InZOI's September update landed on September 3rd, and it is a big one. Vacations headline the patch, but v0.10.0 also delivers a genetics editor, three basement floors, scuba diving, a restaurant system, fires, customizable voices, and a revamped mod browser. Sims Community published a detailed hands-on walkthrough covering nearly every addition, and there is a lot to talk about.
We covered the official patch notes for v0.10.0 when they went live. Here is how the features actually play once you get your hands on them.
Vacations feel like vacations
The new vacation system works through the in-game computer. You pick a destination city (one of the two you did not start in), choose which household members come along, select lodgings, and set a trip length of up to one week. You can also do a "staycation" by booking lodgings in your home city, and you can permanently immigrate to a new city through the same menu.
There are practical restrictions worth knowing. You cannot start a vacation while you have an unpaid loan, whether that is a mortgage or a property loan in your current city. The lodging picker only lets you book one property, and the game will flag you if the place does not have enough beds for your party.
In practice, the system produces moments that feel grounded. Sims Community's reviewer sent a family to Cahaya for a beach trip and reported that Zois stuck together as a group, gravitated toward family members when picking seats at meals, and stayed in a good mood from the vacation itself. Grandparents autonomously slow-danced at a BBQ party. The couple on a trimmed-down follow-up trip spent time swimming, renting a boat, and later joked to each other about it feeling like a honeymoon.
Resort amenities add structure to the downtime. You can book private activities or use the resort's sauna, pool, dock, and spa areas. Family members will talk about trips after they happen, which gives vacation memories a little persistence.
Scuba diving is the standout activity
Vacations open up scuba diving, and it is one of the more polished new additions. It uses free control (WASD and mouse), letting you steer your Zoi through an underwater environment filled with coral reefs and collectibles. Sea urchins, sea stars, and coral sit near reefs and give off a soft sparkle so you can spot them.
Gear for scuba diving, snorkeling, and surfing is sold at a beach supply shop called Ocean Gate near the docks. Once bought, gear sits in your Zoi's inventory and auto-equips when you start an activity in the water.
The ocean is not entirely safe. Sharks and large jellyfish swim in certain zones. When your Zoi enters shark territory, their heartbeat audio kicks in and their mood jumps to "Terrified." Pop-ups warn you when you enter and leave dangerous waters. Fatal shark attacks and jellyfish stings can happen, though they appear to be rare. Sims Community's reviewer swam extensively through both shark and jellyfish zones without triggering a death.
Create-A-Zoi gets a genetics system and voice options
The biggest Create-A-Zoi addition is a DNA and genetics editor. You can now generate a new Zoi, assign one or two existing Zois as parents, and click "Apply Genetic Info" to generate a child with a genetic resemblance to the parents. You can mix random Zois together, create single-parent children, or build out full family trees from scratch. A relationships menu lets you define family connections and preview the family tree before leaving the editor.
Babies and toddlers are now fully available in Create-A-Zoi as well, creatable from scratch or through the genetics system.
Voice customization is the other notable addition. Teens and older Zois have six voice templates: Light, Gentle, and Refreshing on the more feminine side, and Crisp & Clear, Balanced, and Deep on the more masculine side. Each voice also has a pitch slider. Children get two options (Gentle and Crisp & Clear), while younger Zois inherit their parents' voice genetics.
Basements, fires, and build mode additions
Build mode now supports up to three basement levels beneath the ground floor. Building them is straightforward: draw a room below ground level and connect it with stairs. Public properties can now go up to 29 total floors. Sims Community notes that the visual result is a bit odd, since residential lots now show a large empty space beneath them to accommodate the basement depth, but this also means playing inside a basement is less visually cluttered.
Fires have been added as a hazard. Leaving food unattended on a stove, grill, or in the oven will eventually start a fire, though it takes a while. In testing, it took roughly 30 minutes to an hour of in-game time for an oven to burst into flames from abandoned muffins. Fire alarms are available in build mode with multiple indoor and outdoor options. One quirk: burnt counters show visible fire damage but cannot be replaced in live mode, which seems like an oversight.
Additional lots have been added across the game's cities as well.
Restaurants need work
The restaurant system is the roughest part of this patch. Visiting a restaurant as a customer follows a standard flow: find a restaurant (most active ones are listed as "Small Businesses" on the city map, not "Restaurants"), request a seat, order, eat, and leave. But the execution has problems.
When running a small business restaurant, Sims Community found that it functioned more like a bakery or cafe regardless of the restaurant preset. Customers rarely asked for tables, instead purchasing items and loitering. Dining out with a group was worse: a party of four arrived at a restaurant around 3:30 PM, waited until roughly 5 PM to be seated, were split across separate tables and a bar rather than seated together, could order around 6 PM, and did not receive food until 8:38 PM. The restaurant closed at 9 PM.
The InZOI development team has acknowledged these issues and is working on fixes. Restaurant dining in life sims has a long history of being fiddly, so this is not unusual for an early implementation, but it is not ready to be a highlight right now.
Mod browser, photo album, and smaller additions
The mod management section got a facelift. It now offers three installation methods: built-in Curseforge support with an in-game UI, a Connect platform for sharing outfits and clothing, and instructions for manual mod installation.
Photo mode photos now automatically appear as physical items in your Zoi's inventory. The formatting and image quality may need tuning, but it is a welcome feature for players who use photo mode regularly.
The full overview is worth reading for screenshots and additional detail at Sims Community.