Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXXXIX (11/14/2025)

We are pleased to present the full digest of the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXXXIX! 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 7.4 Preview Part 1

Patch 7.38

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Before diving into what Patch 7.4 has in store, we revealed the release date for Patch 7.38.

In Patch 7.38, a furnishing featuring artwork by Akihiko Yoshida will be implemented to commemorate the release of FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles. The furnishing will be obtainable from treasure coffers in the Return to Ivalice alliance raids.

Whether you're a newer adventurer who's yet to try the alliance raids, or a veteran revisiting them after playing FINAL FANTASY TACTICS, we hope this will be a fun opportunity to play through Return to Ivalice!

Patch 7.4 Release Date

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We typically announce release dates in the second part of our patch previews; but given the timing of this patch and the feedback we received when the Cloud of Darkness (Chaotic) was released last December, we decided to announce the raid and gear schedule sooner than usual.

Patch 7.4—Into the Mist will be released on Tuesday, December 16. Savage will be released later than usual and will be playable starting Tuesday, January 6, 2026.

The holiday season can be a tough time for raid groups to play together, especially with North America and Europe going on holiday break. Releasing Savage during the holidays wasn't completely ruled out, but with our various service providers taking off during this time of year, we chose this release schedule to provide our full support should any issues arise.

This irregular schedule means our Week 1 raiders will be more geared than usual when Savage is released. But knowing that some of our raiders won't be starting Savage until later in the patch, we've only made minimal adjustments to the difficulty to compensate for the higher item level.

The Patch 7.4 artwork features the Arcadion's finest fighters in a wrestling-style poster. We hope everyone is excited for the final round of opponents, and with plenty of time to gear up, we hope you’ll be well-prepared for the challenges ahead!

What’s to Come in Patch 7.4

New Main Scenario Quests

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The first screenshot features some sort of vehicle, which might be our means of transportation to another location. In another screenshot, Krile appears to be deep in thought; perhaps she'll have a major decision to make.

As we take our first steps towards the upcoming story arc, there will be unfamiliar areas and new faces. These story developments will be a glimpse at what's to come in future patches, so be sure to pay close attention!


Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures

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The story will be quite... unique, as usual. The screenshots have surely raised a lot of questions, and we hope you’ll look forward to experiencing the wackiness yourself as Hildibrand’s adventures in Dawntrail start to wrap up.

New Dungeon – Mistwake

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The name of this dungeon has the word “Mist” in it, similar to the title of the patch. How curious…

The first screenshot shows the entrance area; Yoshida requested last-minute changes to the dingy lighting, so the final version may look different. The story leading up to Mistwake is for our Warriors of Light to discover for themselves, but we can promise that there will be plenty of shifts in scenery!

New Trial - Hell on Rails (Normal/Extreme)

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Both the Normal and Extreme versions of this trial will be added in Patch 7.4.

Where and why are we battling this frightening foe? We can’t reveal that yet, but the encounter is shaping up to be a hectic one.

This boss has a nightmarish expression, but don’t look away—keeping an eye on them will be crucial in this encounter! Our design adjustments have been going well, so we hope you’ll look forward to facing them down!

New Raid - The Arcadion: Heavyweight Tier

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Here’s a sneak peek at the upcoming arenas and opponents in the Arcadion. The colosseum-style arena certainly looks perfect for a "final showdown”—with no guardrails to keep you from falling off.

We're glad that the Arcadion fighters have been quite popular, and you’ll want to keep an eye out for these new opponents as well. In our next Letter LIVE, we’ll be going in-game to look at what our battles against them will be like.

Tsukuyomi’s Pain (Unreal)

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Our veterans will remember that the floor color plays an important part in this encounter. This trial was quite popular for its stunning scenery, and we hope you’ll enjoy it again in Unreal!

Duty Support Update

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Dzemael Darkhold and Aurum Vale will have their mechanics adjusted to be compatible with Duty Support NPCs.

Additionally, Patch 7.4 will introduce a new feature for boss encounters when using Duty Support. Until now, when your character was incapacitated, the whole party would wipe and the encounter would be reset. But with this new feature, after each wipe, your character will accumulate stacks of a buff that will automatically revive them upon K.O..

For example, if you wipe to the first boss of a dungeon, you'll get one stack of the buff; this gives you an "extra life" for your next attempt. Should you wipe on the same boss again, you'll gain another stack of the buff for a total of two "extra lives" for the next attempt.

Defeating the boss will reset the auto-revive buff, so you'll start over from no stacks when you proceed to the next boss. This feature is meant to lend a hand to those who are making their way through a dungeon and find themselves stuck on a particular section.

As for why the auto-revive buff doesn't just allow multiple revives from the start, we felt that some people might just go in as a tank and AFK through encounters, which is why we decided on these specifications.

