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The Sims 4: Bust The Dust Kit Overview

When kits were announced in 2021 we never expected to get an entire kit dedicated to dirt, but here we are. The Sims 4: Bust The Dust is an entire pack for The Sims 4 dedicated to having vacuums and a whole dust system for your home. In addition to dirt we also got some great new friends, dust bunnies and filth fiends! There is a lot going on in this small kit, and can really change the difficulty level of your gameplay since you have to actively participate in cleaning.

Bust The Dust Description

With every single pack and kit that we get for The Sims 4 we get a nice description to show us what to expect in this before we purchase. The following is the EA official description for Bust The Dust:

“Dust off the vacuum and tidy up in The Sims™ 4 Bust the Dust Kit*! Dust is piling up and spawning friendly bunnies and dastardly filth fiends in Sims’ homes. Get rid of the muck by cleaning, or settle in for a messy life. Conquer chores with new buffs and rewards for each dust level, vacuums to help fight the good fight, and aspirations related to cleanliness.

  • Avoid Dust-Ups — What starts as a film of dust builds up into piles, and then takes on a life of its own! As time passes, homes go from clean to dusty to filthy if Sims don’t clean up.
  • Clean Up Your Act — Explore two new aspirations! Perfectly Pristine Sims won’t let a single speck of dirt remain, while Filthy and Fabulous Sims revel in allowing grime to thrive.
  • Suck it Up — Find full-size and handheld vacuums in Build Mode for your fight against the encroaching dust. Make your Sim’s chores easier—and more fun! Even kids can help out.

How to Disable Dust

Okay okay, I understand that this pack may not be something every player wants, but maybe you want the option to have dust. Or you just want the option to be able to have a cute vacuum as a decor object in your sims home, but don’t want your sims to actually have to use them.

Thankfully, The Sims team thought about this fact and added a game option for this very purpose. If you head to your game options menu you’ll find a section called pack settings that change depending on what packs you have installed in your game.

If you scroll down until you see bust the dust you’ll see an enable dust system option for you to toggle on or off. If this is checked you’ll have dust happening in your game, if it’s unchecked the dust will go away!

What’s Included in Bust the Dust?

Since Bust The Dust is a gameplay kit, you get actually gameplay included in the game and this gameplay is extremely niche. Many players want nothing to do with this kit because it is literally adding chores to your game and making it harder for your sims to stay clean. However, there is a group of us that love the repetitive mundane tasks in the sims like doing dishes and vacuuming so this pack is a must-have.

In this pack you’ll find a whole dust system for your home, including dust bunnies that you can befriend or make angry to turn them into filth fiends. You can play through two aspirations in this kit and deal with all sorts of stages of cleanliness in your sim’s home.

Aspirations

With any good aspect of gameplay, we get new aspirations to play through. With Bust the Dust we got two new aspirations that focus on either being a neat freak or being a disgusting slob which is fun considering the content. The two aspirations are as follows:

  • Perfectly Pristine: With this aspiration your sim is going to absolutely spend so much of their time cleaning and will love to do dishes, vacuum and keep their place tidy. Definitely a better choice than filthy, unless that’s something you’re into.
  • Fabulously Filthy: With this aspiration choice your sim is going to love having their home be dirty, want to use the bathroom without washing their hands and hangout with their dust bunny and filth fiend friends. Not for the faint of heart, very gross.

Stages of Cleanliness

With this pack we get an entire dirt system for your sims to live through, this includes giant piles of dust, small piles of dust and just general grime that you’ll see appear on the floor the longer you decide to just never clean. You can actually see what stage of cleanliness your home is current in by clicking on the floor and checking, this will help you gauge how much cleaning your sim should do.

Dust Bunnies

The longer you let dirt grow on your sims floor, the more likely you are to see dust bunnies. These are cute (but kinda gross) litttle bunnies that you can befriend and pet if you want, or step on to eliminate. If you’re looking for ways to make a bit of extra money, you may want to put in the effort to become friends with these little cuties because they can actually bring you back gifts that can be worth a bit of money.

