Final Fantasy XIV has been in content drought territory lately, with players taking the opportunity to level alt jobs and painstakingly create elaborate portraits for each one — but all of that is about to change with patch 7.2. After a 24-hour maintenance period on the 24th, the patch will launch on March 25.
For hard content players, the Savage version of the new Arcadion: Cruiserweight Division tier will release seven days after the initial patch, giving you one week to prep your gear. Naoki Yoshida and Toshi Murouchi showed off the first fight of the new tier in a Live Letter stream today, revealing a disco-dancing male Viera named “Dancing Green” as the boss.
He looks so comical that as the footage showed a Warrior of Light getting ready to take him on, Murouchi lamented how embarrassing it is for us to fight such a ridiculous boss with such a serious face. We’re all quite used to facing ridiculous bosses in FFXIV, though, of course. Interestingly, it looks like the fight will have some kind of rhythm game aspect to it, with Yoshida alluding to a perfection bonus and likening the music to a DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) track.
Alongside the usual story and raid content, we’re also getting updates to PvP, the new Cosmic Exploration content, and the next Field Exploration series (i.e. the new Bozja).
Cosmic Exploration is a new type of side content for leveling crafters and gatherers at level 10 and above, coming in patch 7.21 on April 22. The theme of the content appears to be building bases on distant planets, with the content beginning on the moon in this patch and moving on to new places in future updates. The main gameplay loop revolves around completing missions, earning credits, and getting rewards to expand the base. Nice QoL features include a separate inventory and a permanent sprint button.
It also looks like you can fly around in a giant mech suit, smashing crystals to collect resources. There are definitely a fair few similarities between this content and the Firmament — it even has a new version of Kupo Fortune called Cosmic Fortune where you can trade “Lunar Credits” for prizes (including a new dye color).
The new Field Exploration series is coming in patch 7.25 (coming May 27) and it’s called Occult Crescent. You need to have completed Dawntrail and have a Disciple of War or Magic at level 100 to enter and it will be split into different instances, each with up to 72 players. Much like the Bozja content from Shadowbringers, Occult Crescent has its own leveling system where you’ll lose experience points each time you’re incapacitated (unless you’re revived by another player). There will also be a separate support job system called “Phantom Jobs,” which you can unlock and level up as you progress.
Critical Encounters are making a comeback too, hopefully with as many hardcore mechanics as the encounters in Bozja. When enough players gather at a Critical Encounter, you can form parties and take on the boss in a time-limited battle. There’s also a weapon enhancement story tied to this content called “The Phantom Weapon.”
Two QoL upgrades that are also coming are the ability to summon your mount while moving and a new “jogging” state that keeps your movement speed up for longer after a sprint ends. They might sound small, but don’t be fooled — this is a big deal.
To recap, here’s a list of the main content coming in the 7.2 patches:
- Main Scenario – Seekers of Eternity
- New Arcadion raid tier
- Cosmic Exploration
- The Occult Crescent
- New Dungeon – The Underkeep
- New Trial – Recollection
- New Unreal Trial – Hell’s Kier (Unreal)
- Allied Society Quests
- More Hildibrand quests
- New crafting recipes
- New mounts, minions, and emotes
- PvP updates
