Have You Seen a Ghost? All You Need To Know About These Spooky Creatures!

Have you seen a ghost?! We bet you have or you will soon if you are new to Sims 4! If you are fascinated by paranormal activity and would love to learn more about spirits in Sims 4, look no further. Read on to discover all you need to know about wandering spirits of the dead! 

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What are Ghosts in Sims 4?

Ghosts were always among us in Sims 4, starting from the base game. These are the deceased Sims that appear as transparent levitating characters at night. They haunt places and go about their business as NPC characters, but they can also become playable if we want them to be.

Like in real life, Sims’ time in the world is limited, and so is the longevity of their life. After Sims go through different life stages and reach the end of their life cycle, they will die and become ghosts. Sims who died indoors will have an urn, while those who dies outdoors will have a tombstone. However, death by age is not the only way to become one, as Sim can also die much younger due to unfortunate events. No spirit is the same though, just like no living Sim is the same.

So, if you are curious to find out all the ways how one can become a spirit, how to play them, or resurrect them you are in the right place. These are all the spooky details you need to know about these paranormal creatures.

How to have a ghost visit you? 

Spirits are forever bound to the lot where they have died or the lot where their thumb stone and urn are. So, if you want to see one, you’ll need to make sure you are living on or visiting a lot where someone has died. 

These phantom spirits don’t wander around just like that. They appear only at night, after 10 PM, and vanish before sunrise, before 6 AM. Although ghosts always appear at about the same time at night, there are no guarantees you will see them all that frequently. Don’t expect to see them every night, as they appear autonomously when they want to and if they want to.

The more dead you have on the lot, the more ghosts you are likely to see. If you’re impatient to interact with one another, there are ways you can summon them at your command. 

How to summon a ghost?

Luckily, if you are dying for a new paranormal adventure, there are a few ways to provoke a ghost visit. 

If you have the Sims 4: Realm of Magic expansion pack, and have a talented spellcaster around, you can use spells to summon a apirit. For this to work, your Sim will have to reach the Master spellcaster rank first. These spellcasters can summon them just by using the Necrocall spell. All you need to do is perform this spell on an urn or a tomb, and you’ll see a spooky creature appear! Another in-gam way to do it is to use the Book of Life. If you have the Book of Life bound to them, you can use this written piece to summon them.

Or, you can do that via cheats. To summon those who have no urn sims_get_sim_id_by_name X. Replace X with the full ghost’s name to get their ID number. For example, if their ID number is 68957448962135879, type sims.summon_sim_to_zone 68957448962135879 in the dialogue box, hit Enter and they will appear before you in a second! 

Do ghosts live forever?

Well, kind of forever – only if you want them to. While they can ‘’live’’ forever and stay in their afterlife state for a very long time, their existence in the game will largely depend on your game objectives. Here is the deal: the dead will still need some attention from the living to keep roaming around and haunting. 

By default, spirits are NPCs and their spirits can fade over time if they are left to ‘’rest in peace’’ and are not interacted with. To make a ghost stay with you and prevent them from completely perishing from the game, you’ll need to perform the ‘’Strengthen Connection to Physical World’’ interaction with their tombstone or urn. This will ensure that their spirit doesn’t fade from the world, so that you can continue building a relationship with them and play with them as you like.

To have even more fun playing these paranormal creatures, check out this ghost mod!

What are different ways to become a ghost?

All ghosts can be scary. All can give tense moodlets when they do something paranormal or scare the living. However, no spirit is alike, and their demeanor will largely depend on how they died. This is what makes spooky ones unique based on their cause of death:

