8 Ways To Maximize Your Sims Playing Experience While Quarantined

    Now you'll never get bored playing Sims!

    Tatiana Tenreyro
    by Tatiana Tenreyro

    BuzzFeed Staff

    If, like me, you've taken up playing Sims 4 again after being stuck at home amid the coronavirus outbreak, you know how easy it is to get invested.

    Tatiana Tenreyro

    The game is so addictive that, before you know it, it's been eight hours of creating your own virtual world and you've forgotten to sleep.

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    I know it can get monotonous after a while, but there's actually so much you can do with Sims! Here's how you can maximize your gaming experience:

    Get the expansion packs

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    Origin currently has a massive discount on most expansion packs that'll last until March 23, so if you've been waiting for a chance to buy Get To Work, Get Famous, Seasons, and other great ones, now's your chance.

    Download custom content

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    Finding out about the Sims Resource a bit over a decade ago changed my life. It offers thousands of items for your sims that are free to download, and it's very easy to use. I've wasted hours downloading gorgeous dresses, makeup, realistic-looking hair, and even tattoos. Besides TSR, there are also tons of Tumblr accounts offering free custom downloads, which you can find through tags like #sims4cc.

    Make your own custom content for your sims

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    I recently realized that I wanted my sims to have framed artwork that'd be a little bit cooler than the ones that come with the game. So I decided it was time to learn how to make my own. It turns out it's far easier than I was expecting! YouTuber James Turner has an excellent tutorial on how to make custom paintings for your sims.

    Tatiana Tenreyro

    You'll need to download Sims 4 Studio beforehand, and after that, the tutorial is pretty easy to follow. As a Jenny Lewis stan, I ended up making framed posters of her for my sims. They're not quite perfect, but hey, they look pretty good for my first time! If you're feeling more ambitious, there are tons of other tutorials on how to make items that are more complex, too.

    Add custom music

    father john mitski @tatianatenreyro

    my sim sending everyone home at her own party so she can dance to @Jbrekkie is a big mood

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    Listening to music in Simlish is fun for a bit, but after a while it makes you want to listen to the real song. Turns out, it's super easy to add your own music! If you go to the Electronic Arts folder and click on "Sims 4," there will be a folder called "Custom Music." There, you can add all the music files you want, and sort them according to the genre.

    Check out the Sims 4 gallery

    Tatiana Tenreyro

    If you click on the polaroid icon in the game after clicking on "Manage worlds," you can find tons of creations by other players. This is a great resource for those, like me, who enjoy editing lots but don't like to build them from scratch. You can find everything from Disneyland castle replicas to music festivals. As someone who misses socializing at bars and music venues, those have been my main go-to lately.

    Download "adult" mods

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    If you're not into your sims leading a mundane life, you can download mods that'll give your sims a raunchier experience. For those who are 18+, the "Hoe It Up Mod" from Sacrificial Mods will spice things up for you. With this mod, your sims can develop pole dancing skills, get paid for lap dances, and more.

    Use cheats

    Tatiana Tenreyro

    Every seasoned Sims player knows about cheats "motherlode" and "rosebud," but there are other useful ones that'll make Sims life so much easier for you. If you type in "testingcheats on," you'll have access to all cheats. After typing that, click on Shift and the sim of your choice (it can be a sim that's not part of your household).

    "Cheat need" will give you the option of disabling the sim's need decay, so they'll be fine for a longer time. It also gives the option of "make happy," making your sim's needs and worries go away for a bit. You can also modify your sim, change their fame level, erase marriages without divorce, automatically enroll your sim into one of the universities (if you have the Discover University expansion pack), make them into a plant sim, and more.

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    If you want to modify every aspect of a sim, including age, face, body type, personality traits, etc., you'll need to type in "cas.fulleditmode." It's one of my favorite cheats, since sometimes there are no teenagers in your neighborhood and your household's teens will need friends their age, so I just turn young adults back to teens. Another useful cheat is bb.move objects, allowing you to place objects on top of each other and move around easily. You can also resize objects by clicking on Shift and [ (smaller) or ] (bigger) while on build mode.

    Create celebrities

    Tatiana Tenreyro

    If you have the Get Famous expansion pack, you can create your own celebrities! My advice is to play around while creating sims until you find facial traits that resemble whoever you want to make, and then set their fame level in the game.

    I recently made Gigi and Bella Hadid, because who better to live vicariously though while playing Sims?

    Tatiana Tenreyro
    Tatiana Tenreyro

    Do you have any Sims 4 tips? Leave them in a comment below!