How To Be A Pro At Sims 4

Video game series The Sims turns 15 this year, with Sims 4 (launched last year) being a great revamp from its older, sadder-looking self. With amazing graphics, an improved user interface, and exciting gameplay, Sims 4 is taking over the world. As of February 2015, Electronic Arts has also finally released the Sims 4 Mac for the world to use and enjoy.

But while the game is much improved, it is also much harder to master. Gone are the times when you can aimlessly manipulate the Sims world — you will now have to complete tasks, fulfill aspirations, and meet goals in order to fully master this new game. Here are some tips to becoming a true pro at Sims 4.

How To Turn off Tutorials

The first step to becoming a pro is to make sure you’re playing in Pro mode. That means no more tutorials. Those tutorials can be really annoying, so go to your origin account, right click on the Sims 4 game and click on game properties. After that, type in “–no_tutorial” and load the game up. You will be tutorial-free!

How To Play With Celebrities

The Create-A-Sim functions are so much more complex, allowing you to stretch and mould your Sim into something entirely your own. If you’re anxious to get started, you can simply get into the Community page and download pre-made characters that fellow players have made before. You can try checking out hashtags to explore the possibilities — #celebrities helped me find a pretty decent Nicki Minaj.

You can even download houses to get some of the really elaborate stuff — I’m talking massive castles and mansions that would have usually taken you half a day to build. Just download it and place it in a space that’s big enough — and you’re all set!

I decided to get Thor and Loki from the Marvel franchise, and set them up in a pretty sweet mansionette.

How To Get A Big Screen TV

What I found really annoying is that the televisions are tiny — if you want a really big screen TV, you have to fork out crazy amounts of money to buy it — and even then it’s not so big.

Sims 4 comes with a nifty new trick where you can up or downsize an item. Simply get into the cheats menu (Ctrl-Shift-C) and type in Shift+[ to downsize, or Shift+] to upsize.

It works with TVs and a few paintings, but carpets seem to be a problem. I also wouldn’t recommend applying the trick to usable items like chairs and kitchen appliances.

Here’s Thor and Loki enjoying the news on their new theatre-sized TV.

How To Be The Best At Social Events

The great thing about Sims 4 is that they make it so much harder to complete certain tasks than in the previous Sims. Parties are one instance where the challenge makes it much more interesting. To host a successful party that is ranked either Bronze, Silver, or Gold, you have to meet certain goals. Main goals have to be met before the time ends in order for your party to be considered a success, while meeting extra goals will rank your party higher.

The key is to know the goals and prep beforehand.

Main Goals

It helps to have at least two Sims to control before you throw a party involving large groups of people, because one Sim alone will not do enough to complete the goals. Make sure that you can control the Sim handling food, because most caterers are not reliable, and will miss out on important things like the cake.

Certain tasks also require you to complete some group activities, so make sure you have a stereo, bar, TV, and card table, at least.

You may also want to do some crowd-control, especially for house parties. Block out parts of the house where you don’t want guests to wander to, and keep things that could be distractions, like computers and food in the fridge.

After that, you can hit those goals like a pro and get your gold-ranked social event.

How To Get Potions

Much like Sims 3, the fulfillment of aspirations and whims will get you points, which you can then use to claim special traits for your Sim, like “Never Weary” or “High Metabolism”. Sims 4, however, gives you something new to aspire for — potions.

These potions have a more temporary effect, like setting your mood for the next few hours or acting as a Sleep replacement, but are quite handy in changing the pace of the game for a little while. My personal favourite is the Insta-lean, which removes the fat from your Sim instantly, leaving a toned, muscled individual. Don’t we wish we had that in real life?

How to Change Your Mood

Another interesting change in Sims 4 is the moodlet, which makes gameplay much more diverse. In careers or even in accomplishing goals, the mood that your Sim is in affects them greatly, as it does to us in real life.

But how do you manipulate moods?

Make tea

You can buy a tea brewer that will be able to make specific teas, helping your Sims feel specific moods. The only problem is that it costs quite a bit, and they make it by the pot. So if you have a house full of teenagers or adults wanting to get focused before school/work, a pot would even out the costs well. Otherwise, it might be quite pricey.

• Steamy Ginseng: flirty mood
• Run Oolong: energized mood
• Pitch Black: focused mood
• Healthy Green: happy mood
• Earl Grey, Hot: confident mood
• Calming Chamomile: from anger to happy mood

Read books

Just click on any book store, and search for the mood books. You can tell by the descriptions what mood a particular book will invoke. The problem with this is that it will take some time for your mood to change, as compared to a shower or a cup of tea.

Take a shower/bath

This one is pretty self-explanatory:

• Steamy Shower: Flirty
• Brisk Shower: Energized
• Thoughtful Shower: Inspired
• Bubble Batch: Playful

Do Other Activities

While there are tons of things you could do to change your Sim’s mood — especially with specific careers and skills obtained — here are some very basic actions that any Sim can do at any time to have a quick mood swap.

• Happy: Having a good meal – +1-3, Listening to Music from a Radio (click the Radio then do other things) – +1
• Confident: Brush Teeth (Sink) +1, Psych Self Up (Mirror)+1
• Flirty: Freshen Up (Mirror) +1, Try Out Outfits
• Focused: Browse Simipedia (Computer) +1, Play Chess, also Ponder Moves on Chess Table +1
• Inspired: Admire Art (Paintings) +1: Browse Art on Computer (Web) +1
• Playful: Watch Comedy Channel on TV +1

How To Cheat At Life

Because everyone knows that you haven’t really played Sims until you’ve mastered all the cheats. Here are the basic ones you’d need to know for that perfect game. Be sure to type in Ctrl+Shift+C to open up the cheat text box first.

Money

• More money: Motherlode (+50,000 Simoleons)
• This much money: Money {number}
• Set up a Giro account: households.autopay_bills

Build

• Combine objects by ignoring placement rules (Move Objects on): bb.moveobjects
• Unlock all available items: bb.showhiddenobjects

Life

• Put a stopper on death: Death.toggle
• Get into the mood: Sims.add_buff {Mood}High(eg.  Sims.add_buff Social_Happy)

TestingCheats

First, you need to type “testingcheats true” into the cheats bracket. After that, you will have access to several other functions.

• Fulfill all needs: shift-click on a Sim and select “Make Happy”
• Clean stuff: shift-click the dirty item and select “Clean”
• Teleport: shift-click on the ground and select “Teleport”