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Overview
The rhythm mini-game, officially called Super Soundis a music-based side activity in Neverness to Everness. It was introduced as a brand new addition to Hethereau's hobby scene during the Co-Ex Test (February 2026). Super Sound is part of the game's Hethereau Hobbies system and challenges players with note-highway rhythm gameplay tied to a side quest storyline about joining and performing with a band.
Storyline
Unlike many rhythm mini-games in open-world RPGs that exist as standalone distractions, Super Sound is tied to a dedicated side quest narrative. The quest involves the player character joining a band and participating in live performances throughout Hethereau. Beta reviewers compared the storyline's tone and feel to the anime "Bocchi the Rock!" for its mix of comedic awkwardness, genuine musical passion, and character bonding.
The rhythm game provides story content alongside its gameplay rewards, making it both a standalone activity and a narrative experience that reveals character backstories and side plots. Progressing through the band storyline unlocks additional songs and performance venues.
Gameplay
Super Sound uses a standard note-highway format familiar to players of rhythm games. Musical notes scroll toward a target zone at the bottom of the screen, and players must tap or press buttons in time with the music to score points.
Description | |
|---|---|
Note Highway | Notes scroll down lanes toward a hit zone. Players press the corresponding button when the note reaches the target line. |
Timing Grades | Each note is graded based on timing accuracy: Perfect, Good, or Miss. Consecutive Perfect hits build a combo multiplier. |
Score System | Final scores are calculated from timing accuracy and combo length. Higher scores unlock better rewards. |
Difficulty Levels | Songs are available at multiple difficulty settings, with harder tracks featuring faster note speeds, denser patterns, and more complex rhythms. |
Where to Play
Rhythm game stations are found at performance venues and social gathering spots throughout Hethereau. The activity can also appear as part of side quests tied to the band storyline. As the player progresses through the band narrative, new performance locations and songs become available.
Connection to Hethereau Hobbies
Super Sound falls under the Hethereau Hobbies system, which organizes non-combat activities within the City Tycoon progression framework. Like other hobbies such as fishingmahjongand street racingthe rhythm game provides its own rewards and contributes to overall City Tycoon progression. It is a single-player activity, unlike mahjong or racing which support multiplayer.
Rewards
Fon and other in-game currency for completing songs
Score-based bonus rewards for achieving high accuracy
Story content progression through the band narrative
Contribution toward daily and weekly activity milestones
Beta Reception
Super Sound was added as a new hobby during the Co-Ex Test and quickly drew positive attention from players. The combination of rhythm gameplay with an actual storyline set it apart from comparable mini-games in other open-world titles, which typically offer rhythm content as a context-free diversion. The "Bocchi the Rock!" comparison from reviewers highlighted how the band storyline added genuine charm and narrative weight to what could have been a throwaway side activity.
Tips
Start with easier difficulty songs to learn the timing system and note patterns before attempting harder tracks.
Focus on building combos by hitting consecutive Perfect notes. The combo multiplier significantly increases final scores.
Progress through the band side quest to unlock additional songs. New tracks become available as the storyline advances.
The rhythm game is one of the more skill-intensive side activitiesso practice on familiar songs before pushing for high scores.
Audio quality matters. Playing with headphones improves timing accuracy, especially on faster tracks.
How It Works at a Glance
Super Sound sits inside the wider Hethereau Hobbies menu of leisure activities, which is the umbrella system that groups non-combat pastimes in Hethereau under the City Tycoon progression framework. To play a song, the protagonist travels to a venue that hosts the band, speaks to the quest giver or steps up to a performance stand, chooses a track from the song list, picks a difficulty, and jumps into the note-highway screen. The interface overlays the live 3D stage, so the performance plays out while notes scroll.
Tracks run for the length of the real song, usually a few minutes per attempt. Finishing a song returns the player to the venue with a score summary, a reward payout, and any story beat that the attempt unlocked. Failed runs can be retried immediately, which makes Super Sound one of the lower-friction hobbies to practice compared with fishing or racing where a fresh attempt means a new trip to a spawn point.
Players who want a full tour of the activity menu should also check the Side Activities and Mini-Games overview, which lists every hobby added across the beta tests up to the Launch Roadmap.
