STOP!

Before you read any further, you should be aware that this article contains major spoilers about the StrangerVille Mystery story. If you do not want to have the story spoiled for you, do not continue reading this article.

Presented by EA Game Changers

The Sims 4 StrangerVille is the first add-on pack in the The Sims PC franchise to introduce a story mode. In the StrangerVille Mystery story, your Sim discovers that the residents of StrangerVille are being affected by a disturbing illness and must follow the clues to uncover the source of the disease and destroy it. The story is optional; if you choose not to pursue the story when you arrive in StrangerVille, the plot will have very little influence on your Sim there. The town will simply remain a little strange, but if you want to rid StrangerVille of all its weirdness and restore everything to normal, you’ll have to play through the story.

I’m going to walk you through how to do just that!

Part 1: StrangerVille

Welcome to StrangerVille: “The only thing stranger than the people is the flora!”

Soon after moving in, the town’s slogan is starting to make sense to you. Some of the locals are acting a bit suspicious, and there’s a large number of Military and Scientists in town.

Try asking people about StrangerVille. They might be able to shed some light on this strange situation.

Objectives

• Talk to Sims about StrangerVille
• Examine the door at the Secret Lab
• Collect evidence at the Secret Lab
• Collect 15 pieces of evidence around StrangerVille
• Compile a Secret Dossier
• Give Dossier to a Scientist, Military Personnel, or a Curio Shop Owner
• Open the door at the Secret Lab

Walkthrough

When you first arrive in StrangerVille, things don’t seem quite right. Something weird is going on in this town. Start by asking Sims around town about StrangerVille. Be sure to ask all kinds of Sims; the Curio Shop Owner, Conspiracy Theorists, Scientists, Military Personnel, Possessed Sims, and Civilians. Each of them will have unique information to share with you. After asking some folks around town, one thing becomes apparent; everything seems to point to the Secret Lab located in a crater outside of town. Head to the Secret Lab to investigate further.

The Secret Lab looks abandoned. The whole lab is sectioned off with barbed wire and there are papers scattered all over the main floor, as if whoever was there fled in a hurry. There’s a big metal door leading down to the basement. Examining the door will reveal that it’s locked and can only be accessed with a keycard. Before leaving the lab, stick around to collect evidence. Go through the entire main floor, rummaging through piles of papers on desks and abandoned file boxes lying on the floor. Don’t forget to take a picture of the door for evidence, too. In total, you should have 9 pieces of evidence in your inventory by the time you’re finished ransacking the lab.

Once you have your evidence, continue your search for clues around StrangerVille. There are multiple ways to collect evidence around StrangerVille:

• Research the StrangerVille Archives at the library: This won’t always yield a piece of evidence, but you’ll uncover useful and interesting information about the town, nonetheless.
• Plant a bug on Scientists and Military Personnel: Bugs can be purchased from the Curio Shop. Once you have a bug in your inventory, introduce yourself to a Scientist or Military Personnel and then select Plant Bug. Once the bug has been planted, use the surveillance station to listen in on their conversations. The starter trailer home in StrangerVille has one ready to go, but the surveillance station can also be purchased in Build/Buy.
• Befriend Scientists and Military Personnel: Once you befriend a Scientist or Military Personnel, you can request evidence from them. Requesting evidence from Scientists and Military Personnel you are not friends with won’t yield any results.

Keep gathering evidence until you have 15 pieces of evidence in your inventory. Once you’ve obtained 15 pieces of evidence, you’ll be able to compile a Secret Dossier. Click on the evidence in your inventory to compile the dossier.

Show the Secret Dossier to a Scientist, Military Personnel, or the Curio Shop Owner to obtain a keycard to open the door at the Secret Lab. If a Scientist or Military Personnel refuses to give you a keycard even after you have the Secret Dossier, try befriending them so they’ll trust you enough to give you the keycard. If you choose to get the keycard from the Curio Shop Owner, it must be purchased from the Curio Shop’s Secret Inventory.

After obtaining the keycard, head back to the Secret Lab and open the door. The keycard will grant you access to the first level of the basement. There’s another door leading down to the next level of the basement, but it’s at the end of a hallway full of purple spores. Trying to pass through the spores will cause your Sim to collapse and wake up possessed for a period of time. You’ll need a hazmat suit to protect you from the spores if you want to make it to the end of the hallway unharmed and open the next door.

There is another room on this level of the basement with some chemical analyzers that are glowing red, which means you should probably hover over them. They’re important. Hovering over the analyzers informs you that you need to collect spore clusters to use the analyzers. You’ll need an Infection Scanner if you want to find spore clusters, which can be obtained from Military Personnel.

