How to set background music with archives of melodies in surging waves

Music: the universal language, a way for places and things without voices to make themselves known and understood. With the 2.0 update to Wuthering Wavesthe game has a soundtrack that brings its world to life rather than simply implementing it. The developers know it too and have provided a way to play whatever background music you want.

The process is quite simple: find Archive of Melodies, select the track and press play. But if you want all the songs, you have to search for them.

How to choose your background music

Rinacita is the land of the echoes, who contract the creatures as workers and entertainers to free the citizens to get on with their lives. One such Echo is Aria Mummer, who dances just east of the Genesis Nexus in Ragunna. Interacting with Mummer, or the melody archiveis how you change the background music in Rinacita.

The process is simple:

• Interact with the melody archive.

• Select the music you want to listen to.

• Select “Set as background music” in the lower right corner.

Once you have selected a song, you get a confirmation and the song starts playing. Unfortunately, this system has a major limitation.

Your chosen background music will only play in the area immediately around the Aria Mummer. Leaving its vicinity or fast traveling will play the default music for the new area.

Also moving slightly away from Mummer while it is playing restores the musicas well as letting the song end without selecting a new one. As of the release of update 2.0 there is no way to loop or continuously play music using the melody archive.

How to unlock more background music

The first and most important thing you need to unlock more background music is a melody box, one of which, thankfully, you should get almost immediately after entering Rinacita while talking to Phoebe and an echo.

Equip Aria Mummer with the box and it will learn all the tracks you can access right now.

There is two main ways to unlock additional songs. The first and “simplest” thing is to explore the world and complete missions from the Wuthering Wave campaign, Companion Quests, take on optional bosses and the like.

If you hover over an individual song that you don't yet have, you'll see its unlock status or the conditions that existed when the music was played.

For example, the song “In Three Days' Time” plays during your first encounter with Jinhsi during the opening Huanglong arc of the campaign. “Prophet's Message” is played during the final battle of the main quest, Thaw of Eons. And so on.

Wherever you complete a story mission, be sure to return to Melodie's archive and see if you can add that moment's soundtrack to its selection.

The other and more involved way to get more background music is to find the many Musicfly creatures fluttering about the world by Rinacita. These purple-pink, flying musical notes are found in every region of Rinacita, from the hills of Whisperwind Haven to the misty waters of Nimbus Sanctum.

When you spot a music fly, attack it to add its song to your collection. There are also some featured songs with unique unlock conditions:

• The nimbus coral: Complete Hymn of the Seal Clouds: Storm Exploration Quest.
• Dance through fantasies: Cross the Nimbus Sanctum with Lorelei by participating in Echo Challenge: Illusion.

The remaining songs in the Archive of Melodies, especially those in the bottom selection, 'Waking of a World', are unlocked by default. If you fast-tracked to Rinacita and skipped a lot of the 1.0 content, you probably won't have as much unlocked as someone who played from the release, but the old story content and the new are separate.

Your progress in Huanglong, Mount Firmament, and Black Shores is completely separate from Rinacitas. Either complete at your own pace and earn the music you want to hear.