Early this morning, Final Fantasy XIV lead producer and creative director, Naoki Yoshida, was accompanied by global community producer Toshio “Foxclon” Marouchi to host Letter from the Producer Live 76. They were joined on the live stream by outgoing Square Enix president and CEO Yosuke Matsuda and incoming CEO Takashi Kiryu for a little bit of banter. Afterwards, Yoshida and Foxclon announced details for Patch 6.4, which is set to release sometime in late May 2023.
If you’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIV for the last few years, the content being added with each major patch shouldn’t be a huge surprise to you. The team has been pretty consistent with its content updates. Nonetheless, the Endwalker expansion did bring new features to the MMORPG, including Criterion/Variant dungeons, and the team continues to improve on the experience in older content.
As usual, we will get new Main Scenario Quests with Patch 6.4, but we’ll also get the final set of the Pandæmonium raid, Pandæmonium: Anabaseios. We’ll also get a new dungeon called The Aetherfont, while the new Trial will be called The Voidcast Dais with both Normal and Extreme versions. The new Unreal Trial heading to 6.4 will be Containment Bay Z1T9 Unreal.
For side quests, Tartaru’s Grand Endeavour will continue, with hints that Gaius will be making a return. Additional Hildibrand quests won’t arrive until Patch 6.45, which is when FFXIV will also add the next set of Manderville Relic Weapons and Splendorous Tools.
Some of Stormblood’s main scenario dungeons will be updated with Duty Support, so players can complete them alongside a party of NPC allies. These are the Stormblood dungeons that are getting Duty Support: The Sirensong Sea, Bardam’s Mettle, Doma Castle, Castrum Abania, and Ala Mhigo. Preview screenshots during the Live Letter showed at least Hien and Gosetsu will be joining your party.
The next Criterion/Variant dungeon will be called Mount Rokkon, which means we are going back to Stormblood. It will arrive in Patch 6.45 with three levels of difficulty: Normal, Criterion, and Criterion (Savage). Players will not have to complete the previous Criterion/Variant dungeon, Sil’dihn Subterrane, in order to unlock Mount Rokkon.
Other updates heading to Final Fantasy XIV include a new ocean fishing route towards Kugane, and quality-of-life improvements for Island Sanctuary — including the ability to place outdoor housing furniture, new ranks, crops, animals, and more. For PvP, series 4 will begin alongside season 7 of Crystalline Conflict. In Frontline, some adjustments are being made to the rules of The Fields of Glory (Shatter) and there will be a new UI element that displays the match time and score.
Patch 6.4 will also add a new Allagan tomestone (as expected) and Job icons will now be displayed in the chat log and on player nameplates. Some market board quality-of-life improvements will be added, and Scholars will finally be able to glamour their faeries.
Along with more Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures and the introduction of Mount Rokkon, Patch 6.45 will also update the Blue Mage class, raising the level cap to 80 and adding new exclusive gear, enemies to challenge, and more.
The Live Letter ended with the unveiling of a bunch of new merchandise, which is now available for pre-order on the Square Enix store. It’s gear to commemorate the Fan Festival 2023-2024 events and the merchandise lineup will be different for the European and Japanese Fan Festivals, so get what you want, now. Pre-orders are available while supplies last, or until April 21 at 11:59pm PDT. The items should begin shipping July 14, ahead of the Fan Festival in Las Vegas. If the PUMA x Final Fantasy XIV apparel drop was any indication, these items are probably going to sell out quickly, despite their price tags.
Final Fantasy XIV is currently hosting a Free Stormblood campaign — as in you get a free copy of Stormblood, although you do liberate Ala Mhigo in the expansion — along with a Free Login campaign.
