Genesis Challenge

The Genesis Challenge is a unique, long-term legacy challenge for The Sims 4 created by Snarky Sims. The premise is simple but ambitious: start with two Sims – Adam and Eve – and fill an entirely empty world with their direct descendants. It is a test of patience, planning, and legacy-building on a scale that goes far beyond a standard legacy challenge.

Story

Due to economic decline and poor government funding of social programs, the population of many Sim-inhabited towns and cities has all but disappeared. Everyone has moved away to find greener pastures elsewhere, leaving their old homes nothing but a ghost town. Out of desperation to boost the population and get these towns thriving again, the United Nations has hand-picked two Sims who are willing to participate in a re-population program, tasking them with bringing the population back up through natural procreation while living the best, most fulfilling lives they possibly can. The project’s name? Operation BFAM (Be Fruitful And Multiply). The subjects? Adam and Eve.

Objective

Start with two Sims, one that can become pregnant and one that can impregnate other Sims, and use them to fill a completely empty world. The challenge ends when every household in the world is occupied by at least one direct descendant of your two original Sims.

Setting Up the Challenge

• Start a new save file and begin by creating two young adult Sims in CAS. They can have any gender customizations you want as long as one of them can become pregnant and the other one can impregnate other Sims. These Sims can have any appearance you want and any traits, aspiration, walk style, and voice that you want. Feel free to use as much CC as you want.
• Your two starting Sims must start out as roommates. For the purpose of this challenge, we’ll call them Adam and Eve, but you don’t actually have to name them Adam and Eve. You can name them whatever you want.
• Adam and Eve can be any occult type you want; however, be aware that mixing different occult genetics can sometimes result in glitched “hybrid” offspring.
• Move Adam and Eve into any lot they can afford in any of the home worlds. You can download a house from the Gallery, build one of your own, or use one of the default starters – it doesn’t matter. They must be able to afford the house with their starting funds, though.
• Next, go into your options and make sure Lifespans are set to Normal and that Fill Empty Homes is unchecked. If you plan to play households on rotation eventually once Adam and Eve’s children start leaving the nest, set Auto-Age (Played Sims) to Only Active Household. If you’re a single household type of player, leave it set to On. Do not set Auto-Aging Off for any group.
• You may use Neighbourhood Stories to help keep households populating while you aren’t playing them, but if you do have Neighbourhood Stories enabled for your descendants, you must also enable Accidental Deaths to keep things balanced and retain an aspect of challenge.
• Once this is done, you need to go about emptying your town of all the Sims living in it. Evict all the premade families in all of the home worlds. You can delete them or leave them as townies to become part of the mating pool later on – it’s up to you. Now that your worlds are empty and Adam and Eve are settled in, it’s time to begin Operation Be Fruitful and Multiply.

The Challenge Rules

• Adam and Eve’s primary purpose is to have children to populate the world with. How many children they have is up to you, but keep in mind that the more children Adam and Eve (and their descendants) have, the faster you’ll complete the challenge.
• Adam and Eve don’t need to be married to have children together, nor do any of their descendants need to be married to have children with their partners, but you can have them get married if you’d like.
• Adam and Eve’s descendants will be having children with townies in the world or Sims you create/download for them, NOT with each other.
• All Sims in your challenge are free to live their lives however you want when they aren’t busy populating the world. They can all have whatever jobs you want and spend their free time doing absolutely anything you want – their lives are completely in your hands to do as you see fit with.
• Mods that give you an unfair advantage in the challenge are not allowed. The author leaves what counts as an “unfair advantage” up to your discretion.
• No cheats! No money cheats, no career cheats, no cheats that change relationships or alter emotions, no cheats to change the natural born appearance of your Sims. NO CHEATS. The only exceptions to this rule are build cheats for creative building purposes, headlineeffects off for taking screenshots, and if you lose progress due to game glitches, you are always allowed to use whatever cheats necessary to restore your lost progress.
• If all the members of a household die off, leaving the house empty again, you need to repopulate it with at least one direct descendant of Adam and Eve. If you have at least two generations living in each house and make sure they bring in new generations when they’re old enough, you shouldn’t encounter this problem very often (if at all).
• It’s easier to play on rotation for this challenge to ensure everyone is continuing Adam and Eve’s bloodline, but if you’re playing a single household, you’ll need to rely on Neighbourhood Stories to continue Adam and Eve’s line.
• There are no rules against descendants having same-sex relationships and adopting children, but only direct blood descendants of Adam and Eve count for occupying the town, so make sure your households with same-sex couples also have a direct blood descendant living with them (if one Sim out of the couple is a direct descendant of Adam and Eve, they still count – no need to move in another descendant).
• The author recommends you play either one week or one season in each household if you’re doing rotation so everyone ages at the same pace.
• All residential lots in the worlds you choose to repopulate must be occupied by at least one direct descendant of Adam and Eve in order to complete the challenge, even empty lots. You don’t need to save up a lot of money to move a Sim into one of the prebuilt homes – you can bulldoze and build/download a cheaper one in its place.

Bonus: Noah’s Ark Mode (Cats & Dogs or Horse Ranch Required)

If you have Cats & Dogs or Horse Ranch installed, you can challenge yourself further by playing Noah’s Ark mode alongside the regular challenge.

• When making Adam and Eve, make a pair of cats, dogs, or horses to go with them. They can be any breed you wish and have any visual appearance you’d like. They can also have any traits you’d like, but they must both be the same species (two cats, two dogs, or two horses), they must be opposite genders, and they must both be unspayed/unneutered. For the purpose of this challenge, we’ll call them Noah and Naamah, but you can name your pets anything you want.
• Move Noah and Naamah in with Adam and Eve. Just like Adam and Eve’s purpose, your goal with Noah and Naamah is to have at least one direct descendant of these pets living in each household in your world(s).
• Descendants of Noah and Naamah cannot be sold or given up for adoption. They must be moved into other households with the descendants of Adam and Eve to help populate the world.
• Just like Adam and Eve, Noah and Naamah’s lives are in your hands to do as you see fit with. They can learn tricks, be trained, use the obstacle course, go to the vet, go for walks, go hunting/prowling, enter equestrian competitions, explore the world, and do anything their little hearts desire. The only restriction is they can’t consume age up or age down treats. You must allow them to age naturally just like your Sims.
• Pets don’t have family trees, so the author highly recommends using some sort of family tree app to keep track of Noah and Naamah’s descendants.

Difficulty Level

The difficulty level of the Genesis Challenge depends on how many worlds you choose to populate.

• Baby Steps: Populate Willow Creek (or one world of your choosing)
• Easy: Populate both Willow Creek and Oasis Springs (or two worlds of your choosing)
• Normal: Populate Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, and Newcrest (or three worlds of your choosing)
• Hard: Populate all base game and game pack worlds that you own
• Pro: Populate all base game, game pack, and expansion worlds that you own

There is no advantage to doing more difficult modes. The harder versions are just for fun if you have extra content and want to challenge yourself further.

The Genesis Challenge is a massive undertaking that will keep you busy for countless generations. Whether you start with Baby Steps or go all the way to Pro mode, the goal remains the same: build a thriving world from just two Sims and their descendants. It is a fantastic challenge for players who love long-term legacies, family trees, and the satisfaction of seeing an entire world come to life.

For the full original rules and any updates, you can find the challenge on Snarky Sims. Happy simming!

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