As with any title in the series, Fire Emblem: Engage boasts a long journey filled with extensive and challenging combat, and as extensive and draining as it can be, recent titles have implemented a place for you to take a breather. That place, for Engage, is the floating keep known as the Somniel.

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It's more than a relaxing haven to break up the action between chapters, as you'll be able to experience a range of mini-games and visit a number of important facilities. The boons of the Somniel are as much a way to waste time as they are necessary for further building and developing your army.

What Is The Somniel?

From strength training to lunch breaks, the Somniel is an optional location you should continue to visit between each chapter.

Here, you'll be able to buy important equipment, train units falling behind, and grant you and your allies special temporary boons to aid in upcoming fights — as well as enjoy many other perks. With each chapter, the number of your facilities may grow in number or in stock (i.e., stores increasing the number of items available).

Some of these facilities will always be available to you in unlimited quantity, and others may have a set number of times you can use the facility and enjoy its benefits.

For example, you can continue to use the shops indefinitely so long as you have the resources to purchase and sell, Strength Training can only be completed once, and Standard mode Arena Training can be done three times.

You can freely travel between facilities on foot or by pressing the X button to bring up the Somniel map and Fast Travel.

Respawning Items And Support Conversations

While adventuring in the Somniel, there will be items on the ground you can pick up. These items are typically food, which you can use to either cook with or feed to Sommie, and gift items you can give to characters standing around the Somniel.

Items found on the ground will respawn randomly in new locations and with new rewards. You can find them locating the pale, sparkling marker on your minimap.

Characters with blue or white chat bubbles over their head have standard dialogue you can share with them, and talking with them will net you the opportunity to give them gifts. Giving gifts raises their affection for Alear.

Allies with a golden chat bubble will have a support conversation with Alear (seen on your minimap and in the Somniel map when fast traveling), and you can access these conversations by either speaking with them directly or opening your menu to access all support conversations through the option "Reference."

Somniel Locations

• My Room
• Cafe Terrace
• Ring Chamber
• Arena
• Plaza
• Orchard
• Training Yard
• Farmyard
• Poolside
• Lookout Ridge
• Pond
• Grotto
• Tower of Trials

My Room

Located on the second floor of the Cafe Terrace, your room has two interactable areas:

• Memento Drawer
• Bed

The Memento Drawer is unavailable until Chapter 22, but it can be used to store the Pact Ring. This is a necessary ring used in romancing a character, so long as you are already ranked A with them. Otherwise, you won't be able to interact with this drawer for the majority of your gameplay.

Your Bed has three unique modules you can choose when interacting with it, which will be relevant for the majority of your adventure:

• Rest
• Reminisce
• Difficulty Setting

By Resting, you'll be able to advance time in the Somniel and trigger "wake-up scenes" where you're awakened by an ally in a special cutscene . These cutscenes, as well as story cutscenes, support conversations, and bond conversations, can all be re-watched by selecting "Reminisce."

Additionally, you'll also be able to listen to music from the past and other Fire Emblem titles. Finally, you'll be able to lower the difficulty setting here, but you won't be able to raise it.

Cafe Terrace

When first visiting the Cafe Terrace, you'll be able to access the:

• Bulletin Board
• Music Box

The Music Box will allow you to play music across the Somniel that you unlock along your journey (as well as those you unlock by scanning Amiibo figures). Meanwhile, the Bulletin Board offers the ability to Donate gold to support the nations of Elyos, which in turn gives you unique effects for each region:

• Increasing the likelihood of rare and lucrative enemies spawning during skirmishes and auxiliary battle;
• Increasing the types of pets you can adopt;
• Increasing the types of rewards you can receive.

Additionally, you can use the Bulletin Board to access the Somniel Map and receive rewards for Achievements that reward you with important Bond Fragments — useful in creating and melding Bond Rings.

Once you complete the sixth chapter, you'll be able to access the Dining feature. At the end of every battle, a random ally will be assigned to cook you a meal. Each ally will have certain dishes that they are proficient in making — indicated by the sparkling emote next to the dish's name — which will determine how likely they are to succeed in making a high-ranking dish.

Choose characters that both like the meals you're preparing and use the necessary extra ingredients for a better score. Dining will increase the support level of the allies dining (not the chef) as well as give temporary stat bonuses for both your general army and specific units.

If you want to switch the chef, rest in your room.

