Disabling Seasions But Keeping its Stuff - Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
Improving Sims 4: The past month, I've spent every day tinkering The Sims 4, making quality of life improvements, gameplay changes, and new difficulty settings for the game. If you'd like to learn more about my project, visit the post on Patreon where you can download it now.
When a game has over 30 packs, it's sure to have a few things you don't know about.
There are a good number of secrets in The Sims 4 so I've made a list of tons of things you might not know. I have a big list here, and I hope you'll add your own in the comments. If you would prefer to see this as a video instead, you can watch it on my youtube channel using the picture link below!
Click the picture to watch my Sims 4 Secrets video on Youtube.
Seasons' Flower Arranging skill has a unique buff - when you scent flowers with tulips, you'll secure the loyalty of the Sim you gift them to for 3 full days.
Our first secret comes from The Sims 4 Seasons. While not many scents for flower arranging do something unique, a bouquet scented with tulips does have a special effect. If you gift a Sim with a tulip-scented vase, they will be forced to be loyal to your Sim. That means they literally cannot do any romance interactions except with the person who gifted it to them for the next 3 days. It's a cool hidden buff.
Curse of the Night Wraith in Realm of Magic results in this guy stalking your Sim.
Sometimes in Realm of Magic, when your Sim has an overcharge failure, they'll get the curse of the night stalker. This is a pretty unique curse so worth mentioning here. It's probably one of the worst. A ghostly figure will stalk your Sim, randomly scare them, and you'll have difficulty to get to sleep. Playing like this will definitely encourage you to seek a curse removal potion.
With the right traits, your Sim won't die to lightning. They'll be Hyper-charged instead!
If a Sim is struck by lightning, they might die. But if they have the Storm Chaser Trait, or have Loves the Outdoors or Erratic, they might get a different outcome. On the first strike they'll get supercharged. On the second hit, they'll become hypercharged and they can summon lightning bolts when you click the ground. While they're in this state, their energy will drain a bit slower because of Energized. While this happens so rarely it may as well not exist, you can actually get this effect from pushing the big red button on generators in Eco Lifestyle. You're rolling the dice though, so have a friend with a death flower handy!
Fruitcake lovers have a small advantage in The Sims 4
Much like people, Sims either love or hate fruitcake. This is something that is chosen randomly when your Sim tries it for the first time. It's actually just one of a few hidden traits that exist in the game. If your Sim likes it, you've got a great meal that will never spoil. You can make your own fruitcakes once the one from the welcome wagon wears out, and keep it in your inventory to get a mood boost any time.
These cute little Grim Reaper dolls DO actually have a purpose other than being a children's toy.
For players who let Sims age, there are a few ways to get your age bar down. One neat one is to use Nifty Knitting's main Knitting skill to knit up a cute little grim reaper doll. How does this help you with aging you might ask? Well, if you gift one to the Grim Reaper when they've shown up (to hopefully take someone else) it will reset the Sim's age to the beginning of the current stage.
If you're new to Sims, I suppose it should qualify as news to you that if you have a death flower and a family member is dying, you can give that to grim to spare them. If you've got nothing and your Sim isn't worthless, you can try the plead interaction instead.
Bob doesn't want a kiss.
While they don't really do anything, the game has some funny titles for your Sims' relationships with others. For instance, you can be total opposites if friendship and romance are both fully in the red. But if you have a romance bar with a negative friendship, you'll be "Enemies with Benefits". It's not typical for this to happen on its own. You kind of have to destroy a friendship after establishing love by insulting them. If it's the other way around - high friendship and low romance - it'll be "It's Complicated".
Beetle Juice drank 3 times in a row will result in a Sim being turned into a ghost that lives with your household. It appears to require them to not live alone, though.
There's a new death type in Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle, and how it works is pretty unique. You need beetle nuggets, so get the bug hotel from build mode and farm regular beetles. With level 10 mixology, you can make Beetle Juice. Drink 3 of these quickly, and your Sim will instantly die and become a live-in ghost. It's like the movie, just more alcoholism. You'll be like the man himself, the ghost with the most, Beetlejuice! Well, sort of.
