TL;DR
What this skill does
Music-domain skill. Practise on any guitar prop in the world. Pays out through busking on Melino's plazas, paid gigs at the Old Town amphitheatre, and the Music career ladder. Triggers party-mood Sun-pack cards.
Who it's for
Who should level Guitar first
- You want a performer arc — busking tips arrive long before any salary does.
- You are aiming at the Music career and want Application Points banked early.
- You run social households: parties get a natural activity anchor.
Practice loop
How to level Guitar
Pick up any guitar, queue 'Practice' for 60 minutes, then 'Play for Tips' once your Para hits a comfortable level. Performing in front of two or more spectators stacks a +3 social-skill XP modifier alongside the Music gain. Practising with the Inspired mood vibe pushes you about +25% faster. Wake hours after a Sun-pack 'Peak condition' card are the single best window — pair the card with a 90-minute practice session and you can clear two levels in one in-game day at adulthood.
Milestones
What you unlock at every tier
Skills cap at level 20. Highlights below mirror the Skin-system progression players reported during the first EA week. Treat them as expected rewards, not hard guarantees — patch 0.1.x may rebalance.
- Levels 1-4
Basic strums. Tip jar accepts coins, but most spectators walk off after 15 seconds.
- Level 5
Unlock 'Play for Tips' that earns ~§40 per crowd of three. Music career promotion check.
- Level 10
Unlock 'Compose Song' on guitar. Compositions become household assets you can monetise.
- Level 15
Crowd auto-gathers within ~12 tiles of any guitar performance. Pet companions can join in.
- Level 20
'Master Performance' unlocks. Pays out 5x normal tip rate and slots into the Music career capstone shift.
Career path
Where this skill pays off
Paralives EA shipped 11 career domains. The ones below pull directly from this skill — salary tiers, promotion checks, and Occupation Perks scale with it.
Powers the entire Music career track — performers, instrumentalists, the busking branch. Pairs with Piano for any 'Dual-instrument' Occupation Perk.
Cheat path
Skip the grind with a console command
Open the console with Ctrl+F1 (or Cmd+F1 on Mac). Add one level with LEVELUPSKILL Guitar, or pin a target with SETSKILLLEVEL Guitar 10. Early Access ships no Steam achievements, so there is nothing to forfeit.
LEVELUPSKILL Guitar— adds one level instantly.SETSKILLLEVEL Guitar 5— sets to level 5.SETSKILLLEVEL Guitar 20— max out the skill.
Need the full command list? Open the cheats index for all 100+ Paralives cheats, categorised.
Common mistakes
Three pitfalls that stall this skill
Practising on a broken guitar
Broken guitars give 30% XP and break further. Repair (or REPAIRALLITEMS) before practising.
Solo practice past level 10
From level 10 onwards, group performances out-pace solo by 60%. Drag a spectator over before queuing.
Ignoring the Inspired vibe
Without Inspired, you cap at ~+5%/min. With it, +25%. Cook a Mood meal or trigger an art-gallery memory first.
Related skills
Adjacent skills to climb next
Skills in the same domain (or careers that double-dip) level faster together. Players reported domain-adjacent XP carrying about 1.2× into related skills.
Keep exploring
Continue the field guide
Wider reading from the rest of the Paralives field guide.
Twelve skills, seven domains, the lifestage learning matrix and the Sims 4 crossover table — back to base camp.
100+ achievement-safe console commands. Money, skills, needs, build mode — categorised and searchable.
Pick the career that turns this skill into rent. Each domain pairs with a real Melino workplace.