Spawners are entities in The Sims 3 that permit collectible objects such as seeds, rocks, gems, metals, bugs, fish, and dig sites to appear nearby. Spawners are normally placed in various locations throughout any given world, and each have a chance of creating an object of a given type (or range of types). As spawners are unmoving and often offer a fixed set of possible objects, they serve as semi-reliable locations for collecting.
If a spawner is placed near the edges of a lot, it will occasionally try to spawn objects on non-lot ground as well. Additionally, spawners oftentimes remain if they were placed on a lot that was since deleted.
To see spawners that have been placed on lots previously, Buydebug must have been turned on before entering the lot. It is not sufficient to turn it on after entering the lot.
Main percentages are with all expansion packs installed (thus being the minimum chance). Percentages in parenthesis are with no expansion packs installed (thus being the max chance).
Automatically placed by the game on residential lots that have alchemy stations on them. GemAlchemySpawner in FullBuild_p15.package claims the spawner is tied to "RockGemMetalSpawner1" (which would've resulted in 86.2% iron, 10.34% silver, and 3.44% gold), but in fact it's tied to "RockGemMetalSpawnerAlchemy".
*Even though most of these spawners do technically work in all worlds, the Titanium only drops in France and the Mummitomium in Egypt. However, the Mummitonium spawners will spawn copper and iron (or what ever other metals are also listed in the pertaining spawner) but no Mummitonium—unless in Egypt.
Main percentages are when being fishing skill level 10 with all expansion packs installed while using no bait (thus being the minimum chance for that skill level). Percentages in parenthesis are an attempt to figure out the game's pretty complicated system for active bait percentages, assuming the baited-for fish uses the active weighting while other fishes use the inactive weightings.
Fish spawners and the Surface Shark Spawner are nominally 6x6, but are effectively closer to 2x2. Sealife spawners are 11x11. The Rainbow Snail spawner is 1x1.
The spawner is set to only activate between 00:00 and 05:00 in in-game time. Can be placed on any lot, and does not actually need to be in a graveyard.
&BG
Fishing Spawner - China, Common
Doitsu Koi, Goldfish, Red Herring, Kawarimono Koi, Angelfish, Treasure chest
Works in all worlds, and not just in Champs Les Sims. Identical to "Common 1" except that the baits for Snail, Red Herring, and Crawfish work slightly better in Common 2.
&EP01
Fishing Spawner - France, Uncommon
19.47% Rainbow Trout, 19.47% Snail, 19.47% Crawfish, 12.98% Frog, 12.98% Toad,[TS3:SN] 6.49% Red Herring, 6.49% Black Goldfish, 2.59% Treasure chest
Rainbow Trout, Red Herring
Works in all worlds, and not just in Champs Les Sims.
&EP01
Fishing Spawner - France, Rare
20.82% Snail, 20.82% Crawfish, 20.82% Black Goldfish, 13.88% Frog, 13.88% Toad,[TS3:SN] 6.94% Red Herring, 2.77% Treasure chest
Frogs, Red Herring, Black Goldfish
Works in all worlds, and not just in Champs Les Sims.
Requires a diving spot. Identical to "Medium 1" except for swapping the percentages of Octopus and Squid. Sharks spawned by this spawner are the harmless base game breed.
&EP10
Sealife Spawner - High 1 Sealife Spawner - High 2
Eel, Blowfish, Siamese Catfish, Black Goldfish, Lobster, Angel Fish, Seahorse
Whichever fish(es) that have been spawned
Requires a diving spot. The two spawners appear to be completely identical according to SeaLife in GameplayData.package.
&EP10
Underwater Shark Spawner
"Common" Tiger Shark, "Common" Blacktip Shark, "Common" Spinner Dolphin, "Common" Risso Dolphin, "Uncommon" Lemon Shark, "Uncommon" Great White Shark
Whichever shark or dolphin that have been spawned
Requires a diving spot. Despite the spawner's name, it may sometimes spawn dolphins.
&EP10
Non-collectable Sea Life Spawner
None
Three types of minnow schools
Requires a diving spot. Fishes spawned by this spawner are purely decorative.
Works in any world and time state, and not just in the Dystopian Future. If placed on water, the spawner will usually (but not always) spawn a quasi-permanent floating trash heap.
&EP11
Seeds[]
In the game files, the spawner's rates are given for "Common seeds", "Uncommon seeds", and so on, but it hasn't been easy to find out which seeds that counts as each commonness. Seed spawners are 11x11.
Name
Spawned objects
Notes
Game
Seed Spawner Common 1
&BG
Seed Spawner Common 2
&BG
Seed Spawner Common 3
&BG
Seed Spawner Common 4
&BG
Seed Spawner Uncommon 1
&BG
Seed Spawner Uncommon 2
&BG
Seed Spawner Uncommon 3
&BG
Seed Spawner Rare 1
&BG
Seed Spawner Rare 2
&BG
Seed Spawner Rare 3
&BG
Seed Spawner Special 1
&BG
Seed Spawner Special 2
&BG
Seed Spawner Special 3
&BG
Seed Spawner France 1
&EP01
Seed Spawner France 2
&EP01
Seed Spawner France 3
&EP01
Seed Spawner France 4
&EP01
Seed Spawner China 1
&EP01
Seed Spawner China 2
&EP01
Seed Spawner Egypt 1
&EP01
Seed Spawner Egypt 2
&EP01
****Seed Spawner DO NOT USE
While not in Buydebug, the spawner is spawned under the tables of gardening stations when such a station has been placed with Buy Mode.
