The Sims 3 expansion pack buyer’s guide

The Sims 3: World Adventures

World Adventures was the first expansion pack released for The Sims 3, and adds three exotic vacation spots your Sims can travel to with a quick phone call (and a few thousand simoleans). These are no relaxing vacation spots, however; each has dozens of adventures, dangerous tombs, and loads of valuable treasure. Each country has its own special items not found in any other place, many of which can be purchased in each location’s marketplace.

Until you level up your Visa enough to buy a vacation home in each location, you’ll be staying at each country’s base camp, or just camping out. Each base camp has an adventure board, from which you can take on quests that reward you in Ancient Coins (used to by items from the Special Merchant), Visa Points, simoleans, and relics.

Locations:

Shang Simla, China: With unique spots like the Phoenix Academy of Martial Arts and the Scholar’s Garden, Shang Simla is a great place to learn the martial arts skill or meditate. You can also find the rare and valuable Axe of Pangu in Shang Simla, which can smash boulders—useful in all three locales!

Al Simhara, Egypt: The pyramids, the Sphinx—it’s an adventurer’s dream! Many of the tombs around Al Simhara are filled with restless mummies. If tomb raiding isn’t your thing, hang out in town and learn to charm snakes!

Champs Les Sims, France: Filled with culture, Champs Les Sims has some of the most unique dungeons and quests of any locale. Explore the booby-trapped Chateau du Landgraab, solve the mystery of La Gallerie d’Art, or indulge in some delicious nectar at the Champs Les Sims Nectary.

Lifetime Wishes:

Bottomless Nectar Cellar: Have a Nectar collection worth at least 10,000 simoleans and at least 50 bottles. And yes, it literally must be in a cellar, not any other space in your home.

Great Explorer: Fully explore six tombs in each location.

Martial Arts Master: Reach level 10 in the martial arts skill and obtain the rank of Grand Master.

Physical Perfection: Max out the athletic and martial arts skills.

Private Museum: Have a relic collection worth at least 20,000 simoleans.

Seasoned Traveler: Reach the max Visa level for all three destinations.

World-Class Gallery: Have a photograph collection worth 25,000 simoleans, and have at least 10 photos from each destination.

Visionary: Max out the painting and photography skills.

Skills:

Martial arts: Similar to athletics, martial arts allow Sims to break boards and spar with others. To learn this skill, you’ll need to travel to Shang Simla and visit the Academy of Martial Arts, buy a training dummy and board breaker in the marketplace, or purchase skill books from the bookstore.

Nectar making: You can purchase nectar (World Adventures’ T-rated version of wine) at the Nectary, as well as buying a nectar machine to brew your own. The new fruits included in this expansion go perfectly in a good bottle of nectar! You can also learn this skill through the books available in the marketplace, though that doesn’t reward you with completed nectar like using the machine does.

Photography: You’ll need to buy a camera in one of the three vacation spots to learn and increase this skill. Once you’ve got a camera in your inventory, take snapshots of everything and anything—photos taken by skilled photographers can be very valuable!

Rubble clearing: This is a hidden skill, increased by clearing piles of rubble throughout the various tombs. The more you do it, the quicker you’ll get.

Diving: Also a hidden skill, this is progressed by exploring dive wells.

Snake charming: You can buy a snake charmer basket in Al Simhara, and practice this secret skill for fun and profit!

Traits:

Adventurous: Adventurous Sims love to travel, and will want to do so more often. They’ll gain Visa levels and recover from trips faster, and gain a mood bonus while tomb raiding.

Disciplined: Those with the disciplined trait are dedicated to the martial arts, and will learn the skill more quickly, as well as fare better when sparring.

Photographer’s Eye: Choose this trait for better photographs and quicker developing of the photography skill.

Culture: If you have a child with a foreign Sim, he or she could be born with the Asian Culture, Egyptian Culture, or French Culture hidden traits.

Mummy: A hidden trait of Sims who are mummies.

Miscellaneous Additions:

Mummies: Sims can run into mummies hiding in tombs, summon mummies with certain relics, turn into mummies, or be killed if inflicted with the Mummy’s Curse.

Puzzles and traps: your adventures will take you to tricky tombs that require some quick thinking to survive.

New wildlife: six new butterflies, three new beetles, and three new fish.

New plants: Cherimola Blan grapes, Renoit grapes, Avoralino grapes, Meloire grapes, plums, pomegranates, cherries, Cranerlet Nuala grapes, Gralladina Fran grapes, and pomelos.

Basement tool: Now you can easily add basements when building your Sims’ homes!

Adventures: When in foreign countries, you’ll be able to complete various missions for lots of rewards!

Various home items, including Pagoda roofs; new hairstyles and outfits.

WooHoo in a tent or a sarcophagus!