Say what you will about the properties of rose quartz and other supposedly supernatural gemstones in real life, in the world of The Sims 4 there is no doubt: gemstone jewelry can truly enhance your mood, abilities, and defy death itself if you so desire . The latest Sims 4 DLC, Crystal creationscomes with a range of new atmospheric decor options and the ability to craft magical gemstone jewelry with stat-boosting properties.
To try out the new stuff pack, I decided to seek out a pair of pre-made roommates originally from the Realm of Magic DLC, which I'd most recently placed in a Chicago townhouse-inspired apartment I built as part of the For Rent “Expansion pack that I had built came out. What's another DLC for these magical roommates I guess?
Untrained magician Grace Anansi will be my new amateur gemologist. I'm trading in her desk and laptop for the new Gemology Table, where she can either design any piece of jewelry, cut a gemstone, or create a specific piece based on my choice of jewelry style, gemstone, and metal. There's no point in leaving things to chance, so I decide to start with a set of orange topaz earrings that will help Grace improve her creative skills faster and be more likely to produce high quality work. It should be a good first push for their new creative endeavors.
After I finish her earrings, I need to charge them on a Mystical Moonlight Crystal Grid, a small ornate wooden board where I place Grace's gemstone creations to charge them outside in the moonlight. Charging takes up to 12 hours between 7pm and 7am, with the speed depending on the phase of the moon – a full moon allows for a three-hour fast charge – and then she can wear each piece for two days to reap its benefits before it needs to be charged again.
It's a good thing there's a control valve for the crystals' power, because these things stack up quickly. Crafting your first set of earrings takes a bit of time, as new Sim hobbies do, but it goes quickly. With her increased creative skill growth, Grace quickly levels up in Gemology, unlocking new types of earrings, rings, necklaces, and bracelets to craft.
I had her work on an amethyst ring to help her regain energy more quickly from sleep, an alabaster ring to help all of her negative moods disappear more quickly, and a rose quartz bracelet to keep her social need from ever decreasing. She definitely needs the latter since she doesn't have much time for socializing between her job and the nightly crystal crafting. New side hustles hit so hard.
Suddenly, Grace is stacking her buffs more aggressively than any other MMO player, wearing three rings, a necklace, earrings, and a bracelet, each granting their own effects. She is constantly in a state of confidence or inspiration, fueled by all of these mood-boosting stones. She needs to eat and shower, but otherwise she's unstoppable as the concept of sadness becomes foreign to her tunnel vision as she crafts.
If I hadn't given Grace unlimited free cash Sims 4 cheats, I could try to be more economical. There are small rock nodes on public lands like parks where she can dig for gems, and I can sell each piece when it's finished to make money too. For convenience, I simply pay the upfront cost of purchasing each gemstone and then let them all wear their own creations. However, I have to find the rarest gems with the most valuable effects in the wild because you can't buy them.
Notably, the Crystal Hematite, which provides the unique “Sim Can't Die” perk, is neither one of the rarest options nor the most expensive. So of course I make a necklace out of it – a “Moon Goddess” style pendant made from “death metal” and hematite. Because I apparently find myself funny.
This is when I channel my inner Live Mode sicko to wreak some havoc. I decide it would be fun to befriend the Grim Reaper and try to give him a Necklace of the Undead. Since we don't know each other yet, there's only one surefire way to invite death, and I'm in no mood to wait for an unfortunate accident. I use Grace's magical abilities, which I had previously ignored, to set fire to the bed of her roommate, who I had also previously ignored, in the middle of the night.
Let's just say the Grim Reaper showed up as planned. Before doing so, however, Grace managed to put out the fire that had mysteriously broken out in her roommate's room, which gave her a boost of confidence in addition to her sense of inspiration, which had already been quite heightened from crafting. The girl has a gem-powered god complex. While in this self-aware state, she is given the special interaction option of not only asking for her roommate's life back, but actually demanding it.
So the Grim Reaper resurrects her roommate, believing her to be a hero who saved his life, and she manages to make a polite acquaintance with death before they embark on the scary path. However, I didn't get around to giving them the necklace because we didn't quite make it to the official “friendship” level of relationship. A pity.
Only in hindsight did I realize that a more interesting test of the gem's powers would have been to give my roommate the immortal necklace instead before setting his bed on fire. So I think I still have some goals in mind.
What about the actual build mode?
There I did my best impression of a person who actually plays with their Sims, but the reality is that I'm just a Build Mode gal through and through. In addition to the new Gemology skill and new jewelry effects, Crystal Creations includes a range of new furniture, decorations and display cases – 32 items in total.
The style of this kit is quite moody with a dark academic vibe, mainly dark wood with brass colored hardware accents. Personally, I'm fascinated by the numerous small trinkets: a ring display tray, jewelry boxes and gemstone crafting tools. There are also various showcases, boxes, shelves and a cupboard with doors. The elegant new bookshelf set also features compartments for items. To my dismay, some of the color patterns vary slightly between bookshelves and wall shelves. But this is a cross that we lovers of wood tones have been bearing for a long time.
However, I had a few issues with objects snapping to the new surfaces. The jewelry boxes only seem to snap into place on the bottom bookcase slot, not the top one, and not at all on the wooden wall shelf or gemology table work area. The same goes for when I place handmade jewelry out into the world. Their cute little displays don't stick to most new surfaces that I would like. I'd bet it's a bug that will be fixed, but don't count on it.
I haven't actually spent any time with Create-A-Sim this time, but Crystal Creations brings four new hairstyles, a ton of new jewelry styles, and some knitted and flowy clothing options.
Since I typically spend 95% of my Sims' time building, I don't know if I would consider Crystal Creations a must-have pack, as beautiful as the style is – and as much as I love picking out new bookshelves. However, for those who love Live Mode, gem crafting feels like a really fun, if somewhat overwhelming, new craft for creative Sims. It definitely reinforces my feeling that the $10 packs of gameplay and new items are some of the best value DLC for the Sims 4.
