The Somniel
The Somniel is the new hub base area you can able to explore between battles in Fire Emblem: Engage. Here you’ll be able to interact with allies and access a variety of facilities. At first, there isn't much to see or do, but as you progress through the story, you’ll start unlocking more facilities and new activities for Alear to partake in. This page of IGN's Fire Emblem: Engage Wiki Guide contains everything you need to know about the Somniel. We describe how to unlock everything at the Somniel and what every Somniel location does. Each section also features links to that location's guide containing even more detailed information!
From major new facilities and activities to things like new items and weapons at the shops, each chapter you complete unlocks specific things at the Somniel (all of which we've listed in this guide).
Certain activities and effects can only be completed a limited number of times. For example, Ordering Meals can only be done once per visit, and only the first exercise will increase your stats when Strength Training.
Although the unlockables are triggered between completing chapters, you can refresh all the activities at the Somniel by completing any battles, like skirmishes and even those in the Tower of Trials. This refreshes the items at the Orchard and Farmyard, the training at the yard and Arena, fishing, cooking, and the wake-up call from an ally.
Another returning feature is the ability to give gifts to your units to raise their spirits and their support with you. Gifts can be found as you explore the Somniel, or purchased (after unlocking the Flea Market) in limited quantities.
Press X to access the Somniel Map. This allows you to fast-travel to all the main areas. You’ll also be able to see where each character is located and if they have something to say. Most characters only have one unique thing to say between chapters, though.
If you see a character with a yellow speech bubble, that means that they have a support conversation available. These are special interactions that increase their support to the next level. Units with support levels gain stat bonuses when standing adjacent to one another in battles.
Your room is one of the first locations unlocked on the Somniel. You can view previous cutscenes, and any support conversations you’ve unlocked with other characters. The game's difficulty can be adjusted here, but only if playing on Hard or higher. When playing on a harder difficulty level, you can turn the difficulty down, but you can't ever turn the difficulty up. Therefore if you’re playing on Normal difficulty, this feature is useless.
Resting makes the time of day advance at the Somniel. Though this doesn't have much functionality at the start of the game, it will eventually become more useful once Fishing and the Cafe/meals are unlocked. Different fish are available at different times of the day. Advancing time also swaps the cook in the Cafe.
You will always be awoken by one of your allies. Every support level you earn with an alley contains two unique interactions for waking you up. If you choose to rest consecutively, you’ll only receive a wake-up call the first time you sleep. This refreshes (along with everything else in the Somniel) when you return to the Somniel after completing a battle.
The main plaza of the Somniel will eventually expand with various shops that you can inspect between battles.
The Item Shop unlocks after completing Chapter 4 - A Land in Bloom. You can buy/sell items and staves here. The items aren't very impressive when you first unlock the shop, but new more useful things will periodically be added as you progress through the story. When purchasing an item, you can choose to directly equip it to a character, or you can purchase it for the Convey and equip the things on the characters later.
The Armory unlocks after completing Chapter 4 - A Land in Bloom. When purchasing an item, you can choose to directly equip it to a character, or you can purchase it for the Convey and equip the things on the characters later.
The Smithy unlocks after completing Chapter 5 - Retaking the Castle. At the Smithy, you can use materials and gold, to improve or upgrade your weapons. You can also change also exchange one type of refining material for another.
Refining weapons costs gold and refining materials. Refining allows you to upgrade weapons into stronger versions or into entirely different and more advanced varieties.
Weapons can be engraved with the symbol of an Emblem to increase a unique set of stats. Engraving weapons costs Bond Fragments, and each weapon can only contain one engraving at a time.
The Boutique unlocks after completing Chapter 5 - Retaking the Castle. At the boutique, you can spend materials and gold to purchase clothing and accessories for your characters to wear while at the Somniel. The clothing only appears while they’re at the Somniel, and is not worn during most cutscenes.
The boutique is also the place where you can change the characters’ clothes. Any item purchased at the boutique can be worn by any or all of the characters at the same time. Here you can also change into any Amiibo outfits, you’ve obtained. Unlike the other clothing, however, amiibo outfits are gender-specific. For example, only the male characters can wear Marth's outfit.
