How to cheat your way to the perfect life in The Sims 4

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff.

Life is hard enough without trying to perfect the existence of your Sim too. You’ve got bills to pay, 100 babies to feed, and a countdown of your mortality — it’s exhausting, and what game’s fun if you can’t cheat? None. 

Unlike most games, the creators of The Sims actually encourage a little cheating, stating it’s “a big part of the game.” So with this in mind, and our conscience clear, we’ve compiled a list of cheats for The Sims 4 for PC, PS4, and XBOX One so you can live your best life. Note: On The Sims, not in real life. 

But, before we get started… 

For any of the cheats to work, whether you’re playing on PC, Mac, PS4, or XBOX One, you’ll need to launch the Cheat Console. To do that on your device of choice, follow one of the instructions below.

On PC: Hold down “Ctrl” and “Shift” then press the “C” key. This will bring up a white textbox at the top-left hand side of your screen.

The 💜 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

On Mac: Hold down “Command” and “Shift” and then press the “C” key. This will bring up a white textbox at the top-left hand side of your screen.

On PS4: Hold down all four shoulder buttons at once. Like on Mac and PC, this will bring up a white textbox at the top-left hand side of your screen.

On XBOX One: Hold down all four shoulder buttons at once, this will bring up a white textbox at the top-left hand side of your screen.

Get rich quick

Let’s not lie to ourselves, money makes the world go round, even in The Sims. Despite the fact that a freelancer on The Sims 4 can buy a mansion with their paycheck, I’m sure you’d rather cheat your way to eternal wealth. 

• To get 1,000 simoleons type “rosebud” or “kaching” in the Cheat Console. 
• To get 50,000 simoleons type “motherlode” in the Cheat Console. 

And if you want a very specific amount of money, you can type testingcheats true then MoneyX but replace X for the amount of simoleons you want. 

Be the most skillful version of you

The latest version of The Sims comes with a bundle of new skills for your Sim to master. But, why work to be the best when you can just cheat your way there?

To master a skill, just enter stats.set_skill_level (skillname) (level from 1-10). So if you wanted to elevate your fishing skills to level 10, you’d enter stats.set_skill_levelMajor_Fishing 10.

There’s 32 skills to ace, these include:

• Major_Fishing
• Major_Mischief
• Major_Guitar
• Major_Reaping
• Major_Programming
• Major_Gardening
• Major_GourmetCooking
• Major_Comedy
• Major_Charisma
• Major_Writing
• Major_VideoGaming
• Major_Violin
• Major_RocketScience
• Major_Painting
• Major_Piano
• Major_Logic
• Major_Handiness
• Major_HomestyleCooking
• Major_Bartending
• Major_Dj
• Skill_Fitness
• Skill_Child_Social
• Skill_Child_Motor
• Skill_Child_Creativity
• Skill_Child_Mental
• Statistic_Skill_Toddler_Communication
• Statistic_Skill_Toddler_Thinking
• Statistic_Skill_Toddler_Potty
• Statistic_Skill_Toddler_Movement
• Statistic_Skill_Toddler_Imagination

Manipulate your Sims’ emotions 

If your Sims are feeling down, you can manually adjust their feelings so they’re happy again. To do this, launch the Cheat Console, then type in testcheats true then press “Shift” and click on the Sim you’d like to change the needs for, and then select “Make Happy.” 

Perfect your pregnancy 

If you WooHoo’d without protection, got pregnant, and now can’t cope with the pregnancy symptoms, there’s a way to simply fast-forward your trimester’s. 

• To skip your first trimester, type in sims.add_buff buff_pregnancy_trimester1.
• To skip your second trimester, type in sims.add_buff buff_pregnancy_trimester2.
• To skip your third trimester, type in sims.add_buff buff_pregnancy_trimester3.
• To skip your pregnancy altogether, type in sims.add_buff buff_pregnancy_inlabor and you’re Sim will go into labor. 

Control your mortality 

There’s a few ways to live forever on The Sims (not real life), and some involve cheating, while others don’t. In the game’s gameplay options, the aging settings allow you to decide whether all Sims age, or only those in your household, or disable aging entirely. 

But if you’re a cheater, you can live forever as a ghost or get a free potion of eternal youth.

When a Sim dies, non-player character ghosts attach to a tombstone or urn around your Sim’s home or yard. You can build relationships with these ghosts and invite them to join your Sim’s household where they can eventually become playable characters.

A playable ghost can live like a normal Sim but it comes with some ghostly behavior depending on how they died. For example, if they died from laughter, they’re usually a positive bunch, but if they died from anger, they’re probably still holding a grudge. 

For eternal youth, type in sims.give_satisfaction_points 1500 (or more) with testingcheats on. Additionally, you can use bb.showhiddenobjects to be able to find potions of youth for zero simoleons in Buy Mode. 

If you really consider yourself as God, you can decide when and how your Sim will die. For example, if you think your Sim deserves to die of embarrassment, launch the Cheat Console and type in sims.add_buff buff_mortified. 

Other ways of dying include:

• Death while fixing an electrical item: sims.add_buff buff_death_electrocution_warning 
• Death after working out: sims.add_buff buff_death_elderexhaustion_warning 
• Death by starvation: sims.add_buff buff_motives_hunger_starving
• Death by laughter: sims.add_buff buff_Hysterical
• Death by rage: sims.add_buff buff_Enraged
• Death by Vampire: traits.equip_trait Vampire_Sun
• Death by poison: traits.equip_trait poison
• Death by overheating: traits.equip_trait Ghost_Overheat 

Fun fact: When a Sim dies, you can press “Shift” and click on the Grim Reaper to add him to your household allowing you to play as Grim Reaper himself.

There’s a whole bundle of cheats out there on how to live the ideal life on The Sims. You can find more on EA’s official site here.