The Outdoor Enthusiast Aspiration from The Sims 4 Outdoor Retreat challenges your Sim to embrace the wilderness of Granite Falls. To complete it, your Sim will master the Herbalism Skill, forage for Unidentified Plants, catch bugs, and sleep under the stars. This guide covers every milestone task, the best strategies for completing them, and how to unlock the exclusive Survivalist trait.
1. Best Tips for Outdoor Enthusiast Aspiration
These tips will help you prepare for all four milestones of the Outdoor Enthusiast Aspiration and make your Sim’s wilderness journey smoother.
- Have the Loves Outdoors Trait: Your Sim will gain positive Moodlets while outside, which helps offset uncomfortable camping moments.
- Stay at the Campground: It’s the cheapest lodging in Granite Falls and still provides restrooms, showers, and grills.
- Get a Tent: Required for a later milestone. Buy from Build Mode under Outdoor Activities, the ranger’s hut, or occasionally via fishing loot.
- Travel in Summer: With The Sims 4 Seasons, fishing and plant harvesting are restricted in winter. Summer is ideal for plant availability.
The campground is the cheapest accommodation at Granite Falls.
2. How to Complete Milestone 1: Greenhorn
The first milestone introduces plant identification and fishing in Granite Falls. Your Sim must harvest plants and catch local fish.
How to Harvest Unidentified Plants
- Search all 3 Granite Falls zones: the Campground, Granite Falls Forest, and Hermit’s House.
- Look for plants labeled “Unidentified.” These can be edible or toxic.
- Harvest any 10 Unidentified Plants to complete the task.
Wild plants look distinctive and are labelled as Unidentified.
How to Catch Fish in Granite Falls
- Fishing spots exist in all 3 areas.
- Catch 5 fish specifically from Granite Falls to progress.
There are plenty of places to go fishing in Granite Falls.
3. How to Complete Milestone 2: Forest Scout
This milestone requires your Sim to build their Herbalism Skill, cook beetles over a fire, and eat wild plants.
How to Reach Herbalism Level 4
- Identify Unidentified Plants – builds skill slowly.
- Read Herbalism Skill Books – can be purchased if available at the ranger hut or Build Mode.
- Brew Herbal Remedies – best XP method. Use grills around Granite Falls.
You can check what ingredients you need for each remedy your Sim can make.
How to Cook Beetles on a Campfire
- Catch beetles in Granite Falls. They’re found on the ground or hovering in clusters, especially in Granite Falls Forest.
- Collect at least 2 beetles.
- Light a campfire, select Cook > Beetle, and let your Sim eat from the plate.
To roast a beetle or two, you first need to find them in the forest.
How to Eat Wild Plants
- Harvest plants from the wild and select Eat from your Sim’s inventory.
- Ensure they are non-toxic, or your Sim may get a negative Moodlet.
- Eat 10 different plants total.
Toxic plants won’t kill your Sim, but they will give them negative moodlets.
4. How to Complete Milestone 3: Wilderness Explorer
Milestone 3 advances your Sim’s Herbalism Skill and requires plant identification and meeting the forest hermit. One plant may require cheats due to a known game bug.
How to Craft Excellent Herbal Remedies
- Continue brewing until your Sim makes 3 Excellent-quality herbal remedies.
- Use high-quality ingredients (plants and bugs) for better results.
You’re more likely to make Excellent remedies at higher Herbalism.
How to Identify All Unidentified Plants
- There are 10 total Unidentified Plants across Granite Falls.
- To identify one, harvest it and choose Attempt to Identify in the inventory.
- If Identify is unsuccessful, you may need higher Herbalism.
- Check progress via Household Collections > Gardening.
- Look for plants with Outdoor Retreat icon (blue with campfire symbol).
If an identify attempt isn’t successful, try again. You may need a higher Herbalism skill level.
Fireleaf Bug Workaround
Fireleaf often spawns as the poison version and cannot be harvested due to a bug. If you can’t identify it:
- Try uprooting all Poison Fireleaf plants to trigger a fresh spawn.
- Respawn may take days and require staying on sight.
- If that fails, use the cheat: testingcheats true → aspirations.complete_current_milestone. This moves onto Milestone 4.
- To get Fireleaf for brewing, use bb.showhiddenobjects and search “Debug” in Build Mode, filtered by Outdoor Retreat.
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- There is a Fireleaf behind the restroom, but it doesn’t function correctly.
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- If you can’t get Fireleaf, use the Debug cheat to get some.
All Unidentified Plants in Granite Falls
- Chamomile (Common, Summer) – Daisy-like flower.
- Toxic Chamomile (Common, Summer) – Greener in color.
- Elderberry (Common, Summer/Fall) – Plum-colored berries.
- Noxious Elderberry (Common, Summer/Fall) – Indigo berries.
- Fireleaf (Uncommon, Spring/Summer) – Red-tinted leaves.
- Poison Fireleaf (Uncommon, Spring/Summer) – Darker and purple-tinted leaves.
- Huckleberry (Uncommon, Summer/Fall) – Violet berries.
- Muckleberry (Uncommon, Summer/Fall) – Reddish-brown berries.
- Morel Mushroom (Rare, Spring/Summer) – Honeycomb texture.
- False Morel Mushroom (Rare, Spring/Summer) – Green tint.
Outdoor Retreat plants can be found under Gardening in Collections.
How to Befriend the Hermit
- Go to the Granite Falls Forest.
- Locate the bramble tunnel not far from the cabin.
- Choose Explore, then select the right path options until you get “Travel Towards the Sim“.
- Arrive at the Hermit’s House and introduce yourself to complete the task.
The Hermit is happy with just an introduction for this task.
5. How to Complete Milestone 4: Outdoor Enthusiast
The final milestone focuses on maxing out Herbalism, tent camping, and bug collecting. Completing all three unlocks the Survivalist reward trait.
How to Max Out Herbalism Skill
- Reach Level 10 by consistently brewing herbal remedies.
- Continue reading skill books as a backup method.
You’ll be making a lot of remedies before you reach level 10 Herbalism.
How to Sleep in a Tent at Night
- Place the tent from Inventory onto the ground with Place in World.
- Your Sim must sleep for at least 6 hours at a time—napping doesn’t count.
- Put away tent with Put in Inventory. Unavailable if another Sim is using it.
- Repeat this 5 separate times. You can multitask this with other outdoor activities.
Tents are ideal because you can use them anywhere.
How to Collect 15 Bugs
- Continue collecting bugs throughout Granite Falls—especially in the national park.
- Each successful catch counts as one toward the total.
- Try visiting at different times of day to increase spawn rates.
Not every bug-catching attempt is a successful one, but most are.
6. Outdoor Enthusiast Reward: Survivalist Trait
Completing the Outdoor Enthusiast Aspiration grants your Sim the Survivalist Trait. This trait enhances your Sim’s enjoyment of living off the land. They will gain positive moodlets from using camping equipment and fresh ingredients. They’ll also have an easier time surviving future trips to Granite Falls or similar destinations.
Not only do you get the Survivalist Trait, but your Sim has mastered Herbalism and made the most of their Granite Falls trip.
