The short version
How to turn aging off or change lifespan
Open the pause menu (Esc or the … button, top right) → Storyteller → Custom Storyteller. Two independent toggles live there — Household Paras Age (on by default) and Non-Household Paras Age (off by default) — plus Duration of Life Stages with Short, Normal and Long presets. Everything is adjustable mid-save, and you can switch Storyteller at any time. Turning aging off freezes Paras in their current stage and prevents old-age death — but hunger, exhaustion and fire still kill. For one-off fixes, SETAGE and NEXTLIFESTAGE do it from the console.
The full ladder
All 8 life stages
Every stage is selectable in the Paramaker at character creation, and cannot be changed afterwards without cheats. Ages tick up precisely in the background, but the game shows you a life stage with a progress bar — hover the bar in the Profile panel for the exact time remaining. Physical changes (height, facial features, fat distribution, wrinkles) are applied automatically at each age-up. Younger Paras have fewer personality options, so each new stage also expands what a Para can become.
| Life stage | Age range | Growth spurts | Unlocks at age-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baby | 0–1 | 0 | Nothing — Babies have no personality options yet |
| Toddler | 2–4 | 0 | First Stat point |
| Child | 5–8 | 2 | Talent + 1 Stat point |
| Preteen | 9–12 | 3 | Vibe + 1 Stat point |
| Teenager | 13–17 | 4 | Social perk + 1 Stat point |
| Young Adult | 18–39 | 0 | Lifestyles + 3 Stat points |
| Adult | 40–64 | 0 | Nothing new |
| Elder | 65+ | 0 | Nothing new |
Growth spurts fire at hardcoded percentages of the Child (2), Preteen (3) and Teenager (4) stages. With aging off they never trigger — time is frozen.
Short, Normal or Long
The three lifespan presets
Duration of Life Stages in the Custom Storyteller offers three presets. The totals below are measured in in-game days — how long that feels in real hours depends on your clock-speed setting, which sits on the same screen.
Short
42in-game days
A full life in 42 in-game days. Generations turn over fast — good for legacy-style play.
Normal
91in-game days
The default 91-day life. This is the preset all three default Storytellers ship with.
Long
384in-game days
384 in-game days — roughly four times Normal. Parents actually see their grandkids grow up.
How the days divide across stages
| Stage | Short | Normal — wiki table | Normal — guide measurements | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baby | 1 | 3.5 | 3 | 13 |
| Toddler | 2 | 4.5 | 4 | 17 |
| Child | 5 | 12 | 11 | 47 |
| Preteen | 3 | 8 | 7 | 31 |
| Teenager | 6 | 14 | 13 | 55 |
| Young Adult | 10 | 22 | 21 | 87 |
| Adult | 9 | 20 | 19 | 79 |
| Elder | 6 | 14 | 13 | 55 |
The two Normal columns disagree, and no source explains why. The current wiki table totals ≈98 days; the two independent guide measurements total exactly 91, off by 0.5–1 day per stage. A post-launch tuning pass or a different way of counting the birth and death day are the likely causes, but that is inference, not a published fact. The Short and Long columns come only from the guides — the wiki does not list per-stage values for them.
What we could not verify
Which Normal table is current in build 0.1.6b — we print both rather than guess. Also unconfirmed: whether a numeric lifespan multiplier exists beyond the three presets (one player reports having lifespan “set to 0.7”, but nobody has documented where that slider lives); the exact starvation timeline from a full hunger bar to death; and whether the Elder stage has a fixed end at all beyond the hoverable countdown on the progress bar.
The #1 confusion
Household vs non-household aging
The Custom Storyteller has two separate aging switches, and the default state of the second one explains the single most common aging complaint in the community.
Household Paras Age
Controls the family you actively play. This switch is ON in all three default Storytellers (Maxence, Ricardo Castello III and Stella).
Non-Household Paras Age
Controls townies and NPCs — and it is OFF by default in all three default Storytellers. If your neighbours never seem to get older, nothing is broken: the switch is simply buried. Enable it and the town ages alongside you. Note the trade-off players report with it on: the town does not visibly repopulate, so over a long save you can end up with a dating pool of elders for your second generation. Whether that is intended or an Early Access gap is unconfirmed — but it is the top reason players switch it back off.
The end of the bar
Death in Paralives
Five death types exist in Early Access. Death is not an interaction you queue — except for one mushroom-related exception, it is triggered by the autonomy system when conditions are met. Disabling autonomy removes a Para's self-preservation behaviour entirely: with autonomy off, a Para standing in a fire will simply stand there.
Starvation
A need-related death from a fully neglected Hunger bar. The exact timeline from full bar to death is not published anywhere — it varies with traits, skills and Lifestyles that change the bar's size.
Exhaustion
The other need-related death: Teenagers and older die when the energy bar fully depletes. One documented test ran a Para from Monday morning to Wednesday afternoon without a bed before it happened.
Smoke inhalation
House fires kill through a dedicated burn needs bar that appears on burning Paras. With autonomy on, Paras try to evacuate or extinguish and enter a shock state that suppresses hunger and exhaustion until they are safe; with autonomy off they do nothing.
Old age
The natural end of the Elder progress bar — a chest-clutch animation, a notification, and the Para disappears. This is the only death that turning aging off prevents.
Mushroom poisoning
Eating a second toxic mushroom while already poisoned kills instantly. It is the only death in the game a player can directly cause — every other one goes through the autonomy system.
Who cannot die
Preteens and younger can never die. They act normally even while on fire, and a starved or neglected child is taken away by social services instead. Pregnant Paras are fully death-immune for the duration of the pregnancy. The immunity boundary comes from in-game testing rather than an official design statement — the studio has only ever said it considered protecting Babies.
What happens after a death
There is no gravestone, no urn and no ghost — the Para simply disappears, and there is no afterlife because the game has no supernatural elements. (A cemetery exists in Melino, but it is a non-functional placeholder.) Surviving Paras who knew the deceased carry strong sad emotions for a long time. If the last household member dies, time keeps passing and you stay loaded in the lot: create a new Para from the profile picture in the bottom-left, or via Esc → Create New Household, and the lot can be repurchased. The only way back for the dead is the REVIVEALLSELECTEDCHARACTERS cheat — there is no in-game resurrection.
If aging bums you out — that is exactly what the toggles are for
A recurring community thread is some version of “watching my Paras get old and die is depressing” — parents hitting Elder before their kids are grown, a favourite Para gone with not even a gravestone to visit. The honest answer is that the game already ships the fix, it just hides it: the same Custom Storyteller screen that controls aging lets you freeze your household while the town ages (or vice versa), and the Long preset stretches a life to 384 in-game days so Elders actually get to meet their grandkids. There is no wrong way to set it — Storytellers can be switched and re-tuned at any point in a save.
Aging and death cheats
Open the console with Ctrl+F1 (or Ctrl+Shift+C); commands are case-insensitive and need no activation. Note that 0.1.5's Edit Appearance (mirror, hospital, pharmacy) deliberately excludes lifestages — the console is still the only way to change a Para's stage after creation. There is no stop-aging cheat: permanent aging control is a Storyteller setting, not a command.
SETAGE <age>Sets the selected Para's exact age — e.g.SETAGE 18PRINTAGEPrints the selected Para's current age.NEXTLIFESTAGEMoves the selected Para one life stage forward.PREVIOUSLIFESTAGEMoves the selected Para one life stage back.NEXTGROWTHSPURTAdvances to the next growth spurt within the current stage.PREVIOUSGROWTHSPURTReverses the last growth spurt.KILLCHARACTERKills the selected Para.REVIVEALLSELECTEDCHARACTERSRevives selected dead Paras — currently the only resurrection route in the game.
Aging and death FAQ
- How do I turn off aging in Paralives?
- Esc (or the … menu) → Storyteller → Custom Storyteller, then switch off Household Paras Age and/or Non-Household Paras Age. It works mid-save and can be reversed at any time. Turning aging off prevents old-age death only — hunger, exhaustion and fire can still kill.
- How long is a lifespan in Paralives?
- Short is 42 in-game days, Normal 91 and Long 384, per the two published guide measurements. The wiki's per-stage table totals ≈98 days for Normal instead — the discrepancy is unexplained, so this page prints both.
- Why aren't my neighbours or townies aging?
- Because Non-Household Paras Age is off by default in all three default Storytellers. Enable it under Custom Storyteller and the town ages alongside your household.
- How many life stages are there in Paralives?
- Eight: Baby, Toddler, Child, Preteen, Teenager, Young Adult, Adult and Elder. All eight are selectable in the Paramaker; changing stage afterwards requires cheats.
- Can children or babies die in Paralives?
- No. Preteens and younger cannot die at all — a neglected child is taken by social services instead. Pregnant Paras are also death-immune until they give birth.
- Are there graveyards, urns or ghosts?
- No. Dead Paras disappear with a notification; there is no afterlife and no supernatural content. Melino has a cemetery but it is a non-functional placeholder. The only resurrection is the REVIVEALLSELECTEDCHARACTERS cheat.
- How do I age up a Para instantly?
- Select the Para, open the console with Ctrl+F1 and run NEXTLIFESTAGE. SETAGE <age> jumps to an exact age, and NEXTGROWTHSPURT advances a growth spurt within the current stage.
- Does turning off aging stop growth spurts?
- Yes. Growth spurts trigger at fixed percentages of a stage, so with aging off they never fire — the Para is effectively frozen in time.
Keep reading
Where aging shows up elsewhere
Storytellers
Maxence, Ricardo and Stella — the presets behind every aging switch, and how to override them.
All cheats
The full console command index, including every aging and death command above.
Babies and toddlers
The first two life stages: shorter need bars, the Affection need, and social services.
Needs explained
Hunger and Sleep are the two bars that can kill — how each Need behaves and drains.
How to have a baby
Pregnancy, trimesters, and why a pregnant Para cannot die.
Life-stage, lifespan and death behaviour verified against build 0.1.6b on 2026-07-31. Items flagged on the page were still unverified on that date.