What Is The Sims 4: Taylor Swift Legacy Challenge? Explained

The world of The Sims 4 challenges is wide and varied. It’s possible for a challenge to take inspiration from anything, from colors, like the Not-So-Berry challenge, or Disney princesses, like the challenge of the same name. There’s a challenge with ten generations of Barbie, but the Taylor Swift challenge is unique. This Sims 4 challenge tasks players with raising ten generations of Sims, all based on the life of country darling-turned-pop icon Taylor Swift. Each generation is defined by a different era of Taylor’s music career, resulting in a challenge that’s more story-based than some of the others.

How Does The Sims 4: Taylor Swift Challenge Work?

The Sims 4 Taylor Swift challenge, officially called Swiftacy, was created by Tumblr user gillysims in 2021. Like many other legacy challenges, The Sims 4: Swiftacy has players move through ten generations of Sims, but this time, each generation takes inspiration from some of Taylor Swift’s songs. Each generation is also given a color scheme and a set of prompts to work off, but curiously, not many required traits or aspirations are needed like in other challenges. In addition to the main generations, gillysims also created a few extra prompts that can be swapped out or added to the challenge, and we’ll detail them below.

Generation 1: Debut

• Based on: “Mary’s Song (Oh My My My)” and “Should’ve Said No”
• Generation color: Forest Green
• Suggested traits: Active, Cheerful, Romantic, Maker, Loves Outdoors, Family Oriented, Good, Animal Enthusiast, Loyal

You grew up in a close-knit community. You were poor, but your family was loving. You spent many hours as a child outdoors with a family friend your age. Your relationship started innocent, but as the two of you grew older, you fell in love. You got married young and started a family early.

Then, you discover your partner isn’t being faithful. Your picturesque family life and the dreams you had for so long come crashing down. Will you forgive your long-time love, or is it time to move on?

Prompts:

• Start the legacy in a small home, living with your family (any number of parents and siblings).
• Gain and maintain the Outdoorsy Lifestyle (optional, Snowy Escape required).
• Fall in love with your close family friend.
• Get married and have at least four kids.
• You and your spouse make money through freelancing, gardening, painting, knitting, cross-stitching, fishing, herbalism, flower arranging, crafting, or collectibles ONLY.
• Discover that your spouse is cheating on you – do you reconcile or move on?

Generation 2: Fearless

• Based on: “Love Story” and “Change” OR “You All Over Me”
• Generation color: Gold
• Suggested traits: Hot-Headed, Self-Assured, Romantic, Childish, Clumsy, Family-Oriented, Adventurous

You grew up in a fractured household. For that reason, your parent(s) and/or sibling(s) are fiercely protective of you. That’s not too much of a problem… until you fall in love with someone your family disapproves of. You allow your feelings to quietly simmer. But eventually you and your love realize that the feelings are mutual.

You hide your relationship for a while, but eventually you are found out. Your family member tries to end the relationship, but you know that this is the person you’re meant to spend your life with. You try to convince your family to approve of your love. Will you succeed?

Prompts:

• Live with at least one parent or older sibling, who looks after you.
• Meet and fall in love with a sim your family member disapproves of.
• Your choice: Do you convince your family of your love? If not, do you run away with your love or let them go?
• Whatever you choose, have at least 1 child with your love.

Generation 3: Speak Now

• Based on: “Story of Us” and “Speak Now”
• Generation color: Purple
• Suggested traits: Creative, Hot-Headed, Self-Assured, Bookworm, Adventurous, Childish, Jealous, Outgoing, Self-Absorbed

Your parent had a rebellious streak that has passed down to you. You express much of your energy in your writing, but it hasn’t served you well in the love department, unfortunately. You had a tumultuous and passionate relationship in your youth, but it ended messy. You’re certain that you’ll never get back together.

But, when your love moves onto another and gets engaged, you realize that you still love them. You rekindle the relationship and have an affair, but they’re still intent on marrying their fiance. In a last-ditch effort to win them back, you arrive at their wedding uninvited, ready to speak now or forever hold your peace…

Prompts:

• Master the writing skill
• Date and then break up with your love.
• Your love moves on and gets engaged to someone else.
• Have an affair with your love while they’re still engaged to their fiance.
• Crash the wedding and try to convince your love to run away with you. Will it succeed? Will it fail? Up to you!
• Have at least 1 child with your love during your initial relationship and/or during the affair.