This auto-revive feature will be added to all dungeons that are accessible through Duty Support. If you were struggling with battle mechanics in Duty Support, we hope you'll give them another try!

PvP Updates

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The new Frontline map will have mechanics based on weather, such as snow and auroras. We'll be going over its new rules in the next Letter LIVE!

Additionally, replicas of previous rewards from the Feast will be added. These have been requested for some time and will be added as new PvP rewards.

Gold Saucer Update - Air Force One (The Cieldalaes)

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A new map will be added to the Air Force One GATE in the Gold Saucer. It’s been a while since the original map was implemented, so we hope you’ll enjoy blasting away in this new one!

Phantom Weapon Update (7.41)

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With this update, phantom weapons can be enhanced up to IL775. The enhancement materials will come from a variety of different duties including the Occult Crescent, so you can obtain them from whichever content you prefer.

Incidentally, the Development team has been talking about redesigning the weapon enhancement process, so future series might shift from the current style of quests.

Occult Crescent Update

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The update will add three new phantom jobs: Mystic Knight, Dancer, and Gladiator. We hope you'll look forward to them and their phantom actions!

We're also adding new accessories that will increase your stats in Occult Crescent. These rare drops can come from various Occult Crescent activities, so you might get lucky and obtain them as you're leveling the new phantom jobs!

We're currently designing a sequel to Forked Tower with multiple difficulty levels, as many players had mentioned that they had wanted two difficulties for Forked Tower. This will be a major Occult Crescent update in Patch 7.5, so we recommend obtaining the new accessories and leveling your phantom jobs in the meantime.

On a related note, we'll be making changes to make Forked Tower more accessible for future challengers.

New Cosmic Exploration Star - Oizys (7.41)

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Cosmic Exploration will be taking us to a new star—Oizys, a planet with traces of a bygone civilization. The screenshot shows a bunch of rubble floating in midair.

• A variety of new developments await on the new star.
• Cosmic tools can be enhanced up to IL765 and will take on a new form.
• Exchange vendors will offer several new rewards, including the new gear and peculiar mount shown in the screenshot.
• A sort of "chain bonus" will be given for completing multiple missions in a row.
• Ruin Exploration is a new activity that can be progressed alongside missions, which involves finding ancient records about Oizys and appraising them for various rewards.

We'll be going over more Cosmic Exploration updates in the next Letter LIVE, so stay tuned!

New Variant Dungeon - The Merchant’s Tale

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These screenshots have a wildly different look from the scenery we typically see in the world of FFXIV. Given their painterly appearance, these might be mistaken for concept art, but they're in-game screenshots of 3D renders!

Originally, we were going to create this variant dungeon's unique look with special shaders, but that would've changed the look of player characters as well. So instead, our designers kept the normal shaders and did their best with textures and lighting angles to create this storybook scenery. They went through a ton of trouble to create this look, but it was also a good exercise in getting extra creative.

We hope you'll enjoy taking a stroll in this unique setting!

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We took a sneak peek at some of the cutscenes from the Merchant's Tale. For this adventure, one of Y'shtola's relatives will be accompanying the Warrior of Light.

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As you can see from this screenshot, we'll be diving into a book titled "The Merchant's Tale" and exploring the world within! That explains the painterly scenery from earlier!

Before going into detail about this upcoming adventure, we did a recap on what variant dungeons are.

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In variant dungeons, the route you take and certain bosses are influenced by the decisions and actions taken by the player. As you explore, your log will be filled with records that fill in the blanks as you work out the mysteries. As such, these duties involve certain puzzle-like elements; decisions like choosing which door to open or whether or not to trigger a mechanism can change what you find during your adventure.

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Variant dungeons can be done with a group, but you can also do them solo if your schedule doesn’t align with your friends. Unique duty actions known as "variant actions" will help make up for missing jobs and party members

There are a wide range of rewards, obtained through treasure coffers, exchanging tokens, and even rewards for completing all possible routes. Variant dungeons can be done at your own pace and in your own time, so we’d be happy if you could try previous duties as well!

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After you complete a variant dungeon, additional challenges await: criterion dungeons and Savage criterion dungeons.

That said, we received lots of feedback regarding these challenges and have changed how these duties are structured!

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Variant Dungeons
Variant dungeons will remain the same as before; you can participate solo or in a group of up to 4 players. If you’re looking to explore the various routes, this is the option for you!

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Variant Dungeons (Advanced)
The exploration routes are removed in this version. There will be three bosses that can be fought in any order. The bosses will be slightly stronger than their regular counterparts but won't be overwhelmingly powerful.

The defining factor of advanced variant dungeons is how you can freely choose which bosses to fight. For instance, let’s say there are three bosses. You could immediately start from Boss 3, and you even have the option to leave after fighting only Boss 3.

