The best Sims 4 mods to spice up EA’s life game

Everything from cookbooks to religion

Maxis / EA

The best Sims 4 mods give you a bit more control over EA and Maxis’ cozy life game, letting you tailor it to your wants and needs – and sometimes overhauling it completely. Hundreds of mods are out there. Some alter your Sims’ personalities and change how they relate to each other. Others just give you new clothes, furniture, or even recipes in a nice little customizable cookbook.

Table of Contents

1. UI Cheats Extension
2. Rambunctious Religions
3. Better Build/Buy
4. Mortem
5. OMSP Shelf
6. Meaningful Stories
7. Wonderful Whims
8. TOOL
9. Have Some Personality, Please!
10. The Explore Mod
11. Grannies Cookbook

We’ve scoured through the lot and picked the best Sims 4 mods that work with any playstyle and make your game even better.

1. UI Cheats Extension

UI Cheats Extension by weerbesu. / weerbesu

Creator: weerbesu

This one is essential for any player who uses cheats. Normally, you have to type or paste a cheat code into the console commands menu to activate it, which, okay sure, it’s not the end of the world, but it is tedious. UI Cheats Extension creates an interface with every cheat listed, so all you have to do is click the one you want and adjust it. We do love a bit of instant gratification.

2. Rambunctious Religions

Rambunctious Religions by Lumpinou. / Lumpinoumods

Creator: Lumpinou

Rambunctious Religions instills faith in a higher power in your Sims and gives them a corresponding set of actions – and burning desire to convert other Sims – along with it. Direct your Sim to read a Holy Book, and then you can pick four religions. One is a nature-themed faith, another puts you, the player, as the higher power, and a third one foregoes divinity in favor of science. It’s pretty compact, not unlike a Sims 4 kit, but it’s a fun little way to change your Sims’ life.

3. Better Build/Buy

Better Build/Buy by TwistedMexi. / TwistedMexi

Creator: TwistedMexi

This Sims 4 mod is for the builders and has a few major features. One is that it lets you see the debug items normally hidden behind a cheat without having to use the cheat – trees, rocks, and collectibles that you can’t access otherwise. It raises the number of rows in create mode as well, so you can skim the catalogue much more easily, and the search filters actually work as they should. 

It makes just buying new furniture much less of a hassle, so even if you aren’t into building, we strongly recommend Better Build/Buy.

4. Mortem

Mortem by SimRealist. / SimRealist

Creator: SimRealist

A serious death mod for a quirky life-sim sounds pretty morbid, but in a game about expressing yourself and your emotions in a safe space, we think there’s value in letting you go through death and everything that comes after it. If you agree, the Mortem mod is for you. It removes the Grim Reaper and replaces them with permanent death, autopsies, and funeral planning. It’s somber, but so is life sometimes.

5. OMSP Shelf

OMSP Shelf by pictureamoeba. / pictureamoeba

Creator: pictureamoeba

OMSP in Sims-speak is “one more slot please,” something players use for items that let them add, well, one more thing – an extra bit of clutter, another book, things like that. The OMSP Shelf from pictureamoeba is one of the most useful tools for creating lived-in spaces, especially if you’re playing with ktis like Tiny Living. This shelf goes far beyond individual pieces of furniture that just look like natural clutter and lets you add items of different size to a single space and freely adjust the shelf’s angle and positioning.

6. Meaningful Stories

Meaningful Stories by Roburky. / Roburky

Creator: Roburky

Meaningful Stories combined prolific Sims modder roburky’s two most popular works – Emotional Intertia and True Happiness – into one package with a handful of other improvements.

The goal for this Sims 4 mod is giving your Sims emotions that are truer to real life, such as inspiration that overrides all other thoughts until you give it room to grow or depression that takes more than just a warm fire and nice painting to cure. Managing your Sims’ moods is more difficult as a result, but it makes their lives, sadnesses, and triumphs feel more, well, meaningful as a result.

7. Wonderful Whims

Wonderful Whims by TurboDriver. / TurboDriver

Creator: TurboDriver

Wonderful Whims includes all the features of the (very) NSFW Wicked Whims mod package, but without the explicit nudity and sex scenes. You get an expanded set of relationship options, including polyamory; realistic health and wellness interactions, including menstrual cycles, more pregnancy options, and birth control; and a suite of personality additions, such as attractiveness markers and more likes and dislikes than even the Growing Together expansion – one of the best Sims 4 expansions, in our view – added.

8. TOOL

TOOL by TwistedMexi. / TwistedMexi

Creator: TwistedMexi

This one gives you a taste of The Sims 5 in The Sims 4, with a touch of Life By You. It lets you move, position, and scale any object, however you want. That sounds minor, but considering The Sims 4’s pretty strict limitations on item placement and usage, it’s a pretty big deal. You can place objects at stylish angles, get creative with cushions and wall hangings – pretty much whatever you want.

You’ll need the Better Build/Buy mod as well. Otherwise, the TOOL mod just lets you move the menus around – handy, but not quite the same.

9. Have Some Personality, Please!

Have Some Personality, Please! by PolarBearSims. / PolarBearSims

Creator: PolarBearSims

Have Some Personality is an ambitious mod that overhauls how Sims interact with each other. That includes locking amorous interactions behind higher levels of romance, so you can’t rush into proclaiming love and, ahem, everything that comes later after just five minutes.

It also changes how Sims act  when you’re not controlling them. Idle conversations force Sims to pick an option based on their traits and interests, for example, and they may even pick up new traits and even career proficiency from these chats.

10. The Explore Mod

The Explore Mod by KawaiiStacie. / KawaiiStacie

Creator: KawaiiStacie

The Explore Mod adds something The Sims 5 really needs to launch with. With this mod installed, if your Sim has a buss pass or driver’s license, you can send them off to explore. Traits and inclinations determine what they do while they’re gone. They could go shopping and come back with new outfits, make new friends, or even travel somewhere fresh and exciting. You can send them to explore with a friend or two as well and boost their relationships.

11. Grannies Cookbook

Grannies Cookbook by Littlbowbub. / Littlbowbub

Creator: Littlbowbub

Not every Sims 4 mod has to overhaul some dimension of your Sim’s life. Grannies Cookbook – yes, it should be Granny’s. Just consider it creative license – is exactly what it sounds like: a new cookbook with recipes from cultures around the world in a cute little customizable book. Your default recipe selection in The Sims 4 is a bit sad, so it’s a nice way to add some flavour and color to your fictional life.