What Are Stats Cheats in the Sims 4?

The Sims 4 has a large variety of different cheat codes that affect everything from object placement to catalog content to sims’ moods to their skills. Have you ever heard of the “stats cheat” and wondered what exactly it affects?

If you’ve done any research into the variety of cheats available for use in the Sims 4, you may have stumbled upon the “stats cheat.” The name is somewhat misleading as, though Sims have a lot of statistics about them that the game keeps track of, none of them are explicitly referred to as “statistics” or “stats” by name. So, what is the stats cheat?

The truth behind the “Stats Cheat”

The “stats cheat” is just another name for the Sims 4’s skills cheats. When creating cheat codes for the game, the developers used the “stats” phrasing as part of their coding when referring to skills. It’s not clear why this is, but we have a few guesses.

Is it called that for clarity?

The first possibility is that the cheats were written before all of the game wording was fully nailed down, and as such the developers weren’t sure yet how the game would refer to skills. This seems unlikely though as the all previous iterations of the Sims franchise referred to skills as, well, “skills” and not “stats.” In fact, the skills cheats use both “stat” and “skill” in the wording, so it’s not like the developers weren’t thinking of these as skills from the very beginning.

Could it be to prevent mistakes?

The second reason is just a guess, as I have no experience with coding or game development. The cheat codes could have been worded this way specifically to avoid confusion for developers. For starters, seeing “stat” in the cheat code makes it immediately clear what aspect of a character’s Simology will be affected by the cheat. Secondly, adding this language to the cheat code makes it longer and more elaborate, which makes it less likely that someone will enter the cheat by mistake.

It’s like how a website will require that your password isn’t just letters, but also numbers and punctuation marks. The more elaborate it is, the harder it is to guess or enter accidentally. There may have been a minimum character count for cheat codes for a similar reason and so the “stats” part was added to make the cheats more elaborate.

Perhaps it’s the game engine?

One last reason they may have done it this way could have something to do with the game’s engine. In previous versions of the Sims games, skills were altered by dragging the sim’s skill bar up or down to the desired level (after activating TestingCheats). Unless you have mods that add UI cheats pretty much any cheats you’re going to use in the Sims 4 will require specific codes. The engine they used for this version of the game may be based more in coding and character entry than previous versions and thus click-and-drag methods aren’t as effective. It may have also been done this way to keep consistency between all cheats.

Using Skill/Stats Cheats

So with that all being said, what is the “stats cheat?” The Sims 4 skill/stats cheats can vary from one to the next, but they all roughly follow a similar outline:

stats.set_skill_level [MAJOR/MINOR]_[SKILL NAME] [LEVEL# 1-15]

Unfortunately due to all the various quirks of how the skill/stats cheats are written you can’t exactly memorize this formula to recreate yourself on the fly and be right 100% of the time. But, it can help you remember if you use a small handful of skill/stats cheats over and over.

SnootySims already has a fully comprehensive piece outlining every known skill in the Sims 4 and their associated cheat codes so head over here to check it out; it even has hidden skills like ice/roller skating & retail employee cheats! The article covers all games and packs through High School Years, but as the newest EP Growing Together doesn’t come with any new skills it can still be considered fully up-to-date. If you’re looking for a particular skill or pack, hit CTRL+F (PC) or CMD+F (Mac) which will let you search for a particular word or phrase.

In Conclusion

“Stats cheats” are just another name for the Skills cheats of the Sims 4, so if you’re already familiar with them then you have no more learning to do! If this is the first time you’re hearing of skill/stats cheats in general you should definitely check out our Skills Cheats Guide which will teach you everything you need to know about using these cheat codes. Give them a try, and have fun!

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