A lot of people find the life dreams concept confusing to understand, this guide will give you step by step instructions on how to give your sim a personality, completing life dreams, collecting, passing on or using orbs.
For Frequently Asked Questions about Life Dreams please read this post
1. Giving your sim a personality
When creating or adding a sim the first tab is the personality tab
or
If you didn’t give a sim a personality when creating them you can click on the wardrobe and select browse clothes to find the personality tab
You can choose from:
- Sporty (click here to see the life dreams)
- Geeky (click here to see the life dreams)
- Entertainer (click here to see the life dreams)
- Animal Fanatic (click here to see the life dreams)
Changing personality
Remember if you change personalities all progress towards the life dream will be lost
The symbol circled in the image below is what to click on to change a sims personality (in the life dreams tab)
2.Choosing a life dream
Go to life dreams tab and click choose a life dream and the list of 3 life dreams to choose from will appear
or
The screen will appear straight away once a sim has aged for you to select a life dream, either select one and click OK or if you click NOT NOW, then you can go to the life dreams tab, and select choose a life dream to choose from a new list of 3 dreams.
When selecting a life dream go for the ones that are most suitable for you, don’t pick ‘I want to do horse tricks’ for 3 hours if you can’t get on the game every 3 hours. If you don’t know how long a life dream takes you can usually select the object that you will need to use and it will give you a time so ‘I want to observe fish’ click on a fish tank and you will see the longest option is 5 hours. (do this before you select it as a life dream incase it isn’t long enough!)
3. Do what the life dream tells you to do
Most are very obvious, if your sim wants to watch animals on TV, select a TV option (I usually pick the longest option so in this case it would be movie marathon, this gets the dream done quickly)
A life dreams symbol appears on the action once you have selected it as your life dream. So you know which ones will increase the life dream!
4. Age your sim
Once the life dream for that stage has been completed you can age your sim early
You can advance age early in three ways, either click yes when the pop up below appears:
Or if you select no you can advance age from the life dreams menu
or
Wait until the timer for that stage is up:
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for further life stages
Once your senior has completed their life dream it will say fufilled life dream in the menu.
NOTE: You cannot give their orb to another sim until that senior passes on and leaves it behind.
Now your seniors can plant and enjoy the rest of their life or you can end their life early too.
Go to the age controller tab and click on the symbol circled in the image below:
Then click advance, it is free if they completed their life dreams!
Which will turn their timer red
Once their timer is up an exclamation mark will appear above their head, click on it, select yes when the pop up below appears:
Then the grim reaper will come and end their life, leaving the orb in their place.
6. Pick up the orb
The way I do it is by going to buy mode and clicking on it and storing it in my inventory
Now it is in there you can use it to:
7. Give orb to a new sim or keep to build places
Giving to another sim
In step 1 where you give your sim a personality you will now be able to see an orb is available (if the first sim had a sporty personality this next sim needs a sporty personality too) click on the personality and there you can select the stored orb if you want to (if not select no orb)
Your first sim will get a bronze orb, giving it to another sim now gives that second sim the chance to get it up to a silver, then a third sim can get it to a gold and a fourth sim to a platinum.
Bronze to Silver
Silver to Gold
Gold to Platinum
Keep it to build a place
But if you don’t want to give it to another sim and instead want to use it to build a place then just keep it in your inventory until you need it
Geeky orbs= Arcade
1 Bronze Geeky orb, 1 Silver Geeky orb
Sporty orbs= Beach
2 Bronze Sporty orbs, 2 Silver Sporty orbs
Entertainer orbs= Carnival
5 Bronze Entertainer orbs, 2 Silver Entertainer orbs
Animal Fanatic orbs= Pet Park
2 Bronze Animal Fanatic orbs, 4 Silver Animal Fanatic Orbs
If you want to build the arcade and your first sim got you a bronze geeky orb you will need to give that orb to another sim who can then get the orb to a silver, then you can get a third sim to get a bronze geeky orb and the arcade can then be built!