What's really different here is there's no reaper visit, and you're a live-in ghost by default. So there's no need to move them in. This makes it the easiest way to get a ghost in your family through normal gameplay. Just need level 10 Mixology. I'll point out I was not able to get this to work with a single Sim and it worked immediately when I moved someone in. It also helps to prepare the drinks ahead in your Sim's inventory then down them all at once. Drink two at once if you like. We won't judge you.
A Sim watches a movie. There are actually hidden mechanics for how your Sim will react after watching a movie, based on their Traits.
It's really not very helpful but I know players will find it interesting that Sims actually have preferences in movies. This is a base game only feature, meaning they never added to it, but you can totally pick movies based on your Sim's traits. In general, use your gut. Most of them are very predictable. Bros and Athletic Sims are more likely to enjoy an action movie, but Evil Sims will hate family movies like a dog's journey home and gravitate more toward horror.
Honey is one of the most useful things when dealing with weather in The Sims 4 Seasons.
Another secret from Seasons comes from the Bee Box. Honey is such a powerful treat that it can save Sims from freezing to death and heat stroke. That's actually not the only thing about bees that will do that. You'll find just as much protection by wearing the beekeeper's suit, because wearing it also protects you against bad weather.
A UFO abducting Bob Pancakes. This won't happen unless a player seeks out Aliens.
Most players who have Get to Work wil al be aware of aliens, but the developers made it so that it's possible to never see them. Players who join the Scientist career will have the easiest time. See, talking to an alien, or searching for them in some way, makes the chance of alien encounters go up. You'll get alien visits, and you may get abducted. And yes, a male Sim being abducted can result in him getting pregnant with an alien baby.
She gifted him a sweater, now their relationship is in trouble.
If you own Nifty Knitting, beware of the Sweater Curse. If you gift a sweater to a girlfriend or boyfriend, you'll automatically get this curse and will suffer more failures in romance while losing triple the points when it does fail. So yeah, not good. This lasts about a week and can be cured if you finish the Lady of the Knits Aspiration.
A shop in The Sims 4 Realm of Magic
There are a few types of shop that offer you items that needed to be collected to find them in the past. For example, the stalls in City Living can sell you things, as can the purchase gifts option on the phone. The most crazy example is for players with Realm of Magic - with that pack, you can buy expensive produce like dragon fruits to immediately jump into high end gardening.
The Sims 4 Dine Out has its secrets - special recipes you can learn to cook. They don't do a lot, but it's cool to know every recipe.
There are a few classes of secret recipe that involve learning multiple dishes. First, there are the festivals and food stalls in City Living. Go here, eat the food, and your Sim will learn to make it at home. Another way is with Dine Out. Eating experimental foods in a restaurant you visit will let you learn to make those as well. Because of the way the Sims 4 is, you'll probably have to set up a restaurant to make that happen, though. There may also be recipes you can learn via Selvadoradian Culture Skill if you own Jungle Adventure.
There are a couple of handy hotkeys in build mode when it comes to getting the look you want. First, know that you are able to resize items using the left and right bracket hotkeys, great if you like the look of something but it's way too big... or if you want to replace Bob Pancakes' house with a giant toilet. The other hotkey is the + button on your numpad. Pushing this will cycle an object through its various looks, so you can see what something looks like live. Or make use of the design tool at the top of the screen. Its hotkey is 'R'. If you want to learn to do things efficiently, check out this page on my site: Sims 4 Controls & Hotkeys.
The Sims 4 Vampires' creatures of the night have a special ability to avoid certain types of death. They are totally immune to poison and death by humiliation and laughter. This makes vampires incredible for skilling up in comedy to make Sims laugh so hard they die, especially when combined with their mind powers.
Having a baby with Father Winter's baby gives you a unique buff, though its usefulness is debateable due to an oversight by Maxis.
