wish now I paid more attention to what the opportunity rewards were rather than ticking them off for multipliers.

[Skyberry]

Wow is all I can say. Congratulations to everyone who participated!

There are so many brilliant tips here that I did not know about. To be honest I am not a serious simmer but I do love playing it and learning more.

I gave up on the hot dogs and just fished deathfish. I did not even consider having two separate ponds as I put angelfish and deathfish in one pond but in hindsight two ponds makes way more sense.

I didn't use the consignment store either as it seems to make no difference which 'hood I play as it never seems to work very well for me.

 But anyway a huge congrats again to everyone.

[ClayMask]

I just used the one pond for deathfish for non-graveyard hours, and got a teleporter so that I could teleport to alley catfish (bait for angelfish) and angelfish (bait for deathfish) fishing spots.  That way I could only fish in spots where the fish were most active, except for in the deathfish pond at home.  I also did some fishing for alley catfish on my vacation to Egypt.

[BellaClo]

Congratulations to all!

There are some great tips here, it's nice to learn new tricks and aspects of the game.

After a little bit of practice, I had decided to make as much $ as possible from Money trees (I think I finished with +- 50-60 of them). It's only around mid challenge that I discovered how much a perfect & 'fat' death fish could be worth at the consignment store!  I guess this shows how I'm not interested in fishing, neither in real life nor in Simsworld :-) Death fish was a much faster way to make money than gardening: no planting, tending, waiting to turn perfect.

And I should have paid more attention to the money brought by the opportunities. Like others, I was just interested in the multiplier.

But the whole challenge was very funny. Now, I have a wealthy, skilled, single Sim, ready to be moved in a revamped Riverview and looking to have a life at last.

[winnow]

I just used the one pond for deathfish for non-graveyard hours, and got a teleporter so that I could teleport to alley catfish (bait for angelfish) and angelfish (bait for deathfish) fishing spots.  That way I could only fish in spots where the fish were most active, except for in the deathfish pond at home.  I also did some fishing for alley catfish on my vacation to Egypt.

I only had one pond just for deathfish too. I got the teleporter early, both for fishing spots and special seeds. I think it was about the third or fourth perk I took and I wished I'd grabbed it right after opportunisitic, which was my first. (I was only selling once about every other week at the consignment shop and I had the born salesman trait. My testing showed that, while it was important to have born salesman or suave seller and both help, having two wasn't that important to price. So, for me, the teleporter would have been more helpful early in my game than suave seller or super green thumb.)

I lived on the lot by the ocean in Sunset Valley so I could essentially fish for angelfish from my backyard. That's why I picked that lot.
edit: Thanks to you and MetroMan for the cooking tips earlier in the thread.

[Anushka]

I just read pages of tips and some of them are so surprising! I knew about the seeds, and my Sim collected every special seed spawned in first 10 weeks, and I did the selection in inventory, those that are 0$ value got planted and other sold. By the end she got near 100 money trees in garden, and couldn't fertilize all of them in one day. I find hard to get high value money bags, higher one was only around 1100$ but it happen only few times, most of the times it was up to 800$. Opps gave me a headaches, since first 2 weeks I kept getting the opps to bring meloire grapes or plums. I had no idea it is even possible to get that much money. I'm trying to figure how, with that opp that you deliver 15 fishes, it is 15 perfect deatfishes value around 2000$ that is still only 30000 so I can't figure how to reach over a million (I know it is multiplied 5-10 value of products, plus opportunistic reward, but still ).
I seem to make a mistake for not using the selfemployed options and not restarting culinary career, I just stick to it by the end, happy that it is just 3 days per week,she could hardly harvest the garden on working days. Also for most of the time I had only money trees and didn't have much time to fish (fish for alley catfish, then angelfish, and then deathfish) it seems like I lost of time specially since I needed higher value bait to earn some descent money that way) and I had so many money trees to tend. 
My Sim only grilled hotdogs for weeks to get them perfect, and I waited for the most of the recipes until she got all the challenges, best equipment and all ingredients perfect. Only autumn salad gave me some trouble but she cook it on vacations and perfected it back home only after 10 prepeared meals.