• Anger – These spirits are furious. Sims who died of anger will feel miserable and make others feel miserable by giving them +1 angry moodlet.  
• Beetle Juice – Beetle Juice can be tasty, but it can kill you if you drink it three times in a row. 
• Cow Plant – Those who died by a cow plant will seek revenge on all plants. When they are near, greenery may start to get weed, get dehydrated, or even perish. However, if they are in a good mood, they may even help them grow and evolve faster!
• Consumed by the Mother Plant – This Sim was eaten by the Mother Plant. In the after life, they won’t have a motive decay and will appear with spores around them.
• Crushed by Murphy Bed – This one has a zZzz coming out of them. All they wanted was a quick nap, but since a Murphy bed fell on them and killed them, they will steal energy from the living in the afterlife.
• Death by Stinky Capsule – This Sim fooled themselves and will be the stinkiest ghost in the afterlife. 
• Death by Urban Legend – Look in the Mirror and say ‘’Bloody Merry’’, and you will perish!
• Drowning – They died in the water, and will create puddles of water wherever they go.
• Electrocution – Electricity was the end of them, so they will make sure they cause havoc by possessing electronics. Even if they survive a night without having to fix electronics, living Sims may get electrocuted by them, just because they can. 
• Embarrassment – This one will make sure everyone else gets a +1 embarrassed mood when they are around.
• Falling From Heights – Be a clumsy rock climber at Mt. Komorebi, and you will fall, never to rise again alive. 
• Fire – If you get a ghost that’s died in a fire on your lot, rest assured your home will always be at risk from fire by ‘’unknown cases’’
• Flies – This Sim was killed by a swarm of flies that accumulated on their lot because they didn’t take out the trash on time. 
• Freezing – Cold weather can be the end of you in Sims 4 and make you freeze to death, especially if you are not properly dressed! 
• Hunger – If you have this one roaming around, don’t be surprised to have your fridge emptied ut when you wake up. After all, their biggest fear is hunger!
• Killer Chicken or Killer Rabbit – Be mean to these animals, and they will attack and kill you. 
• Laughter – This one is a cool spirit. They are spooky like the rest, but at least they give the living +1 playful or happy moodlets.
• Lighting – This Sim died from a lighting bolt.
• Overheating – Hot weather can kill you, especially if you are not properly dressed!
• Old age or Overexertion – Typically, very relaxed spooky folks. All they want is to take a breather.
• Poison – Adventurous Sims can die on one of their quests by poisonous gas, a bee swarm, a poison dart, a scorpion, or a poisonous spider.
• Pufferfish – Eating bad Nigiri Pufferfish can kill a Sim! 
• Rabid Rodent Fever – Rodent Pets are cute, but they can kill their owners! This ghost will look like a huge hamster and will have a foaming mouth due to the fever. Their special ‘’powers’’ are to make everyone freak out by showing them what the disease looks like. 
• Sauna – Dehydrated for eternity, these spirits will absorb water poodles like a sponge. Useful, aren’t they?
• Sunlight – Vampires hate sunlight and will die when exposed to it! If they do, you will see them roaming around with sunlight shining from inside them.  
• Spellcaster Overload – This is a sparkly and shiny one who once was a spellcaster who kept using magic even after they reached spellcasting limits and died because of it.
• Vending Machine – If you shake it, it will fall on you, and you’ll die. 

can occult sims become ghosts?

Absolutely! You can have ghost hybrids. Every Sim, occult or not, can become a levitating spirit after they die. In fact, if your Sim used to be any of the occult creatures before dying, like a vampire, an alien, or a mermaid, they will stay that way in the afterlife. This means they will keep their previous occult traits and abilities, and acquire new, ghost abilities on top of that! How cool is that! The only exception to the rule is Servos, since they are robots, after all.

Occult beings who became spirits will be hybrids, but spirits who were previously normal non-occult Sims can’t become hybrids. The only exception is spellcasters, as ghosts should be able to learn about magic after you add them to an active family.

To get a better experience with hybrids when playing Sims 4, check out this mod!

can pets become ghosts?

Death is inevitable, and every living creature with a soul can become a spirit, including pets. Like their human or occult friends, once they die, cats and dogs can become transparent and levitate as dead souls. Once they do, you can use the same method to add them to the family and make them playable once again! However, unlike the rest of the living, they can only die from old age.

How to remove a Spirit from a lot?

There are a few ways to get rid of paranormal activity on your lot at night. One way to do it is to move the urn or the tombstone to the graveyard, if you made one or placed a pre-made one from the Gallery in your Sims 4 world. You’ll need to place it in your Sims inventory first, go to the lot where you want the tombstone to be, and place it there. If you’ve strengthened the connection with the physical world, the dead Sim will still be around in the world you are playing. There are no actual graveyard lots in Sims 4, but you can make one on any lot by placing decorative or real tombstones.