Ring Chamber

After unlocking the Ring Chamber in the fourth chapter, you'll be able to access a number of important skills necessary to molding your perfect army. At first, you'll have four possible options:

• Inherit Skills
• Polish Rings
• Create Bond Rings
• Meld Bond Rings

Polishing an Emblem Ring will allow the bonds between a unit and an Emblem to increase, even if that unit doesn't have the emblem equipped. After your units reach level five with an Emblem and have their first Bond Conversation, you'll be able to spend Skill Points (SP) to Inherit that Emblem's skills.

More skills become available as their bond increases, but so does the cost. In order to get many skills (or upgrade your pre-existing skills), you'll need a large amount of SP. These points can be gained by wearing an Emblem Ring (or, alternatively, a Bond Ring for fewer points) and gaining an amount of SP equal to the XP they earn during battles.

You can also gain SP by fighting Emblems in Arena Training or randomly when stepping on the spaces of Spirits of the Fallen when in online play.

Bond Rings can be forged by spending Bond Fragments, giving units without an Emblem Ring stat bonuses and the ability to gain a lesser amount of SP they can use to Inherit skills.

Creating Bond Rings is entirely random and costs either 100 for a single ring or 1,000 for ten. Once you have enough Bond Rings of a specific type, you can Meld them together to create even stronger versions of that ring.

You have a slightly higher chance of netting rarer types of Bond Rings if you choose to save your Fragments and buy ten rings at a time.

Once you have completed the sixth chapter, you'll also be able to also access Engage Weapons which allows you to augment and strip the unique weapons of Emblems.

You can use Crystals to increase the stats of a weapon and Banes to add extra effectiveness against certain weapon types — both of which are rewards in the Tempest and Relay Trials. You can increase the augment capacity of a weapon by increasing the Emblem's bond level.

Arena

The Arena is a door to the east of the Plaza and Cafe Terrace where you'll be able to participate in two types of training:

• Standard
• Emblem

Naturally, fighting in Standard mode will pit a unit of your choice against one random unit from your army, and fighting in Emblem mode will pit that unit against a random Emblem.

You can train up to three times per visit to Somniel in Standard mode and unlimited times in Emblem mode at the price of Bond Fragments, but both increase the support levels between characters and the experience of the unit you choose.

Plaza

The most important feature of the Somniel, the Plaza features the portal to the world map and four stores you can shop at throughout your journey. The first two stores are:

• The Armoury
• The Item Shop

As expected, the Armory grants you access to weapons, and the Item Shop grants you access to consumable items (like vulneraries) and staves. They are both available after completing the fourth chapter.

After completing the fifth chapter, you'll be granted access to:

• The Boutique
• The Smithy

The Boutique allows you to buy new resting clothes for you and your allies to wear while in the Somniel, and the Smithy allows you to forge, enhance, and engrave weapons as well as exchange crafting materials for others.

Orchard

Available from the beginning, the Orchard grows a variety of plants that you can harvest after returning to the Somniel after a battle. These endlessly respawn and can be used to feed Sommie, the Somiel's resident guardian of cuteness, and your allies when Dining.

After completing the fifth chapter, you'll also unlock the Amiibo Gazebo where you can activate your Amiibo and gain special prizes like music and outfits.

Training Yard

When first accessing the Somniel, you'll be able to participate in Strength Training led by Alfred. Participating in the Strength Training minigame will grant you unique but temporary effects for Alear as well as a number of Bond Fragments. Depending on the type of training you do, you'll be able to enjoy different types of bonuses:

• Push-Ups - Alear may get a Strength boost
• Sit-Ups - Alear may get an HP boost
• Squats - Alear may get a Dexterity boost

After Chapter Four is complete, Sommie will be able to join you during these training sessions to give you a little needed motivation and negate up to six bad mistakes. Additionally, the levels of difficulty available for each type of training will increase as the story progresses.

It is currently not possible to quit training, and there is only one chance for you to do Strength Training per battle. Should you wish to exit, you must either fail a challenge or wait for it to end.

Once Chapter 11 has been completed, you'll also get to go on Wyvern Rides, a shooting minigame where you'll need to shoot as many targets as possible to get the highest score. Completing Wyvern Rides will net you rewards like consumable items and Bond Fragments.

Like Strength Training, higher difficulties will become available as the story progresses, and Sommie can assist you by helping shoot targets during a specific portion of the course.

