New World: Aeternum - How to Play Music

Playing music is a neat way to get some useful buffs in New World: Aeternum. It’s one feature that’s very easy to overlook, but if you’re the type of gamer who wants to be as efficient as possible when it comes to grinding for levels or materials, then learning how to play musical instruments in-game can help you out a lot.

While the stereotypical RPG Bard class isn’t in this game, any class archetype in New World: Aeternum can learn how to play music. Here’s what you need to do to start your own band or solo act.

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How to Play Music in New World: Aeternum

To start playing a song, press F5 on your keyboard, or open up the radial menu by pressing Up on the D-Pad of your controller and selecting the musical note icon. Doing so will make you a special performance stance where you can select what music to play and invite other players to perform with you.

Before you can enter this stance, you’ll obviously need an instrument first. The best way to get one is to just buy something from the Trading Post. Musical instruments come in various rarities, and higher-quality ones will be more expensive. If you want to earn a quick buck in New World: Aeternum, consider selling some instruments of your own.

Also, you’ll need some sheet music. You can get random pieces of sheet music as you open chests or fight monsters in the world. Alternatively, you can check the Trading Post if other players have sheet music for sale. You need to get all pages of a song before you can play it.

Music Minigame

After getting an instrument and picking a song, you then start performing. There are three difficulties to every song, and the harder the difficulty, the more Music XP you get after finishing your performance.

This is a simple rhythm minigame where you need to press the buttons on-screen as they reach the vertical green bar on the five-line musical staff. The more notes you hit, the more XP you gain, and the better the buff you receive.

Music Buffs in New World: Aeternum

Choosing a music buff in New World: Aeternum

When you’re selecting a song to play, there should be a drop-down box near the bottom of the menu where you can select what type of buff you and other players receive after your song. These buffs include:

Buff	Effect
Decidedly Dextrous (2)	Increases gathering speed
Territorial Triumph (5)	Increases Territory Standing bonuses
All Together Now (25)	Increases group XP sharing bonus
Song in Your Step (75)	Reduces encumberance
Fortune’s Flavor (100)	Increases gathering yields
Luck’s Labor (150)	Increases gathering luck
Never Stop Learning (205)	Increases XP gains for mining, logging, skinning, and harvesting

You start with no buffs unlocked. As you reach the Music skill level milestones listed above, you’ll unlock their respective buffs. We recommend playing at least one song with the Territorial Triumph buff every time you set out to do something, as Territory Standing bonuses in New World: Aeternum can help you gather more materials and level up quicker.