Part of the fun of The Sims 3 is being able to, well, simulate real life. Sure, it isn’t the most realistic simulation, but being able to control a person’s life from their job to how they decorate their home is appealing to a huge swath of players. Because the fun comes from being able to customize and tweak things just how you want, it doesn’t really feel like breaking the rules to use some cheats to make your game even more customizable, right? After all, you’re just trying to give you Sim their best life … or worst, depending on what mood you’re in. However you decide to use all these Sims 3 cheats, we won’t judge.
How to cheat in Sims 3
The basic cheats we will go over first need to be typed into the cheat console by hitting Ctrl + Shift + C (Command + Shift + C on Mac).
To reach the cheat console on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 or another console, you’ll need to press all shoulder and trigger buttons simultaneously.
Cheats aren’t case-sensitive and can be activated at any time.
Basic cheats
| Cheat | Effect |
| help | Lists most of the available commands at the moment (advanced cheats are also displayed with testingcheatsenabled true). |
| help [CHEATNAME] | Displays specific information about the cheat. |
| enableLlamas on/true/off/false | Turns on/off the llamas. Joke notifications appear in the top-right corner. Does not affect gameplay. |
| jokePlease | Prints a random, weird, and corny joke in the console. Does not affect gameplay. |
| fullscreen on/true/off/false | Toggles between full-screen and windowed mode. |
| fps on/true/off/false | Turns the frame rate display in the upperright corner on or off. |
| fadeObjects on/true/off/false | Toggles whether objects fade when the camera gets close to them. Does not apply to Sims. |
| testingCheatsEnabled on/true/off/false | Enables the cheats below and the ability to shift-click Sims to add them to the current family, remove moodlets by CTRL-clicking them, edit their traits, and age them up or edit them in CAS. It also allows the current household’s mailbox to be shift-clicked for more debug cheats, such as “Make everyone know me.” With this cheat, it’s also possible to drag relationship levels and needs up and down, which is a quick way to make your Sim die of starvation or become enemies with another Sim. In the “Ambitions” expansion, this cheat also lets you slide the Job Performance bar up or down, allowing you to get a Sim to the top of their Profession in a few seconds. |
| maptags on/true/off/false | Toggles map tags on or off. After the release of update 1.7, an option was added allowing the player to hide map tags without this cheat, but the option alone fails to hide Apartment, Weather Stone, and selected-Sim tags. The cheat has no effect in Edit Town mode. |
| discotags on/true/off/false | Makes the map tags change color and blink. |
| playsounds on/true/off/false | Enables or disables all audio features. |
Building cheats
| Cheat | Effect |
| buydebug on/true/off/false | Unlocks a Buy Mode slot with many debug objects such as Butterfly, Beetle, Gem, Meteor generators, mature Plants, the Mysterious Mr. Gnome, the toy box’s toys, etc. |
| constrainFloorElevation on/true/off/false | Allows terrain adjustment regardless of objects/Sims/etc. on them. |
| disableSnappingToSlotsOnAlt on/true/off/false | When on, objects will not snap to slots while holding ⎇ Alt. After an unknown patch, this cheat was no longer necessary to activate non-snapping. |
| moveObjects on/true/off/false | Removes footprint limitation for all object placement in Buy Mode and Build Mode. Removes limitations placed on hand tool for when objects are in use, or are normally non-movable objects. Allows for the intersection of objects and off-center placement. Note that using this cheat allows you to delete objects that normally cannot be deleted, such as Sims, the mailbox, and the garbage can. Be careful when deleting these objects, because they either need Buydebug to get them back, or cannot be obtained again altogether. When Sims are accidentally deleted with this cheat, the only way to retrieve them is to go into Edit Town mode, split the deleted Sim from the household, and merge him/her back. |
| placeFriezes on/true/off/false | Allows use of foundations on top of tiled floors. |
| RestrictBuildBuyInBuildings on/true/off/false | All properties with a mark of public spaces (normally lobbies and entrance halls) become editable in Buy Mode and Build Mode. While the cheat is base game, it is usually only useful for Late Night buildings. |
| enableLotLocking on/true/off/false | Allows the player to lock/unlock a lot to enable editing from the Edit Town mode. Examples of locked lots are tombs, ports, and diving areas. Strangely, it also makes unlisted lots visible and editable in Edit Town. |
