The Sims 4: Ghosts

Removal, Resurrection, and Joining the Family

A Ghost in The Sims 4
A Ghost

Ghosts are a feature of the Sims 4 Base Game. They are the result of Sims who've passed away, and their behavior and abilities vary based upon the cause of death. We have a separate guide to individual ways Sims can die, and preventing death. This guide to Ghosts will teach you about their attributes, means of getting rid of ghosts, having ghosts join your household, and how to bring a ghost back from the dead.

Ghost Visits & Basics
While there is some variation in what ghosts can do and how they behave, they also share the same qualities. Ghosts will visit in the middle of the night (after 10) and depart in the morning (around 6am). The presence of their urn (indoors) or tombstone (outdoors) is what determines the lot they will spawn on. Ghosts tend to behave erratically, but also in ways tied to the type of death they experienced. Having a haunting can be predictably chaotic, given the damage they could cause overnight, but they're mostly a minor nuisance that sometimes leads to funny moments and overall has a negligible impact on gameplay.

A Ghost scares a Sim in The Sims 4
Ghosts get a few unique socials, namely 'Scare' and 'Pass Through'

Ghosts may cause a Tense +2 Moodlet on Sims whenever they possess a nearby object, and possess the spook and pass through socials in order to scare Sims. Often, their arrival is nothing special to a group of Sims unless they possess a nearby object, and you're able to easily socialize with them and even befriend them over time. The color of a ghost shifts based on their emotions, not on their death type. You can easily tell if a ghost is happy if they're green. Flirty if pink, red is angry, blue sad, and so on.

Explore My Mods! Color Picker for Builders, Seasons Tuner, Dine Out Reloaded and a Gameplay Overhaul! Like other modders, I've been working to make The Sims 4 a better game. Check out my many mods here!

Becoming friends with a ghost will let you add them to your household
Befriending ghosts lets you ask them to move in.

Given the odds are somewhat low for a visit from an individual ghost each night, the more urns on your lot the more likely you are to experience paranormal activity. Players of multi-generational families who keep their previous Sims around may have 2-3 ghosts running around at night, messing with the house. I'd say a ghost appears on average 1-2 nights a week, sometimes more, and you may experience long dry spells with no activity.

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Cheat to Get a Ghost

The following cheats add or remove a specific type of death trait that is responsible for making a Sim into a ghost in the first place. Turning one of these on will immediately turn them into a ghost of the appropriate type. Equip the trait with traits.equip_trait X to turn them into a ghost or remove it with traits.remove_trait X to return the Sim back into a normal, living Sim. For this second part, you must use the exact type of death cheat to reverse it. Use the simology panel (hotkey Y) if you're unsure.

  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_anger - Anger, and for example traits.remove_trait anger to remove it. This cheat may be temporarily broken due to a patch.
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_animalobjects_killerchicken - Death by chicken (Cottage Living)
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_animalobjects_killerrabbit - Death by rabbit - Cottage Living
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_beetle - Beetle - Eco Lifestyle
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_climbingroute - Climbing Route fail - Snowy Escape
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_cowplant - Cow Plant
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_drown - Drowning
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_electrocution - Electrocution
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_embarrassment - Embarrassment
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_fire - Fire This cheat may be temporarily broken due to a patch
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_flies - Flies - Eco Lifestyle
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_frozen - Frozen - Seasons
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_hunger - Hunger
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_laughter - Laughter
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_lightning - Lightning - Seasons
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_motherplant - Mother Plant - Strangerville
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_murphybed - Murphy Bed - Tiny Living
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_oldage - Old Age
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_elderexhaustion - Overexertion (Old Age)
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_overheat - Overheating - Seasons
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_poison - Poison - Jungle Adventure
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_pufferfish - Pufferfish - City Living
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_rodent_disease - Rabid Rodent Fever - My First Pet
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_steam - Sauna
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_vampire_sun - Vampire sun exposure - Vampires
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_vendingmachine - Vending machine - Snowy Escape
  • traits.equip_trait trait_ghost_witchoverload - Spellcaster Overload - Realm of Magic

Removing Ghosts and Bringing Back the Dead

Return to the Netherworld sends a ghost off to the beyond, never to be seen again
Ghosts can be removed from the game by sending them to the netherworld. Afterward, the tombstone or urn they belonged to can be destroyed.

