How to complete your Soul’s Journey in The Sims 4

What is the Soul’s Journey in The Sims 4?

The Soul’s Journey helps you craft meaningful life stories for your Sims and is part of The Sims 4 Life & Death Expansion Pack.
A Sim’s Soul’s Journey is divided into a Bucket List and Unfinished Business. They can tackle their Bucket List from the Young Adult to Elder life stages. If your Sim dies and becomes a Ghost, their Bucket List becomes Unfinished Business, with new goals available for them to complete in the afterlife.

Examples of a Bucket List and Unfinished Business in The Sims 4. Showing goals, progress bar, and the Rewards Store.

Goals on both a Sim’s Bucket List and Unfinished Business can be created by your Sim using the computer or a journal. Or, they can be automatically created over time based on who they are as a Sim.
Completing goals from your Sim’s Bucket List and Unfinished Business fills up the progress bar in their Soul’s Journey. You can also fill the progress bar by completing Aspiration tiers, Midlife Crisis (from Growing Together), New Years Resolutions (from Seasons), and fulfilling Wants.

Soul’s Journey Tiers and Rewards

A Sim’s Soul’s Journey is broken down into different tiers, with each one earning them different rewards.

The Road Ahead: Sims get extra Satisfaction Point gains.
Making Headway: Sims get extra Skill gain bonuses.
Finding Purpose: Sims get bonus gains to their career performance, extra discounts on any computer purchases, and unlock the Share Soul's Journey social interaction.
No Regrets: Sims have an extended life. If they later become a Ghost, this unlocks the Move Onto the Great Beyond interaction on Urns and Gravestones.
Quite a Journey: Sims unlock the Pass Down social interaction and can create three additional Heirloom Objects. Read our guide to Wills and Heirloom Objects to find out more.
Dreams Fulfilled: Sims unlock the ability to experience Rebirth.

The following tiers and rewards only unlock once your Sim dies and becomes a Ghost.

Newfound Purpose: Sims gain extra Ghost Mastery experience points to unlock ghostly powers.
The Big Picture: your Sim has enhanced stamina when performing Ghost Mastery. They also unlock the Burning Soul Trait.

Bucket List

Bucket Lists become available when your Sim ages up to a Young Adult. They aren’t available for Infant, Toddler, Child, or Teen Sims.
Your Sim can have up to four goals on their Bucket List at the same time. These are divided into different categories.

I want Adventure!
I want to Travel!
I wanna Party!
I wanna Get Busy!
I want a Great Family!
I want Success!
I want to Create!
I want…Something else?

Some goals are Pack-specific. For example, the I want to climb a mountain! goal is only available to players who have the Snowy Escape Expansion Pack.

You’ll only get goals from the Packs you own.

How to write a Bucket List in The Sims 4

If you want to set your Sim’s goals, get them to create a Bucket List using the computer or a journal. You can also let the game automatically set your Sim’s Bucket List goals through gameplay. When the game auto-creates Bucket List goals, they’re based on the type of Sim they are, using their Traits, Aspiration, career, relationships, and lifestyle.
For example, if your Sim has the Romantic Trait they’re more likely to get a goal from the I Want to Get Busy! category.
If you choose to create your Sim’s goals using the computer or journal, there are four Bucket List interactions available:

Write Goal: This assigns your Sim a goal based on their relationships, personality, Traits, and Aspiration. This option will be grayed out if your Sim’s Bucket List is already full.
Scrap Bucket List: This will clear all goals currently on your Sim’s Bucket List. This option is only visible if your Sim already has goals on their Bucket List.
Write Goal from Category: This gives you a choice on which type of goal to add to your Sim’s Bucket List. You’ll have the option to choose between subcategories like I want Adventure, I want a Great Family, or I Want to Create. Choosing from one of these options will set a goal from that category for your Sim to complete.
Write the Perfect Goal: To write specific goals your Sim will need to have some extra life experience:
Attend an Afterlife Anonymous group meeting. You’ll find these in the ruins of Ravenwood’s Mourningvale neighborhood. This happens every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 6 p.m.–11 p.m. or every Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
Recently witnessed another Sim die.
Have the Chased by Death Trait.

Where to find your Sim’s Bucket List

The Bucket List is in the Aspirations Panel in the bottom right of Live Mode.

A dashed coral line highlights the Bucket List Panel in The Sims 4. Open it in Live Mode by selecting the Aspirations Panel.

From here you can check in on what goals your Sim has, and your progress through their Soul’s Journey. Hovering over the Soul’s Journey tiers will show which rewards unlock as you progress.

What happens when you complete a goal on your Sim’s Bucket List

When your Sim completes a goal from their Bucket List, they’ll earn progress in their Soul’s Journey. The Soul’s Journey bar will fill up, and they’ll celebrate and have a positive Moodlet.
Sims won’t immediately get a new goal added to their list. Instead, they can add one using the methods above like the computer or journal, or by just playing through your Sim’s life!