However, if you want them to be begone forever and never haunt everyone again, you can release their spirit. To do that, find their urn or tombstone, click on it, and select ‘’Release Spirit to Netherworld’’. However, know that this action will completely erase them from the family tree. You can’t undo it, even with cheats, so think twice before you release the spirit. 

Can you befriend a ghost?

The answer is – yes! Death won’t tear loved ones apart! Even the deceased have a fondness for the living and vice versa. You can befriend them just like you would any other Sim. However, doing so won’t be as easy, especially with Sims who died under unfortunate circumstances and are infuriated in the afterlife. Naturally, since maintaining the relationship will depend solely on one-on-one interactions, you’ll need to wait the spirit to appear to keep building a relationship with them.

There are some things these occult beings can’t do, but for the most part, you’ll be able to socialize with them without trouble. When they appear at night, they become almost fully intractable and you will even have a relationship status shown in the relationship panel. Spirit Sims will be grayed out in the panel, and you’ll be able to see their traits and the same relationship progression bar you have with the living.

How to know if a Spirit is friendly?

With spirits, you have to test the waters a bit if you want to get closer to them. Some ghosts are generally friendlier than others, depending on how they died and how they feel. So, if you are unsure if you should approach them to chat or run in the opposite direction, check their aura color. This will give you hints about how a spirit feels. This is your ghost moods guide:

• Green – They are in a good mood, you have a green light to talk to them.
• Light Green – This is a rather inspired spooky individual! 
• Lime – Feeling energized!
• Teal – Feeling confident!
• Magenta – This spirit is playful! 
• Lavender – Dazed. 
• Purple – Focused! 
• Pink – They are feeling super flirty!  
• Navy blue – Someone is a bit sleepy! 
• White – Feeling fine.
• Grey – Bored!
• Blue – This ghost is sad. 
• Eggplant purple – Someone is feeling scared! 
• Yellow – Embarrassed.
• Amber – Someone is feeling a little tense! 
• Orange – Feeling uncomfortable. Not the best time to strike up a conversation. 
• Red – They are angry. Avoid them!

Can you add a ghost to your household?

You can not only build a relationship with spirits, but they can become active members of your family, too. When they come to visit you at night, if your relationship is solid, you’ll be shown the ”Invite to Household” interaction. This will allow you to add them to your active household as a playable Sim! However, if you want to add a ghost that’s not on good terms with your Sim, there are two ways to go about this. 

One, keep building a relationship with them until it turns into a good friendship (which can take time) or add them to the household using cheats. Unlike the in-game option, this is possible regardless of what kind of a relationship you have with the ghost. To do it, make sure you have cheats activated by pressing Ctrl+Shift+C, typing testingcheats true, and hitting Enter. Once the spirit appears, shift and click on them and select ”Add to Family”. Congrats, now you have a fully playable, spooky family member added to your active family! 

Can you date or Build a Family With Ghosts?

The dead have feelings too! This means that you can not only build friendships but also establish a solid romance with them and exchange affection. You can even go as far as falling madly in love or marrying one!

However, besides dying and not being able to die again, ghosts also can’t make or give birth to babies. While you can develop a healthy romance with them, and even have some steamy WooHoo, you can’t expand the family with a dead spirit.

What is a relationship with a Ghost like?

Once a Sim dies and becomes a ghost, the relationship they had with the living Sim will remain the same and decay as if they were alive. Family bonds will be preserved, and romantic feelings will still be there, even after one of the lovers dies.

However, romantic relationship statuses like engagements and marriages will be broken. If you want to be married to, or in a romantic relationship with a Sim once they become a spirit, you will need to build relationship status again (e.g. ask them to marry you).

What can a Ghost do?

In a nutshell, playing these paranormal Sims won’t be much different from playing a living Sim. Once added to the family, they will have the same needs as the living Sims, have goals, go to work, and have the same rate of relationship decay. This means that they’ll have to use the bathroom, eat, sleep, and do their best to make new connections, just like a living Sim would do. They can even learn skills. However, there are some cool nuances that make a paranormal Sim so special to play with.

