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How do you die of old age in The Sims 4?

Death by Old Age

Elders die of old age when their Elder life stage runs out. Length of the Elder life stage: 7, 14 or 56 days (short, normal or long lifespan). Safe: Servo, Vampire, Immortal, pregnant Sims.

Death by Old Age is a base game death in The Sims 4. Your Sim dies of old age when their Elder life stage ends. You do not need to trigger any specific interaction or accident.

You just let an Elder Sim live through their remaining days. If you want this death to happen faster, change your lifespan setting to short in the game options. You can also turn aging off if you want to prevent it.

  • 14 daysLength of the Elder life stage (normal lifespan)
  • TimerBase game

The timer

WhatHow long
Length of the Elder life stage7, 14 or 56 days (short, normal or long lifespan)

How to make it happen

  1. Let an elder live out the Elder life stage.
  2. A short lifespan setting makes the stage shorter.

How to avoid it

  1. Turn aging off in the game options: an elder who can't age can't die of old age.
  2. Vampires and immortal Sims don't die of old age.

The game never lets this death happen to: Servo, Vampire, Immortal, pregnant Sims.

These moodlets stop it before the end: Death-Proof, Total Immortal, Feeling Grim, Grimness Intensifies, Grim Overload, Grimbucha'd.

The ghost

A Sim who dies this way becomes a ghost with the trait Death by Old Age. The game gives each death type its own ghost trait.

Every ghost type and its powers are on the ghosts page. See also: How long Sims live, by life stage.

To bring the ghost back to life with a cheat, type traits.remove_trait trait_ghost_OldAge. Removing its last ghost trait makes the Sim alive again.

To stop your Sims from dying at all, type death.toggle false (what death.toggle does).

How the Elder life stage timer works

Death by Old Age runs on a timer rather than a chance roll. When a Sim becomes an Elder, the game counts down the days in their final life stage. Once those days run out, the Sim dies.

Your game options control how long this timer lasts. An Elder has 7 days on a short lifespan, 14 days on normal, and 56 days on long. The game gives you a warning 2 days before the stage ends.

Who is safe from dying of old age

You can stop this death in your game settings. If you turn aging off, an Elder cannot age and cannot die of old age. Vampires and immortal Sims also do not die from old age.

Several traits and states save a Sim when the timer finishes. A Sim survives if they have Death-Proof, Total Immortal, Feeling Grim, Grimness Intensifies, Grim Overload, or Grimbucha'd. You can also enter death.toggle false in the cheat console to stop every death that uses a death interaction.

The old age ghost and resurrection cheats

When an Elder dies this way, they become a ghost with the Death by Old Age trait. The internal name for this trait is trait_ghost_OldAge. You can bring a ghost in your household back to life by removing this trait.

Open the cheat console in Live mode with Ctrl + Shift + C on PC or Cmd + Shift + C on Mac. Type traits.remove_trait trait_ghost_OldAge to turn the ghost back into a living Sim.

Questions

How do you die of old age in The Sims 4?

You let an Elder Sim live until their Elder life stage runs out. Setting the game to a short lifespan makes this stage finish in 7 days.

How long do Elders live before dying of old age?

The Elder life stage lasts 7 days on a short lifespan, 14 days on a normal lifespan, and 56 days on a long lifespan. You get a warning 2 days before the stage ends.

Can Vampires die of old age in The Sims 4?

No, Vampires and immortal Sims are immune to Death by Old Age. You can also protect any Elder by turning aging off in the game options.

How do you revive a Sim who died of old age?

Add the ghost to your household and open the cheat console in Live mode. Enter traits.remove_trait trait_ghost_OldAge to remove the ghost trait and bring the Sim back to life.

Other ways to die