From the monster mashup movies of the ‘40s to the Twilight series, vampires versus werewolves is a trope that’s thrived for decades. The two supernaturals even automatically dislike each other in The Sims 4, and can settle their beef through a special interaction, Supernatural Showdown.
Playable vampires and werewolves have existed alongside a host of other occults in the franchise since The Sims 2. In The Sims 4, rather than being covert inclusions in an Expansion Pack — werewolves were first added in The Sims 2: Pets, for example — both vampires and werewolves received their own Game Packs. Vampires are the second-most popular supernatural in the game, with 11.3 million created, only narrowly beaten out only by spellcasters.
Each DLC came with its own world and NPCs who have become rather infamous within the Sims community. Ancient vampire Vladislaus Straud is infamous for calling up Sims and telling them they have a great looking neck, while wild werewolf Greg is the ultimate “I can fix him” character.
The two supernaturals have a feud that goes back generations: Werewolves first came about after a group of spellcasters tried to wipe out vampires — who were causing widespread chaos — by harnessing the power of the moon, only for the spell to backfire and turn them into creatures beholden to the celestial body. Unsurprisingly, the vampires took offense at the attempt, while werewolves blame vampires for the mishap occurring in the first place.
But who cares about history when there’s a more important matter at hand: which one is stronger? I realized recently that, despite having over 1,800 hours in the game, I didn’t know the definitive answer. So for Fangsgiving, I set out to rectify it in the most extra way possible: a rigorous scientific experiment that pits fur against fang.
The experiment preparations
First, I needed to choose my test subjects, opting for some of the more famous townies I could find. On the vampiric side, I recruited (and by recruited, I mean forced into a single household with autonomy turned off) Caleb and Lilith Vatore, Miss Hell, and everyone’s favorite neck appreciator Vladislaus Straud. On the werewolf side, I had Kristopher Volkov, Lou Howell, Rory Oaklow, and Greg.
Next, I wanted to make sure that the participants wouldn’t have other variables affecting their win outcomes, using cheats to raise their vampire and werewolf rankings to maximum and MCCC (one of the most useful Sims 4 mods around, for the record) to change everyone’s Fitness skill to 10. I also used the same mod to clear any negative moodlets and keep all Sims’ needs high for each fight. There was another variable that was trickier to balance, but I did the best I could to even the playing field.
Vampire Sims have a three-level Vampiric Strength power that affects their sparring abilities, and werewolves have an Alpha Wolf ability that functions similarly. Technically, the latter’s description says it applies to werewolf-on-werewolf sparring, but I had no way to know for sure if it would potentially still have an effect elsewhere.
To not include either for every subject wouldn’t be showcasing their full abilities, but giving the powers to every combatant could potentially skew the study if it turns out the Alpha Wolf ability doesn’t affect vampire versus werewolf fights after all. I opted to split each team into two groups, which I called regulars and alphas; regulars only had their ranking and Fitness skill changed, while alphas also had the aforementioned extra powers. Then, I grouped the tests in the following way, with alphas in bold:
Alpha vs. Alpha | Alpha vs. Regular | Regular vs. Regular |
|---|---|---|
Kristopher Volkov vs. Liliith Vatore | Greg vs. Lilith Vatore | Greg vs. Vladislaus Straud |
Rory Oaklow vs. Miss Hell | Rory Oaklow vs. Caleb Vatore | Lou Howell vs. Caleb Vatore |
NPC battle league
I assembled my fighters on a lot with ample open space and got to work, and the results were not exactly what I was hoping for. To start off with a bang, I first ran the alpha versus alpha experiment. The two pairs proved well-matched, with Kristopher winning the first fight and Miss Hell winning the second — so far, a tie.
Just as I thought the normies-only match up — in which werewolves won both rounds — was turning the tides of the study, the alpha versus regular fights got me right back to where I’d started, with victory going to the vampires twice. Somehow, whether they were vanilla or not, the Vatore siblings easily pummeled both lycanthropes, but both Vlad and Caleb were no match for a regular werewolf.
Unsatisfied with my absolutely deadlocked results, it occurred to me I might need an even more curated Sim pairing to get the answers I was looking for. While I did accommodate for the aforementioned variables the best I could, I’d neglected to take Sim temperaments into account — I needed to pit two like-minded Sims against one another who were designed from the ground up to be fanged fighting machines. So, I downloaded a Jacob Black Sim and a Nadja of Antipaxos Sim from the gallery and got to work.
Jacob Black versus Nadja of Antipaxos
I gave the pair the exact same traits — Evil, Mean, and Competitive — and moved them into a lot that would soon be their own personal fight club. I’d decided to run a battery of tests that measure their strengths at several different stages. First, I had them duke it out with no Fitness or supernatural leveling, alternating who would initiate, as I’d read in my research (by which I mean reading old forum posts at length) this can potentially affect fight outcomes as well.
Just as a side note here: This is perhaps some of the most torturous I’ve treated a Sims household in a long time, as I had them in a constant loop of fighting for days on end in front of hot stage lights as I took notes, like some kind of vengeful combination of Andy Cohen and Marie Curie. I was still manually mood fixing them just as before, but damn, life was not made easy for these guys.
Both at level zero everything, the werewolf side proved stronger, with Jacob winning 3-0. Then, I measured the pair at medium strength: a shared Fitness level of 5, halfway up the supernatural ranks, and I gave Nadja a single point of Vampiric Strength. Even with that extra point, she was only victorious once across three fights — a pattern was emerging.
In their most powerful state, that of the alphas in the first experiment, the verdict became clear. Jacob won all three fights against Nadja this round, making out with a demoralizingly-decisive victory for his kind. When equally matched in temperament, the answer is abundantly clear: werewolves win.