Once you have built the place there are things in them to build to, using the same orbs:
If you wanted to build the pet park I would have 6 sims all at once working towards a bronze orb, once 4 of them have completed their life dreams they can then be passed onto 4 new sims to get them to a silver. The 2 bronze ones can be stored until needed.
Wondering how many orbs you will need for each place? click here!
Pause a sim
You need a platinum orb to pause your sim at that life stage forever, this post explains how to do that
I hope this has made it a bit clearer!
Still confused? Give my Life Dreams Frequently Asked Questions post a read!
Thanks for reading!
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The Girl Who Games 
Hello magic! I would like to know, I have so many orbs I cannot use them anywhere (I mean I dont want to build anythıng on the fun park because it always asks for silver or platinum) Can I use my orbs which are in the inventory for slow down sims aging? Like pausing? For example when my sim will be preteen-to-teen, it just makes me an offer using LP to slow down the aging! When ı spend lp, my sims will not get to teen. But it doesnt make me choose using a life orb?
Thank you.
If you got a platinum orb you can stop your sim from ageing, the other life dreams and legacies tips post (linked at the top of this post) explains all about this
Hya please can you help me , ive got the ipad air a new one and this morning i updated it and npw qen i try to load my sims freeplay ot wont load its just flashin on and off. What shud i do do u know from valsamx
Sent from my iPad
>
What do you mean flashing on and off?
Are you trying to download your cloud data?
Great post as usual! I just had one tiny question or rather observation:
When you say “if it is a senior you can’t end their life early”, what do you mean exactly? Because, and I’m really sorry if I misunderstood something, I had an elder who completed his life dream, (but was nowhere near the end of his life) and I dispatched him into the afterlife early. It is true that the “have birthday” option has disappeared, but if you go into the “age control” panel, there is the option to advance age via the “age controller” button even for elders. I can provide pictures if you would like. There’s no need to age elders up early, just thought it was worth mentioning that you could. At least on Android it still works…
Sorry again if I missed something. Was there an update (after the magic one)?
Thanks for all the info.
It used to not be possible to age a senior early so since they have updated it I never tried to do it again because I didn’t think it would work, but now I have seen that you can so the post has been changed, thanks for the information.
Hi!
No problem. 🙂 I thought it may be because the Grim Reaper always hangs around because of those two dying Sims (with the exclamation marks over their heads)… I never knew they removed the feature, but it’s defo back now.
Hey there! Thanks for all your info! I just finished this quest and am trying to juggle these life dreams. A couple of questions for you….. 1. If a life dream is not complete in a life stage, can the next life stage catch it up? I made the mistake of picking drawing animals on a chalkboard for one of my and the 40 minutes is not working out too well. 2. Is it worth it to assign my adults to a personality? Is there enough time? 3. It seems like a lot to keep track of….will it get easier as I get used to it? Thanks much!
You’re welcome!
1. Yes they can
2. Yes it is, choose a one where they want to work and you will get it done in no time
3. Yes it is confusing at first but you will get used to it
Hi can preteens have life dreams if so can you give an example?
Yes they can, all life stages can. Something like I want to go to elementary school everyday.
my life dream is to enter as many horse riding events to be around these animals as often as I can…how do I do that?
By doing a horse hobby, I would do show jumping
Thank you 🙂
You’re welcome!
I’ve just now gotten where I finally have 3 platinum orbs that are not needed for building/quests. I have been orb farming since the Life quest started trying to catch up the beach, arcade, carnival and pet park. I am ready to make some sims that will not die finally! I’m not sure how the platinum orb works. If I give the orb to a teen then will they will stay a teen forever? What happens to the platinum orb if I want the teen to now be an adult forever? I’m guessing that I can only pause once and should pause the age where I want them forever? Have you used any platinum orbs to pause aging? They take so long to get I don’t want to mess it up! Thank you for your blog. It’s been a great help to me in playing the game.
Yes you can only pause once so do it at the age you want them to be at, otherwise it is a waste
You’re welcome!
Actually, they continue immortal after aging again. Just fill up their life dreams and allow them age for free. I did this with a preteen and she is now an immortal teen!
