To start a Dynasty in The Sims 4, select a Sim who is a Young Adult or older, open the Social Groups tab in the bottom-right corner of Live Mode and choose Found a Dynasty. That Sim becomes both the Founder and the Dynasty Head, and their spouse, blood relatives and descendants join automatically.
Dynasties arrived with the Royalty and Legacy Expansion Pack on February 12, 2026, so you need that pack installed. You do not need to be a noble or royal to found one: any eligible Sim can. Below we cover the founding screen, the three other ways into a Dynasty, and how Prestige turns a family name into a stack of perks. Everything here is verified against EA’s official Dynasty guide and patch notes.
Step-by-Step: Founding a New Dynasty
- Pick the founder. Select a Young Adult, Adult or Elder in Live Mode. Teens and younger cannot found a Dynasty.
- Open Social Groups. It is the tab in the bottom-right of the Live Mode panel. Choose Found a Dynasty. (View Dynasties in the same place lists every Dynasty in your save, with its crest, prestige, members, values and alliances.)
- Name it. The default is the founder’s last name; you can change it to anything.
- Design the crest. Pick a background and an icon. Later you can hang it in the house with the Dynasty Crest Shield from Build Mode.
- Add members. Spouses, blood relatives and dependents are offered here. If your Sim has none of those, the option simply does not appear, which is normal for a single founder.
- Set the values. Choose up to three Skills (from the base game or any pack you own) and a set of Ideals, which are behaviors, careers and activities the Dynasty expects from members.
- Choose an Heir and write a description, then confirm.
Choose values that match how you already play. If your family is full of painters, a Painting skill value earns Prestige for free every time they pick up a brush; a value nobody follows just drains Prestige.
The Three Roles: Head, Heir and Outcast
Every Dynasty has three roles, and knowing them saves a lot of confusion later.
- Dynasty Head: the leader. Only the Head approves new members, assigns perks, picks the Heir and declares Outcasts.
- Heir: takes over when the Head steps down or dies. Their actions count for more than anyone else’s, in both directions, so a badly behaved Heir hurts.
- Outcast: a member exiled for defying the values or the Head. Outcasts lose access to Dynasty Perks and affect Prestige less. You can have more than one, and they can be redeemed by the Head if they fall back in line.
To manage members later, select the Head, open Social Groups, click Dynasty Details (the cog icon) and choose Add Members or View Member List. The member list is where Designate Heir, Declare Outcast and Kick out of Dynasty live. EA’s pack page also mentions Usurp Family Headship, so a Head who neglects the family can lose the seat.
Other Ways Into a Dynasty
Founding from scratch is not the only route. EA documents three more:
- Marry in. Marrying a Dynasty member makes your Sim eligible. A Sim who married in cannot then invite their own blood relatives, and a divorce removes the non-blood spouse (plus any children from earlier relationships). Our guide on how to get married covers the wedding itself.
- Be adopted or born in. Children and stepchildren of members are eligible, and the pack lets you adopt Teen, Young Adult and Adult Sims too.
- Split off. A Sim already in a Dynasty can open Social Groups, choose Dynasty Settings and pick Found a Dynasty in the bottom-left. The new branch starts with some Prestige but sets its own values.
When two Sims from different Dynasties marry, they can each stay where they are, merge into either spouse’s Dynasty, or found a new one that carries over Prestige from both. A Sim can only belong to one Dynasty at a time, but a Dynasty can span several households and has no member cap, and a married couple can belong to two different Dynasties.
How to Grow Prestige and Unlock Perks
Prestige is the Dynasty’s score, and it climbs through ten levels. Each level unlocks Dynasty Perks, bought with Prestige Points. According to EA, Prestige goes up when members:
- Do activities and hold careers that match the Dynasty’s Skills and Ideals
- Get good grades at school
- Make new Friends and Good Friends
- Host social events
- Marry members of other Dynasties
- Start Alliances and Rivalries, then stay friendly to allies and mean to rivals
It goes down for off-value activities and careers, for ending Alliances or Rivalries, and for scandals involving members. EA’s example perks include the Creative Affinity trait (inherited by babies born while the perk is active), Nepotism (faster career performance) and Tutor (hire help with homework and skills).
The fastest early gains come from skilling. If you set a skill value, our guide to maxing skills fast doubles as a Prestige guide. Fan documentation also describes a Unity meter with Crisis, Neutral and Stable states that drops when you change values or exclude members, so avoid reshuffling values every week.
Dynasty Cheats
EA has not published official Dynasty cheats. Fan sites report that, with testingcheats true on, stats.set_stat rankedstatistic_Dynasty_prestige followed by a number sets Prestige, and stats.set_stat rankedstatistic_Dynasty_unity followed by a number sets Unity with the Head selected. Treat those as community-reported rather than official. Our full Sims 4 cheats list explains how to open the console on each platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be royal to start a Dynasty? No. Any Young Adult or older Sim can found one. Nobility comes from the Noble career, which is a separate system in the same pack; our guide to becoming a noble covers it.
Why can’t I add members when founding my Dynasty? The Add Members option only appears when the founder has blood relatives, dependents or a spouse. A single Sim founds alone and grows the family later.
Can a Sim be in two Dynasties? No. A Sim belongs to one Dynasty at a time, although spouses can belong to different ones.
Can I leave a Dynasty? Yes. No Sim can be forced to join, and any Sim can leave without the Head’s approval.
What happens when the Dynasty Head dies? The Heir takes over. Choose one early so the transition is under your control. Every other Sims 4 answer lives on our Sims guides hub.