Part 9: The Pick-Up Artist

... intriguing! Go on.

: Do you really think that's going to work, Buddy?



: I'm sure she'll give you the axe then!

: Alright, I guess we can try Buddy's way first. Let's Socialize with Elmira.

what is this 'we' nonsense





In the Socialize minigame, Sam enters conversation with a Sim and then uses what he knows about their interests and personalities to say exactly what they want to hear in order to manipulate them into doing what he wants. In short, we are playing a PUA-training minigame, only with axes instead of sex. It would be creepy if it weren't so gosh-darned cute.



Elmira starts out Surly. Color me unsurprised. Sam can choose to Flatter her or to Chat her up. Sam decides to chat, as Elmira seems the type to take offense at cheap, insincere flattery.



Hey, chatting with Elmira opened her up! Now she's feeling Talkative. We know that Elmira is big on grueling toil, so Sam decides to talk about that.



Oh, man, talking about hard work makes Elmira Delighted! Let's see. I can't imagine she'd enjoy being tricked. Does oo wanna huuuug?



awwww

if that's not the piggiest-scented hug ever



And now we've put in so many kindness coins that she's willing to give us her axe. Interacting with others is just a big game that we play to win! Yay!







Sam turns to his friends and signals his success via the time-honored 'hooray!' gesture. Lyndsay turns to Buddy.

: Alright, Buddy, I'll admit it. Your idea worked really well.



: BUDDY!!!

Whoops.





Axe in hand, Sam runs over to this little grove of apple trees. For some reason, one of the apple trees is growing Mana, too.



whack whack whack

If we chop a tree too much, it will turn all brown and start to die. Sam can fix this by watering the tree. I guess we manipulated Elmira into giving us a watering can, too.

: Hey, Sam, there's a lot of Essences up in the treetops, too! Couldn't hurt to grab a few of 'em!



When we move the cursor over the top of a tree, it turns into this spread-fingered grabby hand. We can then 'grab' the tree by holding down the Wiimote trigger--



--and literally shake the goodies out of the treetops!

: I'm right over here once you gather all the Wood Essences, Sam!



We can also chop wood out of a tree until it actually dies, in which case it drops everything that was growing on it and then turns into a dead stump.



We can then uhhhh stomp the stump into the ground, which produces some Dead Wood Essences and a convenient hole, ready to be replanted.



At the moment we only have Apples, so Sam plants and waters a new apple-tree sapling.



We can also grab dandelions and pull them up to produce Essences. Apparently this was an apple weed?

Eventually Sam has deforested the entire area--it's okay, he planted some saplings!--and has enough Wood to complete that scroll.

: Hey, Sam! Did you finish a Scroll?

Sam nods.

: Great! This Scroll will give you the power to make stairs!



Lyndsay pulls out the bag and shakes it a few times.



When she opens it, a new power sparkles out and into Sam's wand!



We are both stoked, because now Sam can make two kinds of stairs (and wooden platforms too)!



It sure is, Buddy. It sure is.


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Next time on MySims Kingdom: We build the heck out of some stairs!