Generation 4: Red

• Based on: “All Too Well” and “Holy Groud”
• Generation color: Red
• Suggested traits: Creative, Gloomy, Romantic, Art Lover, Geek, Music Lover, Foodie, Maker, Paranoid, Squeamish, Loner, Socially Awkward

You are a sensitive, creative, and anxious person. You rely on a creative hobby to steady yourself and express your emotions. You remain the shy, awkward kid up until you reach adulthood, and you try to turn your creative hobby into a career. At the same time, you meet someone and fall in love for the very first time. You are swept up in a passionate romance, more intense than you’ve ever felt before, and your art is profoundly affected.

But, for reasons entirely outside of your control, your lover breaks your heart. You are shattered, and must turn back to your art to pull you out of your pain. You persevere, and throw your passion into honing your craft. You meet someone new through your art and have a happy romance. Years later, you meet your ex again and realize that the pain is gone. What happens next?

Prompts:

• Complete the Artistic Prodigy aspiration as a child.
• Have no more than one friend outside the family until you become a Young Adult.
• Meet someone as a Young Adult and have a short and passionate romance with them that ends in heartbreak.
• Max your skill in at least one creative craft (painting, writing, music, knitting, cooking, baking, etc).
• Turn your chosen skill(s) into a career (Artist, Writer, Musician, etc.).
• Meet, marry, and have at least two children with someone you met in your creative career.
• Meet your ex again later in life. They have also moved on and started a family of their own. Do you stay with your new life or try things again with your ex?

Generation 5: 1989

• Based on: “Welcome to New York,” “Style”, “Out of the Woods,” and “I Wish You Would”
• Generation color: Cyan
• Suggested traits: Creative, Goofball, Romantic, Self-Assured, Dance Machine, Music Lover, Materialistic, Insider, Jealous, Noncommittal, Self-Absorbed, Party Animal

At a young age, you decide that small-town life isn’t for you, and you move to the big city to make it as an entertainer. You make a lot of gorgeous and talented friends in your industry, and you have lots of flings. Your numerous failed relationships gain you the reputation of a toxic person, and your friends desert you.

Choose at least two romantic storylines to play out:

• “Style” – You are in an on-again, off-again relationship. It’s passionate but secret.
• “Bad Blood” – You have a close relationship with someone, toeing the line between romance and friendship. However, they betray you.
• “Out of the Woods” – After many flings, you decide to settle down with someone. However, you realize you don’t trust them and/or they don’t trust you to stay true.
• “I Wish You Would” – Date someone and break up, but realize that you still love them. Try to make the relationship work again.

Prompts:

• Move to San Myshuno or Del Sol Valley and join the Music, Comedian, or Acting Career.
• Hang out in a social group of eligible bachelors/bachelorettes.
• Gain and maintain the Hungry for Love lifestyle (optional, Snowy Escape required).
• Date two or more of your friends, following at least two of the storylines above (feel free to use multiple storylines for the same partner if you’d like).
• Have at least 2 children with any number of your partners.
• End up single.

Generation 6: Reputation

• Based on: “Dancing with Our Hands Tied” and “Delicate”
• Generation color: Grey
• Suggested traits: Creative, Gloomy, Genius, Unflirty, Music Lover, Perfectionist, Ambitious, Snob, Good, Loner, Paranoid, Proper, Loyal

Your parent’s infamy and notoriety has not escaped your notice. You’re determined to rise above all the drama, and you become a successful and famous creative. 

You’re serious about your work and swear off relationships. You’ve seen firsthand how much drama they can cause. But all that changes when you meet another celebrity and fall in love with them. All you want is to be with them, but the eyes of the paparazzi are on you. How do you handle loving someone in the spotlight?

Prompts:

• Rise the ranks of a creative career (Acting, Music, Painting, Writing, etc) and become famous for your work.

• Meet a fellow celebrity and fall in love.

