Vampires
Vampires. The (un)living embodiment of danger—and dangerous sensuality. Fear and love entwined. And a hunger that symbolizes desire for more than nourishment. Vampirism, though quite cool, should not be taken lightly without knowing all that surrendering to the night entails. It alters the trajectory of a Sim’s life. The daytime is inhospitable. Hungers change. Certain moodlets are off-limits. Your sure-fire tricks for keeping a Sim content may not work on a vampire, but that can also be part of the excitement. You’re trying something completely new, like the first time you had a playable ghost.
Use this chapter to understand the vampire way of life so you can decide whether or not it suits you. The special abilities are sure to tempt you. But temper that temptation with the new realities of vampirism. But because once you give in to the fangs, nothing is ever the same again... well, unless you are reverted to human form through an elixir or other such magics.
Create a Sim
Once in Create a Sim, you can select the vampire option from the supernatural type menu. Clicking on this turns your Sim’s skin paler, adds a certain glow to their irises, and adds a special birthmark to their neck. As far as traits go, you may want to check out Night Owl, as it benefits Sims who stay out late—something quite beneficial for a Sim who must avoid the sun. Brooding certainly seems like a good trait for the overall vampire narrative, but Flirty or Friendly could be greater assets when trying to turn other Sims, because this requires good LTRs.
Vampire-inspired Clothing
Within Create a Sim, you can select from a wealth of outfits that were designed specifically to enhance the vampire narrative. Gothic dress, high collars, deep reds, and the blackest of blacks—there’s an entire closet of Dracula-esque duds just waiting for you.
Behavior & Benefits
As you can imagine, there are some significant upsides to becoming a vampire beyond being ultra-cool to sensitive teenagers the world over. Vampires have a set of special talents they can employ to make the most of the night, such as intelligence boosts that speed skill development or the ability to creep inside the mind of an unwitting Sim.
Vampires run with speed greater than top athletes. They move so fast that the air around them vibrates.
Enhanced Skill Development
One of the great benefits of being a vampire is that you develop skills almost twice as fast as a normal Sim during the night hours. During daylight, when vampires are typically avoiding the sunshine, their skill development rate is on par with other Sims. Vampires are not better at developing any particular skill—the acceleration rate is the same for Alchemy as it is for Logic.
Dark Romance
Another fun benefit of being vampire is that you can affect the romantic thoughts of other Sims. It is extremely difficult for Sims to resist the natural charms of a nightwalker. But vampires can place the seed of romantic interest in another Sim by using the vampire-exclusive Think About Me interaction on other Sims. This forces the target Sim to start imagining the vampire, noted by thought bubbles containing the vamp’s portrait over their head. Hearts and bats swirl around them, too.
During the course of this effect, the relationship between the vampire and the target improves, making it a perfect time to hopefully move a relationship to the next level. This is also a good interaction to smooth the path to turning a non-player-controlled Sim into a vampire.
Mind Reading
Whereas normal Sims have to, you know, talk to each other in order to learn their likes, dislikes, and personality quirks, vampires have an unfair advantage. Vamps can read minds. This interaction works on any target Sim. You do not enter into a conversation, so there’s no need to worry about picking the right social to go with a mind reading.
All you need to do is select what kind of information you want to pluck from the target’s brain—traits, favorites, astrological sign, relationships, and career. Mind reading is not immediate; it takes a few moments. However, it never fails. So as soon as the interaction is complete, you have the desired details about the target Sim, all at your fingertips in the Relationship panel.
Now, just reading a mind does not improve a relationship. You must use socials to do that. But the intel gathered by a brain scan is useful for picking appropriate socials. For example, if you determine that the target has no sense of humor, you know not to bother with jokes and silly faces.
Ageless
Vampires age differently than normal Sims. They can certainly die—and we’ll look at how in the Complicating Matters section, but they age up much slower than other Sims. The young adult and adult sections of the lifespan stretch out longer. However, the elder segment of life lasts the same.
