Carl's The Sims 3 Skills Guide
Every Skill in Vanilla and The Sims 3 Expansion Packs
This Sims 3 Guide was originally written for the PC and Mac versions of the game, but also will help owners of the console versions - PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. Please remember some info or numbers may have changed.
In this guide to all skills in The Sims 3, you'll learn about the skills your Sims can learn in the game. I'll provide answers to questions players frequently ask, such as how to learn each skill and improve them effectively. I'll also provide links to get detailed information about each skill, so that you can learn more about the abilities that interest you.
While there aren't cheats to raise skills directly in the Sims 3, there are commands that you can use to cheat to raise skills.
This guide has now been updated to fully cover The Sims 3 Ambtions expansion. Here you can find guides to the Inventing and Sculpting skills introduced with the expansion. Both double as full-on self employment professions and can be pursued for great income.
Of course World Adventures coverage has been completed for quite some time now. Look for guides to Photography, Nectar Making, and Martial Arts.
Ambitions players: if you're taking on a skill as a self employment route, head to city hall and register as self employed to earn some bonus cash and awards!
Be sure to read the Skill FAQ page for tips on improving skills quickly and general information.
Alchemy
Alchemy comes with The Sims 3 Supernatural. This ancient science allows your Sim to create Elixirs to aid themselves and others. Naturally, it has its darker side allowing Sims to bestow loads of nasty effects on others.
Athletics
Athletics allows Sims to achieve greater fitness levels. Includes information on the types of wishes and opportunities your Sims will get from this skill, along with tips to raising it. Provides tips to completing each athletics challenge, as well.
Bass, Drums, and Piano
These three new musical instruments come with the Late Night expansion. Combined with the original Guitar skill, Sims can now form a band, play gigs, practice together, and earn money playing at night clubs.
Charisma
Charisma will help your Sim to make friends. With the right challenges completed, it can even help them to keep friends forever. Teach your Sims the charisma skill if you want them to be better at jobs that require on the boss and co-worker relationships. It's also vital to politicians. This guide contains tips to completing all charisma challenges, as well as information to help players get past the friend requirements of each charisma level.
Collecting
Collecting in the Sims 3 gives your Sims an easy way to make money without ever taking a job or buying a single item. Sims can collect butterflies, beetles, metal ore, gems and space rocks. This is a perfectly viable way to make money in the Sims 3, and shouldn't be overlooked by players who want to diverge from the norm.
Cooking
A guide to Perfect Cooking in the Sims 3. Includes tips for getting started and info on how to get recipes like Ambrosia without paying for them at the book store. This guide provides tips and lists the upgrades, types of items for the home, and traits you can select for your Sims to help them excel at cooking.
Fishing
This guide focuses on fishing in the game and includes information on where, and how, to catch some of the most rare fish in the Sims 3. This is a new feature to the game, and I'm really glad they added it. It's an excellent way to make money, and a good excuse to frequently look at the Sims 3's excellent water graphics! Fishing is a highly valuable skill to gardeners, scientists and Sims who want to make a profession of the trade.
Gardening
I wrote this guide to teach people how to get started gardening. I had seen this question asked so many times in forums and on yahoo answers that I had to sink my teeth in and give my own take on the skill. Gardening is a crucial skill for many character types. High quality fruits and vegetables can be used to catch better fish, which in turn help gardening itself (fertilizer), and cooking.
Guitar
I love this character! The guitar playing Sim can lead a very nice life playing for tips and making friends. It's almost too easy! Unfortunately, although an entertaining Sim to play, the guitarist makes fairly chaotic money compared to other Sims.
Handiness
The Handiness skill is so very useful to every Sim. I really enjoyed making this guide, which lists all the upgrades in the Sims 3, along with info on how to raise the skill quickly. Almost everything my ultra-rich Sim does is somehow augmented by the handiness skill.
Inventing
Inventing is one of two skills that come with the Ambitions expansion. This skill is quite fun and allows you to make gadgets, toys, and widgets for use at home. Inventors can dig for treasure with the miner and time travel with their very own time machine, as well. The harvester can be used for collecting and gardening. Snag your Sim some futuristic clothes or make their own Simbot. Top it all off with some good money making potential and Inventing is one of the coolest additions from Ambitions.
Logic
Logic can be used to teach other Sims known skills, help you make money by discovering celestial bodies, and even earn cash with your mind by solving the unsolvable. Your Sims can make enough money to live and have nice things using only a telescope with this skill! It's a very useful skill for Parents and Friends, who want to help those around them become better.
Martial Arts
Martial Arts is my favorite new skill introduced by World Adventures. Sims can really learn to kick serious butt. Be it beating down other Sims, burglars or mummies while tomb raiding, this skill will make your Sim a fighting machine. Look to this guide for tips on raising the skill, winning tournaments and mastering zeneport and tranquil transference you gain from meditation. You'll be able to zip here and there in the blink of an eye once you've completed the martial arts skill's challenges.
Mixology
Mixology is a skill new to the Late Night expansion. This is the art of making mixed drinks -- with flair. Spin cups through the air and blow fire off a drink to impress your Sim's celebrity clientele. Many drinks give boosts, such as faster skills, or better romantic interactions!
Nectar Making
Nectar Making is another new skill added to the game by the World Adventures expansion pack. This is one of the most involved skills in the Sims 3, and requires experience in gardening to really flourish. This is a great addition to any household as nectar provides a powerful boost to mood that lasts a very long time. Take up this skill and learn some amazing and good recipe combos on this page.
Painting
Help your Sim become a legendary artist. The Painting skill will help your Sim to later become a master artist. There's a lot of money to be made this way by painting volumes of masterpieces, for those who choose to follow this path. Provides tips you can use to help your Sims paint more masterpieces and complete the challenges associated with painting.
Photography
The Photography Skill is one that every Sim can pursue. It requires the World Adventures expansion to learn to take photos. As you get better, this skill becomes an excellent way to make money while you pursue other things. Wait for great photographic moments and snap a great shot to earn some spare cash in the blink of an eye. Learn the dynamics of this skill and how you can best utilize it to keep from losing money.
Parenting
Is Parenting a skill in the Sims 3? No. But this is the most appropriate category for a page of this magnitude. You see, there is no skill bar for parenting, and no skill journal, but parenting can have a major impact on the game. There is a right way to raise a child in the Sims 3 who is successful, smart, and able to tackle adulthood. In this guide, I'll tell you how to mold them!
Racing, Riding, and Jumping
This guide covers the new Racing, Riding, and Jumping skills in The Sims 3 Pets. Learn about these skills and how they combine to give you a new means of making money by breeding and racing horses.
Sculpting
With Sculpting, Ambitions players can craft their very own statues from clay, metal, ice, stone, and even bushes to make topiaries. You're not limited to the realm of art. Sims can also make bathroom stuff, furniture, and all sorts of neat stuff. A good money maker itself, it also goes well with the Architecture career that was also brought with the expansion.
Writing
You can make a ton of money as a writer in the Sims 3. It's certainly one of the more interesting self-employment careers your Sims can pursue. In this guide, I list the best traits for a writer, what to do to write more effectively and how to best achieve the specialist challenge. Gives hints to pushing your royalty checks through the roof.
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Carl