Return/Send to Netherworld
This is how you get rid of a ghost, forever. Do not use this option unless you are sure that you never want to see a ghost again and that you'll never want to play them. Click the ghost's urn or tombstone and you can release their spirit, permanently. Family tree aside, it will be as though that Sim never existed as far as the game is concerned and they cannot be recovered. Ghosts can decide to 'move on' this way, even once controlled by the player. Simply have the ghost select their own remains and return to netherworld.

Resurrecting Ghosts

Sims who complete the Bestselling Author Aspiration can earn the Poetic Reward Trait, which allows them to write the Book of Life. This book, which cannot be bound to the author, allows a Sim to be restored to life when they are a Ghost. If you want to protect the Author, you'll need to have another Sim do this Aspiration. Once it's written, simply bind the book to a Sim while still living, and then have them read the book themselves. You can make one for every member of your household. The Ghost must use the Restore feature to resurrect themselves. Any other Sim who reads it can only summon the Ghost.

Ghosts and the grim reaper
A group of ghosts gathers around, as the Reaper prepares to make another of the poor test family join their ranks.

If you did not get the Poetic Trait, then you need to make Ambrosia to bring the Ghost back to life. This requires a Death Flower, Potion of Youth, and Angelfish, along with mastery of both Cooking and Gourmet Cooking. Click to learn about Ambrosia and how you can get all its requirements in an efficient way. Ambrosia is one of the more challenging things to create in The Sims 4.

Playing as Ghosts

Ghosts can walk through walls, sometimes.
Ghosts can sometimes take shortcuts to get from A to B faster. This is great, even better is that they're immortal and have all the time in the world.

Playable Ghosts
Even if a ghost was your Sim's husband, relationship will decay at the normal rate and thus levels may fall. In order to play as a ghost, you can simply befriend one each time it visits and then ask it to join your household. If you don't mind cheating, you can easily use testingcheats on and shift-click the ghost when it visits, click add to family. If you wait it out, you should be able to befriend them within 2-3 visits and get them to rejoin the family.

Ghosts are immortal as they have already died, and you can play as a single ghost without any living Sims in the household without issue. Sims can Woohoo with ghosts, but may not produce the ever-coveted Ghost Baby. Ghosts do not have any special abilities when it comes to need decay, their needs are exactly the same as those of living Sims.

They can, however, walk through walls (when you've clicked and automatic pathing decides it's a good idea) and get a few unique socials related to scaring Sims. Ghosts can do the 'Ghostly Repair' on certain objects (mainly plumbing, but not electronics), fixing them and saving Sims time. They'll actually gain handiness skill in the process. Other behaviors relate to how they died:

A ghost who was eaten by a cow plant can decay plants when angry
Sims' death type determines their abilities as a ghost. In this case, she was eaten by a cow plant and can now decay plants when angry - hence the red.

Ghost Behavior by Death Type
Here are the behaviors ghosts exhibit, based upon the type of death. Many of these effects are situational or only existent whenever the ghost is a non-player character:

  • Anger - May give nearby Sims a small angry Moodlet (+1) with +2 for the Ghost.
  • Cow Plant - When angry, they can Decay a plant and cause it to grow weeds and lose water, possibly killing a plant that was already in bad shape.
  • Drowning - May cause pools of water to appear.
  • Electrocution - When angry, they may break electronics by possessing them. They can also shock Sims for a laugh.
  • Embarrassment - May give nearby Sims a small embarrassed Moodlet, with +2 for the Ghost.
  • Fire - May set fires at times, in random places. When player controlled, click the ground while angry to start a fire (may only work on the home lot).
  • Hunger - Will often eat in the middle of the night
  • Laughter - May give nearby Sims a small playful Moodlet, +1 for others, +2 for the Ghost.
  • Old Age/Overexertion - They just tend to chill when acting autonomously.
  • Sauna - Like the death-by-hunger Sim, except they strongly desire a cool-off. Because of this, they can near-instantly absorb puddles from the ground as opposed to mopping them.

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Comments (119)

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New
Marmarsays...
Hi, so I was playing with Bjersens yesterday.
And then a fire started, so the object that was on fire was the chemical furniture that Elsa Bjersens uses (the child).
But I saw that children can die of fire, I didn't put out the fire XD.
But Elsa just stayed there and didn't do anything.

What can I do to solve the problem? I never saw a child in TS4 die.
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Admin
Playalotsays...
So an adult sim can extinguish the fire by you clicking near/on the fire and choosing that option.
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New
Marmarsays...
I tried the cheat with the Sims of mine who are dead, because my last save was corrupted and gone, my one sim went somewhere and she just vanished...

