Career Progression

Once you accept the Investigator profession, get ready for a life of adventure.

Investigators have very active work days where they methodically follow clues in different cases, hoping to reach the conclusion as fast as they can to get a good payday and raise their reputation as a gumshoe.

After all, the more you advance this career, the better—and more complex—cases you receive.

Cases typically begin with a phone call (although if that phone seems strangely silent, check down at the police station for a lead on a new job or Snoop for Clues at a community lot to discover a case trigger).

A Sim explains the problem. This Sim may be telling you the whole story, may be cleverly omitting some facts, or may even be outright lying.

But it's your job to follow the first step of the case and take it all the way through to its logical conclusion.

Answer the phone and see who needs your help today!

When you begin a case, the first step in it appears above your moodlet box in the Adventure/Opportunity Tracker.

If this is an activity you can do right away or without any sort of impediment (more on this in a moment), simply click on it and go straight to that step.

For example, if you need to interview a Sim, clicking on that step automatically drives you straight to that person and starts the conversation.

After a few moments, a blue box appears that explains the result of taking that step and what the next action is in the evolving case.

While interviewing Sims in early cases, you can usually get the information you need right away.

However, as you gain experience and start getting more complex cases, you must socialize with Sims to get them to trust you before pressing them for the information you need.

You can sometimes shortcut this by bribing the Sims with the Bribe for Clues interaction (and paying out a small number of Simoleons).

In extreme situations, you actually beat up the target Sim for information, but this causes a massive relationship loss.

When you follow a case through all of its steps, you return to the original party to receive your reward. The case is closed. Maybe City Hall will call with a reward.

Or maybe this case is only the first part in a larger scenario, built of multiple cases? After all, when you start picking at the scab on the underworld of your neighborhood, you never know what you might reveal.

Not every action in a case can be performed just by clicking on it. For example, at level 4 of this career, you receive a kit that lets you dust for fingerprints.

You may need to dust for fingerprints inside a house that's locked. You must go to that house and then break in by picking the lock on one of the doors.

This is dangerous if the owner spots you breaking into the house. Most owners will yell at you, which leads to a serious relationship hit.

But if you happen to get caught breaking into a house (or performing any activity inside) by an Evil or Mean Sim, you may have to fight!

Work on Logic in your off hours. The more developed this skill is, the faster some interactions go and the more XP you earn.

Your cases require you to do many different things to find the culprit or lost object. We go over all of these activities in the Tools of the Trade section. But not all of these activities are available at first.

Some must be opened, such as Snoop for Clues, which is not available until level 2 of the career when you earn your magnifying glass. Getting that magnifying glass actually helps you in your cases.

When there is something on a lot that you should check out as part of the case, a magnifying glass hovers over it.

Use this helpful tip to keep the case on track.

At level 8 of the career, you get a cool black sedan!

Extra Activity: Stakeout/Stakeout Report

Of course, the life of an Investigator would be easier if no crime or wrongdoing was committed around town.

Stakeouts are preventive measures against crime. When you click on a community lot, such as a park or the graveyard, you can choose the Investigator-only Stakeout interaction.

This sends your Sim to the outskirts of that lot to hide and monitor the area for any unsavory activity.

While on a stakeout, other Sims cannot see the Investigator. (Of course, their stakeout routine of hiding behind bushes they hold up isn't really fooling anybody on this side of the screen.)

After the Investigator spends a few hours staking out the lot, one of a few things may happen:

Absolutely nothing. Your Sim determines there is no crime around here. At least, not right now.

Investigator does not observe any active crimes, but as a result of the stakeout, may have discovered a clue for a case or prevented crime from occurring. The value of performing stakeouts increases.

The Investigator spies some suspicious activity between two Sims. The Investigator then needs to file a report with local law enforcement.

An Investigator who spots any suspicious activity must go to a computer and write it up. This is just like writing an article in the Journalism career.

After a certain time, the Sim finishes the report and sends it off to the police. When the police receive it, they reward the Investigator with some Simoleons for helping keep the peace in town.

Extra Activity: Low Level Police Work

When not on a case, Investigators can make a little extra cash by heading down to the local police station and choosing the Do Low Level Police Work interaction on the venue.

Your Sim disappears inside the police station for several hours, which is similar to an actual shift in one of the original careers. After the shift has ended, your Sim gets a nice little payday for helping out.