Tomb Features

Before descending the stairs into a potentially dangerous tomb, you need to know exactly what to expect.

These tombs are not happy treasure chambers. They are dangerous places, filled with hidden doors, traps, and even a few unhappy residents.

There’s a reason the locals ask you to go on these adventures instead of just completing them themselves!

This chapter details exactly what you need to know about tomb exploration. All tomb features are explained, from floor switches to dive wells. And we’ll even help you survive an encounter with a deadly mummy.

Keystones

Keystones are carved pieces of rock that are used to open doors in tombs. Keystones come in a handful of shapes, such as stars, crescents, and hearts.

Once a keystone is discovered (usually found in a treasure chest) and taken, it goes into the Sim’s inventory. In some tombs, your Sim will discover special keystones with actual names.

These keystones are essential for completing a tomb, because they unlock doors that regular keystones cannot.

Once you have a keystone, you can open a locked door that has a keystone panel next to it. The keystone panels have shaped holes that accommodate only same-shaped keystones.

Direct your Sim to insert a keystone into a panel to unlock a door.(If you have the right shaped keystone in your inventory, your Sim automatically fishes out the correct one.)

The Sim hoists the heavy keystone into place. After a brief flash of light, the nearby door is magically unlocked and your Sim can pass through it.

Treasure Chests

Most tombs and mysterious structures contain treasure chests. Treasure chests are often filled with relics and other valuables, such as gems or metals.

Whenever you spy a treasure chest, be sure to open it and inspect it for goodies. The relics you find in chests can be saved as part of relic collections or sold to fund future explorations.

Each destination has its own treasure chest style. Whereas the Egyptian chests are ancient stone, the Chinese treasure chests are made from ornate woods.

Floor Switches and Statues

The main mechanism for opening locked doors in tombs is a floor switch. These panels are usually plain to see on the ground (although some are invisible until you trigger their appearance, such as activating a switch in a wall hole).

Floor switches are triggered by the weight of a Sim. Just direct your Sim to the floor switch and they will place their feet firmly on the footprints on the panel.

Standing on a floor switch with footprints typically unlocks a door or perhaps disables a trap.

Some floor switches require constant weight and will re-lock a door as soon as a Sim steps off of it.

To hold these triggers down, you need to drag something heavy on top of it. Fortunately, many of these tombs are crowded with large statues. These statues are movable.

To move a statue, move the mouse cursor over it. Small yellow arrows appear on each side of the statue as you mouse over them.

These arrows show you which directions the Sim can push or pull the statue. When you see the arrow you want to use, click on the statue and choose one of the following interactions: Push, Pull, Push Far, or Pull Far.

Push or Pull just moves the statue a single square on the floor. Pull Far or Push Far tells your Sim to keep moving it until it either hits a wall or you right-click on the interaction in the action queue.

This is a good way to move a statue across a room without having to make repeat clicks.

Hole in the Wall

Look for openings in walls. These small holes can contain treasures, but many are switches that open new doors or expose puzzle pieces, such as new floor switches.

Sometimes these holes appear only after a Sim steps on a floor switch or clears away a rubble pile.

There is always a good chance that when your Sim reaches into one of these dark holes, they get a nasty surprise: bugs.

If the hole is filled with creepy-crawlies, the Sim yanks her hand out and shakes off the bugs. The Sim can then reach back in the hole to see if it contains anything good.

Agh!! Bugs!! Even after shaking them off, the Sim suffers from the Fear moodlet for several minutes.

Rubble Piles

These old tombs have been crumbling for centuries. Rocks, dirt, and debris naturally collect in rubble piles.

Sims can dig through rubble piles to search for hidden relics, disguised holes in the wall, or buried floor switches. While Sims dig through a rubble pile, they develop the Athletic skill.

Dive Wells

Dive wells are circular pools of water that appear in tombs. These wells are perfect places to get soaked, which is actually quite useful for dealing with traps. (More on traps later in this chapter.)

Traps that would burn your Sim can be passed through if your Sim pops out of a dive well sopping wet.

But dive wells are often not just for decoration and trap-thwarting. Sims can jump into dive wells and explore them.

Dive wells occasionally act as switches that open up new areas in a tomb or reveal another piece of the mechanism that leads out of a room.

Sometimes Sims find treasures and relics among the muck at the bottom of a dive well. Some dive wells also open up into underground tunnels. These tunnels lead to other dive wells inside a tomb.

A Sim can use these dive wells as portals to discover new chambers in tombs, find new treasures, and get closer to their goals.

These two dive wells are connected, allowing exploration of the new chamber.

Boulders

Some passages in tombs are blocked by giant boulders. These are immovable objects. It doesn’t matter if your Sim is it level 10 of the Athletic or Martial Arts skill.

That boulder is not moving. However, if you locate Pangu’s Axe—a very special relic in China—then you can shatter these boulders with a single click.

So, be sure to come back after finding that axe. The treasures tucked behind these boulders are typically of very high value.

Hidden Doors

Many of the tombs have hidden doors. These doors look like normal walls. But when a Sim triggers a switch that activates the door, the outline of it appears on the wall.

Now the Sim can go over to the secret door panel and attempt to open it. It takes a little effort.

Sarcophagus

Many tombs feature a particularly creepy decoration: a sarcophagus. These can be forced open and inspected, just like a treasure chest. Many of them contain relics and other treasures.

Some of them reveal secrets in a chamber. But others contain a dangerous cargo: mummies. Mummies are vicious monsters that mean harm to Sims.

They should be avoided at all costs because they only seek to hurt your explorers—sometimes with physical violence, sometimes with a horrible curse.

Whew! This sarcophagus only contains treasure.

Look who woke up on the wrong side of the millennium.