Research & Debate skill

You start at level 1 after gaining 100 skill points. Moving to level 2 takes 1,440 more points, and level 3 requires an extra 2,160 points.

The point requirements grow faster in the middle levels. Going from level 5 to level 6 takes 7,200 points, for a running total of 19,780 points. Reaching level 7 requires 10,140 new points.

The largest jumps happen at the end of the skill track. You need 17,100 points to reach level 9 and 21,120 more points to reach level 10. A Sim needs 81,580 total skill points to reach the maximum level.

Your Sim's emotion changes how fast you gain points. Being Focused multiplies your skill gain by 1.4, and being Very Focused multiplies it by 1.6. Avoid practicing while Angry, Sad, Very Angry, Very Sad, or Enraged, because these emotions multiply your gain by 0.8, 0.6, or 0.4.

You can combine emotions with traits and moodlets because active multipliers multiply together. The Strong Mental Affinity trait gives a 1.4 multiplier, while Moderate Mental Affinity gives 1.3. The Omega Brain Boost moodlet multiplies skill gain by 2.

Other moodlets like Dedication, Mental Boost, and Perfected each give a 1.5 multiplier. General skill boosts also help, such as Snaggle Flustered with a 4 multiplier, or Parental Guidance and Skilling on Up with a 3 multiplier.

Higher levels unlock new social interactions and career promotions. At level 5, you can teach about Research & Debate. At level 6 and level 8, you unlock interactions for Acting, Apothecary, Charisma, Comedy, and Cooking, plus Fitness at level 8.

Level 9 unlocks the Convince interaction, and level 10 lets you give professional commentary or debate about A.I. In the Law career, promotions from level 2 and level 3 require matching skill levels. The Education career asks for this skill from level 2 through level 8 in both the Administrator and Professor branches.

You can max out the skill in Live mode using the cheat console. Open the console with Ctrl + Shift + C or Cmd + Shift + C, type testingcheats true, and enter stats.set_skill_level statistic_Skill_AdultMajor_ResearchDebate 10.