The Cafe Terrace contains the bulletin board and also the entrances for your room, Ring Chamber, and Arena. You’ll often find characters sitting around this place, and will eventually unlock the ability to order meals!
After completing Chapter 6 - The Stolen Ring, you’ll unlock the ability to order meals at the Cafe Terrace. Each day, one of the characters at the Somniel will be randomly assigned to be a chef. Speak to the chef and choose two of your allies to sit down and share a meal together. Dining with alleys increases their support with you and with each other.
All meals have effects that boost the stats of everyone in your army (not just your dining partners) for the next battle. When selecting the allies, you'd like to dine with, it's important to note, whether or not the characters like that type of meal, and how capable the chef can be at preparing them. Allies gain much more support from meals they like, and well-cooked meals reward greater effects for your army.
You can only order one meal during each visit to the Somniel. The chef cannot also be one of the characters you dine with. If you ever want to change the chef, you can do so by resting in your room. When you wake up, a new chef will be standing at the counter.
After a meal, you’ll earn leftovers that can be equipped onto any character as a packed lunch. During battles, a character can eat a packed lunch to recover much more health than they would from a Vulnerary. You can only have one packed lunch in your inventory.
Most meals allow you to select extra ingredients to add to the meal. As of this writing, the types/amounts of extra ingredients you select do not seem to have any noticeable effect on the meal.
Each region you visit can receive donations. Donations increase the types and amount of rewards you can earn from completing battles in that region. This is also what allows you to adopt the animals in that region. The animals you adopt can graze at the Farmhouse to gain extra items.
A region's donation level also affects the types of enemies that can appear during skirmishes and auxiliary battles. Higher donation levels increase the chance of encountering rarer enemies like Silver and Gold Corrupted. These enemies are much tougher and grant your bonus rewards when defeated such as Gold and experience.
The Bulletin Board also allows you to view the list of Achievements. All Achievements reward you with Bond Fragments. You can claim all the rewards for the Achievements you’ve completed by pressing ZR on this screen. Remember to check out the Bulletin Board between battles to collect your rewards!
At the cafe, you'll find a music box that allows you to change the music that plays while you're on the Somniel. New music will unlock as you progress through the story. Additionally, scanning Fire Emblem series amiibo figures will unlock a special track from each Emblem Hero's game.
One of the main features of the Somniel is the ability to manage the Emblem Rings you obtain, located in their own special chamber. The higher your bond rating, the more exclusive skills, abilities, and weapons you'll have access to with that Emblem. This location unlocks after completing Chapter 4 - A Land in Bloom. The Ring Chamber features a variety of options related to your Emblem Rings.
One of the simplest features is the ability to polish Emblem Rings. When a character polishes an Emblem Ring they slightly increase their bond with the Emblem. Any character can polish the rings; this is one way to help raise a character's bond without them having that Emblem Ring equipped.
Once a character and an Emblem have increased their bond to level 5, they can spend Skill Points (SP) to inherit some of the Emblem's skills. Inherited skills can be equipped in the inventory menu. As a character's bond with an Emblem increases, new skills will become available. SP is earned by battling with synced Emblems and equipping Bond Rings.
SP are similar to EXP in that every time a unit with a ring earns EXP in battle, they'll also earn SP. Wearing an Emblem Ring earns the most amount of SP; however, even Bond Rings grant some SP. Therefore create a Bond Ring for each unit that doesn't have an Emblem Ring equipped.
Otherwise, the only way to gain SP is if a character gets randomly matched up with an Emblem during Normal Training at the Arena. Or gained randomly by landing on a Spirits of the Fallen space which is only available if your game is connected online.
A character can spend their SP to inherit skills from Emblems they've bonded with. Although a unit can have different bond levels with individual Emblems, the unit's supply of SP can be used on any Emblem.
The Ring Chamber allows you to spend Bond Fragments to create Bond Rings. Bond Rings increase stats and allow units to earn Skill Points (SP). This is a helpful way for units without Emblem Rings to gain some SP during battles. Each have their own rating when randomly created either one at a time or in groups of 10 - similar to gacha games.