• The pressure of the spotlight puts a strain on your relationship and on your career.

• Have a child with your love.

• Choose between your career or your love – you realize you cannot have both.

Generation 7: Lover

• Based on: “Cruel Summer” and “Lover”
• Generation color: Pink
• Suggested traits: Gloomy, Hot-Headed, Unflirty, Geek, Perfectionist, Childish, Squeamish, Jealous, Loner, Paranoid

Being the child of two celebrities has not given you the most normal of childhoods. You’ve spent your life in the spotlight, and it has not given you the healthiest of outlooks on relationships. All the friends you’ve made have been superficial, just there to absorb the attention your famous family garners.

So, when you fall in love for the first time, you’re certain it won’t end well. Your distrust in yourself and in your love causes problems in the relationship. You break up with your love, too scared of the relationship, even as you still love them. However, your love fights for you and wins you back.

Prompts:

• Have a strained relationship with at least one of your parents.
• Be betrayed by a friend who was only using you for your fame.
• Fall in love but end the relationship out of distrust in your love’s intentions.
• Your love wins your trust back, and you get back together.
• Move with your love back to a small town (Newcrest, Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Strangerville, etc. – any non-city).
• Have at least 3 children with your love.
• Live happily for the rest of your days.

Generation 8: Folklore

• Based on: “betty”, “cardigan” and “august”
• Generation color: White

Choose your storyline:

• “betty”: You are the most popular kid in school. However, you fall for a nerdy nobody, elevating their popularity. For a while, you and your partner rule the school, the model by which everyone judges their own relationships. However, as happy as you are with your partner, you have a summer fling with their best friend in a moment of weakness. Your partner is furious, and breaks up with you. However, you’re still in love and try to win them back.
• “cardigan”: You are not the coolest kid in school. However, all that changes when you catch the eye of the popular kid and start dating. They are the first person you’ve ever met that makes you feel wanted. You’re happy for a while until you realize that they aren’t being faithful. What’s worse is they cheated on you with your best friend! You break up with them, but you’re still in love. When they return and ask for your forgiveness, you give it to them.
• “august”: You’re the artsy nobody at your school. You’ve always had a crush on the most popular kid in school, but your best friend ends up dating them instead. You try to be happy for them, but it’s difficult, and you find yourself dreaming of your crush each night. Then, one fateful summer, you take a chance and ask to be with them. For a while, you think that this relationship will last, but your crush leaves you again at the end of the summer for your friend. Now you’ve ruined your relationship with your best friend and with your love.

Prompts:

• Choose one of the three stories to play.
• If you picked “betty” or “cardigan”, you end up marrying your love, despite the difficulties. Have at least 2 children with them.
• If you picked “august”, a child results from your fling. Raise that child on your own. You choose whether or not you love again (or if your former best friend or lover re-enter your life).
• “betty” suggested traits: Active, Cheerful, Goofball, Romantic, Self-Assured, Adventurous, Childish, Outgoing, Self-Absorbed
• “cardigan” suggested traits: Genius, Creative, Geek, Maker, Perfectionist, Ambitious, Jealous, Loyal, Socially Awkward
• “august” suggested traits: Creative, Gloomy, Romantic, Art Lover, Music Lover, Good, Loner

Generation 9: Evermore

• Based on: “tis the damn season” and “evermore”
• Generation color: Orange
• Suggested traits: Creative, Genius, Gloomy, High Maintenance, Hot-Headed, Romantic, Self-Assured, Perfectionist, Ambitious, Erratic, Overachiever, Snob, Squeamish, Loner, Noncommittal, Self-Absorbed

You grew up in a warm and loving household, but you always felt something was missing. You grow up a talented and accomplished student, and move into a rewarding career. You are in a stable relationship with your high school sweetheart that seems to be going well. Then, your sweetheart proposes… and you realize that you cannot marry them.

