A lot of The Sims’ gameplay focuses on the mundane: getting a job, making friends, and fulfilling your needs. Sometimes, though, it breaks away from the norm and introduces something out there. The Sims 1 toyed with the weird and wonderful a few times, but its last DLC went all out by introducing magic.
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The Sims: Makin’ Magic gives your Sims the ability to explore the occult through spells and charms. The game pushes them to indulge by giving every new household a box of magical goodies. What it doesn’t do is tell you how to use it.
What’s Included In The Magic Kit?
The Mystery Man arrives at every new household’s first home and leaves a package on the front step. The box is the MagiCo Magical Starter Kit, which includes:
- A Hole In The Ground
- A Magic Wand
- A Spellbound Wand Charger
- A Start Here Spellbook
- 35 MagiCoins
- An assortment of spell ingredients
- A Truly Charming End Table
The end table isn’t really relevant or magical, but the wand charger needs to go on something. It looks good though.
The spell ingredients included in the box are:
- Toadstools
- Toad sweat
- Butter
Most items will be placed in the garden or on the sidewalk where the box is opened, but the spell ingredients, wand, and MagiCoins will stay in the cardboard box until they are taken.
You can move the large items around in Buy or Build Mode like you would with any other furniture.
How To Use The Magic Kit
Every item provided in the kit has its own way of giving you a taste of Magic Town. The kit is made up of a few different items, each with its own uses, so there are a lot of different ways the kit can be of service.
A Hole In The Ground
The hole gives your Sim a free, instant route to Magic Town; Taxis headed that way normally cost 50 Simoleons per trip, so it’s worth at least using it to check the area out before you decide to sell it. Click on the item and select Jump In. After that, your Sim will head down to MagicTown, saving their current lot in the process. The map of Magic Town will open and you’ll be able to choose exactly which lot to visit.
Spellbound Wand Charger
The Spellbound Wand Charger is arguably one of the most important items in the kit if you’re planning on doing magic. Without it, your wand would be useless. Your Sim will combine ingredients using this to charge their wand.
To charge your wand, select the charger three times to enter all of your ingredients. Now that it’s full of ingredients, you will have unlocked a new interaction; you can select the item again and use the Charge Wand option.
If you can’t remember what you’ve put in the charger, select it and use the Read Label interaction. A pop-up will appear telling you a little about the item and what ingredients you’ve put in so far.
The Wand
For a Sim to be able to do spellcraft, they need to own a wand. To retrieve the wand from the kit, click on the open cardboard box and select Add To Inventory. A submenu will appear listing the box’s contents and you can choose the wand. You need a wand to be able to do spells, but you can’t use the wand without the Spellbound Wand Charger.
The ingredients are also important here because you need to add them to the charger to be able to charge the wand itself. A charged wand can be used to cast spells by clicking on another Sim or an item and selecting the Cast interaction. If you’ve used the ingredients given to you in the magic kit, you’ll need to click on another Sim to be able to use it.
Be ready for your Sim to pucker up if they use this spell, whether they use it on their Prince Charming or not.
Start Here Spellbook
This will be your family’s (pretty high-tech) spellbook. It’s a useful starting point for any of your Sims who are ready to make some magic. You can use it to ask questions about key features from the pack like MagiCoins and magical vendors and keep track of spells.
When you use it to look up spells, it tells you which ingredient combinations can be used to make spells and charms. But, that’s only half of the picture. Your Sims will have to experiment themselves to find out exactly what these charms and spells do.
As your Sim tries out the recipes in the spellbook, its pages will automatically get filled out with more information. This is useful as it means you don’t have to worry about keeping track of anything yourself. It’s also great that it gives you ideas for spells to try so you don’t waste ingredients.
Spell Ingredients
You’re immediately given the ingredients you need for a Toadification spell to start you off. As suggested by the name, this can temporarily turn any target into a toad. You can add the ingredients to the Spellbound Wand Charger to create the spell.
Each ingredient can also be used in other spells. Butter and toadstools are two of three ingredients used for the Enchant spell, and Hypnotize uses butter and toad sweat.
To add the spell ingredients and wand to your inventory, click on the box and select Add To Inventory. A submenu will appear with a full list of the ingredients in the box to choose from. After that, you can find the items in your Sim’s inventory under Magic Items.
These items are supposed to give you a taste of magic before you have to haul them down to Magic Town to grab some ingredients yourself. It’s not the most useful spell in the world, admittedly, but it’s still fun to turn Bob Newbie into a toad.
Child and adult Sims have different spells and charms available to them.
Should I Sell The Magic Kit?
If you want to make the most of the magic system in The Sims then keeping the kit is a no-brainer. It gives you a good starting point for getting set up and embarking on your magical journey without having to spend any money at all.
On the other hand, the magic kit sells for a reasonable amount of Simoleons, especially given how early in the game you get it and how poorly most entry-level careers pay. This means that if you aren’t planning on getting into magic, then selling it isn’t a bad idea.
Even if you aren’t sold on dabbling in witchcraft, Sims can learn some really useful spells, so don’t throw your new stuff out too quickly if you’re on the fence. Get Happy, Smiley Face, and Enchant are especially handy spells:
|
Name of spell |
Effects |
|
Get Happy |
Improves a Sim’s mood |
|
Smiley Face |
Turns the target into a friend |
|
Enchant |
Animates household items so they’re brought to life, ready to help with domestic tasks |
Keeping Sims happy, making friends, and staying on top of everything they need to do in a day are all notoriously difficult in the original Sims games, so having a little magical help doesn’t go amiss. Whether or not it’s more useful than having the extra money is another question.
Spells can backfire under certain circumstances, causing poor outcomes. That just makes it more fun, though.
How Much Can I Sell The Magic Kit For?
The contents of the MagiCo Magical Starter Kit can be sold in Buy or Build Mode for the following prices:
|
Item Name |
Price (Simoleons) |
|
Hole In The Ground |
89 |
|
Spellbound Wand Charger |
129 |
|
Start Here Spellbook |
149 |
|
Truly Charming End Table |
205 |
|
Total |
572 |
If you’re tight for cash then definitely sell the end table, regardless of whether you want to keep the other magical equipment or not. You can buy a cheaper surface for the wand charger to go on instead. You might even have space in your house already.
The box itself can’t be sold in Buy Mode. Instead, if you delete it, it gets disposed of. If you do that without grabbing the smaller items out of it then they’ll go on the journey too.
Your Sim might as well hang onto the small items in the kit in case they decide to use them later, especially considering you don’t need to use the inventory in The Sims much anyway.
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