Sims 4 Terrain Tools: How to Use the Terrain Tool & What it Can Do

How to Use the Terrain Tool in The Sims 4

A new patch for The Sims 4 released on Nov. 13 and offers some pretty substantial changes, one of which was the first inclusion of a first-person mode so you can finally see through the eyes of your sims. The update released for free on PC and Mac, and another major inclusion was new Terrain Tools that allow more customization options for building on your lots.

To access the Terrain Tools, simply go to Build Mode and click where the Terrain Paints previously existed, there will be a little shovel icon there and all you have to do is click it to go into all the new options.

The new tools allow you to dig huge ditches to make hills so you won’t just have to build on simple flat lots anymore. If you want a more step-by-step breakdown with gameplay, the update can also give you a lesson on all the Terrain Manipulation options while in-game.

With the Terrain Tool you adjust the size of a radius shaped as either a circle or square that will affect any ground you place it on. There is also a slider that allows you to change the speed the terrain will change depending on if you want to make small subtle changes or huge quick hills. You can then choose to raise ground, lower it, or level any terrain within the shape.

There is also a flatten terrain option if you want to bring an area back down to its original level quickly, and flatten lot to take the entire lot back to level in one click.

There are also adjustments to foundations for builds, as before the update every building on a lot had to have the same foundation height. Now, any building that is not connected can have varying foundation heights or no foundation at all.

The way in which you can adjust the foundation of a build has also changed, so now you juts have to click the little icon in the middle room while in build mode to move it fluidly up and down. It will definitely make it easier to make basements or multi-leveled loft styled apartments from now on.

On top of these changes to building, the update also adds two new basement levels and two half-wall heights titled “Tall Half Wall – Medium Wall” and “Tall Half Wall – Tall Wall”.

If you want to see a breakdown of all the new inclusions in the update, you can find the patch notes from EA itself here.

For more Sims 4 content, check out our Sims 4 mods post for the top 150 mods you absolutely need to download to improve your game.