Deer
Deer need to remain free. They can’t ever be selected or added to a household. They have no traits and do not age or die.
Deer tend to show up at dusk, and disappear by dawn. When you see deer in the world, they may be frolicing around, grazing, or drinking from a pond or pool.
Deer are shy, and easily startled by Sims approaching them. Startled deer run away. Sims with higher levels of the hidden Wildlife Friend trait are less likely to startle deer.
Deer Interactions
If they stay back and avoid startling the deer, all Sims child or older can watch deer. The Watch interaction builds Fun and increases the Wildlife Friend trait. With a high enough Wildlife Friend level, Sims can also Pet wild deer.
Household pets can also watch deer, plus they have several other interactions: Dogs can bark or growl at a deer, cats can meow or hiss at them, and horses can watch them or stamp at them.
Buy the Wildlife Stray Gnome from the Function/Pets Essentials tab of the Buy Mode catalog and place it on your lot. Then set it to either attract or discourage wildlife.
Raccoons
Coons are the bandits of the wildlife world, and not just because of their cute black masks. Raccoons will steal pet food (if left outside) and knock over garbage cans. Like deer, they can never be tamed and can’t become members of household.
Hungry raccoons roam the suburban neighborhoods of Appaloosa Plains.
Coons like to knock over garbage cans and rummage in the trash. This leaves a mess for your Sims to clean up.
Raccoon Interactions
Grrrrr... Stay away from my yard!
Sims can watch raccoons. This builds Fun and improves the hidden Wildlife Friend skill. Sims can also try to pet raccoons, but be careful! If the raccoon is hungry, or your Sim isn’t very good with animals, your Sim could end up with a nasty bite and a lingering negative Bitten! moodlet.
Household pets can also watch raccoons, which provide some Fun for them. But they have a variety of other interactions as well. They can sniff, chase (in a friendly way), and play with raccoons. Dogs may bark or growl at raccoons, and cats can hiss at them. Pets can chase raccoons (in a mean way) and even fight with them!
Equines
Unlike wildlife, wild equines (wild horses and wild unicorns) can be befriended and adopted, becoming fully playable members of your Sims’ household. You have to be pretty good with animals to make this happen, especially when it comes to unicorns.
Wild Horses
Wild horses roam the fields and forests of Appaloosa Plains. While they mostly stick to open area such as parks and fishing spots, they will wander onto lots occupied by Sims who have a certain level of relationship with wild horses, or who have the Friend of the Herd Lifetime Reward.
Wild horses often travel in herds. The oldest female horse in the herd is the “lead horse” and the other wild horses follow her. Wild horses are easily startled and will whinny and gallop away if frightened.
Wild horses roam the fields and forests of Appaloosa Plains.
Taming Wild Horses
If you want to tame a wild horse (and you know you do!), first start out by watching it. This builds Fun and Social for your Sim, but more importantly, starts building LTR with the horse. It also builds the hidden Wildlife Friend skill, which is an important metric for taming equines.
Once the wild horse becomes more comfortable with your Sims, and doesn’t run away at their approach, you can try interactions like Pet or Feed Harvestable. If the wild horse has a high enough relationship with the Sim and accepts the interaction, it builds more LTR and Wildlife Friend skill. With patience and continued successful interactions—and level 8 Riding skill—your Sim will finally get the option to Adopt Wild Horse/Foal.
If the wild horse really likes your Sim, it will accept and join your household as a fully playable member. Sims with the Animal Lover or Equestrian traits make friends with wild horses more easily, and can succeed in adopting at lower relationship levels. If the adopting Sim has the Mustang Master reward from Riding skill, they can choose one of the new horse’s traits.
See the Riding Skill section in the Horses chapter for more details on the Riding skill rewards.
Unicorns
Unicorns are beautiful horned horses with magical powers. They are rare in the world, but they can be found, tamed, and added to your Sim’s household.
For the most part, unicorns look exactly like horses, except for the single horn in their forehead. Male unicorns also have beards and “lion tails,” which are solid with a tuft of hair at the end, instead of the usual horse tail. Unicorns are always among the most beautiful of horse types.
Unicorns are beautiful horses with magical powers. This one is a male. We can tell because he has a beard and a lion-type tail
There is only ever one wild unicorn in the world. Like deer, they tend to spawn at dusk and despawn at dawn. They are likely to spawn at either a fishing spot or a qualifying Sim’s lot. What qualifies a lot to be a unicorn spawn point? If the Sim has several pets at Friend relationship or higher, and/or the hidden Wildlife Friend skill at maximum, the lot will qualify. A lot is disqualified if the Sim has a negative relationship with any pet or has already adopted a unicorn.
All unicorns are Brave, and they all have maximum Racing and Jumping skills.
Unicorn Interactions
Sims and pets can watch unicorns. Unicorns are hard to befriend, so all social interactions require a higher LTR before they can succeed. Good Sims gain LTR faster, while Evil Sims gain it more slowly. Perhaps because of their youth and innocence, child and teen Sims also gain LTR with unicorns faster than adults do. If a unicorn accepts a social interaction from your Sim, the unicorn may decide to Bless the Sim. If the unicorn rejects the interaction, it may Curse your Sim. Bless provides the positive Unicorn’s Blessing moodlet, while Curse bestows the negative Unicorn’s Ire moodlet. A Bless erases a Curse, and vice versa.
