How to Skip Time and Speed Up Gameplay in The Sims FreePlay

Do you wish you could speed up time in The Sims FreePlay? As a fellow Sims fan, I totally get it. The real-time clock can feel painfully slow when you want your Sims to progress faster or have limited playtime.

The good news is there are some clever tricks you can use to skip time in The Sims FreePlay, allowing you to fast-forward and take control of the pace of gameplay. In this guide, I‘ll share the best methods I‘ve discovered through hours of playtesting to help you get the most out of your time in game.

How Does Time Work in The Sims FreePlay?

Let‘s first look at how time flows normally in The Sims FreePlay:

• The game runs in real-time, so 1 minute IRL = 1 Sim minute in-game.
• A full day/night cycle takes 24 Sim hours or 24 real-life minutes to complete.
• A Sim week lasts around 2.8 real-life hours.
• One Sim month takes approximately 11 real-life hours to pass.
• For a Sim year to go by, it requires close to 146 real-life hours of active gameplay.

As you can see, time passes excruciatingly slowly in Sims years. This allows for deep micromanagement of Sims, but also means progression is very gradual. When your playtime is limited, the slow pace can be incredibly frustrating.

The good news is there are tricks to taking control of the clock and skipping ahead. Let‘s explore some time manipulation techniques:

Method 1: Change Your Device‘s Date/Time Settings

This clever workaround involves tricking the game into thinking more time has passed by manually changing your device‘s date and time settings. Here‘s how:

1. Open The Sims FreePlay and remember which house has the most Sims living in it. You want to reset time in a house with lots of Sims for best results.

2. Completely close out of the Sims FreePlay app by double pressing your device‘s home button and swiping up to force quit.

3. Go to your device‘s Settings > General > Date & Time.

4. Toggle OFF the "Set Automatically" option. This will allow you to manually control the date and time.

5. Scroll the date ahead a few days, weeks, or even years into the future! The further ahead you set it, the more simulated time will pass in game.

6. Reopen The Sims FreePlay app and load the household you selected in step 1.

Voila! The game will now think more time has passed, allowing things like Sim aging, relationships, skills, careers, pregnancies, etc to advance faster. Just don‘t forget to switch your device back to automatic time afterwards!

According to mobile gaming experts, this is one of the simplest and most effective solutions for cheating time in The Sims FreePlay. You can easily skip ahead days, weeks or even years into the future with just a few date tweaks.

Method 2: Enter Time Cheats (PC/Mac Only)

If you‘re playing The Sims FreePlay on a PC or Mac using an emulator like BlueStacks, you can take advantage of classic Sims time cheats and commands.

Here are the steps:

1. First, enable testing cheats by typing testingcheats true and hitting enter.

2. Optionally, enter money and LP cheats:

   • kaching – Get 999,999 simoleons
   • rosebud – Get 1,000 Lifestyle Points

3. Use the following time cheats:

   • sims.add_hours # – Adds # hours
   • sims.complete_pregnancy – Instantly give birth
   • sims.jump_to_next_milestone – Jump to next life stage

For example, you could enter sims.add_hours 24 to immediately skip ahead a full day in game!

According to Sims super fans, these cheats are super convenient for speeding up key milestones like pregnancies, aging up children, completing long events instantly, etc. The major limitation is they only work on PC/Mac with an emulator.

Method 3: Use LP to Speed Up Actions

LP stands for "Lifestyle Points" and it‘s the premium currency in The Sims FreePlay. One great use for LP is to instantly finish any action, interaction, hobby event, skill training, career promotion task, or quest goal.

The downside is LP can be scarce if you don‘t want to spend real money. But if used strategically, you can accelerate time-intensive activities.

Here are some smart ways to utilize LP for time skipping:

• Finish long events instantly like multi-hour dates, parties, etc.
• Speed up pregnancy milestones and give birth immediately.
• Complete quest goals immediately instead of waiting.
• Rush through career promotion tasks.
• Buy the Mystery Box for random free rewards.

According to avid Sims players, prioritizing LP spending on actions that will save you the most real-life waiting time is crucial. Always watch for LP sale offers too to maximize your savings!

Method 4: Optimize Time Usage In One Household

If your goal is to progress a single household as far as possible, optimizing your playtime in that one home can be extremely efficient.

Here are some tips from expert Simmers:

• Move all your active Sims into one giant household. The more Sims, the faster time progresses.
• Avoid splitting up Sims into separate homes or switching between households frequently.
• Put Sims to sleep and take advantage of ultra speed mode.
• Enable auto-age up in the game options menu.
• Rush babies to instantly grow up with LP.
• Pursue careers with the fastest promotion cycles like Athlete.

The downside is that focusing exclusively on one household can eventually get repetitive. But in terms of maximizing time progression per play session, this strategy is effective based on data gathered from experienced players.

Method 5: Take Advantage of Time-Limited Events

Special limited-time events and sales will naturally accelerate gameplay, so keep an eye out for them!

Here are some events that seasoned Simmers recommend capitalizing on:

• Parties, dating, hobbies, and careers often have 3x speed bonuses during special events.
• Limited-time and seasonal goals reward big LP payoffs for quick completion.
• Holiday events like Halloween or Christmas speed up relationship building.
• Sales on real estate and items help fast track family expansion.

Leveraging these special events when they pop up is a great way to optimize your precious playtime, according to the community. They make normally glacial actions much snappier!

Downsides of Skipping Time

While manipulating time can be extremely useful, there are some disadvantages to using these tricks excessively:

• Can miss out on emergent moments and storytelling opportunities.
• Makes it harder to play rotationally with multiple households.
• Relationships may decay rapidly if you skip too far ahead.
• Resource generation like gardening, mining, etc may suffer.
• Messes up the internal game clock for aging transitions.
• Increased risk of bugs, crashes, and corrupted saves.

Gaming analysts strongly recommend not skipping excessively far ahead in time to avoid seriously breaking your save file. Find a balance that works for your personal playstyle.

In Summary

Time passes excruciatingly slow in The Sims FreePlay, which can limit your ability to progress at a satisfying pace. Luckily, you have options to take control of the clock and skip ahead – whether through cheats, hacks, LP usage, or intentional gameplay optimization. Apply these time manipulation techniques wisely to accelerate your game while avoiding potential downsides. Just don‘t get too trigger happy or you might accidentally warp your Sims into their senior years overnight!

With some thoughtful planning, you can maximize your limited gaming time to get the most out of The Sims FreePlay. Slow down and smell the roses when you can, but also use the tools available to speed up the tedious waits when needed. Here‘s to manipulating time and space like a true Sims god!