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The Sims 3 Ambitions
Possession is Nine Tenths of the Law
By Butch Cassidy (with help from Tom Schlueter)
Hi, folks. I'm Butch Cassidy. A lot of you know me from your history books. Let me say right off the bat that all of that rubbish I've read about me constantly helping out poor people and donating money to charities is simply not true. But, the bank robber part is spot-on. So, I've been given a special opportunity to tell you about what it takes to be a great thief and achieve the Possession is Nine Tenths of the Law Lifetime Wish in The Sims 3. Actually, in my case, it's Ten Tenths! Unpack your six-shooters and let's get started.
I decided to move to 365 Oak Grove Road in Sunset Valley. It's cheap at $1800, and it's close to many key Sunset Valley locations, namely, Agnes Crumplebottom and her Bwan Speedster.
My traits are:
Ambitious
Hey, I'm Butch Cassidy. Of course, I'm Ambitious. I'm going to go down in history as one of the greatest robbers of all time. Wait a minute...I already am. I'm very confused right now.
Kleptomaniac
If you have something, then I probably want it too. And to be frank I don't like paying for things. I'd much rather let my hands do the grabbing. This trait triggered my Lifetime Wish and allows me to Swipe Something. Heh heh.
Athletic
The Athletic Skill is an important metric when climbing the criminal career. There always seems to be people chasing me, so this one helps a lot! Shhh....What's that?! Gotta go! Coppers!
Schmoozer
Accomplices is the other metric (and Mood, of course) for the Thief side of the criminal career. This trait in combination with the Office Hero reward can literally make you Best Friends with your coworkers in a single work day.
Over-Emotional
This will help 24/7 as I skill in athletic (and the occasional cooking) as well as simply keep the mood higher for more happiness points accrued.
Making a Quick Escape
The first thing I did was buy a cheap Table-Licious dining table and dropped a laptop computer on it. Then, I dragged the computer into my inventory and headed for China.
Upon arriving I opened both base camp bookshelves and moved all books to my inventory as well as the portable stereo at base camp. I immediately made tracks for the general store and purchased 9 High Quality Dried Food and a Colesim 2br Edition Tent. I dropped the tent on the outside practice platform of the Academy for a convenient location to the treadmill.
What in tarnation? At first, I had no idea what this thing is or what purpose it serves. All I wanted to do at this point is shoot it full of holes. But, when I got off this "treadmill" I did feel more athletic. In fact, I had gained 3 athletic points my first workout. That's super important. Remember the cops thing?
So, it was 3 days of treadmill, sleeping, popping a couple dried food, etc., and sometimes hitting the laptop for a little fun. When it was all done I left for Sunset Valley with almost level 8 athletic skill. Here's a big tip - as soon as you reach lvl 5 athletic make sure your workout tone is Push Self. Leave it there for every workout until you max the skill.
The big thing I had to get a grip on in China was managing my fatigue. Everything was timed around when that nasty moodlet vanished. I made sure I was standing right next to the treadmill when the Fatigued moodlet disappeared for maximum time efficiency. That meant making sure my other bars were close to full so I would not need to interrupt my workout due to something else like hunger, bladder, or low energy.
When the end of vacation notice came at midnight I definitely got a little extra mileage out of the treadmill as the skill meter continued to climb while the game processed shuttling me back to Sunset Valley for probably two additional game hours.
I sold all the China books immediately upon retuning as well as the tent and opted for a nicer bed. So, it was just 9 AM of Day 1 and I was starting at 31k simoleans. Pretty sweet! I felt like I had just robbed a bank. Well, I feel like that a lot.
Lifetime Wish: Possession is Nine Tenths of the Law...