Where to Play in Hethereau
Super Sound is not scattered across the whole map. It is anchored to the band side quest, so the stages unlock as the protagonist meets new members, books new gigs, and the storyline advances. The beta build exposed a small starting set of venues with more promised as the story grew. The exact number of stages in the launch version has not been published, so any single number would be a guess. What the developers and beta reviewers have confirmed is that the band travels around Hethereau rather than playing one permanent spot, which matches the general Daily Routine Guide pattern where characters and events rotate through different districts instead of being pinned to static hubs.
Because the activity is tied to the story thread, players who rush toward combat content can miss the earliest Super Sound unlock entirely. The band quest is flagged on the hobby tracker once the protagonist reaches the right district and triggers the introductory cutscene with the band members.
Difficulty and Scoring
Each song offers multiple difficulty tiers. Lower tiers are forgiving, with slower note speed and wider hit windows, and exist mainly so the player can learn the track. Higher tiers raise note density, increase scroll speed, and add more overlapping patterns that demand both hands on the rhythm lanes. Timing grades on each note feed the overall score at the end of the run, and the combo multiplier from chained Perfect hits is the single biggest lever for pushing a score to the top bracket.
The exact point values, rank thresholds, and combo multiplier numbers have not been published by the developer. Beta impressions focused on feel and storyline rather than datamined numbers, so any specific score figure would not be verifiable. Expect a letter-rank system similar to other modern note-highway games, with the top rank reserved for full-combo clears on the highest difficulty.
Rewards
Super Sound pays out several reward streams at once. The full currency list for Hethereau is covered in the currencies article, and the rewards in this table are the categories confirmed for the mini-game itself.
Reward Stream | How You Earn It | Typical Use |
|---|---|---|
Completing any song run, scaled to difficulty and score rank | General spending currency for city services and shops | |
Score Bonus Payouts | Clearing score thresholds and posting full combos on harder difficulties | Extra Fon or hobby-specific items on top of the base payout |
Band Story Progress | Hitting the clear condition on story-gated songs | Unlocks new cutscenes, band members, venues, and follow-up songs |
Hobby Milestones | Running Super Sound contributes to daily and weekly activity targets | Counts toward Hethereau Hobbies completion rewards alongside fishingmahjongand the claw machine. |
Progressing the band quest beyond its initial gigs | Unlocks new songs, costumes for the band, and dialogue options tied to the side story |
The developer has not confirmed the exact Fon values, the names of every collectible, or any guaranteed drop table for Super Sound. Anything beyond the categories listed above should be treated as unverified until launch.
Soundtrack and Band Storyline
Super Sound is not a generic jukebox bolted onto the city. Songs are tied to an actual band that the protagonist joins during the side quest, which reviewers flagged as one of the more memorable hobby additions in the Co-Ex Test. The beta review compared the experience to stepping into an episode of Bocchi the Rock! or Rock is a Lady's Modesty, crediting the way the quest leans into the comedy and slice-of-life tone of an underdog music group rather than treating the rhythm game as a detached mini-game.
Exact song titles, artists, composers, and the final track list have not been announced in any public source. The broader game Soundtrack is a separate topic with its own wiki entry, and Super Sound may pull from that pool, but confirming which specific tracks are playable on the note highway is something that can only happen once the launch build is live.
Co-Ex Test Details
The Co-Ex Test was the closed beta that ran from February 6 to February 20, 2026 on PC and PlayStation 5, and it was the test where Super Sound first appeared as a brand new Hethereau hobby. Uberstrategist's official press release and later coverage and confirmed that the Co-Ex build slotted rhythm games into the expanded daily life loop alongside taxi driving, street racing, mahjong, fishing, and a new Pink Paws Heist activity.
Super Sound was not available in earlier tests. Players who participated in previous beta rounds will find it as one of several fresh additions to the city's hobby roster, sitting next to returning favorites and the other new Co-Ex hobbies. Because Super Sound shipped during a closed test rather than the launch build, some specifics around song counts, reward rates, and difficulty ceilings may still change before the global launch roadmap date of April 29, 2026.
How It Compares with Other Hobbies
Super Sound occupies a different niche from the other leisure activities in Hethereau. The table below lines up the rhythm game against the most visible hobbies that were live in the Co-Ex Test so players can decide where to put their time.
Hobby | Core Loop | Solo or Social | Ties Into Story |
|---|---|---|---|
Super Sound | Tap and hold scrolling notes in time with a live song | Solo performance inside a band-themed side quest | Yes, gated behind the band side storyline |
Cast, wait for a bite, time the reel | Solo, contemplative | Optional, mostly hobby rewards | |
Traditional four-player tile game | Supports multiplayer tables | Optional, mostly hobby rewards | |
Arcade cabinet grab game | Solo | Optional, collectible focus |
Advanced Tips
Play each new song on the lowest difficulty once before moving up. The point is not the score on easy, it is learning where the song breaks into denser note clusters so the higher tiers feel less ambushed.
