Choose your life’s goals

Young Adult Sims and older will have Bucket Lists that fill up with goals. Some items you may choose, and some will appear for you to accept or reject. Possible Bucket List items include declaring a crafted masterpiece your life’s work, WooHooing in an unconventional location while a relationship is at max, spending 24 in-game hours in a specific world, and more. Completing Bucket List items in life will unlock interactions, the Burning Soul trait, the ability to be Reborn, and more.

Complete your unfinished business

If a Sim dies with incomplete items on their bucket list and becomes a Ghost, those items will become their unfinished business. Completing the items will then unlock the options to either Move On or be Reborn, though you may also choose to have them remain a Ghost.

Start over

Completing their Bucket List or Unfinished Business will give a Sim the ability to be Reborn. They will be submerged in Ravenwood’s Baleful Bog before you’re taken into CAS. The Reborn Sim’s age and appearance will both be customizable, and you can also choose which household your Reborn Sim will join and what their relationships will be (for example, you could insert the Reborn Sim into the Goth family with Bella and Mortimer as their parents).

Reapers & Morticians

Start an active career as a Reaper, a member of Grim’s team. Perfect for Sims with a dark sense of adventure, this job will take you to Grim’s office and beyond. Visit the dead and reap souls in person, stop active hauntings, and enjoy day-to-day tasks like ushering soul orbs along their journeys and chatting with Grim (your boss). If you’re looking for an equally gloomy but off-screen career, visit the Crypt to start working as a mortician.

Embrace the beyond

The Ghost Historian Aspiration is for Sims who want to study the departed. Sims with this aspiration will want to explore the Crypt, befriend Ghosts, and write down their findings. In time, they’ll be able to write Horror books. There are also 3 new traits. Macabre Sims delight in the dark and marvel at the morbid. Chased By Death will give Sims a ‘seize the day’ attitude and tilt the odds against them in risky situations. Skeptical Sims do NOT believe in Ghosts, even when they encounter them.

Pet Crows & Tarot

A Pet Crow can be a beloved companion in The Sims 4 Life & Death. Befriending your crow will make it inclined to bring you gifts, and they can even be taught to say Simlish words through Mimicry. If you provoke your crow, however, it may become upset, and its friends will punish you with a Death by Murder of Crows. There’s also a new collectable, Tarot Cards, which can be found around Ravenwood (or purchased in Build/Buy). Sims with a full deck can perform readings for themselves and others.

Every Sims grieves differently

Unhappy events like Deaths and Breakups will have long-term emotional effects on Sims. The 4 types of Grief are Anger, Blues, Holding It Together, and Denial, and which one a Sim experiences will depend on their traits as well as what happened and who they lost. Grieving Sims will have new interactions and a variety of ways to cope, including talking to other Sims and Counseling.

Remember in your own way

When your Sims lose a loved one, hold a custom event with the rituals you want. Gather in a location of your choosing and express grief in a variety of ways from Toasts to Eulogies to a Memorial Cannon that shoots confetti. Rituals may be somber, but upbeat celebrations of life are possible too. Besides hosting an event, you can commemorate deceased Sims with customizable Gravesites and Caskets. Choose the look of headstones & urns, and add decorations a Sim would have enjoyed to their casket.

Write wills & pass down Heirlooms

Sims aged child and up can designate certain items as Heirlooms, which can be passed down through generations. Possible Heirlooms include both craftable items and items available in Build Mode, like quilts and music boxes. Hovering over an Heirloom will always show the Sim it belonged to. Sims can create wills which willi dictate which other Sims will obtain their Heirlooms, money, children, and more. Choose the emotional impact you want the Will Reading to have.

Grow your power

Power progression for Ghosts has 5 tiers split between good and evil lanes, as well as a 4-tier neutral track in the middle. As you work to become the best (or worst) ghoul you can be, you’ll unlock powerful abilities. Make sure to watch your stamina gauge; you’ll get more see-through when you’re low on energy. The ultimate ability of the good track is Benevolent Blessing, and the ultimate ability of the evil track is Otherworldly Curse.

How will you haunt?

You can be a very friendly ghost and help out around the house you’re haunting, cleaning messes and fixing broken items. This will earn you Goodwill essences. You can also embrace the fiendish fun of scaring living Sims to earn Fear essences. Both types of essence can be sold for Simoleons (Ghosts need money, too!).

Visit the dead

Crypts can hold the urns of up to 20 Sims, but they are more than just a final resting place. The living can visit to mourn, nap, WooHoo, or join the Mortician career. Eerie adventures are also waiting; make careful choices and you could find treasure, or something less pleasant. Cemeteries are a common site for grieving rituals. Ghosts often spend time there, and if you encounter the grave keeper at night he might share a frightful tale. Cemeteries can be created and placed in any world.

People, places, & poltergeists

No trip to Ravenwood will be complete without a trip to the Baleful Bog, a large river with supernatural powers. Sims in The Sims 4 Life & Death can go here for an out-of-body experience. Ghost Sims or Sims who are close to death can visit the Baleful Bog to be Reborn, if they’ve completed their Bucket Lists/Unfinished Business. You can also visit Alice’s dead tree to get a quest from the ghost mother, adventure in a Haunted House, meet Grim in the Garden Ruins, encounter the frightening Edith in the village, and more.