The Sims 4 – Tips to Manage Your Needs

In The Sims 4, sometimes the most basic needs can feel like a major pain in the digital backside. Really though, who has time to go to the bathroom, eat and take a shower all in the same morning? Don’t the developers at Maxis know that such silliness takes away from a player’s time to Party Hard and Kill Other Sims?

Regardless of our thoughts on the matter, the word needs isn’t open to interpretation. You have to meet them or your Sims can suffer  fairly substantial consequences. You could go the route of Using Some Cheats, but for the purist who wants to experience the game at its simulating best, here are some tips to managing the essentials.

The Single Sim

Let’s start here since quite a few players will begin their adventure sas a single Sim, and that is one of the most difficult situations in which to manage your needs. Not only do you have to do all the cooking by yourself, you also typically have to go outside of your home to deal with your Social need.

Your best approach here is to make sure that you load up on the Social need on your days off from whatever career you choose. Your Hunger, Fun, Hygiene, Bladder and Energy can all be taken care of in the privacy of your own home, but Social needs often require you to get out and live a little. Think about going to any public place and meeting as many Sims as you can. This way you can at least call and invite them over, rather than wasting time going out after a long day at work.

Multi-Sim Households

Managing needs in a household with multiple Sims is somewhat easier. It can be a bit more cluttered, but the Social need is almost always under control, and that alone makes having company around slightly more tolerable.

With more than one Sim under the same roof, players will be able to kill two or three birds with one stone. For example, the Sim with the best Cooking skills can make dinner, while the other one hits the shower and uses the bathroom. When everyone is done they can sit down together in front of the television to eat, which will knock off Fun, Hunger and Social in one go. That’s half of all your needs for one Sim in one interaction.

Get a Morning Routine

Almost every person has a morning routine that gets them started for the day ahead, and your Sims will need exactly the same consideration. As soon as they get up, have them spend their first hour or two working exclusively on their needs. Send them to the bathroom for Hygiene and Bladder, then grab some food and sit them in front of the television. Try to have all six of their needs fully green before you start the day. This will allow them to head out into the world and experience all that virtual life has to offer without worrying about peeing themselves.

Spend Your Satisfaction Points

In The Sims 4, Satisfaction Points can be used in the Rewards Store to give your Sims certain benefits that might make their lives easier. Some of them, such as Instant Fun or Instant Hygiene are fairly cheap, but can save your bacon if you don’t have time to pay attention to those particular needs. Others, such as Never Weary or Hardly Hungry are insanely expensive, but the former will mean you never have to sleep, and the latter that you rarely have to eat. In case you’re keeping score at home, the amount of your Sim’s day chewed up (pun intended) by eating and sleeping is astronomical, so buying traits like this can be life changing.