In pursuit of the Emblem Rings you’ll find yourself moving from point to point on the world map, fending off the dark forces that oppose you and gathering allies to your cause as you go. Unfortunately, pacified regions don’t always remain quiet - more Corrupted may rise to terrorize the countryside, brigands will fill power vacuums, and bored soldiers will issue challenges. Whatever the foe, these combatants will appear on previously-cleared map nodes, and if you’re up to the task you can return and fight them. These optional, recurring battles are Skirmishes, and this page will cover how Skirmishes spawn and what you gain by completing Skirmish Battles in Fire Emblem Engage.

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Skirmishes will spawn on previously cleared nodes, and typically feature Corrupted or bandits.

How to Fight Skirmish Battles in Fire Emblem Engage¶

Around the start of Chapter 6, Skirmish battles may start to spawn on previously cleared map nodes. Whether a Skirmish appears on a particular map node is random, and your odds of having one spawn seem to correlate with the number of nodes you have unlocked. In other words, the further you are in the main story, the more open nodes you’ll have for Skirmishes to spawn on. What actually causes Skirmishes to spawn, however, is simply time. Real time. If you want to force Skirmishes to appear, simply save the game on the world map, set the clock on your Switch forward a few hours, then reload the game.

What Do You Gain From Skirmish Battles in Fire Emblem Engage¶

You’ve plenty of incentive to complete Skirmish battles, the most obvious being EXP. Enemies roughly keep leveled with you, so it’s possible to keep fighting Skirmish Battles until you’re as strong as you care to get, although this will obviously make story battles a bit of a snooze.

In addition to EXP, when the battle ends you’ll be able to explore the region again, picking up resources including metals and ingredients, adopting pets, and talking to companions for Bond Fragments. The amounts of resources you’ll gain during these exploration segments are increased by the Donation Level of the region. If you’re connected to the internet, you’ll also find Spirits of the Fallen on the battlefield, which will yield Bond Fragments, EXP or Bond Points (yellow) or items, including weapons, staves and restoratives (purple).

Gold Corrupted and Silver Corrupted enemies can also spawn in Skirmish Battles… at least, Skirmish battles featuring Corrupted as enemies. These will yield gold and bonus EXP when defeated, respectively, and will spawn more frequently depending on your Donation Level. Check out the How to Farm Gold and Silver Corrupted page for more information on how this works.

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Training battles spawn on a region’s capital. Defeating the enemies here will earn you gold and EXP in addition to what you earn during the battle itself.

Differences Between Skirmish Battles and Training Battles¶

Those are the universal gains you can make from completing Skirmishes, but note that not all random encounters that spawn are Skirmishes. When random encounters spawn on a realm’s capital, it may be a training battle instead of a proper Skirmish. These are similar to Skirmishes, save that they feature soldiers native to the region. This obviously means you won’t be facing off against Gold Corrupted and Silver Corrupted, but to compensate somewhat you’ll earn a flat gold reward at the end of the battle, and all your units will gain an EXP reward, in addition to whatever their actions during the battle merit.