Farmyard

From Chapter Four onward, you'll be able to adopt animals and send them to the Stable. Animals can be adopted by raising the donation level of their home region, and each type of animal gives unique items when grazing.

You can set up to five animals to graze at any one time, and their unique item will spawn beside them after returning to the Somniel from a battle.

Just south of the Stable, the Records Hall can be accessed after completing Chapter Six. When inside the Records Hall, you'll be able to:

• Edit your profile card - "My Card"
• Look at your friends' cards - "Other Cards"
• Stage Photo Shoots With Your Units - "Photo Shoot"
• Set your profile card's visibility - "Privacy"
• Set your profile card's stamps' visibility - "Stamp Setting"

As you continue to progress the store and add new characters to your roster, the amount of freedom you have in customizing your profile card and styling new Photo Shoots will increase. To obtain the cards of friends, you'll need to meet them in the Tower of Trials during online play.

Furthermore, near the Farmyard is the Fortune Teller, available to you after completing Chapter 15. It is only accessible at night, and it has no real effect on your army. Other than helping you make sure certain units will pair with one another at the end of the game, it only really seems to offer little tidbits of lore for each character.

Poolside

Generally a place where your units will be able to gather around and enjoy the water, a Flea Market is added nearby once you've completed Chapter 13. The market can be used to buy gifts which you can give to character to increase their bonds with Alear and have support conversations.

Lookout Ridge

Currently, there are no facilities at Lookout Ridge. However, if you have purchased the Expansion Pass, visiting this location after completing Chapter Six will allow you to find the Emblem Bracelet. This bracelet contains the Emblems of Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Pond

After completing Chapter Eight of the story, you'll be able to go fishing at the Pond. The fishing minigame is another game where Sommie can assist you if you fail to press A in time, and succeeding will net you fish for cooking (or feeding to Sommie) and, potentially, Bond Fragments. New fishing rods will be available for purchase from the Flea Market later on, giving the potential for catching other types of fish.

Grotto

Down in the Grotto, you'll find a mysterious shrine and, usually, a number of collectable, respawning items. After completing Chapter Four, a strange creature will appear called Sommie (which you will have the option to rename, should you so choose). It will be able to:

• Assist you in minigames
• Follow you around when wandering the Somniel (after raising its affection to at least 25 percent)
• Gift you Bond Fragments
• Participate in Photo Shoots

In order to enjoy your time with Sommie the most, you'll need to raise its affection by:

• Feeding it
• Petting it
• Dressing it up

You can Feed Sommie any type of food, but rarer ingredients raise its affection more drastically than common ones and increase the number of Bond Fragments you receive.

Petting Sommie will always net you 100 Bond Fragments, and Dressing Sommie will also increase its affection. Keep in mind that Sommie's affection will decrease over time, so it's important to always stop by to spend a little time with it.

You can get the affection bonus for Sommie when Dressing it by simply changing its outfit and then changing it back if you don't want to change the outfit it's wearing.

Tower Of Trials

The Tower of Trials features Online Gameplay that can only be accessed with a Nintendo Online Membership.

Inside the Tower of Trials, you'll have access to two of three features after completing the sixth chapter:

• Relay Trials
• Outrealm Trials

Relay Trials will allow you to team up with four other online players to control a single army in alternating turns against an AI enemy. Your goal is to complete the trial combat within ten or 15 turns to receive Crystal and Bane rewards that can be used in augmenting your Engage Weapons.

To compete in these trials, you'll either need to use a Relay Ticket (you receive one every 24 hours) to host a trial or join a pre-existing game. During them, you can select units you wish to use with the restriction of having no multiples with other players, though this restriction does not apply to Emblems.

Outrealm Trials, also an online gameplay feature, allows you to create your own battle maps for players to fight against and siege the maps of other players. Rewards are given to both the sieged and the besieger, and such rewards include Crystals and Banes, as well as support gifts and rare food items.

When it comes to Relay and Outrealm Trials, you may wish to wait until later chapters as there will be spoilers for maps and units and unevenly matched combat. As of Engage's launch, there is no scaling mechanic for online gameplay.

After completing Chapter 11, you'll also get access to Tempest Trials. Unlike the previous two, it is not an online feature and can be used without the need for a Nintendo Online Membership. In the Tempest Trials, you'll be tasked with facing consecutive battles to complete as quickly as possible. Like the previous trials, they give rare rewards, but the amount of these rewards are decided by the difficulty of your trial.

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