Bond Rings vary in power by rank and are randomly created using 100 Bond Fragments. C-rank rings are the weakest and have the highest chances of being created. S-rank rings are the strongest of their kind, and some even contain an additional skill. Though rare, A- and even S-rank bond rings can indeed be created with this method.
Duplicate copies of the same Bond Ring can be melded into a higher-ranked ring. This is the most likely method you’ll have to use if you’re trying to gain a specific S-Rank ring and it costs a lot of Bond Fragments.
After completing Chapter 6 - The Stolen Ring, you’ll gain access to the Arena. The arena allows you to train Alear and any allies and can be done in two ways: Standard Training and Emblem Training.
Standard Training can be done three times whenever you visit the Somniel between battles. The character you choose will be matched up randomly against one of the other characters, and they’ll battle automatically. The same character can be selected for training multiple times.
Only the character you select will gain experience points from the training, and they gain more experience if they defeat their randomly chosen opponent. If the opponent is someone they can have support conversations with, they’ll both increase their support.
The random opponent can be any of the characters (even the Emblems) you’ve unlocked so far. If your opponent is an Emblem, your character will earn SP in addition to EXP.
Because the opponent and their equipment are randomly selected, it's possible to end up in a fight where neither one of the characters can inflict damage on the other. If you see that both characters are dealing zero damage with their attacks, press plus to skip to the end. The fight will result in a draw, and your chosen character will still earn the bonuses from doing the training.
Emblem Training can be done as many times as you’d like but costs Bond Fragments to complete. This is the quickest and most effective way to increase bond levels with Emblems (given you have the Bond Fragments). Each level you wish to increase costs 100 Bond Fragments— which is honestly not very much at all! With just 400 Bond Fragment's you can raise a character's bond with an Emblem to level 5 (which allows them to inherit skills at the Ring Chamber).
Strength Training unlocks after completing Chapter 4 - A Land in Bloom. This takes place in the northeastern section of the Somniel. Here, you can choose from three different exercises to get temporary boosts to Alear's stats, depending on the type of exercise you complete.
The stat boost is reset after completing a battle. Even if you complete a battle without Alear (such as a skirmish or training), it still counts as a completed battle and will therefore reset the effect of the boost.
Each exercise is like a different type of mini-game. New difficulty levels for each exercise will unlock as you progress through the story. Completing exercises on higher difficulties increases the number of Bond Fragments you receive from the exercise.
This exercise requires proper timing of the A button. You must press the A button when the bar is within the bold area at the bottom of the meter. As you continue doing more push-ups the bar's timing will get faster and faster. Do this 20 times to complete the exercise. If you miss three times, you’ll fail and need to start over. Completing Push-ups grants you +2 Str.
Sit-ups are all about button-mashing! You need to repeatedly press the A button to keep the bar at the top of the meter. If the bar stays in the red area for too long, you’ll fail. Have the bar reach the top of the meter 20 times to complete the exercise. Completing Sit-ups grants you +2 HP.
Squats is a timing-based mini-game that uses the two analog sticks. Arrows will begin to drop and you must move the sticks in the direction of their respective arrows as soon as the arrows reach the circles. If you do this too late or too early, you’ll receive a miss. Three misses is a fail. Completing Squats grants you +2 Dex.
The Grotto is just a location you can visit when you first reach the Somniel, but after completing Chapter 4 - A Land in Bloom, you’ll discover Sommie (or whatever you choose to name your new pal). Each time you visit the Somniel you can interact with the pedestal at the Grotto to increase your friendship with Sommie.
Sommie is a mysterious critter that lives at the Somniel. After befriending them, they'll begin following you around the Somniel. Increasing your friendship with Sommie allows them to assist you in different activities and allows them to be part of your group photos.
During Strength Training, Sommie can assist you several times by negating any bad moves you perform (up to six times). When fishing, Sommie will assist you if don't press A to hook the fish in time. On Wyvern Rides, Sommie will automatically shoot targets for you during a certain portion of the course.
Feeding Sommie increases your friendship with Sommie the most. You can feed Sommie any ingredient you’re carrying. You can always find fruits at the Orchard, and Oranges are an extremely common fruit which means you’ll usually have plenty of them. Although what you feed Sommie does not actually seem to make a difference to the amount of friendship or bond fragments you earn, you should not feed them onions though; it's visibly obvious that they don't like them!
