How many Needs does Paralives have?

Twelve exist: four core Needs, six granted by personality traits, Affection for Babies and Toddlers, and the situational fire Need. An individual Para only ever manages the four core Needs plus whichever ones their traits grant.

What is the cheat to fill all Needs in Paralives?

RELIEFALLNEEDS fills the selected Para. RELIEFALLNEEDSOFALLCHARACTERS does the whole cast at once. Both need the console open — Ctrl+F1, or Cmd+F1 on Mac.

Why does my Para have a Need I've never seen before?

Because a trait granted it. Fun comes from the Jester Vibe (or from being bored too long), Energy surplus and Need to Move come from Energetic, and Me Time comes from the Good at Being Alone social perk.

Do all twelve Needs appear in the current build?

No. Grump and Peace depend on the Grumpy and Peaceful Vibes, which are not live in build 0.1.7c, so you cannot encounter those two Needs yet however you play.

Why won't my Paras fill their own Needs?

Household Paras act on Needs autonomously; townies do not have Needs at all in Early Access. If a specific household Para is ignoring a bar, check whether they are sick, near a fire, or stuck without a working object to use.

Paralives Needs — All 12 Explained · Paralives Field Guide

The short version

Four Needs for everyone, up to six more from personality

Every Para from Child to Elder has Hunger, Sleep, Bathroom and Hygiene. Everything else is conditional: a Jester also carries Fun, an Energetic Para carries Energy surplus and Need to Move, and a Para who is Good at Being Alone carries Me Time. They stack — one Para can have several. Only Hunger and Sleep can actually kill. Need the fast route? RELIEFALLNEEDS fills the selected Para's bars from the console.

Reading the bars

Ten cartridges, three colours

Needs live in the thoughts tab of a Para's UI. Each bar is ten cartridges by default; empty ones render dark blue, and the colour of the bar as a whole tells you how urgent things are. Stats and Lifestyles can add cartridges to a bar, which makes that Need less pressing for that particular Para.

Fulfilled — nothing to do.
Pressing — worth handling on your own schedule.
Worrisome — handle it now, and expect an Emotion hit either way.

Everyone has these

The four core Needs

From Child through Elder, these four are always present. Hunger and Sleep are the two you genuinely cannot ignore.

Need	How it behaves	How to fill it	Neglect risk
Hunger	Runs on a loose schedule that mimics three meals a day, so a household tends to get hungry together. Emptying it kills a Para.	Cook or grab a snack from the fridge; vending machines, town events and restaurants cover you away from home.	Can kill
Sleep	Also schedule-driven rather than draining at a flat rate. Emptying it kills a Para.	A bed. Energetic Paras can also take power naps by spending Energy surplus.	Can kill
Bathroom	Drains steadily and is the one Need even uncontrolled townies will act on.	A toilet. It is the fastest Need to fix and the easiest to forget on a long outing.	Not fatal
Hygiene	Falls faster while exercising or cleaning. It will not kill anyone, but a red bar wrecks Emotions, which feeds job performance and Together Cards.	Wash hands, brush teeth, shower or bathe — build it into a routine rather than waiting for red.	Not fatal

Conditional

The six personality Needs

These are additive rather than replacements, and they are not mutually exclusive: a Jester who is also Good at Being Alone runs two extra bars alongside the core four. A Para with none of these traits only ever manages four. Two of the six are gated behind Vibes that are not live in the current build — so lists that present all twelve as playable are wrong for build 0.1.7c.

Need	Comes from	Availability	How it behaves	How to fill it
Fun	Jester	In build 0.1.7c	Becomes available to any Para who has been bored for too long. Jester Paras carry it permanently because fun matters more to them.	Anything entertaining. For a Jester it is a constant upkeep cost, not an occasional top-up.
Energy surplus	Energetic	In build 0.1.7c	Sits next to the Emotions row instead of above it. Unlocks power naps, which cost two cartridges.	Sleep or a skill level-up refills it, and an energy bar from the fridge is available once every 24 hours.
Need to Move	Energetic	In build 0.1.7c	The other half of the Energetic package: this Para has to stay active or they suffer for sitting still.	Move. Exercise, walk, jog, dance — anything that keeps them off the couch.
Me Time	Good at Being Alone	In build 0.1.7c	Inverted from every other social Need: it drains while the Para is around other people.	Alone time. Send them off on their own before the bar bottoms out.
Grump	Grumpy	Not in this build	The strangest Need in the game — this Para has to stay grumpy or they get stressed and enjoy life less.	Use their abilities and keep them from getting bored.
Peace	Peaceful	Not in this build	Belongs to Peaceful Paras, who need calm surroundings to stay well.	Quiet, low-drama situations.

