I tend to avoid things that makes The Sims 2 easier for myself, I like a challenge so I'm not usually one for 'cheating'. However, there are so many useful cheat codes for The Sims 2 which are much more to do with utility, management, unlocking advanced tools and even enhancing the game's capabilities and visuals. So, here is my guide for my must-have not-necessarily-cheaty cheats for The Sims 2, as well a userStartup.cheat file, including a copy of mine for download. A userStartup.cheat file enables you to have some cheats automatically and permanently enabled at all times, so you never even have to remember or type out those cheats ever again. It also allows you to rename cheats to whatever you want, allowing you to make them shorter and therefore much easier to remember and less time consuming to type. However, there are a few cheats not in my userStartup that I do sometimes use in-game too.
How to use Cheats:
To use cheats in-game, press the Ctrl, Shift and C keys on your keyboard all at the same time and the cheat window will appear. Type a cheat into this box, then press the enter/return key to activate it.
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How to make/install a userStartup.cheat File:
Navigate to your Sims 2 folder inside your Documents folder then open the Config folder in there. E.g. Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Config OR Documents/EA Games/The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection/Config. This is where a userStartup.cheat file goes, but you may not have one yet. If not, I recommend downloading one to use as a base, such as mine which you can find at the bottom of this post. To install one, simply download one and drag it into this Config folder. However, you can create one from scratch if you wish.
The best way I know to make a new one is to firstly show file name extensions. On Windows 11, click the 'View' button along the top bar of the folder window, then hover over the 'Show >' option at the bottom of the dropdown, then ensure that the 'File Name Extensions' option in that side dropdown has a tick before it, if it doesn't, click it to tick it. If you are using a different OS, simply Google 'how to show file name extensions on [your OS here e.g. Windows 10]'. I highly recommend having this setting on at all times as its very useful. Once that is enabled, you should be able to see the file type in the name of your files, for example in the Config folder you should see 'Broadcast.ini' instead of just 'Broadcast' and userProps.xml' instead of just 'userProps', etc.
Now, simply right click anywhere in the blank space in the Config folder, and hover over the 'New' option then click 'Text Document'. A new text document should appear in the folder.
Rename the entirety of 'New Text Document.txt' to 'userStartup.cheat' exactly, then hit enter. You should see that the type column changes to 'CHEAT File' instead of 'Text Document'. If it says 'Text Document', something has gone wrong. Otherwise, you now have a new blank userStartup that you can edit how you like.
Alternatively, you can open Notepad and make a new blank document, then Save As 'userStartup.cheat' and change the 'Save as type' to 'All Files', then save it inside your Config folder, then ensure the Type is 'CHEAT File'. Either way, I wanted to recommend enabling show file name extensions as it is always useful.
userStartup.cheat files are typically split into two sections, the top section for cheats to auto-enable which is simply the cheats written out in a list. Just bare in mind some cheats won't work in this way and some wouldn't be recommended to have always on. The other section is for aliases, which means renaming cheats, typically to something shorter. Each line of this section has a specific format: the word 'alias', then the code you wish to rename the cheat to, then the original cheat in quotation marks, then optionally a short description which I recommend making the same as the original cheat for the sake of clarity when using the 'help' cheat, and then optionally a long description. Note that the codes you set aren't actually case-sensitive, so I put a capital letter at the start of each word to make it easier to read but they work if you type all lowercase into the cheat box in-game.
alias yourCode "the cheat code" "short description" "long description"
Another thing worth mentioning is that lighting mods (Cinema Secrets, Gunmod's, Maxis Match) usually require certain codes to be in a userStartup.cheat file. This section of codes can go at the bottom of your file. If you have already installed a lighting mod, you may have already had a userStartup.cheat file which you can build upon, adding more contents to. Alternatively, you can just ensure you copy and paste the lines provided by your lighting mod into your new file or the one you have downloaded. As I use the Cinema Secrets Lighting mod, I'll provide a version of mine with this section in as I usually have it if you also want to use that mod, and a version without those lines if you don't. If you use a different lighting mod to me, just make sure you remember to paste in the lines you need if you download my file.
Every Cheat I ever use:
First, I'll mention a few mods I don't have anywhere in my userStartup.cheat file but do occasionally use in-game and then get onto everything in my userStartup.cheat file, those that I have always auto-enabled (✨) followed by my aliases (🌱).
