The Sims 4 Very Veggie Challenge Guide: Rags to Riches Edition
Hey, fellow Simmers,
I know many of you enjoy challenges because they push creativity and add depth to your gameplay. One of the most popular in 2025 is the Very Veggie Legacy Challenge, originally created by Lilsimsie.
In her version, players must build a legacy entirely around vegetables, planting them, cooking with them, and using them to survive. It’s a fresh take on the classic Official Sims 4 Legacy Challenge, but with gardening at the heart of the story.
This Very Veggie Challenge version, however, has a unique twist. Inspired by the original rules but ramped up in difficulty, this edition makes your Sim start with absolutely nothing. No home, no money, no safety net. Just a small patch of land and the will to survive off vegetables.
If you love survival-style gameplay, cottagecore farming, or the thrill of starting from the ground up, this is the perfect challenge for you. And if you want extra guidance, don’t forget to also check out the Sims 4 Rags to Riches Challenge for gameplay rules and guidelines.
I’ve also included a FAQ section at the bottom of this post to answer frequently asked questions about the Sims 4 Very Veggie Challenge.
Happy Simming!
What Is the Very Veggie Challenge Rags to Riches Edition?
The Very Veggie Challenge is a rags-to-riches style challenge with one key restriction: your Sim’s income and survival must come entirely from vegetables. That means no day jobs, no formal career, no painting sprees, and no sneaky money cheats, just good old-fashioned gardening.
Your Sim will begin with very little money and work their way up by planting seeds, harvesting crops, and selling produce. Every step forward, from eating your first salad to building a fully furnished home, comes directly from the fruits (well, veggies) of your Sim’s labor.
The beauty of this challenge lies in its simplicity. It strips away distractions and encourages you to focus on a single goal: building a thriving life through gardening.
Objective of the Very Veggie Challenge
The Very Veggie Rags to Riches Edition has one overall goal:
- Transform a penniless Sim into a thriving gardener, building an entire life and legacy using only vegetables.
Your Sim must survive day-to-day, slowly growing their wealth and upgrading their home while sticking to the strict rules of gardening. The ultimate goal is to prove that even with nothing, a Sim can grow a full life one veggie at a time.
Think of it as real-life farming where all your income and success come from your garden. You must:
- Grow and sell vegetables to earn Simoleons.
- Cook only with vegetable ingredients.
- Build a stable household using funds earned exclusively from gardening.
- Develop your Sim’s gardening skills to unlock better crops and recipes.
Starting Rules
To set up your challenge, follow these steps:
- Create a new Sim (Young Adult is most common, but any life stage works.) You can assign them traits that help, like Loves Outdoors, Vegetarian, or Cheerful.
- Move them onto an empty lot with no pre-built house. You’re not allowed to move into a pre-built house.
- Use the cheat money 0 to reduce your household funds to nothing. This is just like the OG Rags to Riches challenges, where your Sim has to start life with nothing. Use this Sims 4 Money Cheats guide to become poor.
- Your Sim must begin by foraging wild plants, digging collectibles, or fishing to eat until they can afford their first vegetable seeds.
- In another version, your Sim can purchase starter vegetable seeds before setting their household funds to 0.
- Quick meals are banned. You must cook using ingredients from your garden. Until you can grow your own vegetables, your Sim can rely on grills or public food sources.
Core Gameplay Rules
- Earning money: You may only make money by selling vegetables. Direct sales from your inventory, gardening stalls, or fairs all count. No other jobs or money-making activities are allowed. This means no careers, part-time jobs, or the like.
- Cooking: Every meal must include at least one vegetable ingredient. Quick meals (like cereal or chips) are banned. You’re required to cook everything from scratch.
- Fishing & foraging: You can fish, but only to eat the fish, never to sell. You can forage wild plants, but only for use in your household.
- Home upgrades: All furniture and home expansions must be funded through gardening profits.
Expansion Packs and Add-Ons (Optional)
This version of the Sims 4 Very Veggie challenge allows you to use additional expansion packs and mods in your gameplay. These are:
- Cottage Living: Sell produce at Finchwick Fair or village stalls for extra realism.
- Seasons: Respect seasonal planting. If it’s not in season, you can’t grow it.
- Eco Lifestyle: Trade veggies at community boards or use vertical planters for more space.
Gameplay Restrictions
There are a few gameplay restrictions you must abide by to stay true to the Very Veggie Challenge. These are:
Money
- Your only source of income is vegetables.
- You may sell harvested crops, evolved plants, or veggie-based meals at market stalls, but no other jobs or hobbies are allowed.
Food
- Every meal must contain at least one vegetable ingredient.
- Quick meals (cereal, chips, microwave foods) are not allowed.
- If you don’t have ingredients, your Sim can eat free food from community grills or forage wild harvestables.
Home Upgrades
- Every piece of furniture must be purchased with Simoleons earned from gardening.
- You cannot move into a pre-built house; everything must be built from scratch.
How to Complete the Very Veggie Challenge Rags to Riches Edition
Phase 1: Bare Survival
The first week is the hardest. Your Sim will be strapped for cash, with no house, no income, and no stability. Here’s what you can do to make the first phase as smooth as possible:
- Sleep on benches, nap in gyms, or use tents if you can afford one.
- Collect wild plants and sell cheap finds until you can buy your first vegetable seed packet.
