As always in the Sims Series, your Sim has needs. Since a Sim cannot die in the game, it is not absolutely required to fulfill these needs to play the game. However, fulfilling these needs will give you many game benefits. These benefits include:
- Faster walking speed
- Faster object interactions
- Your Sim stops complaining about feeling bad
- Greater chance of receiving Backpack Items when interacting with need-fulfilling objects
- Becoming inspired, when all needs are fulfilled (see below for more info)
- If some needs are too low, your Sim will refuse to interact with objects
Needs explained[]
The six needs are:
Picture | Needs | How to Gain | Possible Drops | Associated Traits |
---|---|---|---|---|
Social | Interacting with Other Sims, Phone, Talking to self/plants (Insane trait), communing with fish (Introvert personality) | Social Points, Muse, Goodwill, Fury, Love etc. | Ogre, Slob, Great Kisser, Insane | |
Sleep | Sleeping, Drinking Coffee, Sunbathing, Relaxing, Meditating | Dreams, Nightcap, etc. | Night Owl | |
Hunger | Cooking Meals with a Stove, Microwave, Fridge, Bin. | Leftovers, Nutty Snack Bar, etc. | Ogre, Insane | |
Hygiene | Showering, Bathing, Washing your Hands | Soapsubs, Rubber Duck, etc. | Ogre | |
Bladder | Using the Toilet, Bath/Shower (Slob trait) | - | Steel Bladder, Slob | |
Fun | Playing the Computer, Watching TV, Painting, Playing Music, Dancing, etc. | Relaxation, Entertainment, Buzz, etc. |
Needs decay over time and will need to be replenished often. As the needs decay the icon for the need changes both in color and picture to let you know the level of urgency your Sim feels.
- Bright Green = need completely fulfilled. Interacting with objects will not have any effect on the need.
- Light Green = mild need. Only one object interaction is needed to fulfill the need.
- Yellow = moderate need. You may need to interact with an object twice to fulfill the need.
- Red = strong need. Multiple object interactions required to fulfill the need. In some cases, the Sim will refuse to do certain interactions until the need is filled.
- Gray = desperate need. Depending on the need, your Sim will refuse to do anything until this need is met.
Needs cannot go lower than gray with the exception of Bladder: If you lower your bladder by eating/drinking coffee, your Sim will wet him/herself and Bladder will be full green again, while Hygiene will drop to gray.
Some needs have higher priority than others, examples are Hunger and Bladder. If a Sim has all needs in red or gray, clicking on Fun, Social or Hygiene icons will still resulting in the Sim complaining about his/her hunger until it is fulfilled. Interacting with objects or Sims will change your need levels. For example, using the Coffee Machine will raise your Energy but lower your Bladder. You can manually click on objects to fulfill needs, or you can click on the need button itself to automatically queue an interaction.
Note that sometimes just the act of logging out and logging back in to the game will randomly lower or raise your need levels as well.
Inspiration[]
Your Sim becomes Inspired by fulfilling all of his/her needs or by using an Inspired Potion. This means that all the need buttons are all bright green with the images as seen above.
Inspiration is only temporary. If any of your needs drops to a yellow or lower level, or you have three or more light green needs, your Sim will no longer be inspired. Just re-fulfill your needs to become inspired again.
Benefits of Inspiration[]
Several quests will require that you become inspired.
The main benefit to becoming inspired is that you will earn more Simoleons than you normally would when leveling skill interactions. This only applies to skill levels; removing weeds or cleaning dirty objects seems to yield the same number of simoleons as when you are uninspired. This is a quick way to earn money in the game.
The current inspiration bonus is 50% more coins than the normal amount, rounded down. For example, if you would earn 25 coins normally, while inspired you would earn 25 + 12 bonus coins, or 37 total coins for your action.
During the 2011 holiday season (November - December 2011), this bonus was changed to 100%, or double the money. The duration of this bonus was somewhat unclear, leading many to think this was a permanent change. However, as of January 4, 2012, the bonus was back down to 50%.