Let's be real. Playing The Sims 4 without cheats is like trying to eat a dry salad—it’s fine, it’s healthy, but honestly, it’s just not that fun. Most of us don't have the patience to watch a pixelated person spend forty hours a week at a "Secret Agent" job just to afford a decent couch. You want the mansion now. You want the pool. You want your Sim to stop falling asleep in their grilled cheese because their energy bar is perpetually in the red.
Learning how to use cheats on sims 4 is basically the first thing any veteran player does the second they load into Willow Creek. It’s the "Secret Handshake" of the community. But if you’re new, or if you’ve just hopped back in after a three-year hiatus, the process might feel a little clunky.
The Magic Box: Opening the Cheat Console
Before you can summon millions of Simoleons or make your Sim immortal, you have to find the cheat console. It’s a tiny, unassuming white box that pops up at the top left of your screen.
Depending on what you're playing on, the "secret code" to open it changes. If you’re on a PC, you’re looking at Ctrl + Shift + C. Mac users? It’s Command + Shift + C. For the folks playing on PS4, PS5, or Xbox, you’ve got to hold down all four shoulder buttons (L1, L2, R1, R2 or LB, LT, RB, RT) at the same time.
It's easy.
Once that box is open, there’s one phrase you absolutely have to memorize. Type testingcheats true and hit enter. You’ll usually get a little message saying "Cheats are enabled." If you don't do this, about 90% of the cool stuff won't work. It’s like trying to start a car without the keys.
The Console Warning (Don't Panic)
If you are on a console, the game is going to give you a stern warning. It’ll tell you that if you enable cheats, you can’t earn Trophies or Achievements on that specific save file.
This is a dealbreaker for some. If you’re a completionist who needs those digital badges of honor, stop right here. But if you just want to build a gothic castle with a basement full of plasma-fruit-eating vampires, click "Yes" and move on. PC and Mac players don't have to worry about this—your achievements stay active regardless of how many times you cheat your way out of a fire.
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Why Knowing How to Use Cheats on Sims 4 Changes Everything
The most famous cheat is obviously the money. Everyone knows motherlode. It gives you 50,000 Simoleons. If you’re feeling less greedy, rosebud or kaching gives you 1,000. But the real pros use the "Money" cheat.
Type Money [number] and your household funds will instantly become that exact amount. Want your Sim to have exactly $1,234,567? Type Money 1234567. It’s way more efficient than typing motherlode fifty times until your fingers cramp up.
But money is boring. The real power lies in the "Shift-Click" cheats.
Once you have testingcheats true active, you can hold Shift and click on your Sim. A whole new world of options appears. You can "Make Happy," which instantly fills every single one of their needs. Hunger, bladder, social—all green. It’s a lifesaver when you’re trying to throw a party and your host is about to pass out from exhaustion. You can even click on the ground and select "Teleport Me Here" to avoid the five-minute walk across a massive lot.
Breaking the Rules of Architecture
Building in The Sims 4 can be incredibly frustrating. The "grid" is a cruel mistress. You try to put a chair near a table, and the game screams "Can't intersect objects!"
This is where bb.moveobjects comes in.
This is probably the most used cheat in the history of the franchise. It lets you place items anywhere. Want to clutter your kitchen counters with twenty different spice racks? Go for it. Want to put a toilet in the middle of the garden? Nobody is stopping you.
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Just be careful. If you place things too close together, your Sims might do that annoying thing where they wave their arms in the air and complain they can't reach the fridge. Always playtest your builds.
Hidden Objects and Careers
Then there's the "secret" stuff. The developers at Maxis hid hundreds of items in the build catalog that you usually can't buy. These are things like "world decor"—trees from the surrounding neighborhood, FX items, or even the weird laboratory equipment from the Get to Work expansion.
Type bb.showhiddenobjects to see the "debug" items. If you want even more, type bb.showliveeditobjects. You’ll suddenly have thousands of new items to scroll through. It's a bit overwhelming, frankly. You’ll find things you didn't even know existed in the game files.
If building isn't your thing and you just want your Sim to be a famous actor right now, use careers.promote [careerName]. If they’re in the Actor career, type careers.promote Actor. Boom. Instant raise. Do it enough times and you’re at the top of the ladder without ever having to memorize a single script.
Managing Your Sims' Lives (and Deaths)
Sometimes, the game gets glitchy. Your Sim might get stuck in a wall, or they might be standing still for three hours while the clock ticks away. It happens.
When this occurs, open the console and type resetSim [FirstName] [LastName]. It essentially "refreshes" them. They’ll pop back into a neutral standing position, and their queue will be cleared. It’s the "Ctrl-Alt-Del" for Sims.
Relationship Manipulation
Socializing is hard. It’s hard in real life, and it’s arguably harder in The Sims when your Sim decides to tell a "crude joke" to a stranger and ruins the vibe.
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You can fix this. The cheat is a bit long: modifyrelationship [Sim 1 Name] [Sim 2 Name] 100 LTR_Friendship_Main.
Replace 100 with any number to change the friendship level. Want them to be soulmates? Swap "Friendship" for "Romance." It feels a bit like being a puppet master, but hey, that’s why we play this game. You can make two complete strangers fall in love in approximately three seconds.
The Death Cheat
Look, we’ve all been there. Sometimes a Sim needs to go. Whether it's for storytelling purposes or just because they won't stop breaking the sink, you can use cheats to trigger deaths. However, it's often easier to just use the Shift-Click method on the Sim and find the "Kill..." option (if you have certain mods) or use the traits.equip_trait [trait_name] to give them the ghost version of a specific death.
For example, traits.equip_trait Ghost_Overheat will instantly turn them into a ghost who died from heatstroke. It's grim, but effective.
Keeping Your Game Stable
While learning how to use cheats on sims 4 is essential for most players, there’s a small risk. The more "heavy" cheats you use—like the ones that manipulate the world or move objects into places they shouldn't be—the more likely you are to encounter lag.
If your game starts stuttering, try turning bb.moveobjects off when you aren't actively using it. Also, avoid having 20 Sims on one lot with all their needs frozen. The simulation engine can only handle so much before it starts to lose its mind.
The Sims 4 is remarkably resilient, though. I’ve been using these cheats since 2014 and I’ve rarely seen a save file completely corrupt just because of a few motherlodes. Just save often. Seriously. Save your game before you start a massive cheating spree.
Summary of Actionable Steps
If you're ready to jump in, follow this exact sequence to ensure everything works perfectly:
- Launch your household. Don't try to cheat from the "Manage Worlds" screen; you need to be actively controlling a Sim.
- Open the console. Use Ctrl + Shift + C (PC), Cmd + Shift + C (Mac), or all four triggers (Console).
- Enable the master switch. Type testingcheats true and press enter. If you don't see a confirmation message, try it again.
- Fix your finances. Type Money 500000 to give yourself a nice cushion for building.
- Enable Build Freedom. Type bb.moveobjects so you can decorate without the game nagging you about space.
- Shift-Click for convenience. Hold Shift and click your Sim to "Cheat Need > Make Happy" whenever things get stressful.
- Save your game. Do this under a "New Save" slot just in case you decide you want to go back to playing "fair" later.
The beauty of The Sims 4 is that there is no "right" way to play. Whether you’re a storyteller who needs specific moods or a builder who needs infinite cash, these tools are there to remove the friction. Start small with the money cheats, and once you’re comfortable, move into the more complex trait and relationship manipulations to truly control your digital world.