Square Enix has given everything fans needed to know about the first Endwalker‘s major patch coming to Final Fantasy XIV in today’s Letter from the Producer.
All kinds of players will find something to look out for in the 6.1 patch. It will introduce new Main Scenario Quests, but also sidequests, a dungeon, an Extreme trial, social features such as Adventure Plates to customize your profile, a new PvP mode, and more.
The developer also revealed it’ll release on April 12, and gave a glimpse of new mounts and minions to collect such as the puppy minion and the already-popular Pod mount.
Here is everything to expect with the upcoming 6.1 patch.
Everything that will release in FFXIV’s Endwalker 6.1 patch
The update will bring new content in many aspects of the game, but players will have to wait a bit more to see other previously revealed content such as Island Sanctuaries and deep dungeon.
New quests
New role quests and Main Scenario Quests will release with the patch, as well as new side quests focused on Tataru, who wasn’t much present in Endwalker until now.
The questline will be called “Tataru’s Grand Endeavours” and might be linked to the upcoming alliance raid, called Myths of the Realm Part One: Aglaia. A glimpse of this upcoming duty was revealed in the update’s official trailer, alongside other content.
It’s the case for the new dungeon and trial that are to be expected, too. On the other side, they might be linked to the upcoming MSQ.
In addition, the only missing Extreme version of Endwalker‘s trials, called Endsinger’s Aria, will be released alongside the next Unreal trial, Ultima’s Bane.
PvP
The new PvP mode Crystalline Conflict will be introduced. It’ll be the first small-scale PvP mode, and it’ll follow a rework of the mode’s seasons and progression.
Starting with patch 6.1, the seasons will be in sync with all major patches and the tiers will go from Bronze to Platinum. Players will earn various rewards depending on the ranking they’ll achieve during the season, including the armors shown above.
The Crystalline Conflict will put two teams of five players in an arena where each team will have to push a giant crystal to strategic points to win the game. There won’t be any job restrictions and it will keep PvP-adjusted abilities, similar to the other PvP game modes.
Social features
An unexpected social feature has been revealed today, and it’ll be introduced as beta with the 6.1 patch: Adventurer Plates. They are fully-customizable plates that serve as new profile pages for the players.
As Naoki Yoshida showed in the Live Letter, it’ll be possible to change pretty much every information and elements in the interface, from choosing a main combat and crafting job to change the background and borders.
It’ll “display what time you normally play, your favorite jobs, tites, playstyle, and more,” according to the Live Letter. “Your GC rang, FC name and search comment will automatically be reflected.”
In addition, the highly anticipated Empyreum residential district will open when the patch hits live servers, as the other districts will become available again. The first lottery to acquire the plots will start at that time and the players will have five days to enter and try to get a plot. Here is a guide on the upcoming housing lottery system.
Balance changes
Square Enix revealed a “non-exhaustive” list of job changes, but more information are to be expected on that subject in the full patch notes, which are set to be released on April 11.
Here are the jobs that will receive changes in patch 6.1:
- Dark Knight buff: The job’s invulnerability ability now grants HP upon damage dealt. It’ll reduce the chance of the character dying due to a lack of healing.
- Machinist buff: Potency of several abilities increased.
- Dragoon buff: Jump animations are shortened.
- Summoner buff: Searing Light now comes from the character instead of the Carbuncle.
- White Mage buff
- The Liturgy of the Bell effect duration is manageable. It can be stopped earlier to give all remaining healing stacks at once.
- The Asylum range has been increased to 10 yalms.
- Samurai adjustment: Kaiten ability is deleted, and damage numbers are adjusted to match that change.
- Ninja adjustments
- Mug now inflicts a debuff on the target, which receives more damage from allies.
- Trick Attack effect now only applies to the player.
- Scholar adjustments
- Sacred Soil range has been increased to 10 yalms.
- Expedience’s duration has been reduced.
Quality changes
Square Enix has put a major emphasis on its Trust system with Endwalker, and it will carry on for the next updates following the expansion.
Further improvements on Trust system will come alongside patch 6.1, including the adding of its support in A Realm Reborn‘s 2.0 duties and those released later. It’ll help a lot of players who are forced to wait for hours to find other players to complete those duties, which are mandatory to progress through the Main Scenario Quests.
Some dungeons were also reworked, and the Main Scenario Roulette will disappear, as both duties from the category will become solo duties.
General
The Hrothgar players will want to go to the hairstylist, since more hairstyles will be introduced for the race. The other general changes include New Game Plus quests and more glamour plates.
Some interface improvements will also be made, such as the check of items already acquired in shops, the option of trying on items from the Online Store, idle parasol animations, and improvement of market search.
