The Sims 4 Archaeology Skill Guide
If you want your sims to bring goodies back from the jungle they need to know the Sims 4 Archaeology Skill!
As a teenager I wanted to be an archaeologist, but now realizing I’d be digging and moving around in dirt, I changed my mind.
At least my sims have the opportunity to do this super cool thing with The Sims 4: Jungle Adventure!
What is Archaeology Good For?
There are so many fun uses for this skill in the game, you get the opportunity to dig up old artifacts and get cool things you can either sell or use to decorate your sim’s house.
When you get a higher level of the skill you can even be sent artifacts to authenticate for others and you can get paid big money for doing it!
How to Gain The Archaeology Skill
The first way your sims can gain the skill is by purchasing the archaeology skill books by clicking on any bookcase in the game. There are three books to buy:
- Archaeology Vol 1: Tiny Brushes and You
- Archaeology Vol 2: 101 Uses for a Bullwhip
- Archaeology Vol 3: Rock or Relic?
You’ll start by reading the first book from level 1 to 4. Read Volume 2 at level 4 to level 7, then read the last book to complete the skill.
The next way you can gain this skill is by exploring the jungle and finding artifacts. You’ll find artifact piles around the jungle that you can excavate to get artifacts into your sim’s inventory.
When you click excavate your sim will get down on their knees and start working away with a hammer and take photos as well. You’ll end up with artifacts in your inventory that you’ll need to process at an archeology table.
At level four of the skill your sim can click on the ground and choose survey for dig pile and there’s a high chance a random dig pile will appear and you can excavate it.
At level six of the skill your sim is able to click on dig piles and they can choose to establish a dig site. This is awesome because multiple sims can work at it at a time and you can get multiple artifacts from a single location.
Once you have artifacts in your sim’s inventory you’ll want to bring them to an archaeology table and either uncover them if they’re in clay, or they can authenticate artifacts to see if they are real or fake.
When you choose uncover artifact a menu will pop up showing any artifacts that you have in your inventory that needs to be uncovered and your sim can do one at a time.
Authentication works the same way with the same menu, just showing things that are unauthenticated.
When you authenticate something you’ll get a notification letting you know if it’s genuine or fake.
After something is authenticated you can click practice archaeological analysis as a way to gain the skill without needing to always find new artifacts.
Ideal Mood for Archaeology
The emotion system can impact your sim’s skill gains intensely. If your sim is in the right mood for a skill they’ll gain it faster so it’s smart to know which skill is for which mood.
The best mood for archaeology is focused which you can get easily by pondering moves on a chess board. You can also use the study for historical insights interaction on art when you reach level two of the skill to get focused.
Best Traits for Gaining Archaeology
The traits that you give to your sims are so important, they can change how your sim reacts to gaining different skills and these traits are great for archeology:
- Genius: Since the best mood is focused, it’s smart to make your sims a genius. They’ll get random focused moodlets!
- Loves The Outdoors: Your sim will spend so much time outdoors when gaining this skill, so loving it will give them happy moodlets from time to time.
How to Cheat Archaeology
Cheating skills is smart, because you get to do good stuff without effort. You can do this cheat with stats.set_skill_level Major_Archaeology 10 to max this skill.
You can change the 10 at the end of the cheat to any number between 1 and 9 to get that level of the skill.
Levels of the Sims 4 Archaeology Skill
There are ten levels of this skill for your sims to earn. As you gain the skill you’ll unlock new abilities like writing a book, creating a dig site and more.
| Skill Level | Level Unlocks |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Your sim’s new skill in archeology will allow them to excavate dig piles in Selvadorada and uncover artifacts on the archaeology table. |
| Level 2 | Your sim can now study art and artifacts for historical insights to further improve their skill. |
| Level 3 | Your sim now has the knowledge and expertise to authenticate artifacts themselves on the archaeology table. |
| Level 4 | Your sim has developed a keen eye for spotting sights of archaeological importance. She can now surgery for dig piles in the jungle. |
| Level 5 | Your sim can now analyze genuine artifacts, treasures and fossils and extract elements from metals and crystals on the archaeology table. |
| Level 6 | Your sim can now find even more artifacts from dig piles by establishing an excavation site. Multiple sims are able to work on excavation sites at one time. |
| Level 7 | Your sims can now refine crystals on the archeology table. These refined crystals can be used to create powerful relics. |
| Level 8 | Your sim can now share their archeology knowledge with other sims by writing an archaeology book on the computer. |
| Level 9 | Your sim has caught the attention of sir Vincent Skullfinder. Look for packages in the mail from Sir Vincent and the Simsonian Institute asking for help authenticating artifacts. |
| Level 10 | Your sim can share their scholarly knowledge with other sims by giving an archeology lecture. Their ability to practice analysis on collectibles and find high quality artifacts is greatly enhanced. |
Writing A Sims 4 Archaeology Skill Book
When your sim reaches level 8 of this skill they will unlock the option to write their own guidebook to archaeology. This is really fun because there are two uses for this book!
The first use is placing it in your sim’s home and letting other sims in your household read it. I found it gives skill slightly faster than the already in-game skill books do which is fun!
The other awesome thing to do with this book is publish it for money! If you finish the book you can click on the mailbox (with a high enough writing skill) and choose to publish your book.
Your sim will get a royalty payment every day at 10 AM so you can earn money for a while from writing this book once!
Giving Archaeology Lectures
Once you max out the skill you can start giving archaeological lectures to other sims.
It just looks like a conversation but the other sim will gain the skill more quickly than if they were just reading the skill books or authenticating artifacts.
Helping Authenticate for Money
The best part about this skill is that once in a while you’ll get a notification letting you know that you’ll be getting an artifact in the mail to authenticate for someone else.
The artifact will be in the mail the next morning and when you get your mail it’ll appear in your sim’s inventory. You’ll want to go to an archaeology table and authenticate it.
Once that process is done you’ll click on it and choose mail back artifact and you’ll receive some money and a notification.
The notification I got was a shock, my sim was paid 4,748 simoleons for just a few hours of her life. So this is a thing that can earn you a lot whenever these are sent and since it’s random and doesn’t take long, you can have a different job and do this on the side.
