You’re staring at a virtual kitchen fire. Your Sim, who has exactly zero cooking skill points, is currently screaming at the ceiling instead of grabbing the fire extinguisher. In the corner of the screen, your bank balance is a pathetic 12 Simoleons. You spent it all on a fancy bay window you couldn't actually afford. This is the "authentic" Sims experience, and honestly? It’s kind of a drag sometimes.
That’s usually the moment people start thinking about cheating The Sims 4.
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It’s not really "cheating" in the traditional sense. It’s more like taking the steering wheel from a toddler. Maxis, the developers, basically baked these shortcuts into the code because they know the game's AI is prone to pathing errors and bizarre logic. If your Sim gets stuck behind a toilet and can't move, you aren't going to just let them starve to death for the sake of "immersion." You're going to fix it.
Getting Under the Hood: The Console Window
To do anything meaningful, you have to talk to the game directly. You've probably seen people mention the "cheat console." It’s just a little white box that pops up at the top of the screen.
On a PC or Mac, you hit Ctrl + Shift + C. If you’re playing on a PlayStation or Xbox, you have to mash all four shoulder buttons at once. It feels a bit like a secret handshake. Once that box is open, there is one command that acts as the master key: testingcheats true.
Without typing that first, most of the fun stuff simply won't work. It’s the "Open Sesame" of the Sim world.
The Money Trap and Why It Matters
Most players start with money. It’s the obvious choice. You type motherlode and suddenly you have 50,000 Simoleons. It feels great for about ten minutes. Then you realize that half the fun of the game—the struggle—just evaporated.
But there’s a more surgical way to handle finances. Instead of just dumping a pile of cash, you can use the Money [number] command. If you want your Sim to have exactly 1,250 Simoleons to simulate a specific "struggling artist" vibe, you just type Money 1250. It sets the household funds to that specific amount. It’s much more precise.
Rosebud and Kaching give you 1,000 Simoleons. They’re fine. They’re classic. But they’re a bit outdated compared to the granular control of the Money cheat.
Build Mode Freedom
The real magic happens when you stop fighting the grid. If you’ve ever tried to place a chair near a table and the game screamed "Can't intersect objects," you know the frustration.
bb.moveobjects is the holy grail.
It lets you put things anywhere. Want a toilet in the middle of the garden? Sure. Want to overlap three different rugs to create a custom pattern? Go for it. It unlocks a level of creativity that the base game actively tries to prevent.
But wait. There’s a catch.
If you overlap objects too much, your Sims will get confused. They’ll stand there with a thought bubble featuring a red 'X' over a footprint icon. You’ve broken their pathing. This is the nuance of cheating The Sims 4—you have to balance aesthetic beauty with the fact that these little digital people still need to be able to reach the fridge.
The "Secret" Catalog Items
Most people don't realize that hundreds of items are hidden from the buy menu. These are "debug" items. They’re the things the developers used to decorate the world—like cars, specific plants, or even tiny clutter items like toothbrushes and mail pileups.
To see them, you need to enter two specific codes:
- bb.showhiddenobjects
- bb.showliveeditobjects
After you enter those, go to the search bar in Build Mode and type "DEBUG." You’ll find a massive list of items that cost 0 Simoleons. It’s a goldmine for builders who want their houses to look lived-in rather than like a sterile furniture showroom. It adds grit. It adds realism.
Managing the Chaos of Sim Needs
Sometimes you just want to throw a party without everyone passing out in their mashed potatoes.
If you Shift-Click on your Sim (after enabling testingcheats), you get a "Cheat Need" menu. You can "Make Happy," which fills all their bars instantly. Or, if you’re feeling like a benevolent god, you can "Disable Need Decay." They will never get hungry. They will never get tired. They will just exist in a state of perpetual caffeination.
This is actually great for storytelling. If you’re trying to film a "Sims Movie" or take specific screenshots for a blog, you don't want your protagonist running off to pee every five minutes.
Skill Jumping
Waiting for a Sim to level up their Violin skill is a slow burn. It takes hours. If your story requires a virtuoso, use the stats command. It looks like this: stats.set_skill_level Major_Violin 10.
You can swap "Violin" for almost anything—Painting, GourmetCooking, Charisma, Fitness.
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Just remember that jumping straight to level 10 skips all those funny animations where they're bad at the skill. There’s something charming about a Sim who is terrible at singing, and you lose that when you cheat the stats.
The Risks: Will It Break Your Game?
Let’s be real. People worry about "corrupting" their save files.
In The Sims 4, actual save corruption from cheats is pretty rare. It’s not like the old days of The Sims 2 where deleting a tombstone could implode your entire neighborhood. Most cheats in 4 are safe.
However, using bb.moveobjects can lead to "routing failure." You might find a Sim stuck on a balcony they can't get off of. Or worse, a baby might get placed in a spot where the parents can't reach it, triggering the social worker.
Also, if you’re a trophy hunter or an achievement chaser, be warned. On consoles, turning on testingcheats permanently disables trophies for that specific save file. You get a big warning popup. Don't ignore it if you care about your Gamerscore.
Relationship Manipulation
Relationships in the game are finicky. One bad joke can ruin a friendship.
If you want two Sims to be best friends (or mortal enemies) instantly, you use the modifyrelationship command. It requires the full names of both Sims and a number from 1 to 100.
Example: modifyrelationship Bella Goth Mortimer Goth 100 LTR_Friendship_Main.
It’s a mouthful. It’s tedious to type. But it’s the only way to bypass the "Getting to Know You" phase that takes up half a Sim’s young adult life.
Moving Forward with Your Game
If you're feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of codes, don't try to memorize them all. Nobody does. Even the most hardcore players keep a list open on their second monitor.
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The most effective next steps for your save file:
- Start small: Use bb.moveobjects first just to fix your furniture layout. It’s the least intrusive cheat but offers the biggest visual impact.
- Fix stuck Sims: Keep the console command resetSim [Firstname] [Lastname] in your back pocket. It’s the "off and on again" switch for when the AI freezes.
- Use the UI Cheats Extension: If you’re on a PC, look into the UI Cheats Extension mod by Weerbesu. It lets you just click on the UI bars to change needs or money instead of typing codes. It’s a game-changer for most of the community.
- Check the "Cheat Shortcuts": Once testingcheats is on, Shift-Clicking the mailbox gives you the option to "Alter Needs" for the entire world. It’s a quick way to stop everyone in the neighborhood from being miserable at the same time.
Cheating in this game isn't about "winning" because there is no way to win The Sims. It's about removing the friction between your imagination and the game's sometimes clunky systems. Use them to tell better stories, build better houses, and maybe—just maybe—prevent that kitchen fire from ending your legacy family before it even starts.