You reject the proposal, quit your job, and leave your shocked family and friends to set out on your own to find your purpose. You find a new passion and career. But your ex is still trying to reach out to you. Guilty about how you left things, you return home and find that everything has changed…

Prompts:

• Gain and maintain an A grade throughout your student career
• Meet and date your sweetheart as a teen
• Go into a prestigious career as soon as you become a Young Adult (Astronaut, Business, Civil Designer, Engineer, Law, Medicine, Politics, or Science)
• Your sweetheart proposes to you – reject the proposal.
• Quit your job and move out of the home to a different world.
• Establish yourself in a new hobby and career.
• Move back home to try and make things right with your ex.
• Choose to fall back in love with your ex OR fall in love with someone else you knew in your childhood.

Generation 10: Midnights

• Based on: “You’re On Your Own, Kid” and “Midnight Rain”
• Generation color: Midnight Blue
• Suggested traits: (Any traits based on your chosen ancestor), Creative, Genius, Romantic, Art Lover, Bookworm, Geek, Perfectionist, Adventurous, Ambitious, Childish, Family-oriented, Insider, Loyal, Proper

You grew up hearing wild tales of your ancestors’ adventures and misadventures with love and fame. You feel a sublime connection to one of your ancestors and decide to strike out on your own to become just like them.

However, living in the shadow of someone you’ve never met is more complicated than you realized, especially when you meet and fall in love with someone with far different life goals than you. Do you choose to continue on your path toward your dreams? Or, are those dreams misguided?

Prompts:

• Model your life goals off of the life of one of your ancestors (you pick which one).

• Work toward the top level of a career and max at least two skills at least somewhat related to that ancestor (Note: These don’t have to be the exact same career/skills said ancestor had but it should have a clear connection. For example, if your Grey ancestor was a singer, your sim could pursue some other musical instrument. If your Red ancestor wrote detective novels, you could be a detective!)

• Discover that the life you’re pursuing is not all it cracked up to be.

• Meet someone with an incompatible life dream and fall in love.

• Do you stay with that person or continue along the path toward your goal? It’s your choice.

The Sims 4: Taylor Swift Challenges – Bonus Prompts

Outside of the main ten generations, these prompts are optional but can be swapped out for one of the generations if you wish to do so. Some of these prompts may require mods, depending on which one you choose to pursue.

I Think He Did It (I Just Can’t Prove It)

• Based on: “no body, no crime”

You have a best friend who’s having marital troubles. You try to help them navigate them, but before you can help, your friend disappears. You notice your friend’s spouse is acting strange. Local police are unwilling to help. You decide to take matters into your own hands.

• Be best friends with a married sim
• Spend at least two nights a week hanging out with your friend before they disappear
• Investigate your friend’s disappearance and come to suspect their ex-spouse
• You choose: report the spouse to the authorities OR take matters into your own hands… (or both!)

Those Windermere Peaks

• Based on: “the lakes”

You’re unhappy with your current life, so you decide to drop everything and move to a distant and uninhabited place with nothing but your art and your beloved. Now all you have to focus on is the most important things.

• Quit your job and move to another world with your romantic partner
• Live in a house that’s off the grid
• Make money ONLY through art (painting, writing, music, woodworking, knitting, etc)
• Socialize only with your partner and any children you decide to have

Home is Where the Heart Is (But That’s Not Where Mine Lives)

• Based on: “London Boy”

You’re jet-setting around the world, seeing the sights. While on your travels, you meet a new sim and fall in love. They’re not who you were expecting, but life is an adventure with them!

• Meet a romantic interest while traveling (either in a destination world or in a regular one)
• Your romantic interest has a completely different lifestyle than yours. Immerse yourself in their way of life (Either through the Snowy Escape Lifestyles or just through gameplay/story)
• Participate in all possible activities/festivals in your romantic interest’s home world, and visit all community lots with them

Magic, Madness, Heaven, Sin

• Based on: “Blank Space”

You’re a secluded, rich, and extremely famous entertainer. However, in recent years you’ve become more well-known for your romantic exploits than your artistic ones. Most of your relationships end messy, but they’re fun in the moment!

• Be a celebrity
• Live in a mansion
• Make your money through an Entertainment career (Music, Comedy, Acting)
• Have a rotating series of lovers living with you (meet them, move them in, date them, break up with them, move them out, repeat)
• Complete the Serial Romantic aspiration.

The Sims 4 is available on PC, Mac, PS4, and Xbox One.