Talent badge

Talent badges, first introduced in The Sims 2: Open for Business, represent a Sim's experience in a given field. There are four discrete levels of experience: no badge, bronze, silver, and gold. Generally, Sims start with no badges at all, though some premade residents of Bluewater Village have talent badges. Also, when a neighborhood is first played after adding one or more expansion packs that include talent badges, townies (including Garden Club members) will often receive a random assortment of badges, though some will not, but only if Open for Business is installed.

In addition, Servos can start with a random assortment of badges when they are activated. All PlantSims have a gold badge in gardening, and PlantSims can pass their other talents to their spore-children, though usually at a lower level. A Bigfoot has gold in all talent badges that were available when he joined a Sim household.

Gaining badges

To gain a higher-level talent badge, a Sim must spend time performing a badge-related activity. For example, to gain a bronze Robotics badge, a Sim should use the Robot Crafting Station to create some toy robots. As the Sim works, the player will see the badge points being added, until eventually the player will be notified that the Sim has gained a bronze robotics badge.

Gaining higher talent badges usually grants Sims more options of what to create on the crafting benches, and lowers the likelihood of failure. It also reduces the time needed to perform the activity. This is particularly important for cashiering, as customers may get annoyed if they have to wait in line too long.

Talent badges can also be obtained through the use of cheats. Players can spawn the "Badge Juicer" cheat object using the testing cheats, which can be used to add or remove talent badges from Sims.

List of talent badges

The Sims 2: Open for Business

The initial talent badges that appeared in Open for Business were (in alphabetical order):

• Cosmetology
• Flower Arranging
• Register (more commonly known as Cashiering)
• Restocking
• Robotics
• Sales
• Toy Making

The Sims 2: Seasons

The Sims 2: Seasons added two more badges:

• Fishing
• Gardening

Each of these can be earned by performing the related activities (i.e. growing plants or fishing in a pond).

All PlantSims have a gold talent badge in Gardening.

The Sims 2: FreeTime

The Sims 2: FreeTime added two more badges:

• Pottery
• Sewing