Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXXVIII (08/14/2023)

We are pleased to present the full digest of the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXXVIII, which was broadcast from the North American Fan Festival 2023 in Las Vegas! If you missed the live stream, or if you just want to watch it again (and again), check it out below!

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* Don't forget to select the 1080p option to watch the video in HD!

Patch 6.5 Preview Part 1

Patch 6.5: Growing Light

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We began the broadcast by revealing the patch title for Patch 6.5. The Patch 6.5 main scenario will be delivered in two parts: Part 1 in early October 2023, and Part 2 in mid-January 2024.

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Here’s the patch schedule in tandem with our global Fan Festival schedule.

• Patch 6.5 and Part 1 of the main scenario will be released after the North American Fan Festival.
• Patch 6.51 will be released in late October after the European Fan Festival.
• Patch 6.55 and Part 2 of the main scenario will be released in mid-January 2024 after the Japanese Fan Festival.

We’ll go into more detail about each patch at the Fan Festivals, so we hope you’ll look forward to it!

New Main Scenario Quests

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We took a sneak peek at what’s to come in Patch 6.5, starting with the main scenario.

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One of the screenshots appears to show Ryne and Zero walking together. How did they meet, and what led to Zero’s arrival in the First? We certainly don’t want to spoil that for you, so please look forward to it!

Endwalker Tribal Alliance Quests (6.55)

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This will be our first tribal alliance quest in a while. You’ll need to complete a lot of prerequisites to unlock this extra story content, but you still have some time before it’s added in Patch 6.55. If you haven’t caught up already, we urge you to experience each of the Endwalker tribe quests and the stories they have to tell!

We took a sneak peek at some screenshots here as well.

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Tataru’s Grand Endeavor Continues (Patch 6.55)

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We tried to avoid revealing too much in these screenshots, but they turned out quite bland… You’ll have to wait until Patch 6.55 is implemented to see what we omitted!

Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures (6.55)

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The Hildibrand quests, however, are a treasure trove of interesting screenshots! It seems we can expect another spectacular display from father and son in Patch 6.55.

Further Manderville Weapons (6.55)

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And of course, the Manderville quest update also means a new stage of Manderville weapons as well. These ominous screenshots seem to be hinting at some strange occurrences in the near future.

Splendorous Tools (6.51)

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Splendorous tools will also continue, though this will be coming in Patch 6.51 instead.

New Dungeon

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We took a sneak peek at a number of screenshots of the new dungeon, the Lunar Subterrane, which features a drastic shift in scenery. Our designers were extra careful with how each scene leads into the next, so you may want to revisit the dungeon in exploration mode after completing it once!

The Abyssal Fracture

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The upcoming trial will be a showdown with Zeromus, who appeared at the end of Patch 6.4. We know some of you recognize this iconic foe from FFIV, so we hope you enjoy how Zeromus is depicted in FFXIV!

The Singularity Reactor (Unreal)

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We took the Extreme version of the trial and adjusted it for current standards. This encounter with Thordan features unusual mechanics like looking away from the eyes outside of the arena, so if you didn’t get it to experience them at their original difficulty in Heavensward, now’s your chance!

New Alliance Raid: Thaleia

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Thaleia marks the third and final chapter of Myths of the Realm. We’ve received many compliments about the area design and scenery in the series, and we’re confident we’ll live up to them in this alliance raid as well. We hope you’ll enjoy the duty itself and the story as well.

We’ll be showing gameplay footage of Thaleia in the next Letter LIVE.

Duty Support for Stormblood

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Duty Support will be added for the Drowned City of Skalla, the Burn, and the Ghimlyt Dark. With this update, the Duty Support feature will be available for all dungeons visited in the main scenario from A Realm Reborn to Endwalker. One thing to look out for is the friendship between Alphinaud and Arenvald, which wasn’t depicted through dungeons before.

With the free trial expanding to include Stormblood and the main scenario being completable almost fully solo, we’d be grateful if you could take this opportunity to invite friends or family members who’ve yet to experience Eorzea!

Variant & Criterion Dungeon #3 (6.51)

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Our third V&C dungeon will whisk us to Aloalo Island, where we will be accompanied by Matsya. Quite a lot of work has been poured into this story as well, so we hope you’ll look forward to it.

As with previous V&C dungeons, Variant/Criterion/Criterion (Savage) difficulties will all be available from the start. Furthermore, Aloalo Island will be playable even if you haven’t tried the Sil’dihn Subterrane or Mount Rokkon.

Job Adjustments (PvE/PvP)

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On the PvE side of things, we won’t be making major changes before the new expansion, but there will be minor adjustments within certain roles.

PvP Updates

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Note that Patch 6.5 will not be bringing a new Crystalline Conflict season. Crystalline Conflict Regional Championship Europe will be taking place in late September, so we felt it was best to refrain from making major adjustments before the tournament.
As such, the new season and adjustments will arrive in Patch 6.51 after the tournament has concluded.

Crystalline Conflict Update

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We have some minimap and UI adjustments in store for Crystalline Conflict, which will be introduced with accompanying gameplay footage in the next Letter LIVE.

We also took a sneak peek at the new upcoming Crystalline Conflict arena, which will feature its own unique mechanics.

Island Sanctuary Updates

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We listed off a number of upcoming updates for Island Sanctuary, including a new gathering area as well as new materials, crops, animals, and more. During the broadcast, we revealed some screenshots of new structures and something that might be loosely defined as a new “animal” for your island sanctuary.

Once you complete the sanctuary progression in Patch 6.5, you’ll unlock Felicitous Favors, in which the felicitous furball will task players with producing certain islework handicrafts. Fulfilling these requests will yield a special token which can be traded for exclusive rewards, so be sure to keep up with your sanctuary progression!

Fall Guys Collaboration

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Fall Guys collaboration content will be added to the Gold Saucer in Patch 6.5x. We hope it’ll be a nice opportunity for FFXIV players to experience the fun of Fall Guys, while Fall Guys players get a taste of Eorzea.

We’ll be able to show more of the collaboration content to be added in FFXIV once we get a little further in development, so please look forward to it!

Miscellaneous Updates

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Our latest Custom Deliveries client will be Margrat, a Sharlayan researcher with a… unique work ethic who happens to have a lot of lore behind her character. Her work ethic and passion for research happens to hit home for a lot of our Development team members, and her selection as the next Custom Deliveries client was quite popular internally.

Another update is the new ability to conduct consecutive aetherial reductions for collectables, which will surely be appreciated by our Disciples of the Land.

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Optional items will be storable in the armoire, which may open up a fair amount of inventory for you and your retainers.

The specifications of registering for Duty Roulette: Alliance Raid will be changed. Up until now, certain alliance raids were seen noticeably more frequently than others, but this change will lessen that likelihood moving forward. This change may not be welcome for some of us, but we hope you’ll understand that our intention for duty roulettes is to have our players experience various duties and not just a select few.

We also took a sneak peek at the mount that will be awarded for collecting all the mounts from 6.x Extreme trials.

Expanded Free Trial

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With the release of Patch 6.5, the Free Trial will be expanded to include Stormblood. We may expand it further in the future, but for now we’d like to invite newcomers to enjoy the game up to Stormblood and perhaps even stick around for the rest of the game. If you haven’t started FFXIV yet, perhaps this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for!

Upcoming Schedule

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Finally, we took another look at the upcoming schedule. We hope you’ll be looking forward to the updates to come.

In the next Letter LIVE, we’ll be sharing gameplay footage of the content announced in this broadcast and a closer look at the finer points of the updates.