There’s nothing more for you to do here right now, so leave the Secret Lab and head back to StrangerVille.

Part 2: The Bloom Begins

Leaving the Secret Lab, you can’t help but notice the sky has shifted to an eerie colour. Something has changed in StrangerVille, and not for the better. Opening that lab door must have released some kind of toxin into the air.

You will need to find a way to protect yourself from the toxic spores in the Secret Lab. Try talking to people around town to see if they know of anything that might help.

Objectives

• Convince Military Personnel to give you an Infection Scanner
• Gather Spore Clusters at the Secret Lab
• Construct Infection Profile Data at the Secret Lab
• Obtain Spore Filter from a Scientist
• Question Curio Shop Owner about spores
• Purchase Hazmat Suit from the Curio Shop
• Assemble the Hazmat Suit
• Open the second and third doors at the Secret Lab
• Develop 3 experimental vaccines

Walkthrough

Uh oh. Whatever you released from the lab seems to making things worse. The sky has changed colour, there are more Sims acting strangely, strange plants have started popping up all over town, and there are purple spores floating through the air everywhere. You need to get this under control fast!

Head to the bar in StrangerVille where the Military likes to hang out. Find a Military Personnel and convince them to give you an Infection Scanner. When you first request the Infection Scanner, they will refuse. Keep socializing with them until you’re friends with the Military Personnel. When you ask for the scanner again, you can choose to do so a variety of different ways:

• Bribe for Scanner ($750)
• Fight for Infection Scanner
• Impress for Infection Scanner
• Pull Rank for Infection Scanner (Requires Military Career rank 5 or higher)
• Seduce for Infection Scanner

If your Sim is in the Military career at a high level, it’s easiest to pull rank. If your Sim is not in the Military career or is not at a high enough rank in the Military career, the easiest way to get the Infection Scanner is to bribe the Military Personnel, but it will cost you a hefty $750. Other methods may work as well. I have also tried seducing for the scanner with success after romancing a Military Personnel for a while.

When you have the Infection Scanner, go back to the Secret Lab to collect spore clusters. Click on the ground anywhere at the Secret Lab and select Scan Here. Each scan will produce 5 spore clusters on the ground near your Sim. Put the spore clusters in your Sim’s inventory. The Infection Scanner can only be used 3 times before it needs to recharge. Just wait a short time for the Infection Scanner to have a full charge again. Luckily, 3 uses of the scanner should produce 15 spore clusters, which is exactly how many you need for the next step.

Once you have 15 spore clusters, take them downstairs to the chemical analyzers and select Construct Infection Profile Data. This should be of interest to a Scientist! Leave the Secret Lab and head to the library in StrangerVille where the Scientists like to spend their time.

Like the Military Personnel, the Scientists won’t want to help you until they know you can be trusted with sensitive information. They will refuse to help you the first time you confront them about the spores. Continue socializing with a Scientist. When you become friends, the Scientist will happily take the infection data you collected and use it to develop a Spore Filter for you. When the Spore Filter is ready, it will arrive in your mailbox sometime the next day.

The Spore Filter is useless without the rest of the Hazmat Suit, though. Question the Curio Shop Owner about the spores found at the lab. They’ll tell you that they just got a Hazmat Suit in stock but that it probably won’t be useful without a Spore Filter. Purchase the Hazmat Suit from the Curio Shop’s Secret Inventory for a whopping $1,000. Once again, the Curio Shop Owner will warn you that the Hazmat Suit doesn’t work without a Spore Filter, but if you’ve been following this guide, you already have one.

With both the Spore Filter and the Hazmat Suit in your inventory, click on either one of them and select Assemble Hazmat Suit. You now have a fully operational Hazmat Suit that will get you past those spore clouds in the Secret Lab’s basement!

Head back to the Secret Lab and put on the Hazmat Suit. Just click on it in your inventory and select Wear Hazmat Suit. Go through the hallway with the purple spore clouds that you couldn’t pass through before and open the door using your keycard. Head down both flights of stairs to get to a large room filled with the strange plants in containment pods. There will be another hallway covered in purple fungus that leads to another keycard door. Go down the hallway and open that door.

AHHH! You come face to face with the cause of StrangerVille’s problems; a massive Mother Plant in the very deepest depths of the Secret Lab’s basement! You are definitely not prepared to take on an enemy of this size right now. The wisest course of action is to retreat and start exploring the lab for a way to take this thing down.