Or, How to Grab 34k Happiness Points in 90 Minutes
So, at precisely 6:30 PM - we're still at Day 1 here - I headed up the street to Agnes Crumplebottom's large, expensive home complete with Bwan Speedster. Have I mentioned how much I like that car? I shake hands with Agnes. She turns around and goes back inside. How convenient of her to do that. She's out of sight which means I turn into Swiper the Fox.
 |  |  |
| Hmmm...Is anyone watching me? Nope. Agnes is involved in some cooking project. | Abracadabra..... | ...Make the Bwan Speedster disappear into my back pocket! Game over. Thank you for playing Possession is Nine Tenths of the Law. |
Here's the bottom line on this Lifetime Wish, folks - it's like taking candy from a baby. It's so easy because it's completely whacked out. At full retail the Bwan lists at 85k. Anything you swipe is calculated at full retail value as you move towards the $50k of stolen goods requirement for the Lifetime Wish. So, you can make this a crazy one shot deal for 34k happiness points (if you're Ambitious) in record time. But, wait...the craziness isn't over yet. Open up your family inventory and check out the value of the Bwan. $5913. What?! That's less than 10% of full retail. Here's the unfortunate reality - swiping stuff simply is not a great way to make big money on a regular basis. It's a nice adjunct to other revenue streams, and is especially nice if you're looking for very specific items. But, with that enormous "hot item penalty" and the fact that you can only swipe 3 items per night, uh-uh. No, find something else for regular big money. And the thing is - there are only a handful of rich Sims in each town (Agnes is obviously a target for Sunset Valley), but once you've swiped the most expensive stuff from the few rich Sims, then what?
So, it's still Day 1. I've completed my Lifetime Wish and am looking at 42k happiness points accrued so far and a 7 day +93 Fulfillment mood (thanks, in part, to my Over-Emotional trait). I've almost maxed athletic, so now my attention turns to...
Breaking into the Criminal Career
I obviously knew I was going to join the criminal career from the get-go. Kind of hard not to pick up on that when some mysterious force is pulling your strings (hi Tom). So, before I ever punched the clock for the first time I picked up the Office Hero and Multi-Tasker rewards. Those are the only two rewards I felt were important at that point. For my first 2 days of work my work tone was Meet Accomplices. I was only able to meet one. Now, I was looking at 2 days off (Wednesday and Thursday) before I would need to think about adjusting my schedule to the night owl life as a Thug when Friday's shift begins.
Mastering athletic was my primary goal during those 2 days off work. The Push Self exercise tone made that come pretty quickly. Between the 8.5k Mastering Athletic Wish and the numerous nice wishes such as Work out for 8 Hours or Work out for 10 Hours, I had accumulated quite a few happiness points.
Becoming a Night Owl
Getting on a good schedule is key no matter you do - be it medicine, book writing, Rock Star, or Swiping expensive cars and leading a dark and clandestine kind of life (lucky you!). From the time you wake up figure needing about 3 hours to get all of your bars green. The Leader has this thing about seeing green bars. So, you need to shower, use the toilet, eat, and have a little fun. It's a simple cycle that you want to get in the habit of doing every day - even on days off because you still want those green bars to kick up your mood when you're not heading to the Warehouse. Bottom line: You want to get up around 5 PM because the work car comes at 8 PM. So, working backwards, you should be going to bed no later than 10 AM to 12 PM depending on how tired you are.
Quickly Climbing the Criminal Career
It was no problem getting a promotion from Thug to Getaway Driver (lvl 4) after Friday's work shift. The 6 hour work days really help too. That's a big difference between the criminal career and many other careers - as you progress in other careers your work hours gradually drop to maybe 5 or even only 4 hours a day. That makes it tougher to get promotions because the meter is not being fed for very long. With the criminal career you'll be working 6 hours a day until the point at which you need to decide to go the Thief path or the Evil path (lvl 7 promotion).
It's 7 PM. Do you know where your Bwan Speedster YL is? Just keep making dinner Morgana and don't look out the window. Being one of Sunset Valley's elite rich, the Wolff's are a prime candidate for your sticky fingers and their beautiful maroon Bwan perfectly compliments Agnes' white one. 2 Bwan Speedsters are better than 1 is what I always say.
