Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do In The Sims 4

The Sims 4 is absolutely stock full of weird, quirky details and unexpected hidden gems that appear at the most surprising moments to throw the player off their course. It’s this randomness and unpredictability and all the strange details that make the game so unique and popular among us Simmers.

Although many have played the game for years and may know everything about it, casual Simmers might be surprised by the extent of detail and depth found in the game and all the fun things a Sim is actually capable of doing. Here are a few things players may not know they can do in The Sims 4 – and should totally try the next time they play!

Updated on November 30, 2024, by Ashely Claudino: While The Sims 4 developers have put out plenty of DLC content, there is a lot to uncover in the base game. This list has been updated with a couple of base game entries that many gamers will surely not know about, such as the night light hack and the memory system available in-game without any mods at all.

28 Curse a Sim With a Sweater

Be Careful What You Gift

• Nifty Knitting Stuff Pack

Knitting is a wholesome hobby in The Sims 4. Players can make objects, sweaters, and even baby clothes if they have high enough knitting skills. While players can sell or donate their knitted clothes, they can also use them as gifts for friends and family. However, one sweater in particular has consequences when it is gifted.

The Forbidden Sweater is a clothing item with unique effects. All Sims who wear it will receive a negative moodlet due to the horrific itching sensation that comes with wearing it. If a Sim gifts it to a romantic partner, they may give them the Sweater Curse. The Sweater Curse makes a Sim fail all romantic social interactions, so be wary when giving it out to Sims.

27 Have Father Winter’s Baby

Earn a Special Trait

Father Winter is a Santa-like Sim that comes around every year on Winterfest. Winterfest is the main event that takes place during winter, during which Sims can decorate a tree, give gifts, and enjoy holiday interactions. Father Winter also comes for a visit to give gifts and fill Sims with holiday cheer.

However, players can choose to romance Father Winter. He is like any other Sim, so Sims can flirt with him to their heart’s content. If they get his romance meter high enough, they can use the Try For Baby interaction with him. Once the deed is done, and they get pregnant, the child will be born with the Father Winter’s Baby trait and get an increase in Satisfaction Points from Whims.

26 Join a Secret Society

Go to Secret Meetings and Rituals

• Discovery University Expansion Pack

Discover University offers all kinds of real-life experiences that college students will have. The pack includes more niche activities, and while there aren’t sororities and frats, Sims can join a secret society. Sims can go to Britechester or Foxbury Institute and become members of the Order of Enchantment.

The Order of Enchantment can only be joined by invitation, so not just anyone will be there. Order members get a cool robe and participate in mysterious rituals involving magical beings called Sprites. The Order of Enchantment includes a few more magical perks, so Sims can get mythical even without Realm of Magic.

25 Bring a Scarecrow to Life

Meet Patchy The Strawman

Gardening is a skill and an activity that Sims can enjoy as a hobby or make a career out of. Sims who need help tending their gardens can hire a gardener or purchase Patchy the Strawman. Patchy is a scarecrow found in Build/buy mode for $450 Simeoleons. However, Patchy isn’t a normal Scarecrow and can come to life.

If players talk to Patchy and increase his friendship level, he will stand up from his stand and tend any plants on the lot. While his appearance remains a scarecrow, Patchy is just like any other Sim. While previously players could attempt to seduce Patchy, following the sexuality update, he is no longer interested in romance with other Sims.

24 Start a Book Club

Read Stories with Friends

• Get Together Expansion Pack

Sims can have all kinds of favorite activities, and with The Sims 4 Get Together, they can do them with like-minded Sims. For example, they can start a book club with the club feature from the DLC. As a club leader, a Sim can choose the name, icon, and activities everyone will do.

Book clubs are a great way for Sims to make friends, and can be full of Sims with certain traits like Creative or Bookworm. They can set up meetings at public libraries to get the authentic book club vibe.

23 Turn Into a Plant

Become an Occult Sim

Sims can turn in several occults through various DLCs, but there is one base game occult available. Plant Sims are a unique phenomenon that occurs by eating a Forbidden Fruit or completing the Plant-A-Sim scenario. It is also a temporary transformation, so players can check it out without having to commit to it.