[winnow]

Opps gave me a headaches, since first 2 weeks I kept getting the opps to bring meloire grapes or plums. I had no idea it is even possible to get that much money. I'm trying to figure how, with that opp that you deliver 15 fishes, it is 15 perfect deatfishes value around 2000$ that is still only 30000 so I can't figure how to reach over a million (I know it is multiplied 5-10 value of products, plus opportunistic reward, but still ).

My highest value deathfish were around 5500 by the end of the game. Those were the ones I fed to the omniplants and used for the gardening and fishing opportunities near the end. My highest priority in the game was catching as many high value deathfish as possible. (So, e.g., getting the rewards that let you catch fish faster and catch more fish were also important.) After my consignment shop stopped working, getting more opportunities became more important (and it, along with getting as many perfect money trees as possible, was always my second most important priority) but for most of the game it was deathfish. (I kept hoping the consignment shop would somehow begin working again.  )

What were other people's priorities? Did they change during the game?

My Sim only grilled hotdogs for weeks to get them perfect, and I waited for the most of the recipes until she got all the challenges, best equipment and all ingredients perfect. Only autumn salad gave me some trouble but she cook it on vacations and perfected it back home only after 10 prepeared meals.

That's what I was talking about when I said most of the recipes didn't seem worth cooking perfectly. I missoke. IIRC, it was around 10 of them. Hot dogs didn't seem worth the time to me. I did cook hot dogs about 3 or 4 times a week instead of eating leftovers at the end and finally got them on my last day. I think I only cooked them because at that point I was frustrated with my lack of consignment shop and bored with fishing and gardening.  

[winnow]

I seem to make a mistake for not using the selfemployed options and not restarting culinary career, I just stick to it by the end, happy that it is just 3 days per week,she could hardly harvest the garden on working days.

Sorry, I missed replying to this the first time. We seem to have done the career very differently. In my first test, I thought I'd max the culinary career ASAP so I took workaholic and my sim maxed the career and was working only three days a week very early on. He was also making over $500 an hour pretty quickly. I initially thought that having him work few hours and make the most possible money in that time was a good strategy. But I changed my mind after playing with deathfish and money trees. I changed my strategy to having my sim try to stay in the lower levels of the career in order to work five days and get the lower level career opportunities, then stay a while in the upper levels to get those opportunities (many of them are not the same).

You don't need to work the whole shift, especially if you don't want a promotion. For me, working the whole shift took way too much time. And I got just as many opportunities if I worked a shorter time as if I worked the whole shift. That part (i.e., what time to go in and leave in order to minimize my time at my job and maximize my opportunities) seemed to vary in each different test and my game but, within each test/game, it was consistent.

[Metropolis Man]

You don't need to work the whole shift, especially if you don't want a promotion. For me, working the whole shift took way too much time. And I got just as many opportunities if I worked a shorter time as if I worked the whole shift. That part (i.e., what time to go in and leave in order to minimize my time at my job and maximize my opportunities) seemed to vary in each different test and my game but, within each test/game, it was consistent.

Brilliant. I would have never thought of intentionally leaving after an hour or two but staying long enough to possibly get an opportunity. Very creative.

[winnow]

I would have never thought of intentionally leaving after an hour or two but staying long enough to possibly get an opportunity.

If I got the opportunity early enough, I could also complete it and go back to work that same day. This worked best with "bring an ingredient" opportunities like Catfish for the Chef because I could just put the ingredients in my inventory, step outside the bistro/diner, then go right back to work and get credit for the opportunity.  I wasn't expecting that. As I told you in the PM, I practiced so that I almost always got a culinary opportunity if I hadn't turned one in that day. Some were repeats (so I often didn't accept them) but at least it was a chance to get a new opportunity (or, e.g., when I was trying to get to level 10, a promotion while working fewer hours).