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motherlode
Gives the active household an extra 50,000 Simoleons.
Not one I ever really use but its so famous I just had to mention it. It's typically used in a cheaty way but it can also be useful for management and storytelling.
kaching
Gives the active household an extra 1,000 Simoleons.
Again, not one I tend to use but it can come in handy, I just tend to always use the FamilyFunds cheat to change funds in a more precise way instead.
FamilyFunds [household name] [number]
This cheat is used to set a specified household's funds to whatever you want, whether its a set number or an amount to minus or add.
If the household name has a space in it, it will still work, just put quotation marks round the name such as "De Santis" etc. However, this cheat will only reliably work if only one household in the neighborhood has that household name, otherwise the funds may be adjusted in a different household with the same name than the one you were intending. For this reason, I highly recommend changing all of your household names in SimPe so that they are unique, such as "Capp II" and "Capp III" etc.
As for the number, you can either just put the number you want to change the funds to, such as 500 to set the household funds to exactly 500 regardless of what they had before, or you can put a - or a + symbol before the number to adjust the funds by that amount, so -500 would subtract 500 away from whatever they had before and +500 would add 500 to whatever they had before, etc.
SimDNA [first name]
The sim must be on the active lot.
Makes a popup appear with the dominant & recessive DNA information about that sim: eye color, hair color, expressed skin tone, skin tone range, and dominant facial regions.
unlockCareerRewards
Unlocks the reward items in the career rewards catalog for the currently active sim so that each item from every career can be redeemed once.
Not something I ever use in real gameplay, I instead recommend the Career Rewards as Aspiration Rewards mod. But, it can come in handy for recording or testing mods related to the career reward objects.
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setHour [hour]
Changes the time to a specified hour in 24 hour format, within the same day. E.g. 'setHour 13' would change the time to 1:00pm.
This isn't one I really use anymore because you can more precisely change the time and much more by instead using Nopke's Time and Weather Manager mod. I change the day of the week, time, and season or day of the season when a sim returns from vacation or moves into a new house.
loadLot [name of lot]
Loads the specified lot in build mode from neighborhood view, which can be helpful for owned businesses so that you can make build/buy changes or simply just look inside the lot without having to send the owner there or spend any of their funds.
E.g. 'loadlot "Club Dante"' would load up the Club Dante lot owned by Malcom Landgraab if entered in the neighborhood view of Bluewater Village. Put quotation marks around the lot name if it has more than one word.
X
Minimizes the cheat window when it has expanded showing an error if you have mistyped a cheat.
Help
Expands the cheat box so more information appears above it, listing every available cheat and also tells you what your aliases are.
boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true ✨🌱
Always auto-enabled in my userStartup.cheat
Aliases in my userStartup.cheat: cheatsOn & cheatsOff
In the past there has been some scaremongering going around that this cheat is 'dangerous', but this is simply not true. Nothing would break on its own just because you have this cheat on, but it does have some very advanced and complex features that you can use if you want to, and even most of those previously considered 'dangerous' or 'corruption-casuing' has been debunked as a myth by April Black. I'm pretty certain that if you did anything potentially dangerous to your game using this cheat, you'd have been trying to. It has so many useful features such as:
This cheat makes a popup message appear in the event of an error so that you have some indication as to what is going wrong and some options of how to handle it rather than sims freakily jumping around on the spot with no idea what the problem is.
Shift-click interactions: alternate options will appear if you shift-click on anything in the game, particularly sims. Some of these options are very useful such as:
Force Error: force an error so that you can reset the object or sim if it/they seems stuck or not behaving as expected in some way, which can fix some glitches.
Make Selectable: control visiting sims without adding them to your household.
Give Cellphone: instantly put a cellphone in the sim's inventory for free - useful if you believe everyone should already have one in the modern day.
Get Fit & Get Fat: Instantly change the sim's body type - useful if you have created a new sim and want them to be already fit since there isn't an option for that in CAS.
Much, much more...
Ctrl + Click on Wants to Satisfy them and therefore make them reroll and gain the aspiration points for them - this can be used in a cheaty way but I occasionally find it useful in rare cases wants don't get fulfilled when you think they should have, in my case performing on the microphone or obtaining a pet/puppy/kitten when your pet gives birth to a litter.
