The Sims 4: Every Single Death Ranked By How Easily It Is Triggered

Over the last 20 years of The Sims’ lifespan, watching sims meet the Grim Reaper in a variety of interesting ways has been a staple of the franchise and The Sims 4 is no exception. There is a huge variety of ways for sims to die, and some are more likely to occur than others. Whether you want to keep your sims alive as long as possible or discover the easiest way to aid their passage into the next life, we have you covered.

This list ranks all the current deaths in The Sims 4 in order of how likely they are to occur and how easy they are to trigger; starting with the most uncommon and making our way towards certain death. We’ve also included ways to prevent accidental death, just in case you’re that way inclined.

22 The Scent of Death (Seasons)

The lowest ranking death on our list is death from The Scent of Death flower arrangement that came with Seasons. Firstly to even acquire one of these you need to have level 9 flower arranging skills, all the materials to craft it and it needs to be of excellent quality. Secondly, it will only kill your sim if they are an elder.

Interestingly though it does age up all sims, including vampires. While an elder vampire won’t die, you can use it to make Vlad into the elder he appears to be at a glance.

21 Poison (Jungle Adventure)

This Jungle Adventure death ranks low on the list due to the amount of effort required to trigger it, the ease of curing it and the length of time it takes to actually kill a sim.

Poisoned debuffs are occasionally found while exploring the jungle. However, exploring is rare anyway and there are also items you can quite easily buy to immediately cure it. Combine this with the fact you have several Sim days to purchase a cure or fight it off naturally, which often happens, and we’re putting this one towards the bottom.

20 Insects (Jungle Adventure)

Insect related deaths are another jungle-based death, so again quite rare. However, these ones are less survivable, unless you actively prevent them.

Fire flies can set sims on fire and lightning bugs can give them a nasty shock, leading to fire and electrocution deaths respectively. However, both only occur very rarely in the jungle and both are easily combatted with a couple of readily available supplies and some cultural knowledge.

19 Wishing Well (Romantic Garden Stuff)

If you have a wishing well then be careful what you wish for. Sims who wish to live the immortal life may want to find an alternative way to do it as “all magic comes with a price” as Once’s Rumplestiltskin reminds us.

Wishing for eternal life can end up with your sim gaining the ability to live forever but with a catch. They will be a ghostly member of your household, spending the rest of eternity as a random type of ghost. It’s rare but effective.

18 Overexertion

This is another death that ranks low due to the fact it only affects elders. If an elder sim partakes in too many strenuous activities, like lifting weights, jogging or woohoo, then they can die of overexertion.

This one is easy to trigger as you can literally woohoo an elder to death or force them to run until they die but it’s bumped down due to only working on elders.

17 Rocket Ship Crash

If your sim is in the astronaut career you can send them to space in a rocket ship that you build in your yard. You can also find a ship at Geekcon (City Living) and in the science lab (Get To Work) for a quicker option.

If you ask them to race, send them with no skills or stick fruit in the ship’s exhaust before take-off, you can cause a crash, explosion and the likely demise of your budding astronaut.

16 Death By Hysteria

Emotional deaths can be difficult to trigger and this one is the most difficult of all. Sims must become hysterical and keep on laughing in order to trigger it.

Sims tend to require moodlet boosts and an increasing supply of two or more items that trigger laughter at once in order to expire this way.

15 Rock Climbing Wall (Fitness Stuff)

If your sim is a fitness fanatic with a head for danger then the rock climbing wall can provide an adrenaline rush which may just be their last.

Once a sims skill is high enough they can partake in the fire challenge, which sends out jets of fire while they are climbing. The chance of being caught on fire is fairly high, however, there is often someone around to put you out, unless of course, you partake in the challenge while home alone.

14 Cow Plant

Cow Plants can be dangerous but the danger is somewhat limited. If you feed them regularly they are fine. However, if they are hungry and offer you cake remember “the cake is a lie!”

A cow plant will consume your sim instead, leaving them drained. If they make the same mistake again within 24 hours then it’s bye bye sim, hello sweet essence of life for whoever is left to milk the cow plant.

13 Electrocution

Death by electrocution is a really weird death, as it seems to involve a lot of luck. You need to first get the dazed moodlet by trying and failing to repair electrical items. If you then repeat the mistake a short time later you’ll actually die. Both debuffs can also be caused by lightning.

Simmers have been known to spend hours trying to fix fridges in puddles or get electrics to break in short succession with no luck. However, if you leave the game unpaused accidentally then somehow everything will break and chaos will ensue as autonomy kicks in and things are badly fixed.

12 Pufferfish (City Living)

This death is another that requires some effort but it can be caused accidentally. First, you need to eat Pufferfish Nigiri at a San Myshuno food stall to gain the recipe. Then your sim needs to attempt to cook it at home and a poor result has a 50% chance of it being their last meal.

Those who are trying to tempt an enemy to this deadly meal need to be very careful as sims will often autonomously eat the dish, regardless of quality.