&Store
Other[]
Internal data for Ambitions junkyard spawners uses codenames for the objects they spawn (e.g. "TableDiningModern"), so it may not always be clear which exact objects the codenames refer to.
Spawns discolored versions of specific objects that can be salvaged for free. Not to be confused with the Junk Pile Buydebug objects.
&EP02
Junkyard Spawner 3
7.69% Roman Coffee Table, 7.69% Trails End Table, 7.69% LuLu's Artisan End Table, 7.69% Table de Bistro by Bourgeois Creations, 7.69% Decaf Coffee Table, 7.69% Two-Ton Table, 7.69% Royal Francois End Table from XIV Antiquities, 7.69% Phobic Dining Table, 7.69% Sunup Breakfast Table, 7.69% Shelves del Libro, 7.69% Penningway Bookshelf, 7.69% 21st Century Library Bookshelf
Spawns discolored versions of specific objects that can be salvaged for free. Not to be confused with the Junk Pile Buydebug objects.
Spawns discolored versions of specific objects that can be salvaged for free. Not to be confused with the Junk Pile Buydebug objects.
&EP02
Junkyard Spawner 5
12.5% Kinder Container, 12.5% Infinitoy Imagination Station, 12.5% Roy Rock's Toy Box, 8.33% Globe Sculpture, 8.33% "DresserDesigner", 8.33% "DresserMission", 8.33% "DresserModern", 8.33% Rock-a-Baby Crib, 4.16% The Clothing Dehydrator Dryer, 4.16% Übervision Panoramic from Landgraab Industries, 4.16% 85g Audio Explosion from Landgraab Industries, 4.16% Medusa Victim sculpture, 4.16% "StatueModernArt"
Spawns discolored versions of specific objects that can be salvaged for free. Not to be confused with the Junk Pile Buydebug objects.
&EP02
Wildflower Spawner
"Common" Daisy, "Common" Blue Flax, "Common" Sulfur, "Uncommon" Black Eyed Susan, "Uncommon" Azalea, "Rare" Sweet William, "Rare" Indian Blanket, "Special" Cosmos
The game files do not list numeric weightings for the flowers. A maximum of 30 wildflowers are allowed in a world simultaneously. Wildflowers are only spawned if the temperature is -1°C (30°F) or higher.
•Utopia: 7.14% chance for each of 14 various Build Mode flowers. •Dystopia: 25% medium indoor trash pile, 25% large indoor trash pile, 25% Beetle Spawner - Pill Bug, 25% Beetle Spawner - Honeypot Ant
Minor pet spawners behave relatively unusually. There is a rather low cap of 20 minor pets that can be in the wild in a world at once (40 in Appaloosa Plains), but even then that's only if the game recognizes the player's real-life GPU as "Uber" tier, oftentimes necessitating mods to update the game's GPU name table to add GPUs made after circa 2010.
The game's .package files only refer to the seashell spawners by number, so there is a possibility that some collectibles have been assigned to the wrong spawner. The seashell spawners are 11x11, whereas Bottle Spawner is 1x1.
Requires a diving spot. Additional separately counted 5% chance for Mr. Mariner Gnome to spawn nearby. Seemingly referred to in the game files as SeaShellSpawner4.
Requires a diving spot. Additional separately counted 5% chance for Mr. Mariner Gnome to spawn nearby. Seemingly referred to in the game files as SeaShellSpawner6.
&EP10
Spawners that aren't in Buydebug[]
These are spawners that Maxis simply didn't provide players any ordinary means to get access to, necessitating complex modding to make them show up in Buy Mode. This hasn't stopped Maxis themselves from placing the spawners at hard-to-access places in worlds.
Name
Spawned objects
Notes
Game
Metal Spawner - Iron/Silver/Gold
&BG
Metal Spawner - Silver
&BG
Metal Spawner - Gold
&BG
Metal Spawner - Palladium
44.4% Gold, 33.3% Silver, 11.1% Palladium, 11.1% Iron
Makes uncollectable cockroaches spawn, which must be stomped on to remove. The spawner is invisible even with BuyDebug turned on. Will make a resort's cleanliness rating plummet if the cockroaches aren't handled.
&EP10
(Unnamed floorsweep spawner)
Tells resort staff members to sweep the floor with a brush there. The spawner is invisible even with BuyDebug turned on. Will make a resort's cleanliness rating plummet if the floors aren't swept. There is a rare chance that resort staff will constantly complain about routing errors towards the spawner, in which case NRaas Debug Enabler → Radius Purge is the only plausible way to remove the spawner and thus the routing error.
&EP10
Notes[]
The game files indicate that many non-'Minor pet' spawners have a 25% chance to spawn a minor pet if The Sims 3: Pets is installed and it's a vacation world spawner in a regular world or vice versa, though little is known about this feature.
If a protest[TS3:UL] about Low World Resources is held at the city hall and succeeds, spawners supposedly generate more collectibles for a few days.
No Store worlds or sets come with any spawners of any kind (notwithstanding harvest bush/tree spawners, which are handled by the Gardening (The Sims 3) page).
