Even in The Sims, nobody escapes aging. One day, your Sim is dancing in the kitchen, and the next moment, the Grim Reaper is crashing the party.
Sims usually age up into elders somewhere around 90 to 100 Sim days, which you can see when their age bar fills up. Once they become elders, they only have a few days left to live.
On the default lifespan, most Sims live around 85 days, plus about 10 extra days as elders.
But if you take really good care of them, they can stick around much longer. Keeping them active, healthy, and feeding them a vegetarian diet can help them live well into their 120 or 130 Sim days.
The Long-Lived Trait Extends Your Sim’s Lifespan
If your Sim possesses the Long-Lived reward trait, they’ll enjoy a significantly extended lifespan, especially in their elder years.
With the Long-Lived trait, Sims can live about 25 extra days compared to normal elders. That’s basically three times longer. Some even stick around so long that their own kids become elders before they finally pass on.
To earn the Long-Lived reward trait, your Sim must complete the Bodybuilder aspiration.
Elder Sims can finally retire from their career after spending their adult years in the workforce. They will also get the Wise trait.
However, aging also comes with challenges. Elder Sims move more slowly than their younger counterparts, and they may experience the Dangerously Tired moodlet and die of overexertion.
Learn More About Aging in The Sims 4
In The Sims 4, you have control over your Sims’ aging process, allowing you to customize their lifespan to your liking.
You can change your Sims’ age settings to control how long it takes for them to die of old age. If there are Sims you’re not too attached to, you can shorten their lifespan to around 75 days.
When a Sim has only about 48 hours left, you’ll get a notification suggesting they should get their affairs in order.
Keep in mind that, depending on your settings, Sims can age even when you’re not actively playing. If you want to keep them young forever, you can turn aging off completely.
If aging is turned off, but you still want an elder Sim to die, there are a couple of ways to do it in-game.
One way is to have two elders woohoo nonstop. After a while, they’ll die from overexertion.
If you have Seasons, another option is using a flower arrangement. At level 7, you can add a rare scent to a high-quality arrangement. Select a death flower as the rare scent.
Give that flower arrangement to an elder as a gift. They’ll die instantly when they smell it. If you give it to a younger Sim, they’ll just age up instead.
Happy Simming!