Mood Perks
At night, vampires get the Vampiric Vigor moodlet, which indicates their heightened abilities. In addition to not feeling Sore or Fatigued, vampires also never experience the Afraid of the Dark or It’s Dark moodlets. Read Mind and Think About Me are also only available at night when the Vampiric Vigor moodlet is active.
New Socials
Vampires in Supernatural have some additional socials not found in the Late Night version of vampirism. Conversations can be enhanced with Warn Away (more common with Commitment Issues, Coward, Family-Oriented, Good, Insane, Loner, or Unflirty traits), Confess to Being a Vampire (more common to Sims with Brave, Family-Oriented, Good, Hopeless Romantic, or Genius), Deny Being a Vampire (more common with Childish, Coward, Evil, Loser, Neurotic, or Perfectionist traits), and Intimidate (more common for Grumpy, Hot-Headed, and Mean Sims). This last social, Intimidate, can land with a very negative STC and harshly affect LTR, but not always! In certain relationships with Sims, such as those with the Supernatural Fan trait, the LTR effect can be positive. Either way, the vampire at least gets a Fun boost.
Other Sims also have new socials they can offer to Vampires: Threaten to Exploit Weakness, Accuse of Being a Vampire, and Imply Mother was a Chupacabra. All of these are negatives. If a Sim is a Supernatural Skeptic, you can see how these negative socials are handy for sinking relationships and furthering an anti-supernatural narrative.
Lifetime Reward: Immortal
- Cost: 30,000
- Description: Become the greatest of vampires by tolerating sunlight and never die of old age.
If you want to develop the ultimate vampire narrative, you need to score the Immortal Lifetime Reward. When a vampire is Immortal, they can withstand the otherwise withering heat and light of the sun. While daywalking, their skin sparkles. In addition, this reward halts aging and noticeably reduces the Thirst need, which often results in better moods.
Complicating Matters
It may sound like vampires have it easy, thanks to their increased intelligence and strength after the sun slips below the horizon. But even nightwalkers sometimes get the blues. Before seeking out the turning process, make sure you know exactly what you are giving up and what hazards vampires must be mindful of lest they falter.
Daylight
Vampires are obviously at their best during the night (regardless of the lunar phase), but they can be active during the waking hours, too. However, walking around outside is not exactly good for the vampire. If the vampire remains outside during the daytime for more than a few moments, they receive the Heating Up moodlet. If you do not get back inside soon, that moodlet turns into Too Much Sun, which is a big mood killer.
If a vampire spends too much time out during the day (when they really should be catching some beauty rest), they eventually lose more than skill-developing speed. When close to exhaustion, vampires cannot Read Minds or use the Hunt ability to seek out the most delicious Sims to feed upon. If they are out too long, they eventually pass out.
Garlic
There are a few things in this world that vampires do not like. Wooden stakes are a biggie, but fortunately those are nowhere to be found. However, the old standby garlic is present and problematic for vampires. If a vampire eats garlic, they pass out and remain out cold for several hours.
But what about other Sims? Because eating foods with garlic gives Sims the Garlic Breath moodlet, vampires must be mindful of who they speak to or whom they feed upon. If a vampire drinks from a Sim with garlic breath, they also pass out. Passing out can also occur when a vamp kisses a Sim with garlic breath, but it’s more likely they will only become Nauseous.
Survival Instincts
We all know what vampires need to survive—blood. Making sure you have a steady supply of the red stuff to sate a vampire’s thirst is critical to enjoying all of the benefits of playing as a child of the night.
The Need to Feed
When a Sim is turned into a vampire, they lose the Hunger need. It is replaced, though, by Thirst. Thirst and Hunger are the exact same, although Thirst cannot be sated by eating regular food or harvestables. Thirst can only be fulfilled by drinking blood.
There are several ways to satisfy the thirst for blood. The obvious is to feed on another Sim. But the easiest is to guzzle a Plasma Orange Juice. Plasma Orange Juice is found in the fridge as a Quick Snack, but it can also be snatched from the grocery store and stored in the fridge, just like regular ingredients or leftovers.
