Somnium Synthesizer

The Somnium Synthesizer is a story trait building centered in a bespoke room and built from steel. In its story setup, it appears in a 14-by-11 chamber that narrows slightly toward the top, with Obsidian mosaic tiles, Glass Window Tiles in the upper section, two Gravitas Doors, and a back wall made of Lab Wall and Lab Window. The room also includes three LED Lights on the ceiling, an Office Plant by the left door, and a Pajama Cubby by the right door.

When first discovered, the building is inactive. A duplicant must be manually ordered to activate it through the Synthesizer interface, after which it begins accepting resources. To complete the story trait, it needs 25 Dream Journals and 5 kg of Oxygen. Oxygen is supplied through the input pipe at the middle bottom cell, while Dream Journals are delivered by duplicants to the same cell. The building usually starts with enough stored Oxygen to get through the initial activation step.

Dream Journals are generated by sleeping duplicants wearing pajamas and are dispensed from the Pajama Cubby. One Journal is produced every 300 seconds. Once the required Journals and Oxygen have been delivered, the story trait can be completed from the interface notifications. Completing it unlocks the Maximum Aptitude Mode and awards a Keepsake: the Model Plane, which can be displayed on a Pedestal.

After completion, the Somnium Synthesizer becomes a colony-wide buff source. It consumes 16.67 g/s Dream Journal and 500 g/s Oxygen to grant every duplicant in the colony, including duplicants in rockets and on other asteroids, the Maximum Aptitude buff. This buff increases Athletics, Strength, Science, Piloting, and Machinery by +5 and reduces Stress by 25% per cycle.

To keep the buff running indefinitely, the Synthesizer needs 10 Journals per cycle, which means the colony must consistently produce enough Journals through sleeping pajama-wearing duplicants. One documented setup uses six duplicants with only two downtime slots each, while another uses seven balloon artists with five downtime slots so they can still have time to make balloons for other duplicants.

A few practical notes follow from its behavior:

• If either Dream Journals or Oxygen stop arriving, the building shuts down and all granted buffs are lost until both supplies resume.
• Because Oxygen is continuously consumed, stable piping is essential once Maximum Aptitude Mode is active.
• The building is vulnerable to interruption from unwanted gases; in particular, introducing Carbon Dioxide into a running unit can cause its stored Dream Journals to vanish, so it is best to keep other gases out of the machine’s internal space.
• The story trait is not active until it is manually started and then fully supplied, so it should be treated as a progression object before it becomes a long-term colony-wide support building.

In game files, the Somnium Synthesizer is referred to as Megabrain.