The best thing about them is that they are already dead. This means that no matter what you do, you won’t harm them. You can starve them to death, put them in a fire again, or make them swim in a fenced-in pool – nothing will do. The only thing that will be affected by this is their mood and needs. If you play for a long time, you can keep them around even after all other Sims from your household die, or even have a family of ghosts! And they will live forever.

Ghosts will also do some spooky stuff that the living can’t. This includes scaring everyone with their paranormal presence, possessing objects ( and even break them), and walking through walls and other Sims. They don’t walk, they float, and they can share insights about death and the afterlife. They can also be handy and perform a ghostly repair on broken objects, having your time fixing them. They won’t scare people autonomously, though. Once they become the playable character instead of the NPC, they will frighten living Sims only at your command with special ghost socials. Their scaring socials will depend on the way they died though. So, expect a Sim who died from electrocution to scare others by possessing electronics.

How to make ghosts with cheats?

If you are up for some drama and need a paranormal Sim for your storyline, worry not, as you don’t have to wait for ‘’unfortunate events’’ or old age to get one. All you need is a little help with the cheats. Cheats allow you to not only kill a Sim, but also choose how you want them to die and what type of a ghost you want them to be. These are the cheats:

Can you disable ghosts in sims 4?

There is no option that directly allows you to eliminate the option of becoming a ghost. However, what you can do is disable aging, because Sims that don’t age, can’t grow old and die from old age.

If you have the aging option turned on, death in Sims 4 is inevitable. However, the game allows you to completely disable aging and dying if that is what you want. You can do this by going to Game Options>Gameplay and selecting No for Autoageing for your active household and/or unplayed Sims. However, while this is great for preventing death and having Sims become spirits, doing this will also prevent all Sims from aging up, and keep them ‘’frozen’’ in their current age. They can still die in accidents, though, which means dying can’t be fully controlled this way.

How To Prevent Becoming A Ghost?

There are a few ways to prevent becoming a ghost: reverse aging a little, make your Sim immortal, or bargain with the reaper.

1. drink the potion of youth to live longer

If Sim is about to die of old age, and you know their time is ticking, you can buy a Potion of Youth from the Reward Store for 1,500 reward points. This will reset their current age back to day one. So, if they are elderly Sim who is soon about to die of old age, drinking the Potion of Youth will bring them back to their early elderly days. You can use this to prolong the lifespan of Sims of any age. However, this will only make them live a little longer and get a little younger, but won’t protect them from accidental deaths. 

2. drink the potion of immortality to prevent death

Or, if a Sim is a Master Spellcaster (Realm of Magic), they can make and drink the Potion of Immortality, which will prevent them from further aging altogether. They’ll become immortal and protected from dying of old age. To make one, you will need a Death Flower, a Death Metal, and Zombie Carl. However, you will need to make and drink one every 48 hours to stay protected.

3. bargain with the reaper

If the death has already arrived, you can still save your Sim. There are two ways to do this, and both require someone to be around when the reaper arrives. One, you can plead the reaper for a Sim’s life. Any Sim can do this, but it won’t always be successful and the reaper may deny your plage, finalizing the death. Or, they can spare a Sim from dying!

Another way to do it will require some spellcasting abilities from the Realm of Magic pack. You can use the Death Flower to persuade the Reaper to spare your beloved Sim. However, this has to be done by a living Sim. It can only be performed if there is someone nearby to react fast enough while the reaper is there, who happens to have the Death Flower in their inventory. 

Can you resurect a ghost Sim?

Now we know that we can kill a Sim, but how about the other way round? The good news is, there are a few, in-game ways to resurrect the dead. So yes, you absolutely can resurrect the dead! You can bring any Sim to life, including normal Sims, hybrids, or pets. The bad news is, that you will need to put a lot of time and effort into it. Read on to discover all the ways you can bring a ghost back to life, both with and without cheats.