Wait, snatched? Yes, vampires actually do not buy Plasma Orange Juice. Instead, they steal it from grocery stores with the Raid interaction on the shop. The vampire Sim disappears inside and starts grabbing juice boxes (you’ll see the count go up in your inventory if you monitor the tab during the interaction). There is no negative from raiding, but it does take time to complete the interaction.
However, as expected, vampires derive the greatest degree of satisfaction from dipping their fangs into a fresh vein. The Drink interaction on a target Sim initiates the bloody snack attack. Now, you cannot just grab hold of strangers and start slurping. You must have a good relationship with a target, regardless of whether or not they are controlled by you or are autonomous.
If you attempt the interaction on a Sim that is not keen on your vampire, they will resist and reject the advance. If the target has a good relationship with your vampire or is romantically interested in your vampire (and here’s where interactions like Think About Me help), they will allow themselves to be fed upon.
If the Sims are friends, they offer their wrist. If romance is involved, the vampire moves to the neck for the main course. Either way, this action not only feeds the vampire (and imbues the Sated moodlet), but gives a slight relationship boost to both parties.
If a vampire fails to feed enough, they can perish. So, when the Madly Thirsty moodlet appears, stop everything and do whatever you must to get this vampire some hemoglobin, stat. Should the timer below the moodlet zero out, the Grim Reaper appears to take what’s rightfully his. The vampire disintegrates into a pile of ashes... but even the undead can come back as ghosts. Playable vampire ghosts are really cool, because they have the benefits of both vampirism and of ghosts. And if you’re in this to tell a really good narrative, a ghost vampire is quite the star.
The Hunt
Not all plasma is the same. Vampires get greater pleasure and extra Thirst satisfaction if they drink from a superior source. But to identify a source of good plasma, vampires must go on the Hunt. To start the Hunt interaction, just click on the currently occupied lot and select it from the available list. Now, the vampire will begin eyeing everybody on the lot.
As Sims around the vampire are “scanned” for plasma quality, they appear with a thermal overlay. After a few moments, the vampire gathers the necessary info to determine which Sim (or Sims) on the lot has particularly delicious plasma. Those Sims will be noted in the Relationship tab of the Status panel and will be marked with an icon in Map View. Your vampire definitely wants to keep track of these special Sims; when he or she drinks from them, the vamp earns the positive Sanguine Snack moodlet. This is more powerful than the Sated moodlet.
Vampire Families
Vampires cannot turn younger Sims—that just wouldn’t be right to steal life away from children and teenagers before they are able to make such a momentous decision on their own. Besides, feeding on a little kid? That’s just creepy-wrong. Yet there can be vampire children. You may designate a vampire child in Create a Sim. But if you want a vampire baby…
A vampire may become romantically involved with either another vampire or a normal Sim. After successfully Trying for Baby, two vampires produce a child with the hidden Vampire trait. When that child becomes a young adult, they automatically become a full vampire without the growing pains other Sims experience during the turning process.
If a vampire and normal Sim create a baby, there is only a 50 percent chance it carries that hidden Vampire trait.
Though younger vampires do not Drink, Hunt, or Read Minds like fully developed vampires, they still exhibit a few of the physical vampire traits just to let you know what’s coming. Look for pale skin or reflective eyes.
A CURE?
So, there is a way to undo vampirism (or any supernatural condition) and return a Sim to human form. Alchemists can brew an elixir called Potent Cure Elixir. At level 7, Alchemists can create this elixir from Wolfsbane, Glow Orbs, and Ruby Powder. Like the Bottled Vampire’s Bite, this elixir can be given to a vampire for them to swallow or it can be sneaked into a glass and given to the unsuspecting. Either way, one taste and nightwalking becomes a thing of the past. As soon as the cure is consumed, the vampire returns to normal status and no longer has Thirst. They have the Hunger need again and crave regular food. Life is back to normal... or as normal as it’s going to get in Moonlight Falls. Vampires can also forsake their powers and chase an Opportunity chain to return to human form.