Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. Guides

The Sims 3 cheats: all cheat codes for PC, Mac, PlayStation and Xbox

By
Sims 3
n/a

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).

Recommended Videos

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
  • Make All Happy
Sets mood to Max. (Removes most negative Moodlets and maximizes Needs).
  • Make Friends For Me
Gives the Sim a number of random friends from the neighborhood.
  • Make Needs Static
Needs are maximized and do not decay on their own. The pie menu changes to “Make Needs Dynamic”.
  • Make Needs Dynamic
Needs return to normal decay rate. The pie menu changes to “Make Needs Static”.
  • Make Me Know Everyone
Makes Sim know everyone in the home neighborhood and the World Adventures neighborhoods.
  • Force Visitor
Forces a random visitor to arrive.
  • Force NPC…
Forces a particular NPC to arrive.
  • Set Career…
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
  • Force Opportunity
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)
  • Spawn Job …
  • 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
  • Teleport me here
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
  • Add to Active Household
Any Object (after patch 1.7)
  • Object… Delete It

Editors’ Recommendations

Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox loves writing, games, and complaining about not having time to write and play games. He knows the names of more…
PlayStation reverses course on controversial Helldivers 2 PC change
Two soldiers hug in front of an explosion in Helldivers 2.

Sony will no longer require PC players of Helldivers 2 to create a PlayStation Network account in order to access the game. This reversal followed a weekend of controversy that saw both Helldivers games getting review bombed on Steam.

If you're unfamiliar with this controversy, Sony and Arrowhead Game Studios angered Helldivers 2 players with an announcement last week. They planned to start enforcing a PlayStation Network account requirement that Helldivers 2 on PC had ignored since shortly after launch. This already didn't sit well with PC players who flock to Steam in order to avoid making accounts elsewhere, but the situation worsened once players noticed Helldivers 2 was sold and purchased by people in regions where people can't create a PlayStation Network account. This resulted in a massive review-bombing campaign on Steam, Valve allowing refunds, and Steam delisting the game in regions that don't allow PlayStation Network accounts.

Read more
All console commands and cheats for Fallout: New Vegas
The courier holding a gun with a welcome sign in the background in Fallout: New Vegas key art.

From the moment you begin your adventure in Fallout: New Vegas, you've already cheated death. Your first playthrough of the game should be done as the developers intended, though maybe with a couple of mods to make the experience a little smoother, but nothing that breaks the game. That said, it's been over a decade since the game came out, so odds are you've already played through the intended way at least once. This is when you can have some fun tinkering with the game and play using console commands and cheats if you're on the PC version of the game. There are a ton of commands you can input to manipulate your character, the world, objects, and more. Here's a full rundown of all the cheats there are and how to activate them.
How to enter console commands
Opening up the command console to type in your cheats is just a single keystroke away. While in the game (not paused), hit the ~ key located below your escape key. This will remove your HUD and bring up the prompt to type in any of the below cheats.
All Fallout: New Vegas console commands and cheats

Because there are so many console commands, we're going to break them down into general categories to make it easier for you to find what you're looking for based on what you want to do.
Faction and reputation cheats
addreputation <form id> <variable> <amount> -- Increases your reputation with a faction.

Read more
All Fallout 4 cheats and console commands
Fallout 4 key art featuring the power armor suit hung up in an armory.

Cheat codes have somewhat become a thing of the past in modern gaming, with mods coming in to take their place. Most Bethesda games, such as Starfield and Fallout 4, enjoy plenty of mod support, but also have plenty of ways that you can tweak the game using some old-fashioned cheats and console commands.

Even as big as Fallout 4 is, it has shown its age at this point, so why not try out a few cheats to keep things exciting in the wasteland? Here are all the cheats and console commands you can use, and how to activate them.

Read more