Drag up or down pretty much any bar in the game like needs, relationships, skills and personalities - can be used in a cheaty way but I tend to occasionally use it to make very minor adjustments to needs to make them more realistic, and its also very helpful for setting up newly created sims such as giving them a few starting skills and relationships. I also have some gameplay rules that can result in me making small tweaks to their personalities.
Press Shift + N while in Create A Sim to access hidden items such as career outfits etc.
While I do have this cheat automatically enabled at all times, I also have aliases for turning it off and back on again because if you ever want to use the Bat Box to force errors, its basically essential to turn the cheat off first otherwise you'll have to click through hundreds of errors instead of everything just resetting automatically, so that's the only time I turn it off then back on again.
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boolProp allow45degreeAngleOfRotation true ✨
Always auto-enabled in my userStartup.cheat
This allows objects to be rotated to a 45 degree angle instead of only 90 degrees.
This only works if you rotate the objects using the < > keys (the ones between M and ?), rotating by dragging with the mouse will still happen at 90 degree intervals.
boolProp quarterTilePlacementEnabled true ✨
Always auto-enabled in my userStartup.cheat
Allows objects to be placed on quarter tiles instead of full tiles, so objects will snap to much closer, more precise positions than before.
This must be activated each time by pressing the Ctrl + F keys at the same time while in game, you can also toggle it off and on with the same keys because it is still sometimes better to snap to full tiles, so this simple toggle gives you the easy option to swap between full tile and quarter tile placement.
Note that there is another version of this cheat, 'setQuarterTilePlacement on' which will work if used in game, however this one does not work in a userStartup.cheat file, it must be the boolProp version instead.
floatProp tvVolume [0.0 - 1.0] ✨
Always auto-enabled in my userStartup.cheat at 0.2
Allows you to change the volume of in-game TVs. The default is 0.5 and I find this way too loud so I set it to 0.2 to make them quieter.
boolProp controlPets true and boolProp petActionCancel true ✨
Always auto-enabled in my userStartup.cheat
These two cheats give you full control over pets, the first one allows you to direct them to do interactions and the second one allows you to cancel interactions in their queue.
Note that the control is optional, they will still autonomously behave as normal so you don't have to control them just because you have these cheats on, they can just really come in handy sometimes. I don't heavily control my pets but it can be super useful if cats get glued to the counter and neglect their needs, or dogs are having routing issues getting to the bathtub so I direct them into the bathroom, etc.
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intProp maxNumOfVisitingSims [number] ✨
Always auto-enabled in my userStartup.cheat at 50
This cheat allows you to change how many sims can be invited to a party.
I have this set to 50 which may be a little excessive, but I never run out of slots for my desired party guests so it gives me total freedom to invite whoever I like. Just use your own judgement to not overwhelm your computer as this can cause crashing, but even if you don't have a good computer, it'll still be better than the ones from 2004 that The Sims 2 was made for so you can safely increase the limit from 8 at least a little!
I also use the Visitor More Population Mod so that more sims will spawn on community lots if this cheat is enabled.
uintProp maxTotalSims [number] and uintProp maxTotalHumans [number] and uintProp maxTotalPets [number] ✨
Always auto-enabled in my userStartup.cheat (total at 50, humans at 25, and pets at 25)
This combination of cheats allows you to have more sims in a household, the number of humans and pets need to add up to the total, but otherwise they can be whatever you like.
I have the total set to 50 and the humans and pets set to 25 each which gives me 50 household slots, 25 being humans and 25 being pets. It's never a limit I actually ever get near but it allows me to not have to worry about running out of space, so pets can still have big litters in a big household and I can play more than 8 students together in a dorm, etc.
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boolProp dontMergeNHFlora false ✨
Always auto-enabled in my userStartup.cheat
This cheat allows you to see more hood deco such as trees from lot view, making the game look better and feel more alive.
uintProp LotSkirtSizeIncrease [number]
Not recommended.
This cheat increases the view distance. Many people have this set to 120 in their userStartup.cheat which means you can see the whole neighborhood from lot view, however this can put a lot of strain on your system and make the pink textures more likely. Instead, I recommend following Epi's guide on how to increase the view distance settings, so that you can have extra large set to 120 but easily turn it down to something like 50 if you set that as the large option. This gives you much more flexibility and avoids putting permanent strain on your game.
boolProp ShowCatalogEPFlags true ✨
Always auto-enabled in my userStartup.cheat
This cheat makes it so that the description box that appears when you hover over an object in the buy catalog will now show which pack that item came with.
moveObjects on/off 🌱
Aliases in my userStartup.cheat: moveOn & moveOff
Allows you to place objects without restriction, such as objects inside each other or much closer together etc.
