Welcome to the Musician merit badge guide for Fallout 76! As with all of the other Possum badges, make sure you’ve earned the Possum rank before beginning this one. One note as well about this merit badge is that, while we were able to complete this merit badge again on our most recent attempt (2020-01-20), when the merit badge was first released, there were many claims of bugged requirements. It appears to be completely fixed, but let us know if you have issues. Before we get into our tips and recommendations, here are the requirements.
- Pass “Musician” knowledge exam at an exam terminal
- Complete the “One Violent Night” event
- Kill enemies with a musical instrument (x/30)
- Build a juke box in a workshop or C.A.M.P.
- Build a radio in a workshop or C.A.M.P.
- Build a piano in a workshop or C.A.M.P.
- Build a wind instrument in a workshop or C.A.M.P.
- Build a wood instrument in a workshop or C.A.M.P.
- Play an acoustic guitar
- Play a bass
- Play a snare drum
- Play any musical instrument at The Nukashine
- Play any musical instrument at The Rusty Pick
- Play any musical instrument at Watoga Highschool
If you’re looking for the Musician knowledge exam, you can find that at the end of the guide in an expandable tab. One Violent Night is a great event for leveling up, restocking on chems, and getting a couple of potentially decent legendaries to use, or at least recycle for scrip. While you’re there, if you don’t have a legendary musical weapon, there’s a War Drum and a Death Tambo you can grab to knock out the third requirement.
You’ll need a few plans for the next requirements, but if you’ve been doing events, chances are you already have all of the required ones. If not, then player vendors or The Whitespring vendors should have you covered for building these, and then playing them. Lastly, you just have to head to a few specific locations and rock out to finish the merit badge.
- Alfonso is learning the old-fashioned accordion, a goofy-looking instrument with keys and buttons. It’s so complicated, he’s not even sure what kind of instrument it is! What class of instrument is the accordion?
- An aerophone
- Ancient philosophers thought that the universe moved to a musical harmony, and even gave it a special name. What did they call the harmony of the universe?
- The Music of the Spheres
- Brendan plays saxophone in a jazz band. He loves jazz because it’s unique and all-American. What’s something special that really makes jazz different from most music?
- Improvisation
- Erin and her friends are starting a band, and Erin wants to be the singer. There’s a special name for someone who sings in a band. What’s is it?
- A vocalist
- Hannah is conducting an orchestra. That’s a big job! What does she use to direct the orchestra’s performance?
- Hand gestures
- James loves marching music, especially military marches. His favorite composer is John Philip Sousa, because of the famous military marches he wrote. What’s a popular nickname for John Philip Sousa?
- The March King
- Like any good patriot, Susie’s favorite song is the US national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”. Who wrote the lyrics?
- Francis Scott Key
- Marching bands play in all kinds of places! Susie wants to join the school marching band and go see the world. Where might Susie expect to play her music?
- All of the above
- Mary loves classical music, especially music by Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven was an important classical composer of which era?
- The Romantic era
- Samuel is learning to read sheet music, but he can’t remember all the notation and asks you for help. Some notes are marked with a “#”. How do you play those, again?
- Sharp
- Samuel likes music, but his clumsy hands make it hard for him to play an instrument well. He’s decided to study music in school, instead. The study of music has its own special name. What is it called?
- Musicology
- Susie loves to sing and can reach really high notes because she was born with a voice that can reach a higher range. What voice type does she have?
- Soprano
- The British made up a song to make fun of our brave forefathers, but now it’s as a patriotic hymn! How ironic! Which song?
- Yankee Doodle
- The Founding Fathers didn’t want America to have a king, but we got one anyway, so to speak. Who do we call “the King” of Rock n’ Roll?
- Elvis Presley
- You and Mark are singing along to a great song, but something sounds off. Mark can barely follow along, and doesn’t remember any of the verses, even though he’s heard them before. What condition might Mark be suffering from?
- Tone deafness
- You receive a brand new drum set as a gift for your birthday, and it came with more than just drums, too! Your drum set has another percussion instrument attached. Which instrument?
- Cymbals
- You’re jamming out on your electric guitar, but you can’t seem to jam loud enough! You need something to make your music louder. What can you use for this?
- An amplifier
- You’re learning to play the recorder in class, and the teacher instructs you to play a scale. How are the notes sorted in a musical scale?
- By pitch
- You’re reading some sheet music to get a feel for the song you’ll be playing next. There’s always some notation at the start of a piece. What does it tell you about the song?
- Its tempo
- You’re singing your favorite song aloud in the shower, but without any music you don’t sound too great. Some people can sing really well, even without instruments. What do you call singing without instruments?
- A cappella
- Your music teacher wants to take her class and form an orchestra. What on earth is an orchestra?
- A big group of people playing different instruments