In The Sims 4 Seasons, there is a Santa-like figure called Father Winter. If you can get him in the sack and produce a baby, you'll get the Father Winter's Baby reward trait for your kid. This... is something you might want to shoot for, but someone at Maxis doesn't know that Whims suck and made this trait reward you for finishing those mini goals. You can turn whims on in the options menu, but you will quickly find that your Sim wants stupid things.
Fabrication in The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle - using this social will sometimes result in you learning new schematics.
In Eco Lifestyle, you can actually learn some secret recipes on the fabricator by using the Enthuse About Fabrication interaction with other SIms. This is kind of rare as a lot of recipes are just given to you as you level up. Now, the recipes themselves aren't all that useful but it's one more little thing to teach your Sim how to make.
A Sim ducks into the tree that leads to Sylvan Glade in The Sims 4 Base Game.
This is another one of those things they really, really needed more of and to make these areas a bit more interesting. There are a total four hidden areas in the game. Two are available in the base game, Sylvan Glade is inside the big tree in Willow Creek. Forgotten Grotto is accessed with level 10 handiness in Oasis Springs' park area. There are two entrances there that lead to the same place. Outdoor Retreat has a place called the Deep Woods where you can meet a hermit and learn a special recipe if you learn the associated herbalism skill. Finally, scientists can make a portal to Sixam once they're high level which will let them collect some alien plants... on another planet that's really small. You can also get to Sixam with a fully-upgraded Rocket via the Rocket Science Skill (though it still requires Get to Work).
Not all socials do nothing but raise the friendship meter. A few categories of hidden meter exist that can help you to get a buff by using particular socials when your Sim's in conversation. For instance, using Share Secret and Deep Conversation will give you a Deep Connections buff. You can get another kind with Flatter and Brighten day. A last type is romantic - using flirty interactions will build up until both Sims get flirty. You've surely seen this, you just might not know about it in order to exploit it.
Grilled Cheese has its own Aspiration in The Sims 4 Base Game
While it wasn't originally in the Sims 4's base game, an Aspiration was added that lets you pursue the art of grilled cheese. Just eat a few sandwiches in a row and your Sim will unlock the ability to pick this on the Aspirations menu. From there, completing it will let you summon a grilled cheese at any time. It's a travesty that it's a normal quality one, after all that work toward perfection and Maxis needs to fix this.
A Sim joins the Secret Society in The Sims 4 Discover University. This will help them while attending school.
It's funny that among the many unknown things, the Secret Society isn't exactly one of those, but it does exist and I'd feel weird to not include it. This 'secret' organization is visible in The Sims 4 Discover University trailer. If you have that pack, giving certain gifts to the main university statue - rare Crystals, Metals, and Baked Goods, may result in a visit later that night. You can learn some great pixie powers by being in this organization. All of these clubs will unlock clothing but the Secret Society gives you some cool powers. Unfortunately, you do not get to keep them when you leave college. Some of the powers are focused on helping with grades but are still super handy when pursuing a degree.
When you make a Sim, a hidden trait is set that says whether they are right or left handed. While right handed people are more common in real life, it's about 50/50 in The Sims world. Using both equally, or being ambidextrous... that doesn't seem to be a thing.
This is a little one for new players. When you have the needs panel open, you can actually click the icons for energy, hunger and other needs to have the Sim try to automatically fix their problem themselves. It's based on what is around that has an interaction they can use, so sometimes they'll draw a blank. But the fact these are buttons is something a surprisingly large amount of people do not notice.
A Vampire gets a special buff because he enjoys this particular Sim's plasma.
This is a tiny thing, but when a Vampire drinks from another Sim, there's a 15% chance that Sim will become a permanent favorite for your Sim to feed from. They'll get a Divine Drink moodlet each time they feed, which gives +2 happy in addition to the regular buff vampires get when satisfied. So you can definitely make a Sim your slave and use them for feeding every day. Just don't store them in your basement because that'd be weird.
