How do you fancy becoming the latest ‘Grimtern’ and exploring the digital afterlife? You can do exactly that in the Sims 4 Life & Death expansion pack by joining the Sims 4 reaping career.
We’re going to break down this 10-level career for you and give you an easy guide to get all the way to the top.
Everything you need to know
What you will need for the Sims 4 Reaping career
To progress in this career, you’ll need:
- A computer to build the new Thanotology skill.
- Fitness skill building items like a pool, gym equipment or a TV. You could also go without this and make your Sims jog every day.
- A mirror to build your charisma skill.
Things to know before you join
First, this is an active career, so you will be able to join your Sims as they go to work every day. You do have the option to send them alone, but where’s the fun in that?
Next, this isn’t a career which has branches taking you down different paths once you reach a certain level. There are only ten different levels.
You’re also going to have to get to grips with the new skill to level up in the Sims 4 reaping career.
Learning and Mastering Thanatology
Before Life & Death, there was a 10-level reaping skill that only the Grim Reaper had maxed out. Now with the new career, you can level up in the new skill that comes with this pack: Thanatology.
These are the best ways to increase Thanatology skill.
- Reading theories online on the computer: There are four theories that Sims can read, and you can read all of them as many times as you want. You will also get an inspired moodlet after reading a theory.
- Reading up on historical deaths: Using the bookcase, you can read up on historical deaths. This is a quick task to give you a little bit of skill boost.
- Reading Thanatology skill books: Whilst you’re over at the bookcase, peruse the skill books! They’re a tried and tested way of building any skill, and you can queue up the interactions and fast-forward through the reading. Skill book costs range from §75 to §250.
- Career interactions: Certain tasks in the Reaper career, like analysing death trends, boost the Thanatology skill slightly.
- Social interactions: Once your Thanatology level increases, it unlocks certain conversation options. Sims can ask other Sims about local hauntings, and even gain the ability to speak a dead language.
When you are in lower levels of the career the daily tasks go by quite quickly and you’ll have a few hours spare at the end of each work day. I found that using these hours to build the Thanatology skill at work was the easiest way to build it quickly.
Joining the career
There are two ways to join the Sims 4 reaping career. You can join any time from the computer or phone, or you can wait for the Grim Reaper to phone you and ask if you want to join.
Clicking OK will open the career selection menu.
Level 1: Grimtern
Congratulations, you’re now a Grimtern! This is the first level in the Sims 4 reaping career. Time to get to grips with the basics and learn the ropes of the job.
- Pay: §25 per hour (§200 per day)
- Days at work: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
- Work hours: 9am to 5pm
- Ideal mood: Focused
- Promotion requirements: Attend two active work days.
- Pension: §85 a day
The best ways to complete the active workday tasks are all outlined below. Skip ahead to this section here.
Level 2: Restceptionist
- Pay: §31 per hour (§248 per day)
- Days at work: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
- Work hours: 9am to 5pm
- Ideal mood: Focused
- Promotion requirements: Reach level 2 in the Thanatology skill.
- Pension: §106 a day
You’ll also be rewarded with a bonus of §254 when you get promoted, as well as the test dummy outfit.
Level 3: Dust-to-dust buster
- Pay: §39 per hour (§312 per day).
- Days at work: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
- Work hours: 10am to 6pm.
- Ideal mood: Focused.
- Promotion requirements: Have level 3 in Thanatology and release 3 souls.
- Pension: §133 a day
Releasing souls can only be done during an active workday, so to do this, you’ll need to follow your Sim to work.
Once you get promoted to level 3, you will also be given a bonus of §380 and the Basic Reaper Uniform outfit as a reward.
Level 4: Collections Agent
- Pay: §54 per hour (§432 per day).
- Days at work: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
- Work hours: 2pm to 10pm.
- Ideal mood: Focused.
- Promotion requirements: Have level 2 Fitness and Charisma skills.
- Pension: §184 a day
You’ll also receive a bonus of §1,008 once you’re promoted to Collections Agent.
Level 5: Soul Slayer
- Pay: §77 per hour (§616 per day).
- Days at work: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
- Work hours: 2pm to 10pm.
- Ideal mood: Focused.
- Promotion requirements: Have level 4 in Thanatology and release 5 souls.
- Pension: §264 a day
Time to back to raising your Thanatology skill now you’re officially a soul slayer! Getting promoted to level 5 of the Sims 4 reaping career will also earn you a bonus of §1,472.
Level 6: Spirit Expert (Extraction & Resolution)
- Pay: §110 per hour (§880 per day).
- Days at work: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.
- Work hours: 11am to 7pm.
- Ideal mood: Focused.
