Hey guys! Welcome to my second published Sims 4 guide on Steam!
I'm very happy to know my previous guide on the best CC modpacks was well appreciated by everyone!

Here I've created a short guide on tips you should take into consideration when playing the game to extend your playtime!

All these tips come from my own experience of playing Sims 4 base game for years now lol
Note: Since Sims 4 has spanned over a lot of free updates, this guide will most likely not be fully compatible with Legacy Edition users, you can still try if you are one, most general tips might be good enough to use and follow.

I personally don't use Mods or CC frequently, so I'll refrain from mentioning them until the very end.

Now, let's move on..

Okay here we are. So the first thing I'd like to mention outright is the new addition of Scenarios in the Sims 4.

It's a huge button, hard to miss on the main menu. You've probably played a few Scenarios from time to time. Or maybe haven't. It's pretty fun and you should definitely check it out.


Once you get to that screen, you'll find a lot of scenarios you can play around in, with varying difficulties, with more than 15 scenarios to play with! Yes that sounds not much but considering once you complete a scenario you'll still continue playing the family, I'll also be providing tips further on about creating interesting and quirky Sims. I believe having interesting Sims is what drives you to actually helps you be *hooked* to the game.

Every time you complete a scenario, you get Satisfaction Points which you can redeem for your Sim(s) through the Rewards store for different helpful traits, and instant use potions.

But don't let yourself down if there's no scenario you like. Check out the Sims resource and Mod the Sims! They have a lot of custom Scenarios in the form of mods and cc as well.

You could create your own scenarios as well, by giving your Sim households an interesting backstory and setting up goals you'd like your Sims to complete (you can write them down somewhere and bring it up next to you the next time you play) or mod it into the game yourself!

Here's a small little goal I have for you. Next time you play Sims 4 and are bored, why not try the infamous short lifespan challenge? It's quite challenging cause you need to do everything quickly..

I'm actually surprised a lot of Simmers don't really do this?! I don't know about you, but I've heard from a few of my friends that they just usually choose an aspiration in CAS and then forget about it until they do something randomly and a task completion notification pops up about it..

Please, please, PLEASE! Don't forget that completing Aspiration Goals gives you a LOT of Satisfaction Points, which you can redeem in the rewards store similar to how you can with completing Scenarios. Very useful if you want to get special traits for your Sims.

Just so you know, with the new Wants and Fears update, if you don't work on your Sims Aspirations they may develop *fear of unfulfilled dreams* which would make them feel sad, tense and angry.


Though, you can easily lose it by actually just making your sim talk to someone else, preferably someone who's close with them, about their fears and that'll remove the fear for them, temporarily though as it can return again too.

Moving on, working on skills are also an interesting distraction that can help spend more time in the Sims. There are 20 skills in the base game for teens/adults/elders ranging from cooking, comedy, mischief, writing, gardening, etc. Working on these skills will allow your sims to unlock further interactions with other Sims and also may help and benefit them in their careers. Some Skills may also be linked to your aspiration goals. Such as, reach level 4 writing as in the screenshot above. So they play an important part in completing your Aspiration Goals.

You feeling a little bored?
Use this as a check list of things you can do the next time your bored in the Sims 4!

• Recreate you, your friends and family in game! (Yes I know what you're thinking but the option is always there..
  
• Recreate your favorite celebrity as a Sim! (Personally haven't done this in Sims 4 so far, but I did make Britney Spears years ago when I played Sims 3)
  
• Give your townies a makeover
  
• Reach level 10 in a career you've never reached before
  
• Play out as one of the Townies (The Goth family got a makeover didn't they? why not check and play their story out!)
  
• Recreate your home (I did this once and holy cow it was extremely exciting!)
  
• Build community lots
  
• Try out some challenges & Scenarios!
  
• Download some new mods
  

So in this section I'll be giving you tips on creating interestingly unique Sims.

And no, I'm not going to guide you create the prettiest Sim you've ever seen.

You can click away to another guide.
LOL JK JK JK PLS DON'T

I won't dwell much on facial features cause I'm personally no expert on beauty, but I'll share you this:
Try experimenting with different skin tones. Try to create Sims of different cultural mixes. When it comes to unqiue looks, give your Sims a single, dominant feature a bit exaggerated too and let it balance with the rest of the face. Hope that helps! Again, just searching up "how to create unique/pretty looking Sims" on Google would be better. Anyways, that's out of the scope of this guide so let's move on to the tips I'd like to provide...

A lot of us usually like to do is create Sims similar to us, or sometimes caricatures of our own selves into the game. That's great but....why not create characters that are different than us? Characters, that have their own interesting origin backstory and have traits that we haven't tried before? It's really important to experiment with different traits, likes and dislikes to create more unique Sims.


Here is an example of a Sim I created, Fernando Yogi.
He's supposed to be somewhat of Indian descent, an aspiring Cook, Yogi, and staunch vegetarian. Hates Pop, S-Pop music but loves World music. Hates programming, videogaming, mischief, but loves gardening, cooking, fitness and fishing.

