Preparing for Final Fantasy XIV Patch 5.5: Here’s What You’ll Need to Do

Final Fantasy XIV patch 5.5 is the second-to-last update before this Fall’s highly-anticipated Endwalker expansion. The patch will release on April 13, 2021, alongside the beta for the PlayStation 5 version,’ so here’s everything you’ll need to do beforehand to be caught up for patch day.

This applies primarily to people who have, at the very least, finished the 5.0 scenario – if you’re not caught up on the MSQ yet, that’s your top priority because it can take a while.

A no-brainer: Catch up on the Main Scenario Quest

If you haven’t done so yet, complete the ten Main Scenario Quests from Patch 5.4, ending with “Futures Unwritten.” These unlock the Matoya’s Relict dungeon, a fun departure from the somewhat dark duties that came even after the end of Shadowbringers.

More importantly, Patch 5.4, 5.5, and 5.55 are effectively the prologue to Endwalker, which has a storyline that will conclude in the expansion pack itself rather than the usual “real” ending in the X.3 patch we’ve received thus far before beginning an entirely new chapter of the game. (And this patch was juicy.)

Complete the Puppet’s Bunker raid and the quests that come afterward

The YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse Alliance Raid storyline will come to a conclusion in Patch 5.5. While the Puppet’s Bunker raid has been around since Patch 5.3 in August, 5.4 added a quest to its story – “To Make Amends” – that drops some major plot twists and sets up what the end of this story might look like, so make sure to visit Kholusia if you haven’t done it yet.

Defeat the Emerald Weapon in Castrum Marinum

The Trial series introduced after Shadowbringers, The Sorrow of Werlyt, brings with it challenging and epic boss fights against the Weapon machines from Final Fantasy VII, reimagined as creations of the Garlean Empire. The storyline is a continuation of the war between the Eorzean Alliance and Garlemald that played out over much of Stormblood. While it’s significantly shorter than the Eden story, the fights are no less enjoyable.

Get your iLVL 515 “Augmented Law’s Order” Relic Weapon

Patch 5.5 will also (probably) conclude the Save the Queen Relic Weapon storyline, and with it will likely come the best-in-slot weapons for each job until the release of Endwalker. While the Shadowbringers Relic requirements are not nearly as grind-heavy as some previous expansions, this is still content you may want to get out of the way early to make the process of finishing it alongside other players as quick as possible. (After all, FATE farming is much easier with friends!)

Gear up!

If you aren’t a frequent player, you may find yourself a bit behind on your average item level. Going by previous patterns, the dungeon introduced in 5.5 (Pagith’an) will likely have an iLevel requirement of 480. Luckily, if you’re caught up on all of your side quests, it’s not that difficult to clear this – Puppet’s Bunker equipment drops are iLvl 490, as is the current Crystarium tombstone gear – but don’t let it catch you off guard, so you have to stop the Main Scenario in the middle to go and grind!

Go grab some Irregular Esoteric Tomestones

The Itinerant Moogles are back! This time, completing any of the Main Scenario A Realm Reborn dungeons from levels 44-50 (through The Praetorium), The Keeper of the Lake, Amdapor Keep, any of the Return to Ivalice raids, and any of the first tier of Alexander raids will award you with new Irregular Tomestones. These can, as usual, be exchanged for rewards ranging from difficult-to-acquire mounts to a hideously expensive earring and MGP cards for the Gold Saucer. This event is only going on until the Patch 5.5 maintenance begins but has no caps on earned tomestones, so get out there and farm!

Complete The Navel (Unreal)

“Unreal” difficulty fights were a new feature added in Patch 5.3, beginning with the Akh Afah Amphitheatre (the Shiva trial). Essentially, they are trials from A Realm Reborn, synced upwards to level 80 to renew them and granting the chance to play the Faux Hollows mini-game for fun and exclusive prizes. The caveat here is that Unreal fights are one of the few examples of permanently missable content in the game for the time being. There is only one Unreal trial at a time (currently, it’s The Navel, with Titan), and they swap in a new one with each patch. We don’t know yet what the 5.5 Unreal fight will be, but Titan will be going away, so if you want to fight him, now is the time.

Make sure your therapist is available

We don’t have a lot of clear information on what Endwalker will actually be, but what we do know is that it will be a grand finale to the story of Final Fantasy XIV so far and that it will be written by Natsuko Ishikawa, the writer of the Shadowbringers story. So it’s probably safe to assume there will be lots of crying on the part of players all over the world. Probably best to double-check that they still take your insurance, right?