I've mentioned this a few times in other pages and videos, but Snaggle Fluster is a great drink recipe you can learn only at level 9 of the culinary career track, and picking the Mixology branch. Only Level 9. This gives you the opportunity to buy a recipe from a mysterious old person who gives you the recipe. Snaggle makes your bladder drain super fast but triples skill gains. There isn't anything special to use it, so it's quite handy. Stalling out at level 9 of Mixology is pretty easy - just don't get promoted or stop your Sim leveling their Mixology skill.
I have a whole video on gameplay objects, but it's worth mentioning a few here, such as patchy the straw man from Seasons who can become a live-in gardener for you if you befriend him. If your Sim collects crystals, you may enjoy Get Famous' celestial crystal crown, which gives you a ton of control over mood and needs based on the type of crystal you have put into the socket. Bertie's bee box is another example, and lets you make honey. These are great objects tucked away in build mode and not connected to any skill whatsoever, so it's entirely possible to miss them.
I plan to revisit Sims 4 secrets and tips and make a couple more videos like this. This took a lot of work so I appreciate if you share my work. If you enjoy my sites and channel and want to support me, there's a patreon link right here. A buck goes a long way. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
We now have a Youtube Channel with over 50 guides in video format to go along with the huge site I've already created. Check it out and consider subscribing if you like my style.
The Sims 4 Seasons expansion now has options! Want to disable weather or make plants in season year-round? You can do so with my new Seasons Tuner Mod
The past month, I've spent every day tinkering The Sims 4, making quality of life improvements, gameplay changes, and new difficulty settings for the game. If you'd like to learn more about my project, visit the post on Patreon where you can download it now.
Cottage Living Guide! Here is my guide to new features in the Sims 4 Cottage Living Expansion
You can also find handy Cottage Living Cheats
I have much more to come, since you can actually write a few guides about this pack!
Blender has been incredibly useful in video production, so I made my own Physics and Simulation Improvement Addon that lumps a ton of unique tools into one compact interface.
Snowy Escape Cheats
Lifestyles in Snowy Escape
Climb Mt. Komorebi
Sentiments in Snowy Escape
Rock Climbing
Skiing Skill
Snowboarding Skill
I've released a guide to Sentiments in The Sims 4 & Snowy Escape.
There is a new platform tool in The Sims 4. There's also a new Sentiments system, but it'll take some time to create a guide to that. Players can also use rental lots in any world now by changing lot types of builds in manage worlds.
I've created a massive List of The Best Mods in The Sims 4 that should be very helpful to new players and those who have not yet explored modding and how much it can do for your gameplay.
New - Secrets I have a new guide to secrets in the game. If you prefer, you can also watch a video about secrets in Sims 4.
Nifty Knitting is now available. Learn all about the stuff pack on my guide page here.
NEW - Nifty Knitting CheatsNew features in the Sims 4 June 2020
The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle Guide
Eco Footprint: How it Works
Neighborhood Action Plans
How to Cheat in Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle
Civil Designer Career
Insect Farms & Bio Fuel
Fabrication Skill in Eco Lifestyle
Juice Fizzing NEW
Traits and Aspirations in DLC
Gameplay Ideas for Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle
Updated
Trait Cheats Updated
Traits List Updated
Aspirations List Updated
Readers who use adblock or those who'd like to thank me for my efforts can now pledge $1/$5 monthly via Patreon. This helps a lot with server costs and provides some stability for my business.
This is inspired by a new series in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to the full playlist!
I now have a guide page to Tiny Living Stuff where you can learn about Murphy Beds, the new death, as well as the lot bonuses you'll receive if you manage to keep the size of your lot down with this new pack's Tiny Home Lot Type.
New I now have a guide to Making Super Sims in The Sims 4. Look for a text version within the next 72h. It won't have THAT much more info but it will help out as a checklist.
This was inspired by a series, "Let's Play a Super Sim" in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to each part for people who are interested. You can also see the Let's Play as a Playlist on Youtube.
The Sims 4 Discover University has been announced for November 15 for PC/Mac and December 17 for Xbox and Playstation 4 consoles. Click to learn more about the pack, see my summary of the livestream or read our FAQs below.