Petting Sommie will earn you a small amount of friendship. You only need to pet them once for it to take effect. When you leave you’ll also earn 100 Bond Fragments. Dressing up Sommie earns the smallest amount of friendship. Even if you don't actually want to change their appearance, just cycling through a couple of accessories and exiting is enough to earn friendship.
Doing all three activities during your visit will increase Sommie's friendship meter by one-sixth. Therefore, after two more visits to the Somniel, it’ll be halfway full! With increased friendship, Sommie will begin to follow you around the Somniel. You can even have them join you in activities like Strength Training, Fishing, and Wyvern Riding.
The Tower of Trials is unlocked after completing Chapter 6 - The Stolen Ring. This location features a set of challenges you can attempt to complete to earn unique rewards and even some experience. Trials can be completed with any items/equipment you currently own, and any items used during trials are returned to you after you exit the trial.
Tempest Trials are unlocked after completing Chapter 11 - Retreat. Tempest Trials are gauntlets of consecutive battles. You can adjust the difficulty at the start which determines the number of rewards you can receive from completing the trials. The rewards will usually be crafting materials that can be used to enhance Emblem Weapons at the Ring Chamber.
Relay Trials allow you to team up with other players online. You’ll each take turns controlling the same army during a battle against the AI-controlled opponent. Relay trials can only be played with a Nintendo Online Membership. You’ll get rewards if any player completes the battle.
All battles require five players to complete (this includes the player who began the trial). Most Relay Trials must be completed in either 10 or 15 turns. Relay Trials that are 10 turns long will allow every player to take two consecutive turns before passing the battle off to another player. Relay Trials that last 15 turns allow every player to take three consecutive turns.
You can create a New Relay Trial, or Take Over one that is already in progress. Creating a new Relay Trial requires Relay Tickets. You can earn one Relay Ticket every 24 hours by logging into Fire Emblem: Engage (they are earned automatically after unlocking the Tower and Trials). Like the Amiibo Gazebo, this 24-hour timer is not affected by the Nintendo Switch's internal clock.
Taking over other battles does not require Relay Tickets, and you can take over as many battles as you’d like. You’ll be able to see all the turns the player or players have taken before you. You’ll have the chance to select the units you want to add to the battle, with the restriction that there cannot be multiples of the same character in the battle. However this does not apply to Emblems, so it's possible to have an army with three Emblem Marths!
Outrealm Trials allow you to create your own maps/scenarios and post them online. You can then battle other players’ armies online using the maps you’ve created. Think of this like a Fire Emblem battle-maker! Players can customize an army and the terrain in their half of the battlefield.
You can then upload the map to the internet so that other players can attempt to battle the defending army you created. Additionally, you can attempt to siege other players’ maps as well. Winning or losing provides rewards to both players.
You can collect any rewards you might have gained from Relay Trials and Outrealm Trials by selecting the "View Results" option in their respective sections. When a Relay Trial is completed, all players can earn rewards and special accolades will be randomly selected and awarded to any characters that may have contributed to the victory. These accolades can earn the players very rare and powerful rewards.
No hub area is complete without different types of smaller minigames and activities to take part in during your stay in the Somniel. Each will have its own set of prompts and rewards for taking part in them, and more will appear as you progress through the story.
Wyvern Riding is unlocked after completing Chapter 11 - Retreat; however, Alear will be unable to participate in it until upgrading their warrior class to Divine Dragon (How to Promote Units). This is an on-rails shooter—which means that the wyvern will fly automatically along the course. All you have to do is focus on shooting the targets. Completing it with a high score will earn you various items like Pure Water, and Tonics (as well as Bond Fragments). As you progress through the story, you’ll unlock higher difficulties that provide greater rewards.
The Ancient Well was added in update 1.3.0, just a stone's throw away from Wyvern Riding. It allows you to dump any unwanted items, weapons included, into the well and recieve upgraded items when you return from battle. The rarer or stronger item you throw in, the greater reward you'll get out.