Now that you understand the biological profile of the infection and you’ve discovered the cause, you need to create some vaccines. You need allies to help you fight this thing, but almost everyone is under The Mother’s control and won’t want to help you. You need to develop a vaccine so you can cure them, first. Before you flee the Secret Lab in terror, scan for 15 more spore clusters, then head upstairs and select Nurture on three strange plants outside the lab so you can harvest 3 bizarre fruit. You’ll need these for the vaccines.

Go back downstairs and use the chemical analyzer to develop 3 experimental vaccines using the ingredients you just collected, then head back to StrangerVille.

Part 3: Stop the Infection

You’ve discovered the source of the infection plaguing StrangerVille; an enormous “Mother” plant buried in the base of the lab. The only way to get the town back to normal is to defeat the vile creature!

Find a cure for the infection and assemble a team to destroy the Mother Plant.

Objectives

• Test Experimental Vaccines on 3 possessed Sims
• Create 3 Infection Vaccines
• Cure 3 possessed Sims and recruit them to fight The Mother
• Create Extra Infection Vaccines
• Fight The Mother

Walkthrough

It’s time to test out your vaccines on the possessed Sims. Find 3 possessed Sims wandering around StrangerVille and test your experimental vaccines on them. The first two attempts will be unsuccessful in curing the infection, but you’ll find success with the third batch you test. You’ve got what you need to create an effective vaccine now, so head back to the Secret Lab and collect more spore clusters and bizarre fruit. You’ll need 15 spore clusters and 3 bizarre fruit to craft 3 more vaccines. Create 3 Infection Vaccines on the chemical analyzers at the Secret Lab. These ones should effectively cure the infection. Once you’ve got your 3 vaccines, head back to StrangerVille.

Find a possessed Sim in StrangerVille and use your new vaccine on them, but don’t move on to the next Sim, yet. You need to stay and chat up the Sim you just cured until you’re friends with them, then recruit them to help you fight The Mother. You cannot recruit Sims that have not been recently vaccinated. If you try to recruit someone who isn’t your friend, they will refuse. Once you’ve successfully recruited the Sim, do the same for two more Sims. You should have three allies after using all your vaccines, befriending, and recruiting.

You’re one step closer to confronting The Mother, but it’s a good idea to do some extra preparation. Go back to the Secret Lab and collect more spore clusters and bizarre fruit to craft some extra vaccines. The vaccines aren’t only good for curing possessed Sims; they can be used as weapons against The Mother, too, and they deal a lot of damage. How many vaccines you make is up to you, but the more, the better. I like to make 5 just to be on the safe side. 5 vaccines will require 25 spore clusters and 5 bizarre fruit.

When you have your allies and extra vaccines on hand, you’re finally ready to fight The Mother! Take your allies with you to the Secret Lab and head down to where The Mother is. The Mother is a very intense battle with a lot of strategy involved, so check out our full guide, The Sims 4 StrangerVille: How to Defeat The Mother [SPOILERS], for everything you need to know about how to win this big boss battle.

Conclusion: A Little Less StrangerVille

With one last screech, the Mother Plant collapses. Returning home, you notice that things are beginning to return to normal. The Bizarre Plants are subsiding and the infected are waking up from their nightmare. StrangerVille owes you a huge debt. You are a Hometown Hero!

You have defeated the Mother Plant and returned StrangerVille to “normal!” You can return to the Mother Plant at any point to reawaken her. Once resurrected, you can have her set the Infection Level to your desired Strangeness. This will allow you to replay the story with other families.

Objectives

• None! Celebrate and enjoy StrangerVille any way you like!

Walkthrough

Congratulations! You have defeated The Mother and saved StrangerVille!

If your Sim has the StrangerVille Mystery aspiration, they will complete their aspiration and receive the Hero of StrangerVille reward trait. For more details about this aspiration and trait, see our aspiration overview, The Sims 4 StrangerVille: StrangerVille Mystery Aspiration Overview [SPOILERS].

Defeating The Mother will add a piece of The Mother as a trophy to your household inventory, which you can display in your home. The trophy is just a decor object and has no special interactions or moodlets associated with it, but it is quite large and unique-looking.

Just because the main story is over, that doesn’t mean your adventures in StrangerVille have to be! There are still eccentric Sims to meet and interesting places to explore around town. Why not poke around the airplane crash site or enjoy a drink at the bar (you know, now that you don’t have to use it as an excuse to spy on the military anymore).

If you ever get tired of StrangerVille being so peaceful, you can always bring a bizarre fruit to The Mother to revive her and save the town all over again! Or just infect the town again and gleefully watch mayhem ensue. It’s up to you.

Was this walkthrough helpful to you? Did you finish the story a different way? Let us know in the comments or send us your feedback on social media!