Today Square Enix hosted the 77th Letter from the Producer Live dedicated to Final Fantasy XIV, showing off the next major update.
As is tradition, the information and new footage were provided on Twitch by producer and director Naoki Yoshida and global community producer Toshio Murouchi.
Today's reveals focuses on the content of update 6.4, titled "The Dark Throne" and releasing on the live servers on May 23. If you want an overview of the content previewed in the previous Letter from the Producer, you can read our dedicated article.
We start with hearing about the job adjustments made for the patch. Primarily, tweaks have been made to damage output within each role and no large-scale changes will be implemented. The radius of several party buffs has been extended to 30 meters. This affects mainly buffs to abilities that contributed to increased damage dealt or reduced damage taken. This doesn't include abilities like heals or Ley Lines.
The usability of certain job actions has been improved. For Paladins, executing Atonement won't interrupt a combo anymore. For Dragoons, Jump and High Jump won't affect the server-side character position, so you can use them while bound.
Next, Yoshida-san provided more color on the PvP updates which will include the start of Series 4 and Season 7 for Crystalline Conflict. Starting with Season 7, if you place within the top 100 rankings or get Diamond tier or above, you'll get additional rewards, including an item that will apply an effect to Hellhound Weapons.
Below you can see a video showcasing said effect.
Adjustments made by Frontline include new UI elements displaying the remaining match time and the current score. More changes include the limit range fill rate, damage dealt, and damage taken on a per-job basis. The Daily Challenge: Frontline will award Series EXP.
Borderland Ruins (Secure) will become temporarily unavailable and the rules for The Fields of Glory (Shatter) have been adjusted including changes to the terrain and the placement of icebound tomeliths as you can see below. Score acquisition has been tweaked with the removal of Allagan tomelith so they can be occupied to accumulate score. Large and small icebound tomeliths will respawn. On the other hand, the score gained by defeating other players is unchanged.
Next, we get to see a glimpse of the new Trial "The Voidcast Dais" featuring classic Final Fantasy villain Golbez. Of course, this is just the Normal mode.
Yoshida-san then showcased a series of prints displaying new weapons designed by users via the Weapon Design Contest and the new armor set.
We then take a look at the new raid, Pandaemonium: Anabaseios, which will conclude the Pandaemonium story. It'll include four floors.
The Savage version will come one week after update 6.4. An update won't be needed to implement it.
The rewards for the Savage versions have been tweaked. Coffers won't reward duplicate armor pieces for the same slot. Body gear can be earned from Anabaseios: The Eleventh Circle. A single treasure coffer will appear at the end of each Pandaemonium: Anabaseios (Savage) encounter, but the quantity of rewards is unchanged. That being said, rewards will be reduced if 1-4 players have already completed the duty and there will be no reward if 5 or more players have completed it.
The token exchange for Mythos will change as follows.
We also take a look at the new gear from the raid.
Next is the new content coming to the Island Sanctuary as follows.
Yoshida-san also showcased the system in action, providing a look at how we can customize our Island Sanctuary. Interestingly, we can place several copies of the same item.
We also take a look at some of the new rewards from the Island Sanctuary and new housing items.
Next, we move on to the Variant and Criterion Dungeon, Mount Rokkon. The Variant version will feature a different NPC companion from the previous installment, and it's Hancock. Otherwise, it'll work like The Sil'dihn Subterrane.
Yoshida-san also showcased the rewards from the Variant Dungeon (the first image in the gallery below) and some rather fancy craftable gear.
More footage displays new mounts and minions including a super cute ninja dog.
We get the reveal of the Special Battle that will be playable at the upcoming fanfests, featuring Asura and titled "The Gilded Araya." It'll be implemented in-game at a later date.
Final Fantasy XIV is currently available for PC, PS5, and PS4. After its fourth expansion "Endwalker," the game currently counts 27 million registered accounts worldwide. The game recently received update 6.38, which should be the last of the 6.3 cycle, while the Moogle Treasure Trove event is in full swing until the launch of 6.4.
Yoshida-san recently shared his ambitions for the future of the game during a recent event at PAX East.