- Focus on planting and watering a small starter garden. This is the foundation for everything, so strive to acquire seeds for planting.
- Keep your Sim’s needs met while living very frugally.
Phase 2: Small Garden, Small Shack
Once crops start growing, you can reinvest profits:
- Use early profits to buy more seed packets.
- Build a one-room shack with only the essentials (toilet, fridge, bed).
- Keep expanding your garden to increase your daily income.
Phase 3: Thriving Farmer
With more crops, your garden becomes self-sustaining.
- Add planter boxes or greenhouses for efficiency.
- Begin grafting plants to unlock rare crops like dragonfruit.
- Upgrade your home with a kitchen, bathroom, and extra comfort items.
- Cook proper meals using your own produce.
Phase 4: Rags to Riches Dream
By now, your Sim should be thriving.
- Set up a small business where you sell farm produce
- Fully furnish your home with multiple rooms.
- Save up at least §50,000 from vegetable profits.
- Max out the Gardening skill and complete the Freelance Botanist aspiration.
Win Conditions
The challenge is complete once your Sim has achieved:
- A fully built and furnished home (at least kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living area).
- §50,000 or more earned exclusively from vegetables.
- Gardening skill maxed or the Freelance Botanist aspiration completed.
Optional: Pass the challenge to an heir and see if your family can carry the veggie dynasty forward! This is the original Lilsimsie’s version, where each generation has a different plant, like broccoli, eggplant, and carrot. For the entire legacy challenge, check out this Reddit Post. You’ll find a detailed breakdown of the very veggie legacy challenge, complete with rules and milestones.
Optional Add-Ons for More Difficulty
If you want to make the Very Veggie Challenge even more difficult in your game, do the following:
Hard Mode:
- Start with §0 and forbid your Sim from buying starter seed packets. Only use foraged plants to begin.
- Double the win condition to §100,000 instead of §50,000.
Cottage Living Edition:
- You may only sell vegetables through Finchwick Fair or garden stalls. Direct selling is banned.
- Must win at least one giant crop competition. I highly recommend wearing an eggplant costume
Eco Lifestyle Twist:
- Live in Evergreen Harbor and focus on vertical planters.
- Trade produce at community boards instead of selling directly.
Family Edition
- Play as a household instead of a single Sim. Each generation must carry on the gardening legacy, passing down skills and wealth for generations to come. So, your founder Sim must marry and have children in order to select an heir.
Tips for Success
- Prioritize high-value crops like dragonfruit, orchids, and snapdragons for profit. These sell at a much higher price than normal crops, so you’ll earn income quickly.
- Use lot traits such as Great Soil to boost plant quality.
- Harvest daily, as your veggies can rot if left too long.
- Meal prep: Cook multiple servings so your Sim isn’t constantly scrambling.
- Seasonal planning (with the Seasons pack) ensures you always have crops in rotation.
- Join clubs: With Get Together, a gardening club can help maintain plants.
- Preserve food: Cook in bulk to avoid wasting vegetables.
Why Try the Very Veggie Challenge?
This challenge is perfect for players who:
- Love gardening gameplay but want more structure.
- Enjoy rags-to-riches challenges with a twist.
- Like storytelling around sustainability and simple living.
- Want a family-friendly, expansion-pack-friendly challenge.
It’s also endlessly replayable. You can experiment with different worlds, expansions, and Sim traits to make each run feel unique.
FAQ: Sims 4 Very Veggie Rags to Riches Challenge
Q: Who created the original Very Veggie Challenge?
A: The Very Veggie Challenge was originally created by Lilsimsie, one of the most popular Sims 4 YouTubers. This Rags to Riches edition is a fan-made twist inspired by her rules. You can watch the video of the original challenge here.
Q: Do I need expansion packs to play this challenge?
A: No, you can play the Very Veggie Rags to Riches edition with the base game only. Expansion packs like Cottage Living, Eco Lifestyle, and Seasons make it more fun, but they’re optional.
Q: How do I start the challenge?
A: Move your Sim into an empty lot, reduce your funds to §0, and begin by foraging or planting your first vegetables. From there, you can only survive and earn money through gardening.
There’s also a simpler version, where you first buy seeds before reducing your household funds to zero.
Q: What are the win conditions?
A: The challenge ends when your Sim has:
- A fully furnished home,
- §50,000 earned from vegetables, and
- Maxed Gardening skill or completed the Freelance Botanist aspiration.
Q: Can I use cheats?
A: Only to set starting funds (money 0). Cheats for money, skills, or needs are not allowed. They defeat the purpose of the Very Veggie challenge.
Q: How is this different from the original Rags to Riches Challenge?
A: The original Rags to Riches allows money-making from many sources (painting, fishing, odd jobs). In the Very Veggie edition, your Sim must survive only through vegetables, which makes it much harder.
Conclusion
The Very Veggie Rags to Riches Edition is my own unique twist on the original challenge by Lilsimsie, and it’s a perfect way to combine survival gameplay with gardening. Watching your Sim grow from a broke drifter to a self-sustaining farmer in the Sims 4 world is incredibly rewarding. Every milestone feels earned because it all comes from the ground up.
Whether you’re into storytelling, farming gameplay, or love a good grind, this Very Veggie challenge is a fresh way to make The Sims 4 exciting again.
If you enjoyed this challenge, check out some of my other guides:
Happy Simming!
