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With a wide variety of instruments, electronics, and art equipment to choose from, The Sims 2: Legacy Edition gives artistic Sims a whole playground to choose from. To make the most of all the items available, you’ll need to be ready to level your Sims’ Creativity skill.
Maxing the Creativity skill is fun for storytelling purposes when making Sims with a passion for the arts, as it’s mostly built by writing novels, painting pictures, or making music. It’s also a useful skill when playing with Sims that stray from the traditional career path, as it offers some lucrative alternative methods for making money.
What Is The Creativity Skill Good For?
The Creativity skill is useful for a number of different aspirations, careers, hobbies, and interests. It also gives Sims the opportunity to earn Simoleons from home by painting and selling art on the easel.
Gaining Aspiration Points
There isn’t an aspiration directly relating to creativity in The Sims 2, but Sims with the Knowledge or Pleasure Aspiration are likely to especially enjoy building their Creativity skill.
- Sims with a passion for the pursuit of Knowledge get a lot of Aspiration Points from gaining skill levels. So, if you’re planning on grinding to level up your Sim’s Creativity, then you should end up with a lot of Aspiration points by the time you’ve maxed out the skill.
- Pleasure-oriented Sims, on the other hand, are likely to want to sing or try karaoke often. These activities can help to build Creativity, so Sims can get a nice Aspiration point bonus from doing them.
Getting Promoted At Work
Several careers in The Sims 2 need the Creativity skill to get promoted:
Some will only need you to start building the skill later on, like the Slacker career, while others will need your Sims to level it earlier, like the Entertainment career.
Some careers have unlockable items associated with them that can also help Sims grow their Creativity skill.
The Slacker career has the AquaGreen Hydroponic Garden, which can be used to level Creativity while developing an enthusiasm for the Nature hobby, for example. The SensoTwitch Lie Finder item is also useful and can be unlocked by Sims in the Criminal career.
If you really want these items but don’t want to play through that career path, you can use cheats to unlock them.
Building Creative Hobby Enthusiasm
As your Sims build their Creativity skill, they’ll also naturally build their enthusiasm for particular hobbies. The main hobbies they might build through creative activities are:
- Arts and Crafts.
- Music and Dance.
- Film and Literature.
When Sims reach a certain level of enthusiasm for a hobby, they can unlock new interactions. It’s also a nice mechanic for fleshing your Sims out more as characters.
Ways To Build The Creativity Skill
Unlike in later iterations of The Sims, which break skills down in more detail, all artistic pursuits can be used to build the Creativity skill in The Sims 2. In a way, that makes it easier to make a Sim into a creative genius than ever. Sims can build their Creativity skill using musical instruments, a computer, and more.
Teen Sims can also go to university to build their skills more, but any Adult or Elder Sims have unfortunately already missed their chance.
Items Needed To Max The Creativity Skill
You can find most of the items you need to build the Creativity skill under the Hobbies menu in Buy Mode. From there you can find a Creativity sub-menu which includes:
- Drums
- A guitar
- A bass
- A microphone
- An easel
- A synthesiser
- Pianos
There are some other items dotted around Buy Mode that can help your Sims build Creativity, too. For instance, Sims can use any computer to write novels.
When you first make or start playing in a new household, a Sim will give you a free computer, so don’t waste your hard-earned Simoleons on a new one.
If you plan on making musically-inclined Sims, then Nightlife and FreeTime both introduced DJ booths. These items can be used to build your Sims’ Creativity skills when used. You can find these in Buy Mode, or you can head to a club Downtown to use theirs.
When you hover over an item in Buy Mode, you can see a description which includes a summary of which skills can be built using the item. It isn’t labelled very consistently, but it’s still useful to look out for.
Although you might expect them to help your Sims’ build their Creativity skill, the sewing machine, pottery table, and flower-arranging equipment don’t actually build skills at all. Instead, they help your Sims build their hobby enthusiasm.
Building Creativity For Toddlers And Children
Children and toddlers can also build their Creativity skill. They can both use an activity table, including as a group activity, and toddlers can use the Rip Co. Xylophone. These items can both be found under the Children’s sub-menu in Miscellaneous.
However, you don’t have to buy either of these items if you don’t have toddlers. Children can use most items that adults can to build their Creativity skills, including the violin, synthesiser, and pianos, all on their own.
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The Sims 2: How To Attend University
Give your Sims a post-secondary education for a better future, or just go to the parties. It’s your college experience.