The Sims 4 Life and Death Reaper career guide

The Reaper career in The Sims 4 Life and Death brings a whole new perspective to the life of the Grim Reaper, as you become their protégé. Starting out as a Grimtern and working your way up to a fully-fledged Reaper isn't going to be easy, but thankfully you can head along to work with your Sim to help guide them on their way.

While the Grim Reaper has always visited those who have met their demise in The Sims 4, you can now become an apprentice to the reaping trade. Daily tasks for your Sim get harder the further you progress, and there’s ten levels of career progression to work your way up through. Here's everything you need to know about the Reaper career in The Sims 4 Life and Death and how to secure that all-important performance rating.

It's just one of the many dark and afterlifey things you can now do now, like write a Will in Life and Death, or uncover the mysteries of The Sims 4 Guardian Tree. 

How to join the Reaper career

Like any career in The Sims 4, you join the Reaper career by selecting the Find a Job option on your computer or phone. This will trigger a pop-up enabling you to scroll through and choose the career you’re after - for this, it’s Reaper. 

If you’re just starting out with a new Sim, some great traits that match with the Reaper career are Genius, Practice Makes Perfect, and for Life and Death, Macabre. Being macabre means your Sim will be less affected while being around death - and they’ll be around a lot of it in this career path.

How to complete Reaper tasks In the Sims 4

When you first join as a Grimtern, you’ll be prompted to carry out a list of daily tasks at the Netherworld Department of Death (NWDD), including Practice Reaping, Socialize with Co-Workers, and Perform Scythe Maintenance. And, as an active career in the Sims, you can come along and do them yourself.

On your first day, you’ll also be told to investigate Frank, a test body. Here, you’ll learn what goes into being a Reaper, by looking into the cause of death and determining what happened to him. Then, you get to do what Reapers do best, reap the soul. There’s multiple options for how you do this in the interaction menu, but for the best chance at a successful reaping, choose Collect Soul, or Collect Soul Carefully.

Each day is more or less the same in the NWDD. You’ll be asked to interact with the Scry Bowl and usually get sent out on a reaping, but you’ll have prep tasks to do before you go, like Research Assignment. It’s up to you whether you do them or not, but it’ll increase your chances of a successful soul collection, if you do.

After you’ve traveled, you can also complete tasks like File Death Certificate, Analyse Death Trends, and Set Reaping Schedules. Again, you’ll be prompted on what tasks you should complete to get the best performance rating, and a better chance at promotion.

When you go out to reap a soul, you’ll need to complete the following tasks:

• Speak to Witness: Sims on the lot will usually have witnessed the death, they’ll have an option to speak to them with a scythe icon next to it
• Investigate Items: Any items nearby can be examined, the simpler interaction menu the better
• Determine Cause of Death: They’ll be a choice of options here from checking temperature to checking pulse. Once you’ve checked the most relevant ones, you’ll be able to determine cause of death
• Collect Soul: Again, while you should opt for Collect Soul, or Collect Soul Carefully, there’s options like doing it flamboyantly or like Grim, but they have a lower success rate
• Ask For Review: If you want to click the urn and ask for a review, the soul wil give you it
• Return Urn To Family: Complete to achieve a better performance rating
• Soothe Witness: Complete task by interacting with witness
• Get To Know Witnesses: Complete enough tasks to be about to return to office
• Return to Office: Select your Sim to head back to the NWDD

Before Life and Death, you could plea with the Grim Reaper and as a Reaper, Sims can plea with you. You’ll find a Sim with Listen to Plea and you can then choose whether you want to collect soul or spare their life. The body will be able to be revived, if you choose to spare it. If you don’t, you’ll carry on as usual.

There will also be days where you won’t be reaping, but instead traveling to clean up an empty lot where souls have escaped through Netherworld Fissures and are floating, aimlessly. Your tasks here are:

• Harvest Grimbrosia Source: Click the orange plant
• Close Netherworld Fissures: There are glowing blue cracks along the floor, you can reach inside too, but we wouldn’t recommend it
• Pick Up Lost Souls: Grab the souls, they count towards your weekly souls quota that we’ll get into below
• Return to the Office: Select your Sim to travel back to the NWDD
• Make Grimbrosia: Grim loves this, so if you cook it up and deliver it to them, they’ll be very pleased with you

How to complete emergency tasks as a Reaper in The Sims 4

Some days you won’t be sent out to collect souls, rather there will be an emergency as Reaper HQ. For this, you’ll be given different tasks than usual like Closing Netherworld Fissures, Repairing the Netherworld Portal, and Recalibrating Grim’s Slablet. 

How to fill your weekly soul quota as a Reaper in The Sims 4

Meeting your weekly soul quota is also great for performance gain. You can check it on a PC, or you’ll receive reminders. If you don’t meet your quota, you’ll suffer a performance loss. If you do meet it, you’ll receive a performance gain, as well as a reward in the mysterious chest located at the top of the stairs in the NWDD.

You'll work towards your soul quota along with your other Reaper colleagues, but essentially you'll get them each day when you're working. If you need a soul quota boost, you can also pay the Mysterious Merchant, known as Waylon Warez, at the Eternal Hollow Cemetery in Crow's Crossing most evenings, or he'll pop up at random festivals. Though, coming across him is quite difficult.

How to get promoted as a Reaper in The Sims 4

There’s ten levels to the Reaper career and while carrying out your daily tasks is important, so is levelling up in the Thanatology, Charisma, and Fitness skills. Charisma and Fitness are standard Sims 4 skills gained by reading books, talking to the mirror, or going for a swim. Thanatology, a skill specific to The Sims 4 Life and Death can all be gained by reading skill tomes, speaking to ghosts, or reading theories on your computer. 

You’ll also have to release a certain amount of souls and at level 6, even write a Reaping Manual. If you’re tired of leveling up or want to get ahead, fast, then there’s cheats to help you in both our Sims 4 career cheats and Sims 4 skill cheats.

Here’s the ten levels of the Reaper career and what you need to do to get promoted:

• Grimtern: Attend 2 active work days
• Restceptionist: Reach Level 2 Thanatology
• Dust-To-Dust Buster: Reach Level 3 Thanatology and release 3 souls
• Collections Agent: Reach Level 2 Fitness and Level 3 Charisma
• Soul Slayer: Reach Level 4 Thanatology and release 5 souls
• Spirit Expert: Reach Level 4 Charisma and write reaping manual
• Nether-Tether: Reach Level 5 Thanatology
• D.N.R (Death’s Negotiation Reporter): Reach Level 4 Fitness and Level 5 Charisma
• Graveling: Release 10 souls
• Reaper: Nothing, you’re done! 

Rewards for the Reaper career in Life and Death

As you work your way up the Reaper career, you’ll receive different items. At level 3, it’s a Basic Reaper Uniform. At level 8, it’s the Grim’s Timeless Hourglass. At level 10, you get the Grand Grim Uniform and Grim’s Right Hand.

Enjoying running your own virtual life? Here's 10 games like The Sims 4 to try next.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission