Building on the hype for Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, a Friday FFXIV livestream kicked off with an extensive trailer for the Copied Factory, the first of three Yorha: Dark Apocalypse alliance raids that are a collaboration with some of the creators of Nier: Automata. The patch is now set for Tuesday, October 29, with a few of the features coming two weeks later in patch 5.1.
Those who managed to clear the current endgame raid are treated to a new Ultimate battle in “The Epic of Alexander.” The big baddies of the Heavensward raid series return for a brutal blowout worthy of a world-first race. Players below this skill ceiling can take on the Hades: Extreme trial and Grand Cosmos dungeon instead.
Patch 5.1 is set to bring the long-awaited Restoration of Ishgard content for crafter and gatherers. Crafters will also finally gain a comprehensive recipe tree, removing the need for third-party tools to figure out the materials and pre-requisite crafts needed to build a specific item. Skill bloat has also been dealt with, meaning less focus on community-made macros. Some of these changes will arrive in 5.1, with more planned for 5.2.
Class changes and balance updates were also outlined. Most classes will have minor tweaks and improvements, with the ninja class receiving a more broad rework.
The second half of the livestream focused on the Ishgard Restoration series of content geared toward giving dedicated crafters and gatherers something to do while others fight monsters. Through regular hand-ins and co-operative “Concerted Works” similar to the current Fate system, players will slowly rebuild Ishgard, repairing the damage it withstood during the Heavensward expansion. Progress is separate on each server, making it possible for players to pitch in on a friend’s world.
New hairstyles and mounts are among the available rewards, and The Diadem is set to be reworked as a gathering hub for this purpose in a later patch. New housing items like market stalls and cabin walls were also previewed. Armor from a previous gear design contest is also set to be implemented with the patch. Perform is set to get new brass instruments and an assist feature, but these weren’t shown on stream. New emotes and mounts were also briefly shown off.
After a quick tour around the new Pixie Beast Tribe area, the company offered brief previews of upcoming changes to player-versus-player combat. Many new PvP actions are coming, with tweaks to older ones. Each player will gain their own individual Battle High meter in relevant battlegrounds, with a new PvP battleground tasking three teams to fight over territory of different ranks. This is set for 5.15 alongside an increase Blue Mage level cap and continuation of the Masked Carnivale.
Before ending the livestream with new merchandise and events, producer Naoki Yoshida demonstrated the upcoming New Game+ feature. Through a glossy new menu, players will be able to run through a chosen main scenario questline without starting a new character, and toggle between progress points on the fly.
Thinking about jumping into Final Fantasy XIV? Our beginner’s guide can probably help you out.