Unfinished Business

If your Sim becomes a Ghost they’ll have new, Ghost-specific goals called Unfinished Business. Becoming a Ghost unlocks new tiers and rewards in their Soul’s Journey.
As a Ghost, they have a choice to Move On to the afterlife, continue life in their ghostly form, or be reborn and return to the world of the living.
Unfinished Business functions in the same way as their Bucket List; the game will auto-create some Goals for your Sim through gameplay. For example, if your Sim had a nemesis when they were alive, the game may set a goal for them to scare this enemy as a Ghost before they Move On.
You can also manually add goals, and any Bucket List goals they didn’t complete as a living Sim are added to this list for them to complete as a Ghost.
There are some goals that Ghost Sims can’t complete, like having a child, but they’ll now have access to Ghost-specific goals that focus on tying up loose ends before they move on to the afterlife like renewing vows with their spouse as a Ghost or comforting their living family with their Ghost powers.
Unlike a Bucket List, Unfinished Business is available to Ghost Teens. This isn’t available to Child Ghosts, but you can age a Child Ghost up to a Teen Ghost in the Baleful Bog in Ravenwood’s Mourningvale neighborhood.

Rebirth

If your Sim completes the Dreams Fulfilled tier in their Soul’s Journey they’ll have the option to be reborn. If your Sim unlocked the Burning Soul Trait, they can choose to carry over physical attributes, reward Traits, and special relationship interactions to their next life. Without this Trait, they can be reborn but they won’t remember anything from their past life.
The Burning Soul Trait is awarded to a Ghost Sim after fully completing The Big Picture tier of their Soul’s Journey. This Trait will follow the Sim into their next life if they choose to be reborn, and comes with several perks.

Enhances Ghost Powers: Reduces burnout and increases strengths.
Rebirth benefits: When this Sim is reborn, they’ll begin their next life with the Burning Soul Trait and unlock two new interactions. Both of these interactions are available for Teen Sims and older.
A single Personality Trait— select themselves or another Sim and choose the Recall Past Life interaction.
Reward Traits— select the Peer Into Soul interaction on any mirror. Sims can do this multiple times.
Some enhanced developmental skills: For example, if your Sim is reborn as an Infant they won’t need to relearn how to walk and talk. They’ll also have a boost to childhood skills if they’re reborn as a Child Sim or younger.
Can initiate Transcendant WooHoo with a Ghost while being alive.

The Recall Past Life interaction reads: Gain a personality trait from Sienna's previous life in a one-time moment of clarity.

How does a Sim get reborn?

There are two ways for your Sim to experience rebirth. Either way, your Sim will need to complete the Dreams Fulfilled tier of their Soul’s Journey. To get all of the rebirth benefits they’ll need to complete everything up to The Big Picture tier of their Soul’s Journey.

Living Young Adult, Adult, and Elder Sims will have the option to be reborn at the moment of death. If they haven't completed their Unfinished Business (they need to be a Ghost to do this), they won't be able to unlock the Burning Soul Trait, which grants all of the benefits of Rebirth.
Ghost Sims can experience rebirth by choosing Rebirth when they swim in the Baleful Bog. You can find this in the world of Ravenwood. It’s the lake illuminated with an eerie, purple glow along the side of the Mourningvale neighborhood. For help finding it, select the Focus Camera On interaction on the Mourningvale City Hall (next to the Bell Tower), and choose The Baleful Bog.
Sims who didn’t complete their Bucket List when alive can choose to be reborn this way.

What happens when your Sim is reborn?

Once you’ve selected rebirth for your Sim the game will automatically open up Manage World. From here, choose which Lot you want your reborn Sim to live in. You can choose an unoccupied Lot, which will give you the normal starting funds at the start of a new game. Or, you move your Sim into an occupied Lot and merge with another family.

Create a Sim will automatically open once you’ve chosen a Lot, and your reborn Sim will have a special icon. From here you have a few options.

You can add new family members for your reborn Sim, including adding family relationships, like parents and siblings.
The reborn Sim will automatically start out as an Infant, resembling the previous Sim. This Sim can be fully edited, so you can change their name, age, appearance, Traits, and family relationships. You can also make the reborn Sim an Occult Sim.
Play with your Sim’s genetics and edit them to have the genetics of other Sims in their new Household. You can also switch these back by selecting Reset Sim to Resemble Past Life.

Note: The Rebirth Counter keeps track of how many rebirths a Sim has had.
You can find the number of rebirths in the top right of the Soul’s Journey Panel once a Sim becomes a Young Adult again.

Will reborn Sims have relationships from their past lives?

When your Sim returns to the world of the living, they’ll still have some links to their past life.
These include:

Family relationships: They’ll have the Odd Familiarity relationship with members of their family from their past life. You can see this in their Sim Profile. Read our guide to find out more about Sim Profiles.
This unlocks the Talk about Odd Familiarity interaction.
Your Sim can’t have a romantic relationship with anyone they share this relationship with.
Friendly relationships: If your Sim had a good relationship with another Sim in their past life, they’ll have the Strange Connection relationship. You can see this in their Sim Profile.
This unlocks the Talk about Strange Connection interaction.
Romantic relationships: If your Sim had a Soulmate in their past life, they’ll have the Reunited Soulmates! relationship when they re-encounter their Soulmate in their new life. You can see this in their Sim Profile.
This unlocks the Re-encounter Soulmate interaction with that Sim.