See Unicorn Powers, below, for details about Bless and Curse interactions.
Adopting a Unicorn
Any Sim aged child or older can attempt to adopt a unicorn into the household. As usual, your household has to have room for at least one pet before this will work. For this to succeed, your Sim must have Best Friend relationship or higher with a number of pets, or maximum Wildlife Friend hidden skill. The unicorn will reject the interaction if the Sim has negative relationship with any owned pet.
If the unicorn accepts the Adopt interaction, it joins your household as a fully playable member. If it rejects the interaction, you get this message: “First prove to me that you are a friend to all creatures and then I will consider your offer.”
Once your Sims have adopted a unicorn, you can use the Edit Saddle option to take your new unicorn into Create a Sim and change coat color, mane, saddles, and accessories; pretty much anything you could change on a horse. You cannot change a unicorn’s horn, beard, or tail, although you can change their colors and patterns.
When unicorns gallop, tracers and sparkles appear behind them.
Playing a Unicorn
Unicorns have the same needs as horses, although they never get Grungy. Unicorns are naturally clean! Unicorns also build skill very quickly (adopted unicorns start out at maxxed skills but this is useful for ones you breed and raise). Unicorns also quickly build relationship with pets, toddlers, children, and teens. They’re so young and innocent!
A tame unicorn to ride?! You bet I want one!
Unicorns have unique poses when doing ordinary actions. They can paw the ground, or raise their head and let out a magical echoing whinny. They have a moonlight trailing effect when they gallop, and a faint rainbow appears at the base of a unicorn’s mouth when it eats hay, grazes, or drinks.
A rainbow appears when a unicorn drinks.
Sims of any level of Riding skill can ride a unicorn bareback and access any gait. This makes unicorns excellent riding teachers.
Unicorn poo is the best fertilizer around! When your unicorn uses a box stall, the fertilizer generated is Magic Horse Fertilizer. This is the highest possible fertilizer quality. It even has the chance to change an ordinary bush-sized plant (that hasn’t produced fruit yet) into a Life Fruit plant!
Unicorns cannot be sold or bred at the Equestrian Center (neither the Breed Mare nor Offer Stallion for Stud options will be available), nor can they be adopted out. However, they can be returned to the wild. If you choose to do this, you get a warning dialog first: “Do you really want to do this? This Unicorn will go away and never return!”
Breeding Unicorns
Household unicorns can mate with horses or other unicorns. There is a percentage chance that the offspring will be a unicorn. Unicorn foals inherit colors, patterns, and traits from their parents, just like horses do. Unicorn foals have cute little horns, unicorn hooves, and colt foals will have the “lion tail” type.
Unicorn Powers
Unicorns act like horses in many ways. However they also have a bunch of cool magical powers. Unicorn powers are based on a pool of magic points. Interactions indicate if magic points will be spent. When a unicorn is low in magic points, it gets the Power Shortage moodlet, and when it is completely out of power, it gets the Power Failure moodlet. None of the following powers can be enacted if the unicorn is out of magic points.
Perhaps a unicorn’s most exciting power is its ability to teleport, either by itself or while being ridden by a Sim. The unicorn must have available magic points and cannot teleport from inside an house or if there isn’t enough room. When a unicorn teleports, its eyes glow purple and the unicorn (and rider) disappear in a flash and reappear in the destination.
Unicorns can also cure Sims and pets of various ailments. They can cure dogs, cats, puppies and kittens of the Nauseous moodlet, and Sims (child and older) of Bitten! Kicked, Mummy’s Curse (if you have World Adventures installed), or Unicorn’s Ire. You get a message that the target “received the Unicorn’s help and was cured of <removed ailment>.” Not only does this cure the moodlet, it builds Social and LTR.
As mentioned previously, unicorns can Bless or Curse Sims and pets. These actions produce the positive Unicorn’s Blessing moodlet and the negative Unicorn’s Ire moodlet respectively. This also increases or decreases the individual’s relationship with the unicorn.
Unicorns can also Bless or Curse plants. When a unicorn Blesses a plant, the unicorn’s eyes glow green, and a new green leaves appear on the plant. If the plant had withered or died, it is restored to health. If the plant wasn’t mature, it matures to the next level, and if it hadn’t fruited yet, it produces harvestables. A Cursed plant dies.
Unicorns can Bless (or Curse) plants.
Because all tamed unicorns are Brave, they can actually help fight a fire. The unicorn dips its head, and its eyes and horn glow. A rainstorm appears over the fire and extinguishes it. Unicorns can also start fires! This is a ground based interaction and can’t be used while the unicorn is mounted. The unicorn’s eyes glow red, and a burst of flame appears.
Tracking the Elusive Unicorn
If you undertake a quest to find and tame a unicorn, first you have to find it! Only one unicorn exists in the world at a time, and it can spawn in a variety of places. It frequently spawns at dusk and despawns at dawn, so night is the best time to look.
The Unicorn Crossing sign is a clue!
Scan the town at night, looking for clues to the unicorn’s presence. A colorful mist forms around the unicorn, which you can spot from Map View.
The colorful mist visible from Map View is another clue.