The Sims 4 Programming Skill Guide
The sims 4 programming skill is all about computers and making the most of them.
Your sims are able to earn money by creating video games, work in the tech guru career and more with this skill.
What is Programming Good For?
There are so many fun uses for the programming skill and you can earn some great money with it.
You can work through the tech guru career, make mobile apps or hack people who are richer than you!
How to Gain The Programming Skill
There are a few ways your sims can earn this skill with the first being skill books. These books are purchasable through bookcases and there are three for programming:
- Programming Vol 1: Turn It Off and On Again
- Programming Vol 2: Maintaining Healthy Semicolons
- Programming Vol 3: Learn to Talk Robot
To work through these books you’ll want to start with volume one, turn it off and on again. Once you reach level four you’ll switch to volume two and then switch to volume three at level 7.
The other way to gain this skill is to do programming activities on the computer. This includes practicing programming, making plugins, modding games, making mobile apps and more.
Best Mood to Practice Programming
Before you start trying to gain this skill you’ll want to make sure your sim is in the right mood to gain the skill more quickly. The ideal mood for programming is focused.
To get your sims to feel focused you can ponder moves on a chess board, use a microscope, or adding the science lair lot trait.
Best Traits for Programming
The traits you give your sims can help them get in the right mood to gain the skill or enjoy the act more, so choose wisely. The following are good options for sims who will do programming:
- Genius: Sims with this trait are going to get more focused moodlets more often which can help them gain the skill more quickly.
- Loner: Sims with the loner trait are going to enjoy being alone more often and programming is a solitary activity.
- Lazy: A sim with the lazy trait will enjoy sitting in a chair for longer periods (as long as the chair is high-quality).
You should also consider the lot traits your household has, the best one for programming is:
- Fast Internet: This increases the rate at which sims earn computer skills
How to Cheat The Programming Skill
If you want your sims to get a promotion or just have high skills but don’t want to put in the effort, you have the option to just cheat the skill instead. You’ll want to use stats.set_skill_level major_programming 10 to max the skill.
If you want a random level of the skill you’ll just change the 10 to whatever level, for example, stats.set_skill_level major_programming 4 gives level four of the skill.
Programming Skill Levels
| Skill Level | Level Rewards |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Your sim’s new skill in programming will allow them to hack and practice programming. |
| Level 2 | Your sim can now make plugins. |
| Level 3 | Your sim can now mod games. |
| Level 4 | Your sim can now make viruses. Teens can hack school grades. |
| Level 5 | Your sim can now perform side jobs. They can also mentor others in programming. |
| Level 6 | Your sim can now hack work performance. |
| Level 7 | Your sim can now make mobile phone apps. |
| Level 8 | Your sim is now better at hacking. |
| Level 9 | Your sim can now make computer games. |
| Level 10 | Your sim can now hack supercomputers. |
Hacking School and Work Performance
Sims are able to gain the ability to hack their performance at work or at school if they are a teenager. This is awesome because they can get good grades without effort and even get themselves to get promotions when they are slacking off at work.
Hacking for Money
There are so many things you can hack to get some money, but honestly, I love to do ones that have lore. The Landgraab’s deserve to be hacked because they have too much money. Don Lothario deserves to have his trust fund hacked because of what happened in TS2 with Bella!
Making Plugins, Games and Apps
As you reach higher levels of the skill you’ll start seeing new abilities unlock from creating mobile apps to creating games and you are able to earn money from this.
When you finish one of these you’ll see your sim get a bunch of money and then they’ll start getting royalties each morning at 10 o’clock in the morning for a few days. These can be stacked so you can have royalties coming in from multiple things at once!
Doing Freelance Work For Money
When a sim reaches level five of the programming skill they have the option to perform freelance jobs to earn money which is awesome. I love finding ways to earn money without my sims having to have a job out of the home!
You just need to choose start side job and your sim will work on it and when its complete they’ll get paid!
Webmaster Benefits
If a sim completes the computer whiz aspiration the sim will be awarded with the webmaster trait which unlocks some fun new abilities on computers. You’ll find things like being able to internet stalk other sims and even earn money turking which will make a decent amount of money for your sims.
Upgrading Your Computer
There are certain upgrades you can make on a computer so your sim has a better experience. You definitely want a computer to break less, an dadding the IP spoofer makes hacking work more often!
- IP Spoofer: A handy upgrade for those interested in hacking
- Requires 4 Common & 3 Electronic Upgrade Parts
- ECC RAM: Reduces the chance of the computer breaking
- Requires 5 Common Upgrade Parts
Programming Mentorship
When your sim reaches level five of the sims 4 programming skill you can start mentoring others. This is great because the mentee sim will earn the skill faster than normal when being mentored.
If you have The Sims 4: Business & Hobbies installed your sims can even mentor for money!
Improving Programming With DLC
There is so much extra fun to be had by adding DLC to your game, and there are a few packs that add more fun stuff to the sims 4 programming skill!
Get Famous
When you have The Sims 4: Get Famous installed in your game your sims can get famous from so many things like writing books, performing music and even using the programming skill. Your sims will gain some fame when you finish creating both mobile aps and video games!
Discover University
There are three fun ways your sims can gain skills in The Sims 4: Discover University. The first way is to take a skill class which you can do by using your sim’s phone or going to specific buildings on campus and paying 250 simoleons.
The next way your sim can gain skills is by taking elective classes when getting their degree. If you choose to have your sims take Programming Plugins you’ll see your sim get the sims 4 programming skill whenever they are in class as well as when they do coursework.
The final way your sims can earn the skill is by using the research archive machine and choosing to research programming standards. This is good because your sim can also get the research & debate skill at the same time!
Parenthood
If you have The Sims 4: Parenthood installed in your game you’ll sometimes see your kids come home with school projects they need to work on. You can also purchase these in the build menu!
If you have a kid or teen work on these, any adult can assist them with their project and if it’s the Robotics school project your sim can gain the programming skill when helping a sim!
