Sims FreePlay: Influence Island has Arrived!

Get Influencing with Sims FreePlay!

Mobile Simmers around the globe waited on tenterhooks August 10th, 2020 for one of Sims FreePlay’s most anticipated updates to date.

While Sims FreePlay has long been considered the mobile Simmer’s build haven, Simmers have requested varied room shapes for a long time. This massive update gave Simmers L-shaped rooms, new SimChase event, a fresh School’s Out live event, and a novel event-type called “Influence Island.”

This Survivor-inspired event sweeps player Sims into a sun-soaked, sandy island dotted with swaying palm trees, littered with white-meat coconuts, and populated by celebrity Sims such as Bella Goth, Izzy Fabulous, and Santa. Player Sims must wield their powers of persuasion to influence these celeb Sims to their side. Through a series of challenges, celeb Sims may move from “neutral,” to “friend,” to “ally,” and finally to “clan mate.”

The name of the game is to convert seven celebrity Sims to “clan mate” status before the ten-day time limit is up. If a Sim successfully wins over seven celeb Sims, they win the grand prize: a sizable collection of school-themed decor. Among this collection includes such items as comfortable principal shoes, school lunch trays, school reception areas,

Players convert these celebrity Sims through a series of challenges. Each “challenge” consists of “rounds.”

Each “round” awards the player with a fixed number of network credits, tokens that the player may spend at the gift shop.

There are two classes of prizes in the gift shop: “common” and “rare.” The player must spin and win all “common” prizes before they are allowed to move on to the “rare” class prizes. There are no duplicates, but the player receives a random prize selection each time they spin.

During every round, the player must use their Sim’s power of persuasion to move an influence meter from the blue “neutral” zone into the green “friendly” zone. It is not so simple as to overwhelm the celebrity Sim with as many influence-generating actions as possible, however. If the meter leaps into the red zone, the player Sim will fatigue the celeb Sim, and the round will fail.

But this isn’t the only monkey wrench Firemonkeys throws at their aspiring Sim-influencer. The player Sim must also contend with a rival Sim, a conniving, sniveling antagonist whose only goal is to win celebrity Sims away from the hero Sim.

The player will know that the rival— the Grinch for Influence Island’s first season—has been at work when there is a mystery “yellow” zone on the influence bar. This is when the game mechanics slip into guessing, or more aptly, gambling territory.

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The player must guess where the rival influence point falls within the yellow zone. Thus, FreePlayers will have to cajole and wheedle their way as close to the green (and sometimes red!) zone as possible. If the rival point is closer to the safe zone than the player’s ending point, the challenge is failed. This addicting, thrilling, and frustrating rival zone experience is the facet of Influence Island that will generate the most revenue. Players may purchase “bribes” or buy their way out of failure with Social Points, the most scarce of FreePlay’s currency.

Here’s the thing about failure: it results in a loss of all rewards earned during that challenge. The game will
offer the player a piddling amount of network credits as a consolation prize, but this amount will always pale when compared to the lost network credits. Not only this, but the player Sim’s relationship status with the given celeb Sim will also reset to its previous level.

Let’s say a player embarks upon a challenge to move a celeb Sim from “friend” to “ally.” A failure resets all progress toward “ally,” and the celebrity Sim will remain a “friend.” Players only receive three challenges a day, with a new challenge attempt populating every eight hours. (The challenges do not stack, however. A player cannot “store” six challenge attempts by not playing for 48 hours, for example.) Thus, the player must use their challenge attempts to get the most out of Influence island.

This will sound very familiar to Sims Mobile players. The spinning cogs and underlying bolts of this game mechanic are undeniably of the Sweet Treats variety. In fact, FreePlayers can purchase a “survivor pack” for $9.99 USD to help boost their influence efforts.

This pack offers starting bribes, extra chocolate, helpful survival actions, and a 1,000 network credit boost. Again, this pack will remind Sims Mobile players of the “golden ticket” that Simmers can purchase for Sweet Treats.

All in all, Influence Island is a refreshing change of pace. It isn’t as taxing as the widely-despised SimChase, and the Island’s picturesque landscape is a strangely soothing reprieve from daily Sim life.

This is a permanent feature which Simmers can expect to return in later updates. Future Influence Island “seasons” will boast new prizes for Simmers to try their influencing luck to win.

How are you enjoying Influence Island? Tell us in the comments below!

Stay safe, grab some Sim sun, and happy Simming!