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The Sims 4: Enchanted By Nature - Ailments And How To Cure Them

Another new expansion for The Sims 4 has arrived, and Enchanted by Nature shakes up EA's long-running life sim in some big ways. That includes the introduction of a brand-new Fairy occult type, new methods for living off the land instead of in a house, and--most relevant to this article--an entirely new way for your Sims to get sick, called Ailments.

Where the standard illnesses in The Sims 4 don't pop up that often and are easily cured with generic medicine, Ailments are a whole new category of affliction that require specific cures--or help from a magical being with the ability to fix Ailments. Fortunately, Ailments are more annoying than dangerous--they really aren't severe enough to kill a Sim on their own--but their effects can be so disruptive that it's usually better to deal with them sooner than later.

How Ailments work

Ailments are contagious illnesses that can be caused by catching them from another Sim, being afflicted with one by a Fairy, or by being emotionally out of balance. The contagion factor is real, as hanging out in the same place as an infected Sim has a very good chance of giving your Sim an infection, too. And it's not just direct contact that'll get you--as with real illnesses, interacting with stuff that a sick person has touched can get your Sim sick too.

Likewise, being out of balance emotionally--this is indicated by the new balance meter in the Simology tab--makes it likely that your Sim will simply develop an Ailment without any extra help, but it also makes your Sim more vulnerable to catching something from another Sim. Likewise, being in balance fortifies your Sim against catching an Ailment naturally or from another Sim. Think of the emotional balance meter as a measure of your Sim's immune system.

What to do when your Sim has an Ailment

There are several different ways that you can deal with your Sim's Ailment when they catch something. The first is to do nothing and let the Ailment run its course. While that may sound silly on its face, some of the ailments do have positive side effects--like Luck Magnet, which makes the infected Sim lucky by stealing luck from the other Sims around them. Gnome Lure, likewise, causes sentient garden gnomes to spawn like during Harvestfest. While I normally really don't like the gnomes, they've got a whole new use in the Enchanted by Nature expansion--Fairy Sims can enchant them with Fairy Dust to bring them to life.

So if you think the upside of the Ailment is worth the trouble, you can let it play itself out. Otherwise, there are four methods for ending an ailment immediately, all of which are relatively simple:

• Use your phone to visit a naturopath, who will cure your Sim for 1,500 Simoleons
• Ask any fairy to cure the Ailment--though fairies cannot cure themselves through magic.
• "Manifest" a cure by visiting Moondrop Spring in the Everdew neighborhood of Innisgreen
• Make your own cure at an apothecary table

Crafting your own Ailment cures

Crafting Ailment cures is a relatively easy process because they require only common ingredients that you can find without much difficulty, That's because Ailment cures are the first things your Sim learns to create when they learn the apothecary skill--the Ailment cures require level 1 or 2, so there's no grind involved. Which is a very good thing because even though Fairies can magically cure other Sims, they can't do that with Ailments that they themselves are afflicted with.

To gain the apothecary skill, a Sim just need to use any apothecary table to "Study Apothecary Cures," and then after a moment they'll be able to craft some Ailment cures--and since the rest only require skill level 2, it'll take just a few more moments of messing around with the apothecary table before your Sim can craft the rest of them.

And since these cures are low-level recipes, their ingredients are incredibly easy to find by casually foraging anywhere by clicking on any patch of grass in any Sims 4 world, or by purchasing the ingredients using the option on the apothecary table. None of the ingredients are expensive, so buying them shouldn't be a problem for folks who want to get right to it.

List of ailments

• Burning Passion: Makes the infected Sim very flirty, and also very likely to occasionally burn nearby objects
• Creation Impulse: Gives a Dazed moodlet, while also making the infected Sim better at crafting things.
• Emotional Void: Dampens the infected Sim's emotions, and will also passively do the same to any nearby Sims.
• Gnome Lure: Makes gnomes spawn near the infected Sim
• Greenie Meanie: Makes the infected Sim simultaneously very good at gardening and very cranky.
• Luck Magnet: Makes the infected Sim lucky at the expense of those around them.
• Simoleon Fever: Makes the infected Sim cough up money.
• Sonic Sinuses: Their sneezes are so powerful that they occasionally break things, but the Sim has improved handiness and can fix things easier.