| allowObjectsOnRoofs [on/off] | Place every object on the roof. |
| ⎇ Alt | Holding down ⎇ Alt while rotating an object or a to-be-placed custom lot allows free rotation of them. While not technically considered a cheat, as it’s often used in prebuilt lots in the Mining District and Oasis Landing, it nevertheless allows large and oftentimes sudden new architecture methods, e.g. placing objects in circles. |
| AlwaysAllowBuildBuy on/true/off/false | Enables switching from Live Mode to Buy/Build Mode at any time, even during. fires or a Sim dying. Convenient when needing to change to daytime/nighttime for photo shoots. |
Money and gameplay cheats
| Cheat | Effect |
| resetSim [FIRSTNAME LASTNAME] | Resets the Sim with neutral motives, no moodlets, and teleports Sim back home. It’s useful if they got stuck, and very useful if they just died and have not disappeared yet, like when a Sim dies at the corner and sits there for weeks without the Grim Reaper coming to pick them up. It makes it so they haven’t died. |
| quit | Exits the game. |
| kaching | Adds 1,000 to active household. |
| motherlode | Adds 50,000 to active household. |
| familyfunds [HOUSEHOLD] [AMOUNT] | Sets the amount of Simoleons of the family to [AMOUNT]. For example, “familyfunds Landgraab 10000” sets the family funds of the Landgraab household to 10,000 Simoleons, even if they originally had 50,000 simoleons. Note: If a space is used in a household’s name (such as De Luca), the name must be surrounded by quotation marks. The cheat for the De Luca family would look like this: familyfunds “De Luca” 50000. Also, this cheat will not work if there are multiple households with the same name. |
| unlockOutfits on/true/off/false | Enter this before going into CAS in order to use career and NPC outfits. |
| freerealestate | Allows Sims to buy lots for free. |
| discoverAllUnchartedIslands | Unlocks all uncharted islands in Isla Paradiso.[TS3:IP] While many online guides claim it’s spelled as unlockAllUnchartedIslands,[2] the game does not recognize that spelling. |
| speed [0-8] | Changes game speed from 0 (normal speed) to 8 (slowest possible). |
| ageuptonpc | Makes a toddler who grows up to child become an NPC (non-playable character) in the household. |
Testingcheats
Testingcheats are a special type of cheat that activate when you shift+click on specific objects once you enable it. To turn it on, open the cheat menu and enter “testingCheats true”. To disable this mode, simply replace “true” with “false.” Here are the options you get when selecting different objects:
- Mailbox
- Sets mood to Max. (Removes most negative Moodlets and maximizes Needs).
- Gives the Sim a number of random friends from the neighborhood.
- Needs are maximized and do not decay on their own. The pie menu changes to “Make Needs Dynamic”.
- Needs return to normal decay rate. The pie menu changes to “Make Needs Static”.
- Makes Sim know everyone in the home neighborhood and the World Adventures neighborhoods.
- Forces a random visitor to arrive.
- Forces a particular NPC to arrive.
- Sets the current Sim’s career to the specified path, branch, and rank.
- Supernatural population control (requires Supernatural)
- Gives the option to remove or add supernaturals to the game
- Work Place
- Seems to only force work-related opportunities; no skill related opportunities are caused.
- Force Event
- Force All Events
- Forces every possible event from workplace.
- All Community Lots and Neighbors’ Houses (requires Ambitions)
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- Note No. 1: This is only available to Sims employed in Professions or in the Medical Career.
- Note No. 2: It also depends on the Profession or Career. For example, Architectural Designers work only in clients’ homes, while Doctors can hold Clinics in any Community Lot.
- On Floor
- Teleports Sim to that location
- Build/Buy on this lot (after patch 1.7) Note: Clicking either enables both actions (i.e., Click Buy and you can still access Build mode on the lot).
- Seasons… (requires Seasons)
- Note: With this action, players can control various aspects of weather within the game, such as wind intensity, what type of precipitation will come next and how intense it will be, and current temperature.
- All Sims
- Trigger Age Transition
- Add to active household/family
- Favorite Music… (after patch 1.7)
- Edit Sim in CAS (after certain patch)
- Prior to patch 1.38, occults don’t have this option. However, some life states are still disabled from being edited in CAS through this cheat, such as Mummy and SimBot.
- Edit Sim in CAS will not work if the targeted Sim is pregnant or wearing their work uniform.
- Active Sim
- Modify Traits for Active Sim
- Non-Household Sim
- Any Object (after patch 1.7)
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