Death by Overexertion

Death by overexertion uses a hidden meter that starts at 0 and kills your Sim at 100. First, your Sim exercises, swims, or woohoos enough to receive the Dangerously Tired moodlet. That moodlet is your only warning before the hidden meter starts filling up.

When your Sim keeps working out while Dangerously Tired, the game checks the meter every sim-minute. An elder gets 4 points every minute. A Sim with Fitness at level 3 or lower, of any age from teen up, also gets a 50 percent chance each minute to add 4 more. At the same time, the meter drains by 0.5 points every sim-minute.

Because the meter goes up and down at once, the death is not instant. On average, an elder with Fitness at level 3 or lower fills the meter in 18.2 sim-minutes, and an elder with more Fitness in 28.6. A teen, young adult or adult with Fitness at level 3 or lower takes 67 sim-minutes. With more Fitness, a younger Sim's meter drains faster than it fills. When it hits 100, your Sim collapses and dies.

Your Sim's Fitness skill changes how the game handles physical strain. Sims with a Fitness skill at level 4 or lower get Dangerously Tired very quickly. In contrast, a Fitness skill at level 7 or higher wears the strain down instead of building it up.

Some Sims cannot die from overexertion at all. Vampires, Servos and pregnant Sims can't die this way, and neither can a teen, young adult or adult with Fitness above level 3. You can also stop the death by ending the workout, swim, or woohoo session as soon as the Dangerously Tired moodlet shows up.

Certain statuses also protect your Sim from dying this way. Sims with Death-Proof or Total Immortal are safe. The game also spares Sims who have the Feeling Grim, Grimness Intensifies, Grim Overload, or Grimbucha'd effects active.

When a Sim dies of overexertion, they turn into a ghost with the Death by Overexertion ghost trait. The game files list this trait as trait_ghost_ElderExhaustion. If the ghost is in your household, you can bring the Sim back to life using the cheat console.

Open the cheat console in Live mode by pressing Ctrl + Shift + C on PC or Cmd + Shift + C on Mac. Enter traits.remove_trait trait_ghost_ElderExhaustion to remove the ghost trait and restore your Sim to life.

You can also prevent this death before it happens by using a global cheat. Enter death.toggle false into the cheat console. This command stops every death that runs through a death interaction, though it does not stop Sims from becoming ghosts by other means.