Highlights
- Cheating in The Sims is a community tradition that unlocks hidden content and makes building easier, adding to the storytelling experience.
- Cheats in The Sims 4 are used by builders to overcome limitations, unlock hidden items, and ensure build integrity.
- Seveal Sims 4 cheats can also help to resolve bugs and other gameplay issues for a smoother experience.
Cheating in The Sims is a long tradition that's encouraged by the community at large and can unlock hidden content. It can make building easier, and create the perfect setting for storytelling and recording screenshots and videos. Aside from these benefits, some of the best parts of The Sims games are locked behind cheats, such as exclusive build and buy mode items that were only intended for the developer's use.
Unlike what the word implies, cheating in video games, and in The Sims especially, isn't a moral stance or a shortcut to victory. There are gameplay elements in The Sims that can be deeply frustrating, such as object placement or bugs, and cheats are a way to adjust the game and set those issues right. But it isn't just bugs to be reset that benefit from cheats; there are many gameplay challenges that need cheats to work at all, such as money cheats to add or remove household funds. These types of cheats are especially prominent in build challenges for The Sims 4.
The Most Popular Cheats Since The First Sims Games
Enabling cheats requires opening the cheat console. To do so, PC players can press Ctrl + Shift + C with an open game, and type the cheat codes in one at a time. Money cheats have been around since The Sims and have many uses, from skipping the frustrating parts of building a legacy for your Sim to participating in build challenges that uses a precise amount of simoleons. The codes for the cheats have stayed the same since the original series, and veteran players will recognize most of these.
- kaching: Add 1,000 simoleons.
- rosebud: Add1,000 simoleons.
- motherlode: Add 50,000 simoleons.
- Money [#]: Change household funds to an exact amount.
- FreeRealEstate [on/off]: Enter in neighborhood or world view to make all lots free.
- household.autopay_bills [true/false]: Turns household bills on and off.
The Sims 4's build mode is the most advanced of the franchise, and Simmers have created some incredible builds using the tools from The Sims 4. However, because of the limitations of the snap-grid, sometimes objects don't align or building things like roofs can be a struggle. The cheats below come in handy when building and decorating lots, and all the best builders in The Sims community uses them. Fans should just make sure to test all builds with Sims to make sure things like Sim pathing aren't broken.
- bb.moveobjects: Allows the player to ignore the grid when placing objects.
- bb.showhiddenobjects: A debug cheat that unlocks items from build and buy mode that cannot usually be seen by players.
- bb.showliveeditobjects: Unlocks more items, use after bb.showhiddenobjects.
- bb.enablefreebuild: Build anywhere, even on locked lots.
- bb.ignoregameplayunlocksentitlement: Buy items locked by careers.
Using Cheats to Overcome Issues in The Sims 4
While The Sims 4 runs better on PCs than The Sims 3 did, it's still prone to lagging and bugs when there are many Sims or objects like farm animals in one area, and certain events in The Sims 4 are notoriously buggy, like parties and weddings. Sims can get stuck in loops, disappear, or remain frozen in place. It could also just become very frustrating to look after the needs and aspirations of so many Sims at once, which is when these cheats are helpful.
- resetsim [firstname lastname]: Resets a stuck Sim.
- sims.give_satisfaction_points [#]: Gives a Sim an amount of satisfaction points.
- sims.fill_all_commodities: Fills the motives for all Sims in the household.
Storytellers and Sims modders use certain cheats to take screenshots or record videos. They remove special effects and give useful information:
- headlineeffects [on/off]: Enables or disables overhead effects such as plumbobs and speech bubbles.
- hovereffects [on/off]: Disable hover effect when hovering over a Sim.
- fullscreenToggle: Makes the game fullscreen/windowed.
- fps [on/off]: Display the FPS on screen.
The Sims 4 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