Plant Sims require lots of water and sunlight to survive. When a Sim transforms into a Plant Sim, their skin turns green, and they get a spiffy new haircut. They will also complete unique idle animations. Eventually, a Plant Sim will wilt and turn back into a human Sim.

22 Earn Royalties Off Songs

Create Original Songs

It’s no secret that Sims can learn to play instruments and even go on to become rock stars, but many players don’t realize that there’s actually a way to earn royalties off of their songs, no fancy mod required. If the Sim gets their Guitar skill to a high enough rank, they can write and record songs. The final step is to use the mailbox to publish the song.

The Sim will then earn royalties off that song every day. Songs don’t stay fresh and cool forever, though, and royalties will decrease over time, so if the player intends to live off the royalties from their music, they’ll need to keep recording and releasing new songs to keep revenue up.

21 Make Jam

Have Fun In the Kitchen

• Cottage Living Expansion Pack

Playing guitar isn’t the only way for characters to jam out in the Sims. If the player has a decent kitchen and a Sim with a knack for cooking, they can take some fruit and bottles to the stove and indulge all of their jam-making fantasies.

Jam-making might not be as exciting as traveling to a magical forest or another planet, but above all the Sims is about the pleasures of living a second life, regardless of how mundane that life may be. Some players even find vacuuming, taking out the trash, and doing other Sim chores to be enjoyable, so there’s nothing wrong with flexing one’s cooking skills with some preservatives instead.

20 Build a Robot Friend

Androids Can Have Emotions

• Discover University Expansion Pack

As the 100 Baby Challenge demonstrates, Sims players love to challenge themselves in new ways. Most Sim skills are things that anyone could learn with enough hard work and patience, and while that’s technically true of robotics, it’s definitely a more involved hobby than some. Maybe the Sim likes seeing how things work. Maybe they like trying to challenge themselves with something new. Or maybe no one wants to be their friend, so they’ve decided to engineer a metallic friendship for themselves.

The Robotics skill lets Sims create everything from Cleaner-Bots to RoboNannies. If things in the Sim household seem a bit dull, having a robot wandering around may be just the way to spice things up. Just be careful will all that electrical wiring.

19 Befriend a Smart Speaker or a Talking Toilet

Technology Comes to Life

• City Living Expansion Pack

Lin-Z and Potty Mouth 2.0 are two of the most unique objects in The Sims 4. Lin-Z imitates a classic Alexa-style smart speaker, while Potty Mouth is sort of a toilet from the future. Most players have no idea that both of these AI entities can actually be befriended.

In return for their friendship, both objects provide extra features. Lin-Z will start ordering food and hiring a maid automatically with high enough friendship, while Potty Mouth allows Sims to watch TV while on the toilet, get a massage, or increase their hygiene.

18 Get Moody From Objects and Clothing

Influence Your Sims’ Moods

In order for this feature to work, make sure that objects are allowed to affect Sims’ moods by ticking the box in the main menu’s gameplay settings section. Following this, Sims can become affected by emotional décor around them, such as emotional paintings.

Some outfits like the glittering party dress will make a Sim playful, and animal hats will have various other moodlet buffs that are active the duration the Sim wears the outfit. It’s a good idea to take advantage of these extra buffs, especially when they’re positive.

17 Choose Your Sim’s Umbrella

Choose Any Pattern You Like

The Umbri Umbrella Rack looks just like any other decorative item, but it’s actually more than that. Players who purchase this 150 Simoleon umbrella rack can interact with it to choose a new umbrella for their Sims. There are 12 different patterns to choose from, and the next that it rains in-game, their Sim will wear it proudly.

To choose a Sim’s umbrella in The Sims 4, purchase the Umbri Umbrella Rack in Build and Buy Mode, go back to Live Mode, interact with it and select “Choose a new umbrella”, then simply pick the one that suits your Sim the most.

