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The Sims 3: Pets - Animal Lover
The Arc Builder Lifetime Wish Walkthrough
By Tom "Metro" Schlueter
| Pet LTRs | Pet Traits | Unicorns | Cats | Dogs | Horses |
| Minor Pets | Racing | Horseman | Arc Builder | The Jockey | Zoologist |
With the Arc Builder Lifetime Wish from the new Pets expansion, EA is obviously making a hint in the title to the well know Bible story of Noah and the Ark. Just as in the story where Noah needed to collect 2 of all animals to place in his ark, to accomplish the Lifetime Wish you basically need to have 2 of the following kinds of animals in the game - 2 cats, dogs, horses, birds, lizards, turtles, rodents, snakes, butterflies, and beetles. Surprisingly, fish are not on the list, so I decided to make my Sim, Noah Petsington, a fisherman. I also created one cat, Hairball, at the get-go.
Traits for Your Arc Builder and Cat
I gave Noah the following traits: Ambitious, Cat Lover, Angler, Loves the Outdoors, and Born Salesman. Ambitious is probably my favorite trait and I honestly cannot imagine any Sims game where you would not benefit from more happiness points. Cat Lover instead of Animal Lover? Definitely. At least the way I played this LTW the other large animals did not even come into play until the very last day when I decided it was time to finish the LTW. So, for 95% of the gametime it was just Noah and Hairball and relationships with other animals was a nonissue. As I mentioned, I had Noah become a fisherman - mainly as something to do while Hairball honed his hunting skill, so Angler helped speed up that skilling. Loves the Outdoors just goes along with the Angler trait, and Born Salesman was helpful when Noah went to the consignment store to sell his fish.
Getting Started with Your Cat
Obviously you do not need to start with a cat, but I chose to do so to make things quicker/easier. How easy does a cat make the Arc Builder Lifetime Wish? Very easy. A cat will be able to catch 6 of the 10 types of animals needed for the LTW and put them right at your Sim's feet. I gave Hairball the Hunter, Genius, and Friendly traits to really ramp up the speed even more.
In the beginning your Sim is there to feed the cat, love the cat, and give it baths in case of fleas, but the bottom line is it's all about your cat learning the hunting skill. So, you start that process by removing the pink Catnip Mouse from the Pet Toy Crate, and having the cat practice hunting on it...
Once the cat has a single hunting skill forget about having him practice on the toy mouse - time for the real deal. If the cat is active, then click on it and select Stalk for Prey. In fact, cue this up multiple times because one hunt does not take long. The mechanic is interesting...a random animal will spawn near your cat and you'll see him crouch down in a pouncing position readying his attack., and then making a big leap...
I took Hairball along with Noah whenever Noah went fishing and had Hairball work on raising his hunting skill. Once Hairball hit hunting skill level 5, then I was able to have Noah give hunting instructions, i.e. "Go Catch a..." and then you select from the radial dial. Don't be surprised if you meet with a pretty good amount of failures though. You might want to have the cat build up hunting to 7 or 8 before you actually start collecting for the LTW.
In the photo below, Hairball was told to go catch a rodent. Ask and you shall receive, Noah...
Rewards
Really pay attention to your cat's wishes in the beginning - fulfilling as many as possible will help him get the happiness points necessary for the Alpha Pet which makes hunting much more successful. I'd say that is the numero uno reward for this particular LTW since a cat is an integral part of the strategy. Super Smart Pet is helpful too to skill up hunting quicker.
For Noah, I only picked up Fast Leaner after a few days of fulfilling the standard initial fishing wishes as well as basic relationship wishes with Hairball. If I had the desire to really pursue this particular file long-term, then my next reward purchase for Noah would have been Suave Seller to increase money made at the consignment store.
Wrapping Up the Lifetime Wish
After your cat brings you 2 of all the smaller animals, then it's time for your Sim to put the wraps on the Lifetime Wish and go out and catch a couple butterflies. Butterflies are spread out in all parts of all worlds, so just keep your eyes peeled. It did not take me long to find some in Appaloosa Plains at the Dog's Day Town Plaza.
And finally you need to get on the phone to the Pet Adoption Agency and call for another cat, two dogs, and two horses. You can only adopt one at a time from the shelter, so it will take several phone calls if you go that route. To make things more challenging on yourself you can fulfill the large animal requirement by befriending and adopting wild animals that you find. If you elect to do this method and not adopt from the shelter, I would swap Cat Lover for Animal Lover.
This is a fun and fast Lifetime Wish that you can knock out in less than a week. Maybe a little too easy? Possibly. I would like to have seen at least a relationship level requirement for the large animals instead of simply adopting them and being done with it with no care involved. And possibly a certain rarity level could have been tacked on for the smaller animals to make them more difficult to acquire. But, all in all, the Arc Builder just adds one more element to the very solid Pets expansion.
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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1where do i put: birds, lizards, turtles, rodents, snakes, butterflies, and beetles? put in inventory or in terrarium?
Thanks Carl for summarising that only the 'major' Pets are required. I'll give this "a go". (So far a Horse and a Unicorn are part of the household. There are two cats and one dog.)