Imaginary Friend

An Imaginary Friend is a minor NPC introduced in The Sims: Makin' Magic. They are reintroduced as a life state in The Sims 3: Generations.

The Sims: Makin' Magic
In The Sims: Makin' Magic, the Invisible Friend charm may be used by children to create an imaginary friend, although that term is not explicitly used for the resulting NPC. Invisible Friends resemble female child Sims. They follow their creator wherever they go, except for school. When the Sim that created them is at school or asleep, they will continuously wander around the lot, having no needs to attend to. The child Sim who created the Invisible Friend can also dismiss it, and the Invisible Friend will eventually disappear by itself.

To make the Invisible Friend charm, the child needs 1 Toadstool &amp; 2 Faerie Dust. Like all children's charms, it can be used six times. The Invisible Friend may interact negatively with the child Sim if he or she is in a bad mood when casting, or if his or her Social bar is full. If this happens, the child may not be able to dismiss the Invisible Friend, and will have to wait for the spell to wear off. It is possible to have multiple Invisible Friends active at the same time, though they will all look the same.

The Sims 3: Generations
Imaginary Friends return as a new life state in The Sims 3: Generations. An Imaginary Friend begins its life as a magical doll that a newborn baby or a toddler may receive in the mail from a distant relative. Under the right conditions, the doll can come to life after its owner grows into a child.

Simology
Imaginary Friends will go through up to three different forms throughout their lifespan, starting out as toys and potentially ending their lives as beings similar to regular Sims. In its initial form, an Imaginary Friend serves as an inanimate soft toy for a baby or toddler, much like a Wugglesworth Schnuggles Bear. During this stage, the Imaginary Friend can occasionally be seen teleporting around its home lot and changing poses if left outside a Sim's inventory, much like Mysterious Mr. Gnome. If a birthday party is thrown for its owner, the Imaginary Friend will usually automatically appear alongside the rest of the household as they watch the owner age up. Imaginary Friends in this form come in a variety of patterns, with either spots, stars, or stripes. There are twelve possible patterns in total.

All Imaginary Friends will begin with randomly-generated names. Players may rename the toy at any time during this stage, and in the process determine its future gender should it be turned real by specifying whether the new name is a male or female one. If the original name is left unchanged and the Imaginary Friend is later made real, its gender will be random.

If a toddler Sim plays with this initial toy form frequently and forms a sufficiently strong bond with it, the Imaginary Friend will transform into a living human-sized ragdoll-like creature with randomized traits once the toddler ages up into a child. The size of the Imaginary Friend in this second form will always correspond to that of its owner- it initially spawns as a child-sized NPC, and will grow larger on two more occasions after the owner reaches the Teen and Young Adult stages. At this point, the Imaginary Friend will only be visible when its owner is selected and cannot be seen or interacted with by most other Sims, much like the Social Bunny in The Sims 2. Sims with Imaginary Friends in this form can, however, see Imaginary Friends belonging to other Sims.

When the owner of an Imaginary Friend leaves their home lot, goes to sleep or asks to be left alone, the Imaginary Friend will revert to its original toy form until the owner returns to the lot or attempts to interact with it again. Socializing with the Imaginary Friend in either of these forms raises the Social motive in the same way as interacting with ordinary Sims. In addition, the second form may be asked to fetch food for its owner or help them with household chores. The player cannot, however, directly control the Imaginary Friend at this stage, with only the Sim that owns it being able to influence its behaviour by giving it commands.

From the child stage onwards, the Imaginary Friend may be converted into a real (if slightly inhuman-looking) Sim via the use of the Imaginary Friend Metamorphum potion. This third and final form can be seen and interacted with by all Sims, functions as a playable member of the household rather than an uncontrollable NPC and will always start out as the same life stage as its owner. By default, Imaginary Friends turned real will wear unusual clothing based on the colours and patterns of their first two forms, though they may later be given the same clothes as regular Sims if the player so desires. Furthermore, Imaginary Friends turned real will frequently have abnormal hair and eye colours, which may be passed on to any children they later produce.

Obtaining an Imaginary Friend
There are three ways for a Sim to acquire an Imaginary Friend. Firstly, there is a 75% chance that a package containing an Imaginary Friend doll will be delivered to an existing household soon after a new baby is born. The doll will immediately appear in the baby's inventory when another Sim goes to the mailbox to collect it.

If you do not want a Sim to have an Imaginary Friend, but receive one anyway, simply prevent its owner from forming a bond with it as a toddler by placing it in the inventory of another household member or cancelling any autonomous attempts to interact with it. Without a strong bond with its owner, the Imaginary Friend will remain an inanimate object. The Imaginary Friend doll cannot be sold in Build or Buy mode without mods, but can still be given away as a present to another child. As of patch 1.24, Imaginary Friends can no longer be permanently buried in a sandpit and will eventually return if this is attempted. If Ambitions is installed, it is also not possible to detonate the Imaginary Friend doll.

Making an Imaginary Friend real
If a Sim has 8 or more points in Logic and owns the Catalyst Chemistry Lab Station, they can create the Imaginary Friend Metamorphium potion, which will turn an Imaginary Friend into a real Sim. The potion can also be acquired through an in-game opportunity at the Science lab if a Sim's relationship with their Imaginary Friend is sufficiently high. To complete this opportunity, the Sim must find a Rainbow Gem and deliver it to the science lab, after which the Imaginary Friend Metamorphium potion can be bought for §4500. After having created or bought the potion, the 'Offer to Make Real' interaction will no longer be grayed out when interacting with an Imaginary Friend, allowing the player to give the potion to them and turn them into a real Sim.

For the most part, Imaginary Friends turned real function in a similar manner to regular Sims in gameplay terms, being able to go to school or join careers and professions (depending on their life stage) and unable to see other Imaginary Friends that have yet to become real. They can, however, switch back to their second human-sized ragdoll form at will, and always have the option of using the Imaginary Friend walk animation in addition to the standard Sim walk. They may also autonomously teleport to different locations on rare occasions, particularly if they get trapped. In addition, if an Imaginary Friend has only recently become real, they will gain positive moodlets for performing certain ordinary actions for the first time in their lives.

As they are still considered a non-human life state by the game, Imaginary Friends turned real will still cause a Celebrity to be publicly disgraced if they engage in WooHoo with them, and cannot be bitten by Vampires or Werewolves. Despite this, however, it is still possible for Imaginary Friends to interbreed with other life states and produce hybrid offspring.

Offspring
Despite their unnatural origins, Imaginary Friends turned real are no less capable of producing children than regular Sims. If a Sim successfully attempts to Try for Baby with an Imaginary Friend, there is a chance that the resulting offspring may inherit the hidden trait governing the abilities of Imaginary Friends as well as their unusual hair and eye genetics. Beyond the toddler stage, these children may transform into a human-sized ragdoll form and use a unique walk animation in the same manner as their non-human parent. This hidden trait does not, however, prevent the children of Imaginary Friends from having Imaginary Friends themselves.