The Sims 4 Handiness Skill
Woodworking and Household Upgrades Lists
Woodworking is part of the Handiness Skill in The Sims 4
The Sims 4's Handiness Skill allows you to Repair Objects, Upgrade your home and make things unbreakable, while also improving their functionality. The Skill goes one further in this incarnation of the franchise, bringing in the ability to make money via Woodworking. As your Sim grows in ability, more and more upgrades will unlock, and you'll be able to furnish your home with a variety of hand-crafted objects. This Guide will teach you all you need to know about Handiness in TS4 and I'll list all the unlocks that come with levelling the skill. Handiness level 10 is required to access the Forgotten Grotto Hidden Area.
Repairing and Upgrading Objects
This Situation calls for the Handiness Skill!
Getting Started with Handiness
To get started, you can read a skill book at the library or by ordering one on the computer. Most Sims will start this skill by trying to repair something broken in the household. You can also start with a Woodworking Table, found under Buy Mode > Objects by Room > Study > Hobbies and Skills. The Woodworking Table is $1800. I suppose it must come with some unseen power tools, for the price is quite high. If you start this way, you can improve skill fairly fast and begin to make a return on your investment. I would read Skill Books and upgrade items around the home until level 4 or so, then start working at the Woodworking Table.
Buy Upgrade Parts with the Computer. They'll appear in your Inventory
Parts - Common Upgrade Parts, Plumbing, and Electronics
In order to Upgrade objects, you must have parts. These are found a few ways. First, you can rummage through the trash pile that's left after repairing an item. Second, you can order them through a Computer (see the Library if you don't own one), and finally, you can eventually break down Electronics to get parts. Electronic Upgrade Parts cost $120, Kitchen $90, Plumbing $30, and Common $10. Plumbing Objects (Shower, Toilet, Sink) cannot be directly broken down and salvaged, but Computers, Televisions, and Stereos can once you've levelled up some. I've also found parts while on Space Missions, and I'm sure that they can pop up randomly elsewhere. You should expect upgrading your home to cost some money this time around, but not often more than $500 for a big upgrade on a Computer. However, there is a way to reduce this:
Get Free Upgrade Parts by Salvaging after Repairing
Once you've reach level 10 in Handiness, you will always get Rare parts from Salvaging. You can make a net gain and save money by purchasing the Kaboom Box for $150. This is only $30 more than an Electronic Upgrade Part, and sometimes you will get up to 3 of them from a salvage. No other item is quite as good as this, so it's the go-to for those parts. In the end, to Upgrade a whole house, you will have to purchase parts, so I'm not bothering to list the parts cost for Upgrades. These are unlisted because the cost of, say, a faucet upgrade, varies by whether you're putting it on a Sink or Bathtub. It is an inevitability that you need to order Plumbing and Common Upgrade Parts.
Be careful upgrading Fireplaces. I'd not do this at level 4.
Handiness Upgrade List
Here are the basic Handiness level unlocks, with what you can upgrade and other benefits the skill gives to you. Woodworking is listed further down.
Handiness Upgrades and Skill Unlocks
| Lvl | Upgrades and Abilities |
|---|---|
| 1 | Salvage Parts from scrap piles leftover after Repairs |
| 2 | Talk about Handiness. Purchase Upgrade Parts on Computer. Can now add Superior Flush to Toilets, Sturdy Faucets on Sinks and Tubs, Water Flow Regulators on Showers. All these make them less likely to break. |
| 3 | Can now find rare parts when Salvaging. |
| 4 | Self-Cleaning on all Plumbing Objects. Bidets on Toilets, Auto-Soap Dispensers on Sinks, Clean Coat on Tubs, and Pulsating Massage Jets on Showers. The Bidet will eliminate the Hygiene loss from using a Toilet, while the Sink and Shower Upgrades increase the rate of Hygiene. With a Bidet and Auto-Soap Dispenser, your Sim will get a net gain of Hygiene from using a Toilet. You can also upgrade the Fireplace to Auto-Light and Fireguard it to reduce or eliminate the risk of fires. |
| 5 | Brag about Handiness Social Interaction and less chance of Electrocution when working with Electronics. Coated Exterior on Stoves and Coated Interiors on Microwaves reduce the need for cleaning. Reinforced Door on Refrigerators reduces the rate of breaking. Stick-free Pot on the Tea Brewer also eliminates the need for cleaning. These dirt-resistant upgrades are made pointless at level 7 with Self-Cleaning. |
| 6 | You may find Rare Electronic Parts from Salvaging - this just means you'll get Electronic parts, which are considered rare. |
| 7 | Your Sim will perform Plumbing Upgrades twice as fast. All Kitchen Objects can have Self-Cleaning. Infusers can be installed on Coffee and Tea Brewers, making their quality higher. Heat Sensor on Oven improves food quality, as does Fresh-Maker on Fridge and Flavor Enhancer on Microwave. Refrigerators can be made Unbreakable via 'Fridge of Steel'. |
| 8 | Upgrade Radios and Televisions with Better Components, Motion Gaming with Sturdy Panels Observatory with Reinforced Telescopic Pivots and Microscope with Robustify Inner Workings, all of which making these devices less likely to break. |