Oh and he also lives off grid.


His living room is pretty much deserted, I thought it might add to his simple living ideology and anti- consumerist beliefs. But he has a luscious garden behind.


Look, I know it ain't looking too good cause I'll be honest he did spent a few days at his girlfriends place so the plants might look a little dead...

And since he's a staunch vegetarian all dishes he cooks (mostly at his girlfriends place, because you can hardly cook only some foraged food on off grid lots) are vegetarian safe.


You see where I'm getting at? I'm nothing compared to what Fernando is, and it was my first time playing with a Sim like him. And I've already spent 30 hours playing him in the last few weeks. He's VERY different from the Sims I usually create, and that's what makes it so fun. It's something new to experience. I never even did gardening in the game until now. I never even made an off grid lot until now.

Also not trying to advertise but (I CAN'T RESIST SORRY) you can check me out on TS4 Gallery, most of my Sim examples are available over there, I go under the username "weirdfisher" (you'll need to search by EA account ID)

It's all about getting to try out new experiences, so hope that helps!
Now..moving on..

Having a harmonious family isn't really how real life works, right?

Having Sims in a family who have differing traits, likes and dislikes is very useful to create your own situations and stories and interesting encounters between Sims. From a cheating fiance to a rebellious teen arguing with their parents could all be possible if you make sure not all sims have similar likes and traits.

For example, I'll show case my beloved Palmer Family.



A good example of likes and dislikes is the fact that ALL of those Sims HATE cooking, other than the pink haired girl, Leah.

So none of those idiots actually cook themselves food, or don't even bother grabbing a snack from the fridge? So they're always whining in similish when they're hungry like little brats until Leah wakes up and cooks them breakfast.

And that does come with it's own arguments and fights. It's really fun watching I'll bet you that. It's all about the drama....

Another example could also be the fact that the guy on the far right, Alfred, is a kleptomaniac, so he randomly picks up things from places frequently. Now, firstly Kleptomaniac people can't resist their urges and we shouldn't hate, or bad mouth them. But I do sometimes get my Sims to get angry and scold him, leading to dramatic fights.

Another example is how most of the family like jokes, comedy and some level of mischief, but the girl on the far left, Octavia, absolutely HATES them. It's because she's more of a serious Sim and family member compared to the rest of the family. So she VERY frequently gets tense and angry whenever she's around Alfred, who's a complete mischief maker or her dads lame old dad jokes. So she frequently gets unstable and resorts to her room in the basement where she practices her writing, or hangs around in Leah's room, fascinated by her sister's art.

You see what I did there? I haven't created a single, happy go lucky character. They all have their own worries and fears, and their own interests. Yes, some characters do share interests of their parents or siblings but their combination makes it unique enough.

So I hope you take that into consideration when creating your new Sims!

By giving them exaggerated preferences, I'm not talking about body sizes. That's mostly up to you. I'm talking in regards to likes and dislikes. You can develop your Sims personality by showing their likes very clearly, especially in terms of their fashion and dressing sense.


In those two, I've clearly shown their color preferences and may have slightly exaggerated them. Notice how Octavia is dressed heavily in red. Heck, she even wears red gloves...

And look at Leah. She loves the colour pink so much she not only dyes her hair pink, but also dresses up in a pink/purple combination. Dude, even her room is PINK..



Okay, okay I admit that might be going a little overboard, but I feel like it personally makes them feel more well defined, unique individuals and characters.

I spend a lot of time in CAS because before starting the game I always try to make an interesting backstory for my Sims beforehand. Not all of us are creative with writing talent. So it can be very hard to write a compelling backstory for your Sims.

But fear not, cause I am here to give you tips!

Look for inspiration around you. A lot of my characters and Sims are based of traits of my parents, people I saw on my way to school, and some friends too.

Try experimenting with different traits, give your sims internal conflict, fears, desires

Always make your character FLAWED in some way or another. That automatically makes them quite real.

And as always, relatable characters are everyone's favorite. So it's completely okay to create Sims you can relate to.

It's always interesting to show character development in subtle ways, especially if you like to span your sim households over stages. For example, in my case after death of his wife Manfred (remember that old guy? from the screenshots above?) became a coward and developed the gloomy trait. He also started valuing family time with his children more and his aspiration changed to look after his children and watch them become successful.

I didn't really mean to make this a long lengthy guide. I wanted to keep it short and sweet, something you could go through in a jiffy.

So here we are, at the end. Hope you found this guide helpful.

Oh right, how can I forget, mods. Righhht...

MC command center
Emotional Inertia by roBurky
Meaningful Stories
Life’s Drama
Have Some Personality Please by PolarBearSims

you can find these mods on the following places:

https://www.thesimsresource.com/
https://modthesims.info/
https://www.nexusmods.com/thesims4/mods/
https://sims4downloads.net/category/mods/

Always make sure you're using the latest version of the mod, compatible with the version of the game you're running! Please avoid using outdated mods :_(