Filth Fiends

Of course we can’t have our dust bunnies being cute without having an evil friend to join them if you don’t give them love! Filth fiends look a lot like a dust bunny but are a bit more intense and have red eyes and are quite scary and not something you want to have in your homes. These creatures are going to appear in your sim’s home when you reach a filthy home state and will completely replace dust bunnies that haven’t been befriended.

These are not a creature you want to have in your home, but you can name them, befriend them, appease them and more. However, if they are unhappy they do have a chance of actually setting your sim’s home on fire so be careful and try to be friendly to them instead of letting them be extremely mischievous!

Upgrading Your Vacuums

With many things in The Sims 4, there are a few ways you can upgrade and improve your vacuum to make it more effective, less likely to break and even usable off the grid. All of these upgrades are going to require you to have a bit of the handiness skill as well as certain upgrade parts. The upgrades are as follows:

  • Self-Charging Power Cell
    • A self-charging power cell will make it so your vacuum no longer needs access to power to be used. This upgrade is useful because it can now be used off the grid or won’t increase your bills when used.
    • This upgrade requires you to have level 4 of the handiness skill and to have 3 electronic upgrade parts in your sims inventory.
  • Titanium Rotors
    • The titanium rotors upgrade is wonderful because it makes the vacuum unbreakable so you’ll never have to repair it again.
    • This upgrade requires your sim to have level 5 of the handiness skill and 2 common upgrade parts and 1 electronic upgrade part.
  • Bottomless Pit
    • The bottomless pit upgrade is cool because you’ll never have to empty the vacuum again, making it easier to use always.
    • This upgrade will have your sim needing level 3 of the handiness skill and 3 common upgrade parts.
  • Vaporizing Pulse

Dust and Kids

There are a couple fun interactions with vacuums that involve kids and toddlers which is awesome because sometimes new packs completely ignore our younger friends in the game. The cutest thing in this pack is that you can actually use the handheld vacuums to quickly vacuum a toddler to slightly improve their hygiene need. This is awesome if you don’t have a bathtub to clean your toddlers, or just don’t have the time.

In addition to vacuuming toddlers, your sim kids are actually able to use these handheld vacuums as well to clean up the house. However, they aren’t able to use the larger standing vacuums. If you have The Sims 4: Parenthood in your game at the time having your sims vacuum will actually improve their responsibility character value.

Dust and Pets

If you are playing with The Sims 4: Cats & Dogs installed, you’ll want to be aware of how your pets are going to react to vacuums being used in their homes. Most of the time your sim’s pets will be pretty scared of the vacuum and will avoid it at all costs, this means they may hide or run away when you start using it. However, once in a while your cats and dogs get randomly focused on specific items and will want to follow you around as you vacuum but may go right back to being scared of it.

Types of Vacuums

With this pack we get not one but two types of vacuums, a standing vacuum and a handheld vacuum with more than one type to purchase for each. As you buy more expensive vacuums you’ll find them breaking less often, and being better at cleaning them.

Both types of vacuums can be put in your sim’s inventory or placed in your sims lot and function pretty much the same. However, handheld vacuums can be used by kids.

It is important to note that there are also two types of vacuums in other packs. There are the automated roomba vacuums that we got with The Sims 4: Cats & Dogs that you can have run around your sims house to clean up the dust as well, and your cats may even ride around on them. The other type of cleaning device that can happen is the cleaner bots you can create with the robotics skill.

Is The Sims 4: Bust The Dust Worth It?

The biggest thing about kits is that they are extremely niche and not every single player will love every single kit. When it was released, the bust the dust kit was extremely polarizing and had players asking who wants this? Well, there is a very specific group of players who love to play with real life and do the mundane tasks in the game. These players (including myself) also love a challenge and when the simple aspects of the game are too easy, we get bored so having something like this to challenge the player is awesome.

If you are a player who hates doing chores in the game, definitely don’t get this one. But if you want a bit more challenge in keeping your sims home clean and keeping them happy, this is the pack for you.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Bust the Dust is a weird pack that not a lot of players want, but I’m the type of simmer who loves it! Having consequences to your sims actions is all I’m ever looking for, so having the option to ignore cleaning and have a filth fiend set your house on fire is fun. This kit isn’t for everyone but it’s definitely fun, happy playing!

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