Early this morning FFXIV held its Live Letter from the Producer, which details a bunch of new information regarding patch 6.1. The awaited patch is the first in the 6.X series following the highly successful launch of the Endwalker expansion.
The stream featured Japanese audio-only, so this post is a mixture of English text provided during the stream as well as translations from the FFXIV Discord.
Patch 6.1 “A Newfound Adventure”
The title of patch 6.1 is Newfound Adventure, which makes a lot of sense after the events of Endwalker and it wrapping up the ten-year-long saga of the Hydaelyn and Zodiark storyline.
Patch 6.1 is scheduled to release in mid-April, but a more specific date was not given.
Patch 6.1 will also kick off the start of the Tataru Grand Endeavor series of side quests for players to explore. These sidequests will continue in later patches but will be introduced to the player in 6.1.
New Role Quests, which were first introduced in Shadowbringers as part of the main Scenario Questline, While Endwalker had its own set that were optional, they are adding more in the post-patch and will unlock a new story once players finish their respective Role Quests.
New Tribal Quests will be added slightly later, in 6.15. These will also focus on the Arkasodara tribes for battle quests and jobs.
The Hildibrand Questline is coming back in 6.15, but we will not be getting more details until the next Live Letter from the Producer.
Omega: Beyond the Rift will connect the storyline of the Omega Raid from Stormblood and the new information provided in the Ultima Thule quest chain from Endwalker. A new Trial titled “The Endsinger’s Aria” will also become available, which is a much harder version of the final Trial from Endwalker.
FFXIV is bringing back the Unreal difficulty to the game. This time with the Ultima’s Bane Trial from A Realm reborn.
The Alliance Raid, which is titled Myths of the Realm will finally focus on the mysterious 12 we’ve been told about since the very start of the game. The 12 gods of Eorzea have remained a pretty huge mystery to players for a long time.
A new Ultimate Duty named “Dragonsong’s Reprise” will redesign some 3.3 fights into an Ultimate Duty for players to experience. The screenshot below showcases that some things are…. Different.
PvP updates will include job adjustments, a new Crystalline PvP map (small), action improvements like adrenaline rush actions for each job, and a new rewards system.
For those looking for new FFXIV housing, the Empyreum (Ishgard Housing) will open in 6.1
A new profile display feature previously called calling cards will be introduced in 6.1. Adventurer Plates will allow players to further express themselves and what they’ve done, even including customizable character portraits!
A translation provided by the FFXIV Discord of Yoshi-P on the stream provides more information about Adventurer Plates.
“You can set adventurer plates to your gear sets. You can have a gear set to which you assign a glam plate and additionally you can assign and adventurer plate. So your introduction can be different for every job”
Moving forward in the stream, Yoshi-P talks about The Unending Codex, which is designed as a glossary of characters and terms up through 6.0 (Endwalker)
It will be unlocked in the main scenario of Patch 6.1 with new entries being added as the story continues. The Unending Codex won’t be fully updated at the release of 6.1, but the team will continue working on it well after launch.
Data Center Travel Details
Data Center travel will finally be implemented in 6.18, this was announced back before Endwalker was even released.
Data Center Travel will allow players to visit worlds in a different logical data center within the same physical data center and challenge duties with players from there.
Light – Chaos
Aether – Primal – Crystal
Mana – Elemental – Gaia
The Player’s nameplates will display the <Traveler> tag.
Features such as Free Company Chat, cross-world linkshell chat, and PvP teams are restricted while using Data Center Travel.
Crossworld Linkshell chat will be unavailable when visiting another logical data center using DC travel.
From 6.2 onwards, it will be possible to join a cross-world linkshell on other logical data centers.
To use DC Travel players will select the data center from the character selection screen. Then you will be returned to the title screen. Select your desired world and character. In order to return back to your Data Center you’ll need to repeat these steps again.
Yoshi-P states
“I wanted to make it as simple as world visit, but we need to be more careful with the data we handle so that was not possible”
Miscellaneous Updates
Some miscellaneous updates include
- New Game+ for Endwalker and a portion of 6.1
- New Hrothgar hairstyles
- More glamour plates and locations where they can be used (trying to double Glamour Dresser inventory in 6.2)
- Ability to try on items from the FFXIV store (only available in Inns, titled “Dream Fitting)
- New idle animation for parasols
- Checkmark displayed on items used to obtain minions, mounts, etc already acquired
- Improved marketboard search for items use to obtain minions, mounts, etc
Duty Support System and A Realm Reborn Changes
During the second half of the stream, Yoshi-P started going over improvements coming to A Realm Reborn Main Scenario Quest.
As we knew already, ARR would be getting Trust support for the main scenario duties. This will be introduced in 6.1. Trust will now only refer to the NPC leveling system, going forward Duty Support System is the new name for playing through content with NPCs.
The Duty Support System operates exactly the same, 4-player dungeon content and trials can use NPCs to progress instead of a matchmaking queue. Each NPC will be selected automatically according to your role.
Duty support for 2.X and Heavensward onward will be added in a future patch. Here is the list of available Duty Support as of 6.1
- Satasha
- The Tam-Tara Deepcroft
- Copperbell Mines
- The Bowl of Embers
- The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak
- Haukke Manor
- Brayflox’s Longstop
- The Navel
- The Stone Vigil
- The Howling Eye
- Castrum Meridianum
- The Praetorium
- The Porta Decumana (Ultima Weapon Battle)
Yoshi-P reiterates that the 8-player Trial Cape Westwind is now becoming a solo instanced battle. Following suit, Castrum Merdianum is moving from an 8-player dungeon to a 4-player Dungeon.
The Praetorium is moving from an 8-player Dungeon to three separate duties.
- Start though Gaius battle – 4-player Dungeon
- Ultima Weapon Battle – 4-player Trial
- Lahabrea Battle – Solo quest battle
In line with this, some changes are coming to Main Scenario Roulette.
It will now breakdown like this in the roulette
- Castrum Meridianum – 4-player Dungeon
- The praetorium – 4-player Dungeon
- The Porta Decumana – 4-player Trial
The rewards will be adjusted for each to reflect these changes. These changes should make Main Scenario Roulette feel a little less like a time sink, but that means scaling the rewards down to fit the new runtime.
That was it for this Live Letter From the Producer. FFXIV fans keep your eyes out for part 2 of the 6.1 patch information coming before the updates releases in mid-April.