16 Kill or Age a Sim with a Bouquet

Use Flowers to Age Up

For those looking for a truly vicious way to kill a Sim, the art of flower arranging is one way. At around level 9, Sims can scent their Excellent-level bouquets with Death Flowers. The results are not as deadly as one would expect. Anyone below the Elder age group will age up when receiving the bouquet.

However, Elders, upon receiving this bouquet, will instantly die. It’s a particularly devious way to get rid of a rich older person, especially when doing a black widow-type of challenge.

15 Craft Musical Instruments

Enjoy Homemade Furniture

• Base Game/Outdoor Retreat Game Pack

There’s a lot that Sims can craft, but what many players are not aware of is being able to craft musical instruments with the woodworking table. This is most likely due to the fact that Sims will need a high skill level in both handiness and musical skills. To do this, make sure the Sim in question has level 8 in Handiness and level 8 in their instrument of choice.

14 Watch Alien TV Shows

Expand Your TV Horizons

• Get To Work Expansion Pack

Speaking of Handiness, it’s one of the most underrated skills in the game. A Sim’s life can be completely upgraded with a high Handiness skill. One of the best upgrades relates to TVs, which unlocks brand new channels from a faraway planet.

Alien Sims, when watching these channels, will tend to feel homesick as well, which is a nice little touch from the developers. A Sim will need to have at least level 9 in Handiness to be able to perform the upgrade.

13 Find and Breed Axolotls

An Adorable Collectible

• Lovestruck Expansion Pack

The Lovestruck expansion pack, released in July 2024, introduced Sims 4 players to a new type of collectible: axolotls. These adorable creatures can be found near the pond in Ciudad Enamorada’s Vista Hermosa district.

Unlike frogs, axolotls cannot be bred for money. It’s only worth breeding them if players want to complete the axolotl collection in The Sims 4. If players don’t want to keep any of the axolotls as pets, they should release them back into the wild by interacting with them in their inventory or their habitat in Vista Hermosa.

12 Death By Embarrassment

A Dangerous Emotion

There are a few ways to die in The Sims 4, and none of them are particularly easy to die from. If anything, The Sims 4 has made it much harder for players to kill their Sims, especially through some of the more obscure routes. One such way is death by embarrassment.

When a Sim has done too many embarrassing things in a short time, such as have their privacy invaded, say something inappropriate, and peed themselves, they’re really putting themselves at risk of dying from being absolutely mortified.

11 Visit an Alien World

Science Allows for Space Travel

• Get To Work Expansion Pack

Aliens and other supernatural creatures have always been a staple of The Sims franchise, and each game has sought to bring us a bit closer to these mysterious, strange creatures. In The Sims 4, players actually get the opportunity to go and meet aliens for themselves on the alien planet of Sixam.

However, this secret option is only available to the most brilliant scientists who reach the peak of their career. They’ll then receive an invitation to a fancy celebration on a rather strange but beautiful exoplanet somewhere far away from home.

10 Resurrect Sims With a Book

Learn to Write the Book of Life

Death is one of the most interesting aspects of The Sims franchise because of all the peculiar details the developers have added to its mechanics. Players can beg the Grim Reaper for mercy and spare a loved one’s life and even cheat life itself by drinking an elixir to stop themselves from aging.

However, did players know that the sheer power of a well-written book can bring a Sim back from death? Once a Sim reaches the highest level in both writing and the Bestselling Author career path, they can capture a living Sim’s Epic Saga in it. When they die, the book can then be used to resurrect them.

9 Meet a Mysterious Hermit

A Unique NPC Sim

• Outdoor Retreat Game Pack

Deep in the woods of Granite Falls, a lone Hermit lives among his plants in a wooden house. Only the most determined campers and herbalists will find their way through a shrub from Granite Falls and stumble upon his quaint abode. Meeting the Hermit is important, especially for Sims who aspire to become professionals in the art of gardening and herbs.

In order to learn the “Fungal Infusion Fertilizer Remedy,” the Hermit has to be befriended until he trusts the Sim enough to share his secrets. His house is surrounded by tons of rare insects and species, making it a dream location for any aspiring herbalist.