So as my other Sim, who is at work. Can someone help me?
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Admin
Playalotsays...
I'd suggest looking for them in household management. Once you find them you can place them into a house from there so you will know where to find them again.
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New
Ingvildsays...
I want to get a sim back with ambrosia, but the trouble is that my ghost never comes out of his tomb. Ive been trying for like seven nights now.. But he never shows up. How can I set him out?
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Senior
Playalotsays...
You can't force it. I've had it take 2 sims weeks before so just keep being on the home lot between 10pm and 6 am and the ghost will eventually visit.
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New
Mia Peterssays...
I hate having the urns just laying around. I have to make an extra room for the urns. UrgggggMad
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Senior
Playalotsays...
You can place them into the household inventory so that you don't need to deal with them. Or release the spirit to the netherworld which removes the ghost and urn forever.
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New
Volcanion gamersays...
honestly, i love the cowplant death! even if it is horrifCryingic i just love the comic humor of being eaten by a plant! a plant that eats meat, modeled after a vegetarian animal! what is wrong with me?Huh
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New
Kudasupersays...
my other cheats bb.ignoregameplayunlocksentitlement in not Working NutsMad
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Admin
Playalotsays...
It is working in my game so here are some things you can try: if you are using mods remove them and delete the localthumbcache.package file from your The Sims 4 folder. Hop back into game, enable testingcheats on and copy and paste bb.ignoregameplayunlocksentitlement
into the cheats console. Open up buy catalogue and under content you should see all the unlocks.
If you don't use mods go through the same routine from deleting the localthumbcache.package file.
There is a guide to cheats if you are interested here
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New
J huntington iiisays...
I have a bunch of ghosts
J huntington
Johnny
Don(i sent him to the netherworld)
Bella
(My sims(
Smile
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New
Minasays...
So I don't normally play sims until they become elders and die, I usually give them immortal 'adulthood', but that been said I have about 3 elders who I have had that died, and just discovered that the three ghosts have been culled, and I did not have a 'no cull' mod. Is there anything/way (Cheat, mod) to restore these ghosts? All 3 were returned to netherworld and have been deleted from memory/relationship. I don't want them living again but as relationships again.
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Admin
Playalotsays...
I'm sorry to say but no. Once you release a spirit/ghost to the netherworld it is completely deleted from your game files.
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New
Mirabellesays...
You should update this list and add Death by Puffer fish.
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Admin
Playalotsays...
You'll find that information on the Guide to Death page. Smile
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New
Crazy Maisiesays...
can u make a guide to CAS or cheats in CAS
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Admin
Playalotsays...
We have a Guide to CAS here. Smile
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Regular
Marysays...
My chick married an alien. He used his mental ability to erase their relationship & marriage just before their twins were born. I built their relationship back up & got them married again. On their honeymoon, her getting pregnant again, as soon as they finished woohoo-ing, he died of laughter. My son was checking out the game & sent his spirit to the netherworld. Is there really no way to get him back?
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Admin
Playalotsays...
In that particular game file if you have saved then no, once a ghost has been sent to the netherworld they are deleted from the game entirely. You can however, try rolling back to a previous save from before he was dead. It all depends on how often you save etc.
Link to How-To restore a saved game Hopefully this will work for you and you have an older save file with a living alien!
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Regular
Marysays...
Guess what?! I was able to return him! I got his sim id, summoned him to the lot, shift-clicked on him and added him back into the family. It kept all his skill levels. I just cheated his relationship back to where it was when he died.
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Admin
Playalotsays...
ScaredScared really!!! Wow, that is so cool. Maybe this has changed in the game code due to vampires coming or something! I'll have to test this out. Thanks for sharing! Tongue Normally once sent to the nether world that is it.
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Regular
Marysays...
I used the cheat and discovered he still has an ID. Can I bring him back using that somehow? I was able to increase his friendship and romance levels back up to 100. He shows up in her relationship panel, but isn't in her 'ancestry chart'. Thank you for any help you can give me.
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Regular
Marysays...
He's now not a ghost, remarried to her & she's pregnant again. He's becoming friends with his adult children too. I'm so glad I was able to get him back.
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Admin
Playalotsays...
Totally! A win in any book! Smile You'll be able to play with his toddler soon too!
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New
Georgiasays...
What abilities can sims who die from pufferfish nigiri get?
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New
ShogunyanYokaisays...
you are the best
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Regular
Ryansays...
How do I revert a sim who died of hunger
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Admin