After Saturday's shift I was promoted to Bagman (lvl 5). Sunday's shift saw another promotion to Con Artist (lvl 6). After my Con Artist shift at the beginning of Week 2, I received the option to go into the Thief branch or the Evil branch. Thief all the way, baby! So, I was now a Safecracker. After getting home from Monday's shift I splurged and went to the Sharma Day Spa and bought the elaborate Soothing Salvations package which resulted in a +93 Completely at Ease moodlet for 7 days. That will help keep the mood uber high for the end game as I crank out the last few promotions en route to Master Thief.
Here's another important tip: when you decide on your criminal career path - be it Safe Cracker or Henchman - you want to change your work tone to Work Hard because you're now only working 5 hours and you'll need the performance meter boost of Work Hard to assure yourself of a one-day promotion if you're starting at 0.
I had a couple days off before achieving my final promotions - time to visit the Goths and the Altos for some final Swiping. To be honest, I was disappointed with the results. I do not like the fact that I cannot choose what items I want to steal. The mysterious force (hi Tom) clicks the ground and I look around to swipe something - like a cheap outside light instead of a beautiful Medusa''s Victim statue that's 2 inches from my face! Back in the day I could call my own shots. And this 3 item cap is a bit low. Heck, after 3 items, I'm just getting warmed up.
One thing that is cool is that when you rise up to the upper levels of the criminal career you gain a high level ability - Sneaking. Here I am using this extremely secretive technique at the Goth house to avoid being seen by Cornelia and Mortimer. It's rumored that the technique originates from Chinese SimFu monks.
Later the same evening I employed the Sneaking technique at the Alto house. As you can see it's even more refined than before and Nick does not even know I'm in the same room. Hey, Nick...I'm Butch Cassidy. Talk to the hand.
After Tuesday's shift I was promoted to Bank Robber (lvl 8). Cool. Things are winding down for me in the criminal career. The end is near and I've got my eyes on that sweet Fox statue as my prize. The promotions didn't dry up yet as I went up to lvl 9 (Cat Burglar) the next day. But, when I was promoted to Cat Burglar my work shift dropped to just 4 hours, so it was going to be almost impossible to get a promotion to Master Thief in 1 day of work.
I was right and could not get the performance meter to the very top in one work day, so I asked my boss, Claire Ursine, over to see if she'd be agreeable to give me a promotion. She wasn't. Well, actually, I was not able to even ask her for a promotion, but I could ask for a raise and did receive one. I followed that request up by also asking for a desk with a big Simolean symbol next to it. Claire agreed.
The next day, Friday of Week 2, I got promoted to Master Thief and grabbed top honors plus the mini statue, The Fox. This item gives a huge environmental boost, so don't just leave it in your inventory.
Closing Thoughts
The Kleptomaniac trait is indeed fun and it's enjoyable to take other people's expensive goodies. But, as I've already mentioned, you need a backup plan - a more regular stream of income to achieve real wealth. The Sims in Sunset Valley that are your key initial targets are: Agnes Crumplebottom, the Altos, the Goths, the Wolffs, and the Langraabs.
The Possession is Nine Tenths of the Law Lifetime Wish is a nice springboard to the criminal career and getting an uber fast track in that regard. So, honestly, as opposed to some other more difficult Lifetime Wishes where the wish may come in the middle of your Sim's career/life, this one is just the beginning for you - a means to another end. It's so easy to get those happiness points quickly. Exploit that to your advantage and transform your Sim into something great with the rewards that can be purchased.
The strategy used in this Lifetime Wish walkthrough is not the only way to complete it. Share your tips for finishing this LTW with other players below!
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This seems to have changed at some point since writing this article
I have all EP's and am patched to whatever is the current latest, and my sim just swiped a Bwan Speedster YL for the lowly $5,913.
But I'm not upset, this is a fun LTW!