Oh, and thank you for the tips!! =)
Hello! My preteen sim’s dream is “I want to go diving! I want to be as good as Jacques Simsteau…”. I send him to the Swimming Center and make him dive but the life dream won’t advance. Help! What can I do? Does it have to be in a house?
no it doesn’t have to be at a house
have you tried the longest option?
Hello. İ had built the arcade gamer place on the mystery island begore. Now İ had a several more geek orbs but İ can’t use them to build the game options. The orbs can be seen in the inventory but they can’t be ticked. İt seems they’re locked!! What should İ do?
are they the right orbs? you can’t use a bronze orb if you need a silver one. I don’t know any other reasons why that would happen
I just began the life dreams legscies quest and for some reason when i open the wardrobe there is no tab to add personality, even when i begin with a new baby?
There are only the two tabs, one with free items and one with shopping items?
Only my one elder sim who was part of the quest and was tandomly assigned a life goal has one.
For example, one of my infant is ready to age up (has bday cake above head) and the prompt is that he doesnt have a life goal, i cant assign him one because it wont even let me open the wardrobe with him?
you have to complete the quest before you can give all of your sims personalities and life dreams, then you can find the personality tab in the wardrobe
[…] Unsure about life dreams and orbs? Check out the post here! […]
Thanks 😊
Hi! ^^ I have a question regarding those orbs. Is there any way to obtain thems by other means than killing my sims? Can I say, buy them from rl money like the currency packs, paus all my sims with them so they never die or age, then buy more to build those other things? Or do you recommend me to just not complete the life time legacy quest?
I really dislike the aging/dying bits of sims and i always turn it off in the computer version, so i really dont want to risk finishing that quest it if there’s no long term way to turn it off.
Its been in my queue since august or somesuch and I just refuse to finish it because i dont want my sims to die(i thankfully googled it in time to stop myself from finishing it before it was too late, otherwise I would’ve had to start over with a new game and that would’ve been pretty infuriating), but if I could get them without deading my sims, it might be worth it as it feels bitsy annoying to have so many things locked away. Or is this aging nonsense the only way?
I’d be really happy if you could help me with this 🙂
Also, thanks for this awesome blog, you’re doing such great work here!
Hello! Unfortunately killing off your sims is the only way to get orbs, I think being able to buy them would be a great idea though!
If you really don’t want your sims to die then I would leave it in your quest queue and just hope that one day they turn off automatic ageing, I know it isn’t the answer you wanted but I hope it helps 🙂
You’re welcome! Thanks!
[…] Still confused with life dreams? Read the tips post here and the guide to life dreams and orbs post here […]
Hey, I’m quite new to the life dreams update! I have a bronze life orb left behind by one of my sims – do I have to give it to a baby or can I give it to an adult without resetting their existing life dream progress?
You can give it to any sim who doesn’t already have a life dream or it will reset their progress, just go to the wardrobe, select personality and choose the orb and they will be able to work towards a silver orb.
Hi! There is something I don’t really understand, it’s that I can’t find the personality tab but I haven’t done the quest yet. Do I need to do the quest to get the tab or is there a glitch in my game? Thanks a lot, btw love your posts
You have to do the quest before you can give your sims personalities.
You’re welcome, thanks!
Hi I gave my adult sim my platinum orb but the green ring is still going round so have I done something wrong as I thought the sim would stop ageing
How did you give it to them? The way you do usually or by using the pause button on the age controller?
I am a little scared about this quest, I do not what to do it, it is giving me 7 days to do the quest what happens if I don’t do it, I am not ready for this yet, I have a lot of hobbies to do, please help me. What happens if I don’t do the quest. Please help me. Thanks for your help
If you are scared then I would recommend you don’t do it right now, if you don’t do it in the 7 days you won’t get the singing salmon but it will stay in your queue until you do it but that doesn’t mean you have to do it, if you don’t do it any quests that are released in future will probably appear after it in the quest queue so you won’t be able to do those until you have done this one
Thank you
Help! I have four seniors who have completed their life dreams, but not sure how to “send to the afterlife”. I know to eliminate a sim you hit the little red button that shows up when you click on them, but if I do this will I lose my orb? If so, how do I safely send them to the afterlife & retain the orb they earned?