Playalotsays...
You can make ambrosia (click) or use cheats:
traits.remove_trait hunger
More info on ghost cheats
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New
JoJoansays...
I tried to do it but I coudn't ill try again!Grin
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New
Sophiasays...
So one of my ghosts started haunting my house, (like normal) but i did the cheat so i could modify it is edit sim mode, then i finished and the camera turned to the house, but it made my ghost sim the only sim i could control, i couldn't control my other household, and i couldn't look into the house, but i could still be in it. I clicked the little house telling my sim to go home. i couldn't see where she was going, but apparently she "went home" (not to her gravesite) and now my screen won't stop loading, like i'm going to the library and i just got stuck loading. The green icon in the loading screen is moving, and the phrases and moving, so what do i do?? and has anyone successfully made their ghost go home?
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Admin
Playalotsays...
Yeah... using cheats can cause rather strange issues. Unsure I guess you'll just have to force quit out of your game and when you reload choose to play your original family again. NPC ghosts don't have a home so the game would be freaking out. You can place NPC ghosts in a house but first you have to use a cheat to add them to your current home and from there split them away and into their own home using the Manage Households menu.
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Regular
catsays...
okay my sim is dead and in an urn how does it become a ghost? please answer :(
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Admin
Playalotsays...
Make sure you have a sim on the lot with the urn between the hours of 10pm and 6am and the ghost should make an appearance. Sometimes you have to wait about 2 sims weeks, sometimes it happens sooner. As the player you don't have to do anything to 'make' a ghost, you just have to wait and have the urn on an active lot with your played sims.
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New
Loplopsays...
Does anyone know why my population doesn't reduce when I send a ghost to the netherworld? Naturally, when I delete sims my population does reduce but not when I send a ghost to the netherworld, which is essentially deleting the sim right? I simply don't understand and I fear for overpopulation. I use MC Command Center btw.
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Admin
Playalotsays...
I'd ask that question on the MCCC site as the creator will know all the ins and outs of his mod far better than I could ever hope to! If you find out please post back, I'd be keen to know why too! tbh I'm thinking you may have stumbled across another bug as sims are suposed to be completely removed from the game once sent back, but I know form another poster on here that using the sims ID can restore the deleted sim. Weird.
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New
BKRsays...
I am starting into my third generation since my last restart. Several of my first generation are dying, but not always is an urn or tombstone generated. Then I have ghosts calling or texting the living. I don't want any ghosts and would send them all to the netherworld if I could. How can I find the urns/tombstones of the deceased? They aren't on their home lot.
Gravatar
Admin
Playalotsays...
When sims die off-screen (i.e. uncontrolled sim die when you aren't playing them or when they are not on a lot where you actively are playing a sim) no urn is generated. These ghosts just get sort of seeded into the game and you may see them show up randomly or they may never show up again. Ghosts txting/phoning your sims has been complained about to the developers for a long time now but no fix seems in sight. The main way to get rid of these unwanted ghosts is by using cheats. When you see one in your game if you activate testingcheats on you can shift click the ghost and add them to your family. From there you can delete that sim from the manage households menu. Very occasionally these ghosts will be placed into a house if you have the 'fill households' checked. Also check the Not In World menu in the Manage World menu as if they have been given a role in the game (vendor or something like that) then ghosts may show up there and can be deleted without having to add them to your family.
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Regular
Sarahsays...
I told my sims ghost to return to netherworld and destroyed the tombstone but hes still here. What do i do to get rid of him?
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Admin
Playalotsays...
I suggest deleting the localthumbcache.package file from your The Sims 4 folder and restarting your game. Hopefully this is just a cache issue.
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New
Jyesays...
If you want the puffer fish ghost you type this: traits.equip_trait pufferfish
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New
Nežkasays...
I can't get rid of the ghost. The person died on my lot during a fire breakout, but it was not part of the family. Now he is living at my house, at it's pretty annoying. He does not go away no matter what. He eats with us, he's making garbage... I don't want him!!!
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Admin
Playalotsays...
Use cheats, add the ghost to your family and then delete it.
Guide to Cheats
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New
Solvesays...
I had a repair woman die during a repair. I think she died of old age but she's been wreaking havoc in my house! She possesses and destroys all plumbing every time she appears. (She was repairing coffee maker when she died). My sims couldn't keep up with fixing so I sent her to the nether.

Then I had 3 coworkers die of old age on the first day of my detective career. He spent 2 days being very sad because of their loss and now they haunt the police station. Almost all witnesses so far have been ghosts. I think I might have to add some fresh blood to my town...
Gravatar
Admin
Playalotsays...
Good idea, it's sounding like a Ghost Town! Grin Tongue


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