How to survive a midlife crisis in The Sims 4 Growing Together!
So your Sim’s in the midst of a midlife crisis, huh? The Sims 4 midlife crisis feature from the Growing Together expansion is great for making adults feel distinct from young adults but it does present some added challenges for the adult life stage. The good news is you can use a midlife crisis to your advantage! By completing midlife crisis desires, you can reduce the length of the midlife crisis and gain some extra satisfaction points on the side!
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Early Midlife Crisis
Adult Sims can experience a midlife crisis if their life has been lacking in a certain area. Some things that may potentially trigger a Sims 4 midlife crisis are:
- Being unemployed for a long time
- Not gaining promotions for a long time
- Doing the same routine things every single day
- Not creating anything artistic for a long time
- Having unfulfilling relationships (a poor relationship with a spouse, for example)
- Lacking important relationships (friends, family, romantic partners, etc)
Adult Sims who get stuck in any of these ruts are more likely to experience a midlife crisis. Not all adult Sims will have a midlife crisis. If they feel happy and fulfilled in all these areas, they will be lucky enough not to go through a midlife crisis.
However, if your adult Sim is not so lucky, they’ll find themselves in the midst of a Sims 4 midlife crisis. Midlife crises progress from an early midlife crisis to a full-blown midlife crisis. You’ll know your Sim is entering an early midlife crisis by their moodlets. They’ll become Bored at how predictable their life has become. There’s not much you can do during this period of time except try to combat the boredom with more positive emotional states.
The early midlife crisis period lasts about 24 in-game hours before a full-blown midlife crisis begins.
Types of Midlife Crises
Not all midlife crises are the same! Depending on what areas of life your adult Sim has been lacking in, they could develop one of four different types of Sims 4 midlife crisis.
- Desire to Create Crisis: Sims with artistic traits are more likely to go through this midlife crisis if they haven’t been creative in some time. Their desires will be focused on doing creative things and pursuing creative hobbies and careers.
- Desire for Success Crisis: Sims who have been unemployed for a long time, been stagnant in their career, or struggling financially are likely to go through this midlife crisis. Their desires will revolve around seeking out high-paying careers, getting promotions, improving their home’s value, and purchasing expensive items.
- Desire for Relationships Crisis: Sims who are stuck in unhappy relationships or are lacking meaningful connections in their lives may go through this midlife crisis. Their desires will be focused on having children, having WooHoo, socializing with friends and family, and even getting a divorce if they’re married.
- Desire for Adventure Crisis: Sims who’ve gotten stuck in the same mundane routine may experience this crisis. Their desires will revolve around travelling, vacations, and enjoying outdoorsy activities.
Having a Sims 4 midlife crisis isn’t all bad, though! Each type of midlife crisis does come with a unique benefit that will last for the full duration of the crisis.
- Create Crisis Benefit: All crafted items will be one level higher in quality.
- Success Crisis Benefit: Your Sim will gain increased career performance.
- Relationship Crisis Benefit: Bonus relationship gain for all positive social interactions.
- Adventure Crisis Benefit: Slower Energy motive decay.
The Sims 4 Midlife Crisis Desires
When your Sim is going through a Sims 4 midlife crisis, it will be reflected as a temporary, secondary aspiration in the Aspirations panel. In this panel, you can see a list of their desires. Completing desires is optional but if you do complete them, it will reduce the length of the midlife crisis. You can see the duration of your Sim’s midlife crisis in their moodlets.
When you complete a desire, it gets replaced by a new one. Each completed desire will award your Sim with 10 satisfaction points. Of course, you don’t have to complete any of the desires at all if you don’t want to! There’s no penalty for not completing midlife crisis desires; your Sim will just have to deal with the negative moodlets from the crisis for longer. In fact, you can use the midlife crisis to your advantage! By not completing any midlife crisis desires, your Sim can enjoy the unique benefit that comes along with their crisis for longer! So it’s really up to you to decide how to deal with a Sims 4 midlife crisis.
Once your Sim has made it through a midlife crisis, they can never have another one! So congrats! The worst part of your Adult Sim’s life is officially behind them!
Check out other ways The Sims 4 Growing Together impacts your Sims with our personality change guide!