Do not fight the combo multiplier. Sacrificing a tight reading of one hard section to protect an existing combo is usually the wrong call. Drop the combo, steady the reading, then rebuild. A clean second half scores better than a messy full run.
Sit closer to the screen than you would for combat. Note-highway games reward peripheral vision on both lanes, and the mobile version in particular punishes players who angle the device too far away.
Use headphones when you can. The rhythm game runs in the middle of a live stage scene, so backing ambience, crowd noise, and stage effects bleed through the speakers and blur the drum hits that most attacks read to.
Chase the band story first, high scores second. New songs only unlock when the side quest advances, so your effective rewards per hour are higher if you are progressing cutscenes rather than grinding the same first song for small Fon bumps.
Stack Super Sound runs with other side activities and mini-games during the evening loop of the daily routine. Multiple hobbies can feed the same weekly milestone tracker, so you get more payout per day if you rotate through them instead of maxing out a single one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Super Sound in the launch build?
Super Sound was added during the Co-Ex Test in February 2026 and is expected to carry over to the April 29, 2026 global launch. The developer has not announced any plan to remove the hobby. Minor balance or content adjustments between beta and launch are normal for NTE hobby content.
Do I need to be good at rhythm games to enjoy Super Sound?
No. The lower difficulty tiers exist specifically so players who have never touched a note-highway game can finish songs and follow the band side story. High-score chasing is an optional layer on top. The story beats do not require a full combo clear on the hardest difficulty.
Can I skip Super Sound entirely?
Yes. Super Sound is a side activity, not a main-story requirement. Skipping it means missing the band side quest rewards, the hobby milestone contributions, and the story beats that play out during performances, but it does not gate main-story progression or combat content.
Super Sound (In-Game Name)
In the current beta, the rhythm mini-game is branded in-game as Super Sound. Players reach it from the City Tycoon menu by selecting Hobbies, where it sits alongside the other leisure pastimes that make up the Hethereau Hobbies list. The hobby list is presented in this order: Mahjong (multiplayer only), Tetris (the arcade cabinet, multiplayer only), Super Sound (rhythm), City Delivery, Races (also accessible directly via Street Racing), Owner Selection, Swift Travel (which ties into the Taxi Driver role), Pink Paws Heist, and Sea Angler (the Fishing hobby). Super Sound is one of the hobbies playable solo in the current beta build, and is not flagged as multiplayer-only. That separates it from Mahjong and Tetris, which can only be played in multiplayer sessions.
Hobby Stamina Cost
Super Sound consumes City Stamina per attempt, in line with the other small hobbies in the Hethereau Hobbies menu. Small hobbies, including Super Sound, typically cost roughly 6 to 10 City Stamina per run. The larger, vehicle-heavy hobbies (City Delivery and Swift Travel) sit higher on the scale. Because the per-attempt cost is modest, players can chain several Super Sound runs in a session before the stamina pool needs refreshing.
Hobby | Stamina Tier | Solo Support |
|---|---|---|
Super Sound | Small (roughly 6 to 10 per run) | Solo capable in the current beta |
Small | Multiplayer only in the current beta | |
Tetris (Arcade) | Small | Multiplayer only in the current beta |
City Delivery | Larger (around 20 per run) | Solo |
Races | Small | Solo |
Owner Selection | Small | Solo |
Swift Travel | Larger (around 20 per run) | Solo |
No stamina cost (free to run for non-progression payouts) | Solo in the current beta, co-op planned for launch | |
Sea Angler | Small | Solo |
Players who want the wider menu context can visit the Side Activities and Mini-Games overview, which collects every hobby the city currently offers. The stamina figures above match the in-beta ranges reported for small hobbies; exact per-attempt values for each song difficulty have not been confirmed by the developer, so treat the 6 to 10 range as the typical band rather than a fixed cost per song.
Because Super Sound is playable solo, it is also a useful entry point for players who want to spend some of their daily stamina on a hobby while their group is offline. The Claw Machine and Sea Angler (the Fishing hobby) fill a similar niche for quick solo sessions, but Super Sound is the only one of the three that also feeds the band side story while it runs.