- Promotion requirements: Have level 4 Charisma skill and write the reaping manual.
- Pension: §376 a day
Getting promoted to the Spirit Expert will also earn you a bonus of §1,704.
Writing the Reaper Manual
To get promoted to Nether Tether you’ll need to write the Reaper Manual.
To do this, click on any computer and select Write > Write Genre Book > Reaper’s Creepers: Training Manual Instalment. You don’t need any writing skill to complete this task.
Reading the Reaper Manual once it is completed will also boost your Thanatology skill.
Level 7: Nether Tether
- Pay: §158 per hour (§1,264 per day).
- Days at work: Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
- Work hours: 5pm to 1am.
- Ideal mood: Focused.
- Promotion requirements: Have level 5 in Thanatology.
- Pension: §541 a day
You’ll earn a bonus of §1,896 for reaching level 7 in the Sims 4 reaping career.
Level 8: D.N.R. (Death’s Negotiation Reporter)
- Pay: §223 per hour (§1,784 per day).
- Days at work: Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday.
- Work hours: 2pm to 10pm.
- Ideal mood: Focused.
- Promotion requirements: Have level 4 Fitness skill and level 5 Charisma skill.
- Pension: §764 a day
You’ll also earn a bonus of 2,013 once you are promoted to Death’s Negotiation Reporter, as well as a Grim’s timeless hourglass.
Level 9: Graveling
- Pay: §299 per hour (§2,093 per day).
- Days at work: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
- Work hours: 10am to 5pm.
- Ideal mood: Focused.
- Promotion requirements: Release 10 souls.
- Pension: §897 a day
You’ll also get a bonus of 2,391 for reaching the 9th level in the career.
Level 10: Reaper
- Pay: §421 per hour (§2,947per day)
- Days at work: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday.
- Work hours: 9am to 4pm.
- Ideal mood: Focused
- Promotion requirements: None, you’ve maxed out the Sims 4 reaping career! Keep attending work to increase performance to give your Sim a pay boost.
- Pension: §1,010 a day
Being promoted to Reaper will get you a bonus of 2,666, but arguably the best rewards are the items you get.
The new trait you unlock is Grim’s Right Hand. This trait is incredible; it will give your Sim the ability to instantly break or fix anything with the Healing Hand and Death’s Touch interactions.
Not only that, Sims with this trait can handle grief better with better coping skills and, possibly the best use of this trait, avoid death. If your Sim with this trait dies, when Grim shows up to reap their soul, you’ll be resurrected instead.
Also, the uniform at this level in the career is to die for – pun intended.
How To Complete Each Task
The Sims 4 reaping career is full of different tasks you need to complete to progress and get promoted.
As you arrive at the Netherworld Department of Death, you’ll receive a pop-up instructing you to use the Scry Bowl to receive your assignments.
Your Sim swirls their hand in the Scry Bowl, and you’ll get a pop-up revealing your assignment.
Regular Reaping Tasks
These are the standard reaping tasks you can expect to do on a normal day at the N.W.D.D.
Check Your Tasks
You’ll have to do different tasks depending on your workday – practice reaping, research assignments, scry for travel, scythe maintenance, capture and release souls, planning reaping schedules, writing death certificates, and socialise with co-workers.
Practice Reaping
Poor Kenny. As the Netherworld Department of Death’s training Sim, you’ll use him to practice reaping. Just click on him to get started. You can find him at the back of the office, behind the Scry Bowl.
Once you begin reaping practice, your Sim will rise into the air and swipe their scythe just like the Grim Reaper. They’ll then land, grab Kenny’s ‘soul’, and take notes on the cause of death.
Research Assignment
Click on the bookshelf and select ‘Research Assignment’. Your Sim will then spend a few Sim minutes flicking through a book to complete the task.
Scythe Maintenance
Click on your Sim and select Scythe maintenance. Your Sim will then check the scythe for dirt and give it a quick wipe with a sponge.
Computer Tasks
There are a few computer tasks you can get done on an active workday. These are Analyse Death Trends, File Death Certificate, Order Office Supplies, and Check Soul Quota.
You will also use the Slablet to Plan the Reaping Schedule. These tasks can also grant moodlets.
Scry for Travel
Click on the Scry Bowl and select travel. Your Sim will then travel to a training location, where you’ll learn how to determine and investigate causes of death.
Investigating Cause of Death
You’ll arrive at the location of the deceased Sim, where you will take the lead on determining the cause of death by checking their pockets,the position of the body, the position of limbs, pulse, temperature, and rigor mortis.
If when you arrive at the location you can’t find the deceased Sim, you can click on yourself and select Locate Deceased Sim, which will snap your camera to their location.