11 Sauna (Spa Day)

Once again this is a death that requires a specific DLC to activate. However, for those with Spa Day, watch yourself in the sauna as it can be deadly.

As a default, Sims will not stay in the sauna for too long. I’ve only seen this death triggered by specifically blocking the sauna’s exit, or repeatedly commanding a Sim to stay still, leaving it near the bottom of the list. However, it is one of the easier deaths to deliberately trigger if you are so inclined.

10 Cardiac Explosion

This death comes from a sim being far too angry. Sims who are cheated on, are declared enemies of others or are pranked severely can all get very angry, especially if they are hot-headed.

Too much anger can result in a cardiac explosion and death so if you want your sim to stick around send them for a cold shower to cool off.

9 Drowning

Drowning autonomously is quite rare but with help? Well, that’s a classic way to aid the passing of an enemy. You used to be able to just remove the pool ladder but these days you’ll need to build a fence or wall around the pool. Sims will drown in any water they cannot get out of once their energy moves into the red.

You can also “drown” by falling (or jumping) into Get Famous’ Luminary’s Exotic Water Garden, while it’s full of hungry fish.

8 Starvation

While sims can die from autonomously deciding not to eat, mostly they aren’t quite that stupid and this death will require a little prod to enact. Removing all cooking facilities from your house usually does it, or failing that a locked bare room.

This death also takes a few days, giving your sims time to escape, I mean recover, ranking it a little lower on the scale.

7 Being Mortified

Dying of embarrassment is likely to become more common as sims begin to live in tinier houses. If a sim gets too embarrassed, from wetting themselves, walking in on someone in the bathroom or having an embarrassing social encounter, then their time may be up.

This can often happen accidentally as soiling yourself gives a +5 negative moodlet, making it easy to tip over into mortified. If your sim soils themselves, have them hide under a duvet for a while to avoid a disaster.

6 Sunlight (Vampires)

Considering many of them have been around for years and years it’s amazing how many vampires aren’t actually that smart. Despite knowing that the sunlight can and will kill them pretty quickly they often go out for a stroll in it and many have perished this way.

Killing a vampire with sunlight is also especially easy, by the simple use of a locked door, giving it a place fairly high up on this list.

5 Rabid Rodent Fever (My First Pet Stuff)

Rabid Rodent Fever will kill your sim but it is a little tricky to acquire, unless you have another sim with it. You’ll need to make sure a pets cage is very dirty and generally neglect said pet until it hates your sim, so it will bite them when they interact with it. This will give them the disease.

It’s then a case of waiting it out. The illness ranks higher than other deaths because it can be easily passed from sim to sim during day 3 of the illness when it is highly-contagious for the final 24 hours before grim comes calling. Therefore once acquired, it can easily take out multiple sims with virtually no extra effort.

4 Death By Murphy Bed (Tiny Living)

Currently purchasing a Murphy Bed is one of the most dangerous activities in The Sims 4. If your bed is broken and your handiness skill is low then getting trapped inside is almost guaranteed. However, a newly purchased bed surely won’t cause any issues, right?

Wrong. Many Simmers have discovered that the recently released Tiny Living comes at a high cost as currently, the bed appears far more lethal than intended. This is likely to be patched but right now you can easily kill a Sim after opening the bed just a couple of times, as many of us have discovered.

3 Weather (Seasons)

If you have the Seasons expansion then you need to make sure you’re dressed for the weather. For sims who don’t use the new hot and cold weather clothing categories when outside you can very easily end up being killed by overheating or freezing.

This one of the most common deaths caused accidentally with freezing being more frequent as sims seem to enjoy going for a dip in the winter or wandering outside in shorts when it’s snowing.

2 House Fires

House fires have been a killer of sims since the very first game and it’s still the case today. Low cooking skills and cheap cookers, rugs too close to fires and if you have Laundry Dry Stuff, not cleaning the lint trap, all lead to house fires. They’ve also been caused by the “accidental” setting off of fireworks inside homes.

House fires are a huge sim killer because they can spread very quickly, are easily caused in regular gameplay and most sims are more inclined to autonomously panic, rather than extinguish themselves. If you want to be safe we recommend sprinklers, fire alarms don’t bring the fire brigade anymore!

1 Old Age

Old Age is the most likely death you’ll find in-game because no matter how many other deaths you manage to avoid, death by old age is inevitable, unless you actively prevent it from happening with potions of youth or similar.

You can avoid most other deaths without having to try too hard but in the end, Grim will always come knocking for those elders, unless they know the secrets of immortality.

About The Author

Helen Ashcroft
(44 Articles Published)

Helen has been a movie fan since the days of VHS. These days she embraces modern technology as it feeds her addiction to behind the scenes documentaries, which she finds as compelling as the movies themselves.

Despite having a degree in Film and Media she has never worked in a fast food restaurant. Instead she spends her time writing about movies and her other great love, video games.

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