I have added pictures to explain it to this post, you don’t lose the orb because you have to end a sims life to get the orbs, it will just be in the place of your sim and then you can store it.
Hi there! So if I understand everything correctly, if I want all of the Sims I have created prior to aging a sim (19), which activates the automatic aging, I need to add 4 Sims I would complete life goals for and then essentially sacrifice in order to earn a platinum orb to save one sim permanently. As long as I do nothing with any of my Sims I plan to keep while I go through the process of earning these orbs, will they stay their same age?
Yes you will need to add one new sim and give them a bronze orb when they pass on you give that orb to another new sim to get it to a silver, then another to get it to a gold then the last sim gets it to a platinum, and then you have one platinum orb to pause the life of one of your sims. All the other sims will have to stay not doing anything, so not going to work or gardening to make money, just standing not doing anything or they will start ageing. It is going to be a long way of doing it and your sims won’t earn any money but if you really want to do it this way add as many sims as possible at once to get a bronze orb so you can work towards many platinum orbs at one time
I’ve just finished the life dreams and legacies quest and they said it’s best to give the orb to the infant. Almost all of my sims are adults and I’ve only got one infant and two toddlers. Would I still be able to finish the life dreams if I gave the adults personalities now? Or should I just have lots of babies and start from there? Thank you!
I give my orbs mostly to adult sims, I just find it easier as you only have 2 life dreams (one as an adult and the other as a senior) instead of 5 life dreams. I also like my younger sims to stay the age for as long as possible but once my adults have completed the life dream for that stage I age them straight away to get the orb as quickly as possible
Thank you! I’m just starting out and I still a little confused. Your blog is a great help!
Can I ask if doing life dreams will take all of your sims’ time? I always have my toddlers do the playhouse hobby. Does that mean I won’t have time to do them anymore because you have to keep fulfilling their life dreams?
For toddlers, preteens, teens and seniors fufilling their life dreams doesn’t take might time at all for adults it takes longer but I usually select the going to work life dreams so that my sims can get on with other things after they have finished work for the day
If you gave someone like a silver life orb but then change their life dreams say to another life orb or another category (say geek to entertainer), would you lose the orb (geek) ? You mentioned you’d lose progress but would you lose the entire orb itself?
yes you would lose the orb too
Thanks for the reply =)
[…] Auto Ageing- once the life dreams and legacies quest has been complete […]
The grimm is scary i freak out when i saw it flying to took my first elder life, its like nooo you can’tttt, so it will always show up everytime my sims die?
Yes he will always show up to end a sims life
Can my sims give it orbs to other sims before it die? From the inventory?
no they can’t
I noticed after I finished the life dreams and legacies quest, I only needed simoleons to add a baby instead of 3 LPs. It cost me 45,500. Does it really change after you have done the quest?
Yes it does
1 of my elderly sims just moved on to the afterlife in the restaurant leaving his bronze orb behind. Im trying to repair the restaurant for use but my sims cant get past the orb and I cant get my inventory up since im not in a sims house. How do I get it or at least move it?
you should just be able to click on the orb and a pop up with appear, then you can store it or give it to another sim.
How do you get more bronze orbs?
give sims a personality and complete their life dream.
The reaper didn’t leave an orb for a senior it took. It was the 2nd Sim. Do they always leave an orb? Did I miss something? I received a sporty silver orb from the first Sim it took.. Thanks so much! Your blog is so helpful, this is my first comment.
If you didn’t complete their life dreams you won’t get an orb when they die
You’re welcome! I’m glad it helps
Ok, he didn’t have one yet. Thanks !
Hi!
I have like 12 golden and 4 silver orbs in the same category and when i want to use them building something, i cant click them to use. The hole thing goes lightgray, seems like they are locked for some reason. Please help 🙏
what are you trying to build?
