Aspirations in The Sims 4 are a great way to guide gameplay and develop your Sim’s personality through Bonus and Reward traits. The Freelance Botanist Aspiration is particularly useful for learning the ropes for key gardening mechanics like grafting, fertilising, and evolving plants.
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The Freelance Botanist Aspiration is one of the Nature aspirations provided in base game, so green-fingered simmers are especially likely to enjoy this gentle challenge. It’s also a good choice for anyone who wants to play with a cowplant, as your Sim will have to grow the bovine beastie in the aspiration’s final level.
Starting with this aspiration is a good idea if you want to play with a PlantSim. Unless you play the Plant-a-Sim scenario, you can only become a PlantSim by growing Forbidden Fruit of the PlantSim, which you need level 10 of the gardening skill for.
Freelance Botanist Aspiration Guide
Throughout the aspiration, you’ll hone your Sim’s gardening skill and improve the quality of plants in their garden. It takes a while, but you’ll earn 4,825 aspiration points, giving you plenty of points for unlocking Reward Traits and bonuses like the Potion of Youth or Money Tree.
Playing on a Lot with the Great Soil trait from The Sims 4: City Living will make this aspiration easier to complete.
Reward: Naturalist Trait
Sims with the Naturalist trait are protected from fire and can extinguish it much more easily than others. This is especially useful when playing on Lots with cheap appliances, fireplaces, or bonfires.
Reward: Green Thumb Achievement
At the end of the aspiration, your Sim will have maxed out their gardening skill. If this is the first Sim to achieve this in your save file, you’ll unlock the Green Thumb Achievement.
Reward: Grow An Excellent Quality Garden
Most levels of this aspiration focus on plant care, which will improve the quality of plants with time. Much like in real life, plants in The Sims 4 thrive in good conditions: being well-watered, fertilised, and getting enough sun. Better quality plants lead to higher quality harvestables which can sell for more Simoleons and make higher quality food.
Once your Sim has reached level 2 gardening skill, they’ll also be able to use the Evolve interaction on plants that are close to the next level of quality. Each quality level for a plant is known as the evolution level, which can be:
- Normal
- Nice
- Excellent
- Magnificent
- Perfect
Selling harvestables can be an efficient way of making money in The Sims 4, especially in Rags to Riches and Legacy challenges. It gives your Sims a relatively passive stream of income that can easily be passed from one generation to another.
All Aspiration Levels And Tasks
The Freelance Botanist Aspiration has four stages that all focus on building the gardening skill to unlock interactions and grow the perfect garden. Plants grow slowly, so completing the aspiration can take a while.
Even though it can be a little slow, it’s still worthwhile as it’s easy to complete in the background while your Sim focuses on building their career or growing their family. Gardening is also more lucrative than most low-level careers, so it can give a real boost at the start of a new save.
|
Milestone |
Task |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
Naturewalker |
Plant something three times |
You can find harvestables to plant in your garden or buy seeds from a computer, phone, or planter. If you have The Sims 4: Cottage Living, make sure you aren’t choosing the oversized crops. |
|
Weed or water plant three times |
Plants will dry out and grow weeds with time. If you cover them with a roof or move your planters indoors, then the rain is less likely to do your job for you. |
|
|
Garden Variety |
Achieve level 4 gardening skill |
The gardening skill can be levelled up by maintaining plants or reading gardening skill books. You can buy books directly from the bookshelf. |
|
Evolve five different plants |
At gardening skill level 2, your Sim can evolve well-looked-after plants. Look out for sparkles in your plot or hover over plants to see their progress. |
|
|
Nature Nurturer |
Achieve level 6 gardening skill |
The more plants you have, and the more tending they need, the more chance your Sim will have to level their skill. You can also purchase medium and high-level skill books to help out. |
|
Graft onto three plants |
The Sims 4 has a grafting system that allows you to grow rare or unique plants. At gardening skill level 5, you’ll unlock the option to Take Cuttings from plants. Once your Sim has a cutting in their inventory, the Graft interaction should appear when you select another plant. |
|
|
Fertilise five plants |
You unlock fertiliser at gardening skill level 3. Buy fertiliser by clicking on a planter, or use some harvestables from your garden to save cash. |
|
|
Freelance Botanist |
Achieve level 10 gardening skill |
Keep grinding in the fields to max out the gardening skill. At level 10, you’ll be able to buy Rare Seeds to start the journey to becoming a PlantSim. |
|
Grow a cowplant |
To grow a cowplant, you need to find or graft a cowplant berry. You can fish them up in Oasis Springs and San Sequoia. If you aren’t in a rush, you can also try grafting snapdragons and dragon fruit plants together. Once you have your cowplant berry (which looks exactly like you might expect), you can plant it like any other harvestable. |
|
|
Evolve ten Excellent plants |
A plant needs to evolve three times for it to reach Excellent quality. Water, weed, and fertilise your plant to increase its quality. You’ll get a head start if you keep evolving the same plants you levelled during the Garden Variety milestone. |
Tips For Completing The Freelance Botanist Aspiration Guide
This aspiration can be slow to finish. Here are some tips for speeding it up:
- Building skills can take time, but some personality traits can make it quicker. Practice Makes Perfect and Overachiever can both give a skill boost over time.
- If you have The Sims 4: Seasons, growing plants indoors or under cover will bypass the seasons. This means you can harvest them more often, giving you more things to plant or Simoleons to spend on gardening gear.
- The Loves The Outdoors trait can make your Sim happier while spending time in the garden. It’s under the Hobby menu.
- Joining the Gardener career gives your Sim more chances to develop their gardening skill. Once they reach level 5, they can choose to join the Botanist career branch, where they will receive a cowplant berry.
- Avoid giving your Sim the Super Green Thumb Reward Trait, as this makes plants need less care, making it harder for your Sim to skill up.
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