The Sims 4 has just received a fresh coat of magical paint with the Enchanted By Nature expansion. While players are busy befriending Fairies and living off the land, there`s a new, slightly less enchanting mechanic causing a stir: Ailments. Forget the standard, easily dismissed coughs and sneezes of previous packs; these are a whole new category of Sim affliction that require specific knowledge and interventions to overcome.
Ailments are designed to shake up gameplay in subtle yet disruptive ways. They aren`t typically life-threatening – your Sim likely won`t perish from a case of Gnome Lure – but their effects can range from mildly annoying to truly chaotic, making their timely diagnosis and cure a priority for any Sim-managing minimalist.
How Sims Get Afflicted
Unlike simple illnesses, Ailments can spread through various means in the enchanted world. One primary culprit is contagion; simply spending time near an infected Sim, or worse, interacting with objects they`ve touched, can pass the peculiar malady along. Fairies, with their mystical powers, can also bestow these conditions upon others, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not.
However, a fascinating new element is the role of emotional balance. A new meter in the Simology tab reflects your Sim`s current state of emotional harmony. When this balance is off, your Sim becomes significantly more susceptible to developing an Ailment spontaneously or catching one from others. Conversely, maintaining emotional equilibrium acts like a robust magical immune system, fortifying them against these unique afflictions.
Spotting the Symptoms
Identifying an Ailment is often straightforward. Beyond the tell-tale moodlets that pop up, many Ailments manifest with visible symptoms directly on your Sim`s skin, leaving little doubt that something is spiritually or magically amiss. A quick glance and a check of their moodlets will usually confirm your suspicions.
Methods for Managing Maladies
So, your Sim has caught a curious condition. What now? You have several options, depending on the severity of the Ailment and your preferred playstyle. Oddly enough, one option is to simply do nothing. Some Ailments possess strangely beneficial side effects (more on those later), which you might decide are worth tolerating the downsides for a while.
If you decide the disruption is too great, here are the reliable methods for a swift recovery:
- Consult a Professional: A naturopath can be contacted via phone. For a fee (a not-insignificant 1,500 Simoleons), they can instantly cure any Ailment. Convenience comes at a price.
- Seek Fairy Intervention: Any friendly Fairy Sim can use their magic to cure another Sim`s Ailment. A useful ally to have, though notably, Fairies cannot cure *themselves* using this method.
- Visit the Mystical Spring: The Moondrop Spring located in the Everdew neighborhood is rumored to have cleansing properties. A trip there allows your Sim to “Manifest” a cure, a more mystical approach to recovery.
- Craft Your Own Remedy: The most self-sufficient method involves the new apothecary table. Learning just the first couple of levels of the apothecary skill allows Sims to create the necessary cures.
The Art of Apothecary
For the do-it-yourself Sim, crafting cures is surprisingly accessible. Ailment remedies are among the first recipes learned at the apothecary table, requiring only skill levels 1 or 2. This means there`s virtually no grind involved in acquiring the necessary knowledge.
The ingredients for these cures are equally easy to source. They are common items found through casual foraging in various Sims 4 worlds, or they can be conveniently purchased directly from the apothecary table menu. The cost is minimal, making this the most economical and often quickest way to ensure a speedy recovery, even for Fairies who are immune to their own magical healing.
A Catalogue of Peculiar Problems: The Ailments List
Understanding the specific effects of each Ailment is key to deciding whether to cure it immediately or perhaps ride it out for potential gain. Here are the known afflictions:
- Burning Passion: Makes the Sim intensely flirty, which can be fun, but also gives them a tendency to spontaneously ignite nearby objects. Romance with a side of property damage.
- Creation Impulse: Induces a Dazed moodlet, making the Sim feel a bit out of it, but also grants them a significant boost to crafting abilities. Artistic genius born from confusion.
- Emotional Void: Dampens the infected Sim`s emotions to a neutral state and has a passive effect of flattening the emotions of nearby Sims. The ultimate cure for excessive drama, perhaps?
- Gnome Lure: Causes sentient garden gnomes to spawn inexplicably around the infected Sim. It`s like Harvestfest followed you home, whether you wanted it to or not.
- Greenie Meanie: Makes the Sim exceptionally skilled at gardening but also incredibly grumpy and unpleasant. Green thumb, black mood.
- Luck Magnet: This Ailment makes the infected Sim experience unusual luck, but it comes at the cost of siphoning luck away from other Sims in the vicinity. A subtly villainous condition.
- Simoleon Fever: A surprisingly desirable ailment where the Sim will occasionally cough up actual Simoleons. The only sickness that pays for itself.
- Sonic Sinuses: Sneezes from this Sim are powerful enough to occasionally break objects, but the Sim also gains improved handiness, allowing them to fix things faster. A self-correcting form of chaos.
These new Ailments add a whimsical, sometimes frustrating, but always interesting layer to the gameplay in The Sims 4: Enchanted By Nature. Mastering how to prevent, identify, and cure them is essential for maintaining control (or embracing the delightful chaos) in your Sims` lives.