[Metropolis Man]

If I got the opportunity early enough, I could also complete it and go back to work that same day. This worked best with "bring an ingredient" opportunities like Catfish for the Chef because I could just put the ingredients in my inventory, step outside the bistro/diner, then go right back to work and get credit for the opportunity.

Yeah, that's thinking outside the box. Nice job. I just have never considered that for some reason. It's always been a) you go to work and get an opp. b) finish out your shift, then you're free to do the opp. But, leaving work after getting an opp is smart. No wonder you racked up so many. 

[Anushka]

Wow winnow, thank you for all the detailed answers! You gave me a piece of information I was missing! I had no idea deathfish could reach that high value!
I did left work early after getting opportunity, but only few times, I even managed to go back to work and deliver what I needed so I would clear the slot for the next shift. But I didn't have much opportunities in the beginning, and didn't use career smart enough! It's great to be able to learn new things in this great game! Thank you for sharing all this.

[winnow]

I did left work early after getting opportunity, but only few times, I even managed to go back to work and deliver what I needed so I would clear the slot for the next shift. But I didn't have much opportunities in the beginning, and didn't use career smart enough! It's great to be able to learn new things in this great game! Thank you for sharing all this.

You're welcome for the information.

You had the same idea as I did about leaving work and coming back. I was really surprised you could do that. Were you? Was there anything else that really surprised you (or anyone who's reading) in the challenge?

I like learning new things too! That's the main reason I've started doing the challenges.  I made a lot of mistakes - even after playtesting quite a bit - but I learned a lot by playing the challenge. And I learn a lot from the people here on the forum. It's a good place to share information.

[BellaClo]

Just a little question, for the ones who succeeded to have 30 perfect plants. How did you get the 2 rarest French vines ? (the red & blue ones, Cranerlet & Grallardina??) I couldn't figure how to do this without, either spend 150 hrs in meditation to reach the small island (and risk 'diluting' the pool of opportunities), or what? The Fairy Tomb but you need the pangu axe for this, and adventuring opp' were out of bound.

So, any left tip to soothe my mind  ?

[lulu]

I did it by picking up the training dummy when I was in China.  Getting my martial arts skill up in my spare time, I was able to meditate and zeneport to the island and back.  You don't need to spend 150 hours in meditation, you just need to spend a few hours meditating, once you get that option, to zeneport.

[Shenice93]

I did the same thing as lulu. It took a bit of time because my plan was to study cooking and fishing after tending the garden. What I ended up doing was designating days my sim worked to getting to level 5 and after that I never bothered with it again.

[BellaClo]

Ah, thank you for your quick replies, lulu and Shenice93.

It's my mistake I see. I was so sure my sim had to unlock the meditation challenge to be able to go there, that I decided to skip those last vines completely.

[Seabody]

It's no secret — at least I don't think so. But, assuming you're 1) a Perfectionist, 2) a lvl 10 cook, 3) have the uber fridge from the culinary career, and 4) are using Perfect ingredients — a great many of recipes you make the very first time crank out as Perfect. My guy was not a Perfectionist, but I took a slightly more leisurely pace and made sure I did the challenges that boost meal quality (lots of PBJs and Sushi in a row since they can be done lightning fast) before I hit recipe preparation in ernest.

Metro, I haven't done this challenge (I probably won't as it's closed. I could but... anyway...), but I believe that numbers 1 and 4 are irrelevant.
For example. My dynasty's founder, Henry Marsden (And yes, I plan to call the 8th immortal Pam ) is a level 10 cook and gardener. He's got the uber-fridge. His traits are, I think, Natural Cook, Green Thumb, Angler, Workaholic and Ambitious, and the vast majority of his plants turn out Outstanding, but nearly never perfect.
Most of his food turns out perfect first time. And, if it helps, most of the food, he purchases the ingredients when he makes the food.