| 9 | Upgrade Computers with ECC Ram (less breaking), IP Spoofer (better Hacking), and add a better Video Card which makes it more fun. Firaxium Wiring on Stereos and Televisions make them Unbreakable. Super Reception can be added to Stereos and Televisions as well, which increases the amount of stations (Retro Music) and channels (Music TV and Fireplace Channel). You may also upgrade the Microscope with Perfect Inner Workings, making it unbreakable. Augment Eyepiece on Microscope and Observatory will increase the rate your Sim finds objects with those devices. If Observatory has upgraded pivots, the Temper Armored Telescopic Pivots upgrade unlocks, allowing it to be made unbreakable. Motion Gaming machine can be upgraded to increase video gaming skill gains with Emotion Engine, Unbreakable with Crytacoo Casing. |
| 10 | Rare Parts are always acquired from Salvage. Upgrade Kitchen Objects twice as fast and may now Mentor Sims in Handiness, teaching them the Skill quickly. |
Making Money with Handiness: Woodworking
A Display of the Woodworking Sculptures
Woodworking
Woodworking allows your Sim to make a variety of objects, all of which cost a bit of money to make (think materials). However, you are guaranteed to at least get your money back if the object's quality is Okay. If it's Good, you'll double your money. If it's Excellent, you'll get four times the money back! To do it, get a Woodworking Table, found under Buy Mode > Objects by Room > Study > Hobbies and Skills for $1800. The Woodworking Table's high cost can be quickly regained once you're around level 6 in Handiness and able to make Dining Tables. Small objects go to your Sim's inventory, but the better ones are placed in the Household Inventory (F2, bottom left selection) where you can place or sell them.
Being Focused will help immensely with Woodworking
Item Quality and Getting Focused
As noted above, items' quality determines their sell value. It also increases Comfort or Environmental scores if you want to use the objects yourself. A bad chair could be Uncomfortable, as well. There are a few things you can do to get Focused. First, browse the Simipedia on the Computer (under Web). Second, get Focused that way then click a Painter's Easel. You can make a Mathematical Diagram and hang it in your Woodworking area, enabling its Aura. Making a few of these, or finding Elements around the world will let you get up to +2 Focused from the environment. When you make an object and have Focused, your Handiness activities will give another Focused buff, so you can get Very Focused in combination with the Simipedia. At level 10 with Very Focused, almost all your items will be Excellent and you can make $1500 bath tubs, profiting around $1100 each for just a couple hours' work.
Emotional Scupltures
Four varieties of Emotional Sculpture can be created with Handiness should your Sim enter those Emotional States. Sims who are Flirty, Angry, Sad, or Playful can produce one of these for $7. There are a variety of different scupltures for each Emotion, so there are more Sculptures than just those listed here. Sims who have the Expressionistic Reward Trait from completing the Painter Extraordinaire Aspiration can produce these at any time, no matter the Emotion. At Excellent Quality, they sell for up to $30 and have the ability to produce associated Emotional Auras, so Flirty Scupltures would be great in the Bedroom, while Playful might be nice for a child's room or a Comedian's office.
The Outdoor Retreat Game Pack adds several schematics as you level.
Click this Mascot in the Campgrounds to learn to make a smaller version.
Woodworking Sculpture/Furniture Unlocks
| Lvl | Unlocks: (Crafting Cost/Sell Value at Excellent) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Knife Block ($5/$20), Horse Sculpture ($10/$40) |
| 2 | Barstool ($15/$60), Garden Pot ($15/$60 + Outdoor Retreat) Garden Planter ($17/$70 + OR). Angry, Flirty, Playful, and Sad Sculptures ($7/$30) |
| 3 | Bunny, Dragon, and Elephant Sculptures ($10/$40), Mirror ($87/$350 + OR) |
| 4 | End Table ($52/$210), Wall Shelf ($87/$175 + OR) |
| 5 | Large Bear and Lumberjack Sculptures ($15/$60), Wall Hanging ($125/$500 + OR) |
| 6 | Dining Chair ($45/$180) and Dining Table ($157/$630) |
| 7 | Camping Mascot Sculpture ($375/$1500 + OR) schematic from Granite Falls is learnable by clicking it. |
| 8 | Craft Violin ($212/$850), Child's Violin ($45/$180), Guitar ($300/$1200). You must have level 8 in either Musical Instrument Skill to see this option. |
| 9 | Craft Bathtub ($377/$1510) |
| 10 | Craft Toilet ($55/$220) |
The bigger the investment, the more you can make! Furnish your home or make money selling Bathtubs and Dining Tables!
Learn More
- Cheats - Gameplay, testing, and building cheats
- Careers - All job levels, promotions and rewards
- Skills - All skills, ideal moods, and their benefits
- Expansions, Stuff, and Game Packs - All Sims DLC Features
- Babies - Caring for an infant in The Sims 4
- Children - School grades and child skills
- Tips - Gameplay tips and tricks
- Sims' Needs - Caring for your Sims
- Money - Ways of making money in The Sims 4
- Building Tutorials - Learn tricks to make your houses look great.
- Get to Work: Open for Business - running a business
- Emotions - Getting your Sims in the right mood
- Relationships and Weddings
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