Everything We Learned in Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter LXVII

The developers of Final Fantasy XIV held their sixty-seventh “Letter from the Producer LIVE” event on November 5th, 2021 (likely the final one before the release of the Endwalker expansion). Here’s everything we learned in that event! (New key information will be bolded.)

Part 1: Release Date, Delay, Patch Schedule

• The big one, Endwalker has been delayed by two weeks. Patch 6.0 will now go live for preorder-ers on December 3rd, 2021, and December 7th for the “full release”.
• Patch 6.01 will release on December 21st, two weeks after the expansion. Patch 6.01 will include the first part of the new Pandaemonium raid.
• Patch 6.05 will release on January 4th, and include the Savage tier of the Pandaemonium raid introduced in 6.01. This patch will also include a new tier of Allagan tomestones, and new gear to exchange them for.
• We got a new story trailer! Here’s the link.

Part 2: 6.0 Recap

• Patch 6.0 will include two new cities, Old Sharlayan and Radz-at-Han. The team also showed off the mysterious Labyrinthos location, the purpose of which will be revealed in-story. They also displayed the new settlement Thavnair, which was heavily featured in the media tour and the previous Live Letter.
• Garlemald will finally be an area that players can travel to, albeit after the city has been decimated by the evil forces currently in control of the Garlean Empire. We also got a glimpse at one of the major locations on the moon of Hydaelyn, called Mare Lamentorium.
• The new Main Scenario Quest in Patch 6.0 will conclude the story told thus far in Final Fantasy XIV since A Realm Reborn, with a brand-new story arc starting in Patch 6.1.
• The team gave a brief history recap of the central cast of Endwalker, as well as a new character from the story trailer, the Lady of the Light.
• The game will have a new feature where NPCs may follow you during certain sequences and have discussions between themselves.
• Patch 6.0 will carry over the addition of Role Quests (replacing Job Quests) from Shadowbringers. There will be five lines, Tank, Healer, Melee DPS, Physical Ranged DPS, and Magical Ranged DPS. There will be extra quests added at a later date for completing all five Role Quest lines, but there will be no Level 90 Job Quests.
• Crafters and Gatherers will have access to Studium Deliveries, with new questlines similar to Role Quests (and a similar extra quest upon completion of all five lines).
• There will be a new treasure map dungeon in Patch 6.05.

Part 3: PVP

• There will be a new PVP mode, called Crystal Conflict, to be introduced in Patch 6.1. It will be a 5v5 map with “short matches with simple rules that can be played casually”.
  • Each team of 5 will be formed of 5 different jobs, with no role restrictions.
  • There will be Casual, Ranked, and Custom matches, as well as skill-based matchmaking.
  • There will be new season rewards based on player ranking and tier (similar to The Feast). Rewards will include titles, achievements, and other accolades.
• Patch 6.1 will also introduce a new rewards system for PVP, as well as distinct PVP actions and job-specific “Adrenaline Rushes”.
• Patch 6.1 will remove role-based matchmaking and actions for PVP.
• The PVP rewards system is being overhauled into a series-based format, similar to “seasons”. Where in seasons, rewards are based on only playing one PVP mode, series rewards will be based on play in all PVP modes.
• There will be a new character profile system, tentatively called “Calling Card”, that will be more customizable. The team intends for the profiles to be displayed before PVP matches. Customization options will be added as rewards throughout the game (not all will be PVP seasonal/series rewards).
• The Feast will be sunset as of Patch 6.1. Preseason play will be available between Patch 6.0 and 6.1.
  • Wolf collars will still be used in the new PVP system, please do not discard them.

Part 4: Crafting/Gathering Adjustment

•  As stated before, HQ materials will no longer be obtainable as of Patch 6.0.
• Disciples of the Land quests that currently require HQ items will be updated to also accept normal quality items.
• HQ item delivery bonuses for gatherers will be removed, and the base rewards for deliveries will be improved.
• The requirements for achievements requiring the player to gather HQ items will be adjusted.
• New actions will be added for crafters and gatherers, and existing actions will be adjusted for the change.
  • Recipe progress and quality values will be adjusted in the stat squish.
  • Further adjustments will be made so that HQ items will be similarly difficult to craft after both the stat squish and the removal of HQ materials.
• Miners and botanists will now have a buff called “Gatherer’s Boon” that increases gathering rates and quantities and can trigger based on Perception rating, and buffs that previously increased HQ gathering rate will now trigger Gatherer’s Boon.
• “Large-sized” fish will replace HQ fish, and action descriptions will be updated to reflect the change.
• Spearfishing will be updated to feature a minigame where players use their harpoon directly, for greater immersion. This will include special minigame actions and bonuses for successive catches.
• Leve rewards are being adjusted.
  • The amount of gil rewarded per quest will be adjusted due to gil inflation. However, the EXP and gil rewards for trade/fishing leves which require a large number of items are currently too high, and will be reduced. The rewards for certain other leves will be increased.