Babies and Toddlers work differently

The first two lifestages share their own set: Hunger, Sleep, Bathroom, Hygiene and Affection. Their bars are shorter than the standard ten — a Baby runs six cartridges, and a Toddler's Hunger bar runs eight — which is exactly why they need feeding so much more often. The trade-off is that Babies and Toddlers cannot die of starvation or exhaustion the way older Paras can.

Affection — Unique to Babies and Toddlers. Passive management is not enough: a baby nobody interacts with feels left out.

Babies and toddlers

The Need that only appears near fire

Get Away From the Fire is not tied to personality or lifestage; it shows up when a Para is near a fire. Worth knowing: during a house fire the game marks every other Need as ignored, so you are not fighting hunger and hygiene while the kitchen burns.

Get Away From the Fire — Get them out. Nothing else matters until the fire is handled.

What changes how fast Needs drain

Hunger and Sleep follow a loose schedule rather than a flat decay rate, which mimics three meals a day and conveniently syncs a household so everyone gets hungry around dinner.
Stats and Lifestyles shift the picture: some change the default schedule — a night owl sleeps on a different clock — while others add cartridges so a bar takes longer to become urgent.
Sickness interferes. A Para who catches a virus at school or work may have their Hunger Need ignored until they are cured.
A house fire marks every Need as ignored for the duration.
Low Bathroom and Hygiene will not kill anyone, but they tank Emotions, and Emotions feed job performance and how Together Cards play out.

Why the townies look oblivious

This is the part that explains a common complaint. At Early Access launch, Parafolk you do not control do not have Needs at all. They will not autonomously cook or bathe, with one exception: they do use toilets. The studio's reasoning is performance — it does not update needs for non-household characters, so when you see a townie eat, that interaction is closer to idle animation than to a Para answering real hunger. If the neighbours feel strangely passive, that is why, and no amount of household management on your side changes it.

Console commands for Needs

Our command index carries every Need-related command. Open the console with Ctrl+F1 (Cmd+F1 on Mac), and run SHOWNEEDS first if you want to see the exact bar names the other commands expect.

SHOWNEEDS
RELIEFALLNEEDS
RELIEFALLNEEDSOFALLCHARACTERS
RELIEFNEED <need>
SETNEED <need> <value>
CHANGENEED <need> <value>
DECAYNEED <need> <value>

The write commands here are marked save-affecting in our index: they change stored state rather than applying a temporary effect. Early Access ships no Steam achievements for them to lock, but back up a save you care about before bulk-editing a household.

Needs FAQ

How many Needs does Paralives have?: Twelve exist: four core Needs, six granted by personality traits, Affection for Babies and Toddlers, and the situational fire Need. An individual Para only ever manages the four core Needs plus whichever ones their traits grant.
Can a Para die from neglected Needs?: Hunger and Sleep can kill an adult Para. Hygiene will not. Babies and Toddlers cannot die of starvation or exhaustion at all, which makes them frustrating rather than fatal to neglect.
What is the cheat to fill all Needs in Paralives?: RELIEFALLNEEDS fills the selected Para. RELIEFALLNEEDSOFALLCHARACTERS does the whole cast at once. Both need the console open — Ctrl+F1, or Cmd+F1 on Mac.
Why does my Para have a Need I've never seen before?: Because a trait granted it. Fun comes from the Jester Vibe (or from being bored too long), Energy surplus and Need to Move come from Energetic, and Me Time comes from the Good at Being Alone social perk.
Do all twelve Needs appear in the current build?: No. Grump and Peace depend on the Grumpy and Peaceful Vibes, which are not live in build 0.1.7c, so you cannot encounter those two Needs yet however you play.
Why won't my Paras fill their own Needs?: Household Paras act on Needs autonomously; townies do not have Needs at all in Early Access. If a specific household Para is ignoring a bar, check whether they are sick, near a fire, or stuck without a working object to use.

Keep reading

Paralives needs explained