Once you do 4 to 5 of these tasks, your Sim will then become confident of the cause of death. Then, select the body and click Determine Cause of Death, which will be revealed to you in a pop-up notification.
As you level up more investigation options will become available.
Getting Grim’s Opinion
You can also ask Grim for their opinion when you arrive at the location. Click on Grim and select Get Expert Opinion.
Your Sim will then take notes using a notepad and pen. It will help you determine the cause of death or give you advice on what to do next.
Interviewing and Comforting Witnesses
If there happens to be other Sims at the scene you can interview them to find out what happened to the deceased. Just click on them and select Take Witness Statement.
If they are upset, you also have the option to offer them comfort with the Soothe Witness interaction.
Investigate Nearby Objects
Investigating objects at the scene is also a good way to help determine the cause of death.
Click on any of the objects around the dead Sim, and hopefully it will help you reach a conclusion.
Collecting Souls
Put that practice you got back in the office to good use! Click on the body and collect the soul. At first, you’ll have the option to collect the soul lazily or normally. As you level up in the Sims 4 reaping career, new options for collecting souls will become available. The higher level you are, the more successful these attempts will be!
Collecting the soul lazily isn’t ideal, and the chance of failure is slightly higher. Once you successfully collect the soul, it will go into your inventory.
If you fail to collect a soul your Sim will keep swiping their scythe before giving it a tap and landing back on the ground. You’ll get the chance to try again though so don’t worry!
Ask for a Review
By clicking on the urn and selecting Request Reaping Review, the soul you’ve just collected will offer a review of your services.
You may also be asked to return the urn to the family of the deceased.
Once you have the soul and have completed all the tasks at the location, click on your Sim and select travel to go back to the office.
Releasing Souls
Once you get back to the office, you will need to release the souls you’ve collected. Have your Sim go up to the netherworld portal and click release all souls. They will then let them go, and they’ll disappear into the portal.
You can also sell the souls you collect – turns out a Sim’s soul is worth around §200. Who knew?!
While it’s nice to get a bit of extra cash from the workday, I wouldn’t recommend it. Every soul counts when it comes to meeting soul quotas and promotion requirements!
Different Types of Workday
As well as the regular workday tasks, now and then your Sim will be sent on special missions by Grim.
Afterlife Emergency
Sometimes emergencies can’t be avoided. For me an afterlife emergency happened on the second day of work, but your Sims might not be so unlucky!
When you arrive, you’ll get a pop-up saying something is wrong with the Netherworld Portal, and your Sim will need to repair it and things around the office throughout the day.
Repair the Scry Bowl
The scry bowl is in need of repairs. Once you click repair, your Sim will whip out a Slablet and start calibrating.
Closing Netherworld Fissures
These fissures will open up in the floor around the office and you’ll need to close them all to complete the task. You can also reach into the fissure first, which will give you a random item.
You can get really lucky reaching into these fissures – I got anything from a frog to a ten thousand simoleon collectible plate!
Repairing Grim’s Slablet
Just click on any Slablet in the office and select Recalibrate Grim’s Slablet. Your Sim will then just take it and click a few buttons – it’s one of the simpler tasks you’ll need to complete.
Expelling Mischievous Ghosts
Look around the office for an item of furniture that seems to be posessed – for me it was the bookcase.
There will be an option once you click on it to Expel Ghost, and then a ghost will pop out of the furniture, and your Sim will banish it. The animation for this is also really cool!
(I’m not sure if it was a bug for me, but the ghost didn’t look like a ghost.)
Repair the Netherworld Portal
Head over to the portal and select Repair Netherworld Portal, and your Sim will start tinkering on a Slablet to repair it.
Rounding up Lost Souls
When you arrive at work you’ll get a pop-up letting you know Grim has set you a new task and you’ll need to spend the workday rounding up some souls that have escaped.
You’ll need to travel to the location that the souls are coming from, round them up, close the Netherworld Fissures, and Harvest Grimbrosia.
After you’ve completed these tasks, travel back to the office to release the souls and make Grimbrosia.
You can also choose to donate a lost soul to science. This won’t count towards your soul quota, but it does raise your Thanatology skill slightly.
Making Grimbrosia and Delivering It To Grim
Head to the office kitchen and cook up some Grimbrosia! You don’t need any cooking skill to cook this successfully and it only requires the harvested plant.
(You can’t take this Grimbrosia home, unfortunately.)
Next, take your creation down to Grim and deliver it to him.
A Laughing Disaster
By using the scry bowl, you will be presented with a pop-up letting you know a comedian has died and you need to get yourself over there immediately to collect their soul and the souls of the crowd.