Part 5: System Adjustments

• As previously stated, Patch 6.0 will introduce a massive downscaling in all stat values across the game. Pre-6.0 content will be rebalanced to reflect the “stat squish”, but the amount of time required to level up should remain unchanged.
• All mid-level EXP will be reset in Patch 6.0. This means that any experience gained after your most recent level-up, in all jobs, will be reset, and you will be at 0% progress towards the next experience level. This is due to the necessity of resetting the character database to accomodate the downscaling.
  • For example, if your character was a level 77 Warrior, who had gained two million EXP towards level 78, that value will be reset when Patch 6.0 is added, and it will be as if you had just leveled up to 77.
• The new Allagan Tomestones will be Allagan Tomestones of Aphorism and Allagan Tomestones of Astronomy. Astronomy Tomestones will be added in Patch 6.05, and will have no weekly cap.
  • Additionally, the number of tomestones needed to exchange for a weapon is being reduced from 1000 to 500.
• The team is trying to expand the Glamour Dresser and Plates system, but the changes will not be ready for Patch 6.0. More information will be shared closer to the release of Patch 6.1.
• The team has also heard player concerns about the lack of new hairstyle options for Viera and Hrothgar since Patch 5.0, and are preparing to implement new ones. (They also stressed that they have been doing behind-the-scenes work since the release of 5.0 to get more ready, and these additions had necessarily been placed on the backburner.)
  • New Viera hairstyles will be available as of Patch 6.0 (including the frequently-requested 2B and 9S hairstyles from the YoRHA Dark Apocalypse raids), but new Hrothgar styles will be coming in a future content patch due to their additional complexity.
• New Purple scrips will be added for crafters and gatherers.
• The Achievement UI will be updated to include “Near Completion” and “Recommended” tabs, as well as a new notebook-style design.
• Gpose can now be activated while playing an instrument.
• The company action “Back On Your Feet” will be replaced with an action which extends in-city sprint duration.
• Items containing a random minion or mount will be added to the Grand Company Seal Exchange. (The item actually giving you a minion or mount is not guaranteed, as usual there will be a table of possible results.)
• On Windows, support will be added for Embody’s “Immerse Spatial Audio” add-on.

Part 6: Housing Update

• The new residential district being added, based on the Firmament, will be called Empyreum. There will be 24 wards, and 24 subdivisions. (1440 houses per world being added.)
• Players will be able to tour Empyreum in Patch 6.0, but land will be made available for purchase in Patch 6.1.
• Patch 6.0 will see the implementation of a new land purchasing system.
  • Relocation to land that is not yet ready for purchase will no longer be available as of Patch 6.0.
  • Land devaluation will be removed as of Patch 6.1.
  • It will no longer be possible to grant brand-new FC members authorization to purchase land or promote them to FC master as of Patch 6.1.
  • A “lottery system” is being implemented in Patch 6.1. It will be used in certain areas, with the previous first-come-first-serve system being kept for other areas. (This is being tested before being potentially rolled out to cover all housing areas.)
    • To enter the lottery for a plot, a character must have at least one class or job at level 50 and be at least a Second Lieutenant in their Grand Company.
    • Another character on the same service account must not own a plot on the same World, but you can enter the lottery to relocate an existing house.
  • The lottery period will be shared across all Worlds and housing areas,  will last several days, and players will have several days after the winning number is decided to claim possession of the land.
    • Each player may only enter the lottery for one plot during each lottery period.
    • Entry will happen at the plot’s placard, where you will be able to see how many other entrants there are.
    • Players must pay the full price of the plot upon lottery entry, and unsuccessful players will receive a full refund.
      • Players cannot withdraw their cost after entry but before the winning player is posted.
      • The winner must claim possession of their land within the acquisition period, or they will forfeit their claim as well as half of the purchase price of the plot.
      • Players who didn’t win will also only be able to claim their refund within the acquisition period.

Part 7: Oceanian Data Center

• The Oceanian DC, called “Materia”, is planned to open in February 2022.
• Worlds in the Materia DC will be “New Worlds”, with free World Transfers and preferred world bonuses available.

Finally, on December 2nd, there will be a livestreamed reading of the 6.0 Patch Notes, however this will be in Japanese only. We also got an announcement of a vinyl single release for Endwalker, releasing November 17th, and the physical publication of a spinoff web manga called Saki and Final Fantasy XIV on November 25th. A new spinoff manga following Alphinaud and Alisaie at school, called Academia Eorzea, will be released in December.