When you build the arcade , beach etc does it increase your town worth ?
yes
Hello! First off I want to say your blog is amazing & helped me out So much! Now on to my question ((LOL)) I have an adult sim with a gold orb, however I would like for her to live as an adult indefinitely. I can’t do that, can I?? Because she already has the gold orb.
you can if you have a platinum orb, you can then use the pause button on the age controller to pause her life with the platinum orb
I can’t find the personality tab.
have you complete the life dreams and legacies quest yet?
No.
then you won’t have the personality tab yet.
What do you think an estimated time to fulfill a life dream is if you keep doing the task back to back?
It is hard to say because it really depends on a lot of things:
-what age the sim is (adult stage is longer than others)
-how long the life dream takes
-what orb they are working towards (it will take a lot longer to get a platinum orb than a bronze)
When the timer turns red, can I still have the sim stay at that current age? Or will the sim age up automatically?
they will age automatically unless you use LPs to reverse them back to the beginning of that stage.
Is it true once you have comoleted the quest (life dreams and legacies) that your sims automatically turn older, or is there anything else that will effect my sims? 😖
Yes they will
You can use platinum orbs (as explained in this post) to pause a sims life or use LPs to reverse back to the beginning of that stage but otherwise after you complete the quest your sims will age automatically.
Can you work on your life dream goals in neighbor’s towns?
no you can’t
Thx 4 info on this quest where sims age and die. Because of ur info I decided to not start this quest. Im enjoying my game as is.
If I give a toddler, preteen or teenager a platinum orb will they stay at that stage forever? I just want to know if its possible before I use the orb.
Yes they will stay at that age forever
Hi I’m a little bit confused. I want to assign my adult sims personalities but the option is not coming up on the Browse Clothes section… Did it update? (I just updated to the camp resort thingy)
Also your blog is so do helpful 😊
have you completed the life dreams and legacies quest yet? if not you won’t be able to give your sims personalities yet
I read through a lot of comments but couldn’t find this one. If a senior sim has completed his life dreams can I use the upgraded orb to build something without killing the sim off? When in the building screen it seems I know I can take the orb but it warns me that the orb won’t be upgraded. Thanks again. Your website is amazing.
No, you have to kill the sim off to get the orb unfortunately
You’re welcome, thanks!
I don’t have an orb inventory. A bunch of my original sims died off in the quest, which I have completed, and I have no way to see where those orbs went- but when I try to build anything, it always says I have zero orbs. Sad times. I’m updated as much as possible, and playing on an ipad 2– any ideas?
did they definitely complete their life dreams to earn an orb when they died? If they don’t complete their life dreams they won’t get an orb
I have a bronze orb that I can’t tap on to give to a SIM or store. Any advice? It seems like a glitch. It’s at the newly built campground in the picnic area.
I’m not sure really, have you tried restarting your device?
hi thanks so much for taking the time to write this amazing blog & replying to hundreds of questions.
I was wondering if there’s anyway to change the life dream of a sim without resetting their personality and losing the orb they have started working towards?
I have a teenage sporty sim, master dover and accidently aelected the surfing life dream. Ifi do this I will lose all her diving skills. Plus can only have one sim surfing at a time and already have another one doing this.
Thanks
You’re welcome!
Unfortunately there isn’t, changing their life dream will reset all their progress they have made so far
And yes only one sim can surf at a time but I wouldn’t worry about completing the life dream at this stage, she can always catch up as an adult 🙂
This is so confusing. I’m not at this point of the game yet, and now I don’t want to get there. Do you still find the game worth playing? I feel like everything will get harder, since I have certain houses, jobs and hobbies for certain sims, and now I need to let them die and grow new ones. Is the game still as enjoyable?
Yes actually I do, I was a bit annoyed when this update first came out but I’m used to it now and I like the fact that I get to refresh my sims because I felt it was starting to get a bit boring
I have done everything you say for orbs yet when my Sims pass on I am not receiving any orbs. I’ve done their life dreams and they have been completed. But when they pass I get nothing. No orb pops up to put in my inventory.
Have you definitely completed a life dream at each stage, not just one? If you have I don’t know why you aren’t getting an orb, you may need to contact EA to see if they can fix this problem for you
comments are disabled on this post, please read my frequently asked questions about life dreams post here for more details on life dreams