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The Sims 4 wants and fears: How wants and fears work in The Sims 4The return of the wants and fears system explained
The return of the wants and fears system explained
However, it’s not a straightforward remake ofThe Sims2’s wants and fears system. Instead, this latest version of the feature adapts a few familiar aspects of The Sims 4’s Simology into something a little bit new. Confused? Read on below for a full explanation of how wants and fears work in The Sims 4.
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The Sims 4 High School Years: Official Reveal Trailer
How do wants work in The Sims 4?
At first look, wants in The Sims 4 are much the same as the whims they replace. They appear in the same area of the screen, just above a Sim’s character portrait in Live Mode, where there are slots for up to three wants to appear at a time. The reward point payout for fulfilling a want is the same as it was for whims, too: about 25 to 100 points. (For context, the most basic bonuses in the rewards store cost 1,000 points.)
However, in the past, the left-hand whim slot was reserved for extremely short-term goals based on a Sim’s current emotional state, and the whim cleared as soon as their predominant emotion shifted. This has gone altogether. Instead, each of the want slots now contain a different kind of want:
How do fears work in The Sims 4?
If you remember The Sims 2, you might recall that in the original version of this feature, fears rolled in the same way as wants. They appeared in the same part of the UI and were basically the inverse of wants: you could lock them, fulfil them (if you wanted your points pool to take a hit), and they rerolled one or twice per in-game day. In The Sims 4, fears work quite differently.
Fears in The Sims 4 are temporary traits that a Sim risks gaining when they have a negative experience, and can be viewed alongside the Sim’s other personality traits on their Simology panel. These fears can be a result of anything from witnessing the death of a loved one (which will give them the Fear of Death trait) to not fulfilling any wants for a while (which will give them the Unfulfilled Dreams trait).
A Sim with an active fear in their traits panel will occasionally see a fourth want appear in a new want slot. This want will have a distinctive jagged edge around its icon, and while fulfilling it will be a positive outcome for them, it very much stems from their fear. This extra want might involve confronting the fear directly, or simply asking a loved one for reassurance on the subject they’re worried about.
Unfortunately for your Sims, fears don’t simply go away on their own like wants eventually do. But they’re not stuck with these fear traits for life, either. Fulfilling certain conditions will eventually clear a fear and the trait will disappear. The fourth want they roll as a result of their fears will often be a helpful pointer as to how to deal with it.
Here’s a full list of all the fears we’ve seen so far, their causes, and how to overcome them:
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