When you arrive at the location, it is probably going to look like a crime scene with all the dead Sims lying on the floor!
You’ll need to investigate the cause of death, and it should say that the cause was death by laughter, confirming the case brief. You won’t have to investigate each Sim; performing investigations on one Sim will determine the cause of death for them all.
After you have collected all of their souls, you’ll need to return to the office and release them, like any normal workday.
Rogue Haunting
This assignment is a bit like the lost souls assignment, and you’ll have to travel to an in-game location to stop ghosts haunting the lot.
To complete this task, you’ll need to close netherworld fissures and collect souls from ghosts.
Cowplant Disaster
Just like the Laughing Disaster, this is another work task with multiple casualties.
Once you arrive, determine the cause of death by examining the dead Sims, and you should reveal that the cause of death was the cowplant eating them. Then just collect the Sim’s souls as normal.
On this workday location, you also get some unique interactions with the cowplant – you can scold them and reap the cowplant’s soul (note this will kill the cowplant instantly, but it will count towards your soul quota).
Successfully reaping a cowplant soul will also give your Sim a focused moodlet.
After you have reaped all the souls, head back to the office.
Emotional Reaping
Sometimes you’ll be called to investigate a death of a random townie, and will have to listen to the pleas of their loved ones.
Listening to Pleas
Not every witness at the scene will have a plea, you can identify who you need to talk to with the label ‘Has Plea’ above them. For me, it was Dina Caliente who died and only Nina had a plea to listen to.
Once you’ve found who you need to listen to, click on them and select Listen to Plea. Once they’re done pleading you can choose to revive them or collect their soul.
If you choose to revive them, head over to the dead Sim and select Revive.
Choosing to accept a plea will also give you a happy moodlet.
Meeting The Soul Quota
Each week, Grim will set you a soul quota that you should aim to meet, and it is tracked automatically based on how many souls you and your colleagues release to the Netherworld.
If you don’t meet the quota, there are no negative repercussions, but meeting this will let you gain a reward from Grim’s box.
You can check your soul quota progress at any time on the computer.
This part of the career is actually really challenging – I went with my Sim to work every day for weeks and collected loads of Lost Souls and still didn’t meet the quota! So, here are some of the best ways to get souls when you aren’t at work.
Gardening
The best way to meet the quota is to focus on gardening, as when you have a high level gardening skill fully grown plants will give you the option to Reap Plant Soul. They need to have been fully grown for a while to unlock this option, so grab a greenhouse and fill it with plants to get ready.
Harvesting the plant soul will reset the plant’s growth stage but it will grow back in time, so doing this doesn’t kill the plant.
Harvesting plant souls was by far the easiest way to keep my Sim’s soul quota up, so that’s my best advice for you too!
Harvesting plant souls was by far the easiest way to keep my Sim’s soul quota up, so that’s my best advice for you too!
Fishing
As long as you are in the sims 4 reaping career, you’ll be able to fish for souls at any of the fishing spots in the Mourningvale area. Just click on the sign and select Fish for Souls.
I didn’t have as much success with this as harvesting souls from plants but it’s still a good option and fishing is always a good pastime for Sims.
Buying them
You can, of course, buy souls if you’re flush with cash.
Go down to the graveyard area and have a look for the mysterious merchant Wayland and ask to see his wearz, where you’ll see he is selling souls for 200 simoleons each (although he offered them to me for 180, so maybe you’ll also get lucky).
He seems to have an unlimited supply of souls for sale as I bought 99, so if you want to shortcut to your soul quota you can always just type in Motherlode and grab loads!
Also, sometimes when you use the scry bowl to scry for lost souls, you can get a pop-up to shake Wayland down for souls. This is based on pure chance, though, so I wouldn’t rely on it as a foolproof method to meet your quota.
Stealing them
A good option, potentially, if you are fine with risking lowering your work performance.
Once you reach a high enough level and send your Sim off on a rabbit hole workday, you can choose to have them steal souls. This will increase your chances of earning a soul, but it isn’t guaranteed.
Is it worth it?
The gift you unlock from Grim is totally random, so sometimes you might get lucky, but other times you might end up with a bit of a dud. Both times I hit the quota I got a random amount of Simoleons.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this career is one of the most in-depth careers in the game, with constant challenges which make it hard to get bored. The fact that it sends you off to real-world reaping events makes it feel like your choices have an impact on the world around you in a tangible way.
The workplace location and world also fits the aesthetic perfectly, and the rewards you get for completing the career like the Grim’s Right Hand trait are really helpful in gameplay outside of the career.
I can’t recommend the Sims 4 reaping career enough!
What are your thoughts on this career? How do you think it compares to other playable careers? Let us know below!