Whenever you complete a battle, you have the chance to explore that area. Certain locations contain animals that you can interact with and choose to adopt. Most animals can only be adapted by raising the donation level of their native region. You can see the available animals on the Bulletin Board in the Cafe Terrace and by viewing the individual locations on the World Map.
Adopting animals will add them to the stable at the Somniel. At the stable, you can select up to five animals to graze in the Farmyard. Between battles, you can visit the Farmyard to find materials that the animals have gathered. Different animals can provide different types of materials.
The Records Hall is unlocked after completing Chapter 6 - The Stolen Ring. At the records hall, you can edit your profile card and view the cards of other players you’ve encountered at the Tower of Trials. Your profile card lets you show your style and your accomplishments to other players. You can also choose to set your profile card to private so that it is only visible to your Nintendo Switch friends.
The records hall also allows you to stage photoshoots around the Somniel with any of your allies and Emblems. You can adjust their poses, expressions, and outfits. The photo can then be added to your profile card. This and the profile card can also be accessed in the Reference tab of the Somniel Menu.
The Fortune Teller unlocks after completing Chapter 15 - The Dancer in the Ruins. This activity lets you have some fun by checking out what your other units and friends are worrying or thinking about, giving you more insight into their lives, though it doesn't actually reward you with anything other than character insight.
The Fishing minigame returns in Fire Emblem: Engage, allowing you to fish up different rare types of fish to use as ingredients in meals for your team. Fishing at the pond is unlocked after completing Chapter 8 - The Kingdom of Might. Between every battle, you can fish up to three times. The fish in the pond change depending on the time of day (which you can change by resting in your room).
Fish with Sommie to have them assist you when hooking a fish. You can earn bonus Bond Fragments by catching the currently featured fish. So fish (like Carp) are added to your ingredients, while others are added as "Minced Fish" instead. As you progress through the story, you’ll unlock new fishing rods that can be bought at the Flea Market. These rods allow you to catch different types of fish.
The amiibo Gazebo allows you to scan up to five Fire Emblem amiibo every 24 hours. By tapping any type of Amiibo, you can gain random rewards and presents to use.
By tapping any Fire Emblem Series Amiibo, you can unlock exclusive outfits of that Fire Emblem Hero for Alear to wear, and will also unlock music tracks from the games that Fire Emblem character was in.
The first 12 FE amiibo scanned will unlock outfits and music of the main 12 Emblems in the game. However, the outfits and music will remain unavailable until you’ve met the corresponding Emblem in the story. After unlocking all the outfits/music, you’ll still be able to scan FE amiibo to gain random materials, weapons, gold, and even Relay Tickets.
The Emblem outfits you gain from the amiibo Gazebo can be accessed from the Boutique (the Boutique unlocks after completing Chapter 5 - Retaking the Castle). Unlike the clothing purchased at the Boutique, however, amiibo outfits are gender-specific. For example, only the male characters can wear Marth's outfit.
As of Patch 1.2.0, a new feature has been added to the Somniel. After completing Chapter 8, you'll find the Recreation Option, located at the Orchard, allows two of your allies to spend time together and build Support amongst themselves. They can perform activities together at the Pool, Orchard, or Stable. This can be used up to three times between battles, once at each location.
This gives you options to build up Support for allies outside of battle and give each other bonuses when in battle. If you’re unsure who should hang out with who, there is also a "recommended" tab at the top of the list to help you out.
At the Orchard, you can usually find a few fruits to collect. These fruits can be used as cooking ingredients or fed to Sommie.
The Flea Market is unlocked after completing Chapter 13 - The Heros of the Oasis. This location allows you to purchase gifts. Gifts can be given to characters at the Somniel to increase their support with Alear.
The poolside is just a location on the Somniel to take photos. You can often find characters swimming or splashing around. Once the Flea Market is unlocked, you can fast-travel to the poolside to quickly reach the flea market.
Lookout Ridge is another location at the Smoniel that can be used for taking photos and is generally vacant. However, if you've purchased the DLC, you'll need to go to Lookout Ridge to activate it. Once there, you'll discover the "Bracelet of Rivals "and gain Emblem Edelgard (and Dimitri and Claude).