1. make ambrosia

This is a difficult, but fun way to go about it, especially if resurrecting the ghost is an important part of your storyline. To make one, your living Sim will need to max our gourmet cooking and cooking skills and collect the ingredients that are hard to find. You’ll need Death Flower, Potion of Youth, and Angelfish. You’ll need to have the dead Sim added to the family for this to work, so that you can make the fabulous Ambrosia!

Or, if you want a shortcut, you can search for Ambrosia in the Sims Gallery and get it for free, without all that hustle! You can even give Ambrosia to deceased pets to bring them back to their cuddly, furry form. 

To get a detailed Ambrosia recipe and learn how to make it, go here!

2. Write a book of life

If your Sim is a talented writer and has completed the Bestselling Author aspiration and maxed out writing, they can write this special piece of literature called the Book of Life to revive the dead. Then, they will have to bind it to a Sim. They can write a few of these, one for every family member, but only one book can be bound to one Sim. This is a great measure of precaution, so if a Sim you care about suddenly dies, you can add the ghost to the family and then read the Book of Life they are bound to. They will immediately be reviewed and be at the same life stage when they died.

It is important to write it and bind it to a Sim before they die, as the book serves as a backup plan if a Sim dies. They can be revived only by reading from the book they are personally bound to. Like with making Ambrosia, this route can take time, since it takes a while to complete the Bestselling Aspiration and write the book. But, it’s worth it, and you can protect everyone you love!

To learn more about the Book of Life, go here!

3. Use some magic to bring them to life!

If you have the Realm of Magic pack, you are in luck. If you have a spellcaster Sim who has reached the Master spellcaster rank, they can not only summon, but also revive them. Summon the ghost with the Necrocall spell, add them to your family, and use the Dedeathify spell. This spell is unlocked with Lever 5 Master Spell Caster.  

4. make a wish in the wishing well

If you have the Sims 4: Romantic Garden stuff, ghosts can make a wish at the Wishing Well to become alive again. If the well is merciful, they will be granted Ambrosia they can then eat to resurrect, This is the only way a spirit can resurrect themselves, almost without the help of the living Sims. They will need a bit of help, as they need the living to add them to the household so that they become playable and can interact with the well and eat Ambrosia.

5. bring animal friends back to life with a special treat

If your Sim has maxed out the veterinarian skill, they can use their knowledge to resurrect a pet. Level 10 unlocks the ability to make Ambrosia Treat. Once you make it, you can then feed a ghost dog or a cat with once you get to interact with them. However, because they only die of old age and will be resurrected as elderly pets, they will be able to stay in flash form for only so long.

6. resurrect the ghost with cheats

Last but not least, the fastest and most secure way to bring a ghost back to life is to use cheats. To resurrect a dead one, activate cheats as we described earlier, and just use traits.remove_trait X. Instead of X, just type the type of death the Sim died of. For example, if they died of old age, type traits.remove_trait old age, and there they are, your elderly Sim, well and alive. If unsure how they died, check the Simology panel.

Other ghosts: Elementals, Island Spirits, Forest Spirits and Specters

Besides the ”classic” ghosts we talked about, there are four other types of spirits in the game worth mentioning: 

• Elementals – These spirits are protectors of nature. They can be summoned and have a positive or negative effect on Sim’s moods depending on how much love the Sim shows for nature. They have a Sulani mana trait gene, that can be inherited, and can make babies with other Sims. 
• Island Spirits – These can only be seen in places that have Island Spirits lot trait, and have similar buff effects as Elementals. 
• Forest Spirits – They live in Mt. Komorebi and look like cute little glowing dolls. 
• Specters – Glowign tiny ghosts that haunt places, and act out based on their mood.

what are ghost achievements?

There are two unique achievements that require Sims to become ghosts, and both are base game achievements. Completing them will reward you with achievement points.

The first one is called Ghostly, and will give you 25 points if you have a spirit on your lot. 

The second one is Ghost Family. This one will require you to have a family of 8 playable ghosts, and will grant you 100 points. 

Conclusion

The dead are fun to play! After all, besides doing all the ordinary mortal stuff, they have unique paranormal traits, and can even become occult hybrids. We hope we have answered all of your burning questions about spirits in Sims 4. Experiment with life and death yourself, and see how the story unfolds in the game. Enjoy!

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