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changeLotZoning residential/community/greek/dorm/hotel/apartmentBase 🌱
Aliases in my userStartup.cheat: zRes, zCom, zGreek, zDorm, zHotel, zApt
Allows you to change the lot type of the loaded lot, for example turn a residential into an apartment lot.
Not recommended for use in occupied lots, only unoccupied. You may need to save then quit to neighborhood and reload the lot for the change to fully take effect.
boolProp dormSpecificToolsDisabled false 🌱
Aliases in my userStartup.cheat: dormBuild
Allows you to build freely in university dormitories, such as place new walls and use the eyedropper tool etc. If you're already on build mode when you enter the cheat, you need to switch to another mode like buy mode and then go back into build mode to see the effects and unlock all tools.
It also allows you to enter buy mode while visiting a community lot with a sim, so that you can purchase or sell things on the lot using the active household's funds. These changes will not persist, so anything you change will be undone the next time you visit or load up the lot in build mode. It is useful for grabbing cheat objects or temporary scenarios like parties and weddings.
boolProp aptBaseLotSpecificToolsDisabled false and
boolProp aptSubLotSpecificToolsDisabled false 🌱
Aliases in my userStartup.cheat: aptBaseBuild, aptSubBuild
These two cheats allow you to build freely on apartment lots. I'm covering them together because sometimes it takes me a bit of trial and error to get the right one for the task I'm trying to do. The Base Build one effects the whole apartment lot and can be used to edit the structure of unoccupied apartments such as modifying walls etc. The Sub Build one is more for use in occupied apartments, allowing you to add things to the communal areas while living in an apartment with an active household.
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boolProp snapObjectsToGrid false/true 🌱
Aliases in my userStartup.cheat: snapOff, SnapOn
Allows you to toggle off grid snapping and back on again, so you can place objects wherever you like without the restrictions on grid placement. This is like using the Alt key in The Sims 3 and 4.
plumbbobToggle off/on 🌱
Aliases in my userStartup.cheat: pbOff, pbOn
Allows you to toggle the visibility of the plumbbobs, so you can hide and re-show them. This is useful for screenshots.
showHeadlines off/on 🌱
Aliases in my userStartup.cheat: bubOff, bubOn
Allows you to toggle the visibility of the speech & thought bubbles, and other elements that appear above sims heads such as aspiration rewards and relationship changes, so you can hide and re-show them. This is useful for screenshots.
boolProp showFloorGrid off/on 🌱
Aliases in my userStartup.cheat: gridOff, gridOn
Allows you to toggle the visibility of the floor grid that appears over the ground in build mode, so you can hide and re-show it. This is useful for screenshots while in build mode.
boolProp constrainFloorElevation false/true 🌱
Aliases in my userStartup.cheat: cfeOff, cfeOn
An advanced building tool that allows you to do all sorts of crazy, stunning things you wouldn't have thought would be possible in The Sims 2. I've not really used it but AniBats has a brilliant tutorial on it I highly recommend.
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modifyNeighborhoodTerrain on/off 🌱
Aliases in my userStartup.cheat: mntOn, mntOff
Allows you to select a section in neighborhood view and change the leveling of the terrain with various hotkeys, so you can make a hill or a flatter part which may allow you to place a lot where you previously weren't able to.
boolProp showLotPackageFilename true/false 🌱
Aliases in my userStartup.cheat: lotFileOn, lotFileOff
Allows you to toggle the visibility of the lot file name showing when you hover over a lot in neighborhood view, so that you can see exactly which file that lot is stored in inside your documents.
Download my userStartup.cheat:
To install, extract the .cheat file from inside the zip and put it in either Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Config OR Documents/EA Games/The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection/Config.
With Cinema Secrets:
This is the exact file I have in my game. Use this one if you also use or plan on using the Cinema Secrets Lighting Mod.
Without Cinema Secrets:
I've removed the Cinema Secrets section in this version. Use it if you either don't use a lighting mod or use a different lighting mod. If you do use a different lighting mod, remember to copy and paste any lines you need for it into this file.