Other Guides to Discover University:
New Lot Traits: Study Spot and University Student Hang Out
New: Discover University FAQ: Gameplay Features
New Video The Sims 4 Discover University Gameplay Tips Video
More videos coming soon!
Disclaimer This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with Electronic Arts, or its licensors. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The Sims and The Sims 4 Logo are trademarks of Electronic Arts, Inc. Game content and materials copyright Electronic Arts Inc. and its licensors. All Rights Reserved. All original Guides on this site © Carl's Guides
Comments (12)
Hi! I loved this list! Just wondering what you meant by father winters child trait? What do they get that’s special? Thanks!
Guide here explaining
With handedness, only a few animations have a righty and lefty version. I played a spellcaster for I don't know how long before I finally noticed she was playing fetch left-handed with her dog! All spell animations are right handed only, so that didn't help.
With the Needs panel, clicking the button will make the sim try to resolve that need... but they often make stupid choices. Like they might try to nap on the couch, even though they're very tired and it's 1 am and they have a high-quality bed in the next room...
Something I've noticed is that when my sim takes a photo of another sim (whether using the phone or a camera), their friendship level automatically goes up. It increases each time, so if I want to make them good friends quickly I just take their photo three times.
That's good to know! If I'm playing a second-generation sim, they bought Incredibly Friendly as a child and they're instant friends with everyone they meet. But if it's a new save, a young adult with no rewards and no satisfaction to buy any, it's a lot of grinding to make a friend. And most of my sims are spellcasters now, and you have to be friends with the Sages to get them to teach you.
I just wanted to say thank you for this great guide. I have been using your page since the sims 3 first launched and you're the first place I run to for any sims questions. Keep up the great work. I know many people benefit from this. I know I do.
I don't know if anyone's noticed yet, but there are finally flat roof options using the bb.hiddenobjects cheat.
You can also use platforms to make flat roofs without having to use cheats Guide to Platforms
Taking selfies when your sim is experiencing certain emotions is a cheap way to generate emotional aura objects for that mood. They can't be turned on and off like the crystals and other types of objects, but they're also less restricted. You can absolutely get sad and angry selfies, and I haven't tried embarrassed yet, but that's next on my list. For *shifty eyes* no particular reason.
Sadly this was nerfed some years ago but still has a few emotions that you can reminisce about and then gain that emotion. Alternately you can place them in your sims houses and use the environmental aura while nearby.
What about the Beach Bum Aspiration, giving the Laid Back trait?
That was cool! Great info too! :)
So I've recently discovered something and I cant find it anywhere through google search. I had a young adult who had a baby, and we hired a nanny. Celeste Ramirez came to take care of them as an elder. My young adults have since aged up to elders, and have passed. Their children are now having children and celeste is still an elder. Shes now coming to babysit the kids of the kids who she babysat before!! Does she not die?? How is she still alive? Has nobody noticed this??
Most of the Service Sims have a tag to stop them from dying or at the least to slow aging greatly. The game is coded this way, so if you do want the service sims to die you can go into Manage Households and find them in the 'Not in the World' tab and delete them.
When sims wear the firefighter outfit, they become flame proof. Only found out cause my boyfriend dressed my sim up like an idiot.
Cool tip!
You can get to sixam without being in the scientist career, or have a fully upgraded rocket ship. My programmer hasn't fully finished upgrading her rocket ship yet found the option to visit there. ironic since I just wanted to ship her off into the cosmos and out of the way for a bit instead of getting a glass of water every 5 minutes while I was concentrating on my heir.
omg the sweater curse is so funny bc it's inspired by a real thing in the knitting community - supposedly if you knit your partner a sweater, they'll leave you quickly after! it's something to do with the time dedication needed for knitting a sweater, and unequal appreciation of the time and skill that needs to go into it from the partner, it just leads to the breakdown of all but the strongest relationships. if you're lucky enough to have someone in your life knit for you, you better shower them with love and appreciation for their work, knitting is a VERY time intensive hobby