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The Sims 3 Ghost and Death Guide
The Afterlife, Haunts, Ghost Babies and How to Handle a Ghost Sim
In this guide, I'll discuss ghosts and death in The Sims 3. There's a lot to cover, but we'll learn the causes of death for Sims. From there we'll discuss methods of resurrection, how to have a ghost baby and what you can do with your tombstones and urns to possibly get rid of Ghosts when a Sim has died.
Death: The Grim Reaper Cometh
When a Sim dies on your lot, the grim reaper will appear to harvest their soul. The Sim's body will disappear and the spirit will leap into the urn or gravestone. Before the patches came, Sims could befriend and eventually woohoo with the reaper to get a grim reaper baby. We wonder why the developers included this feature initially and removed it. Was in unintended or over the line? We'll never know for sure. Your Sim can socialize with the reaper, and even add him to their list of contacts but he will only come when a Sim has died, so socializing further is impossible. The ability to create reaper babies is a thing of the past. The reaper is known to stick around a bit at times and do some silly things, as in this picture with the reaper using the virtual reality goggles.
The Sims 3 Urns, Tombstones and Haunts
Sims who die on your lot will leave behind an urn or tombstone. Whether it's an urn or tombstone depends on its location. It's purely a visual. When a Sim's grave is indoors, it will be an urn. Outdoors you'll see a tombstone. You can change this appearance at will by moving the 'grave' indoors or outdoors. Note that there are at times bugs that cause a gravestone or urn to vanish with no known resolution. A Sim could die on your lot and leave nothing behind, unfortunately.
After midnight, a dead Sim's ghost may appear and haunt the lot where its grave is placed. They'll vanish by morning. During that time, your Sim may interact with the ghost, but most of the time they'll just behave erratically. They may do some odd things associated with their cause of death. For example, Sims who've died of starvation may head for the fridge to grab a snack, and Sims who've died in a fire may take a shower. They can actually break the shower, too. So a haunt can be amusing at first but ends up quite annoying as they disrupt your Sim family's life.
To rid yourself of the haunts on your Sim's current lot, you could take their urn or tombstone to the public cemetery in town. They'll then be a part of the cemetery. For legacy familities, which often have a lot of deaths and could be overrun by haunts at night, it's suggested you make a family cemetery out of a nearby lot. To do this, go into Edit Town and select a Public lot, such as a fishing spot or a park area. Decorate the lot any way you wish with fencing, flowers, benches, etc. Do everything you want the first time because if you go back to that lot in Edit Town after placing tombstones, all of them will be returned to your family inventory and you'll have to place them again. After you've completed the setup and decoration of your cemetery, go back to the game. Pick up any grave that you wish to place in your cemetery and simply go to the lot and place it wherever you wish. Eventually the lot will show up in the town view as a cemetery. You can even rename it if you choose. The ghost will no longer haunt your lot once the Sim's tomb or urn is gone. They'll instead come out most nights like other ghosts tend to do.
How to Manage the Dead in the Sims 3
When Sims who are not in your active household die, they go to the mausoleum at the local graveyard. The tombs of family friends and other Sims can be managed here. By doing so, you can get the tombstone or urn required to resurrect dead Sims, let them haunt your household or add them to the cemetery.
Resurrecting Sims and Playable Ghosts
Ghost Sims can only become playable by resurrecting them via the Science Lab opportunity that will appear some time after their death. This appears in the special opportunity slot, so make sure it's clear of any other opportunities if you want it to happen. Your Sim will be asked to bring the deceased's urn or tombstone to the science lab to resurrect them. This will bring them back as a playable ghost. Marriages are not sustained after death, but must be reinstated by proposing again. This Sim will come back as a playable ghost and you'll be capable of making ghost babies. After you've completed this opportunity the first time, Sims' tombs may be taken (by dragging to your active Sim's inventory) back to the science lab for resurrection at the cost of $5,000 Simoleons.To resurrect a Sim from the dead entirely, have them eat Ambrosia. This can be stored in the fridge until it's ready to be served to the ghost. For a ghost in the house, this will usually be a simple matter of placing the dish at their feet or on a table and making it accessible to them. Even in the graveyard, they seem to know what it is and will go straight for the ambrosia. If the Sim was under your control before, they'll be returned to your household if there's enough room, upon bringing them back to life. Follow the link to learn more about making this dish. It will bring a Sim from death (ghost) back to a normal state, and can perpetually halt death due to aging when eaten by living Sims. The Sim's age bar will revert to 0 days at that state in their life span.
You can't make an elder into a young adult with Ambrosia, but you can make them into an elder that has just recently turned. This works either way, as you can keep them from being elders entirely if you feed them ambrosia early enough. More doses of this dish will be required in order to maintain immortality.