In other battle content, when you specifically want to practice the third boss battle, you still need to defeat the first and second bosses to get there. Advanced variant dungeons will allow you to challenge the bosses in any order; you can even leave after defeating only one or two bosses, if you so choose!

There will be personal rewards for defeating each boss. That being said, the ultimate goal of the duty is to defeat all three bosses in one run, so there will be a hidden room with additional rewards that will become accessible when you manage to defeat all three. Play the way that suits you best, and work your way up towards eventually defeating all three bosses!

Advanced variant dungeons are designed for groups consisting of two to four players. Their difficulty will be automatically adjusted based on the number of participants, and variant actions will be available, so feel free to participate with smaller groups.

Over the years, our players have often asked for a way to practice individual phases from high-end duties. Executing each phase one after another is considered part of the challenge when we balance the difficulty of those battles, but variant dungeons feature multiple bosses. We thought they would be a good opportunity to include unorthodox elements such as the freedom to challenge in any order, repeating a particular section over and over, and the option to still enjoy something even within a limited span of time. With these new design ideas, we're hoping to provide stepping-stones for players to gradually work their way towards a full clear.

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Criterion Dungeons
This difficulty level also has no routes and focuses on boss encounters, and further enhances the challenge with stronger enemies and harder mechanics.

Criterion dungeons are meant to be a tough challenge, so revival methods will be limited and bosses must be defeated in a specific order. That said, the bosses are still separated into their own battle areas (Boss 3 won't come barging in when you're still fighting Boss 2!); in that sense, criterion dungeons are like regular dungeons, where you battle three separate bosses in order.

We also received feedback that simply increasing the bosses' stats wasn't interesting enough, so we'll be making some tweaks to the boss mechanics in the criterion version. If you’re up for the challenge, we hope you’ll aim for a full clear of criterion!

Criterion dungeons will have brand new mechanics, so even those who practice in advanced variant dungeons first will have a few surprises to look forward to in criterion. That said, variant and advanced variant dungeons will be designed to be complete experiences on their own, so we recommend enjoying whichever difficulty you prefer.

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Finally, we shared an overview of the upcoming variant dungeon’s duty structure. As you can see in the image, each version varies in the number of players, levels, and party role compositions.

You can enter variant dungeons from level 90, so you can level your jobs there. It's also worth noting that criterion dungeons require a specific party composition, but those restrictions won’t apply when you enter with a preformed party.

We look forward to hearing your feedback after playing through the new variant and criterion dungeons, which would help us make improvements to future iterations!

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We took a sneak peek at the bosses and rewards that await in the Merchant’s Tale. This boss certainly looks like something you'd see in a fairy tale!

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There are still other rewards aside from the ones we showcased here.

“Exploration” is a core concept of variant dungeons, and we hope we were able to deliver on that concept with this storybook-style world that we’ve never seen in FFXIV before.

We’ll be showing in-game footage of the Merchant’s Tale in the next Letter LIVE, so please look forward to it!

New UI Color Themes

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You'll be able to change your UI theme to Clear Green and Clear White!

Strategy Board

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As we've mentioned in previous broadcasts, we are implementing a new Strategy Board feature which will allow players to coordinate and share their raid strategies in-game. When you've created a board that you're confident with, you can generate a code to share the board with others. The Strategy Board can stay displayed during battle and even highlight your specific job, so it'll serve as a handy reference during practice!

We plan on expanding upon the feature in the future, such as adding more of FFXIV's official icons, for even more flexible usage.

We'll have a live demonstration of the Strategy Board in the next Letter LIVE!

New UI Feature: Command Panel

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Inspired by player feedback, we'll be adding a new interface element called the "Command Panel"!

The Command Panel can display anything that can be placed on a hotbar, with 4 tabs of 25 slots each. Are your main hotbars getting cluttered with rarely-used macros, items, and emotes? Put them here instead!

The Command Panel can be easily accessed and stowed away with a single button; we're currently working on options to automate this as well.

We'll also have a live demonstration of the Command Panel in the next Letter LIVE!

Glamour Update

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We'll be updating our glamour system to be even more enjoyable for everyone!

Your gear will be glamourable with any other gear that you own, regardless of their class, job, or level restrictions. For example, you'll be able to use your main job's high-level outfit even when you're leveling up a new job! Weapons and tools are the only exceptions; since they affect animations, they can only be glamoured over items belonging to the same job or class.
* Certain pieces of gear, such as race-specific gear, will only display its appearance if the conditions to wear them are met.

This will be a significant addition to what you can mix and match to make outfits, so you may want to start collecting any gear that you want to use!

On a separate note, we shared an update about upcoming housing updates. The increased outdoor and indoor furnishing limits are in the final phase of adjustments and server optimizations, with implementation scheduled for Patch 7.5. As for the feature to expand housing interiors regardless of plot size, the system is complete but also requires optimization, so we're currently working on increasing the furnishing placement limit first.

We'll continue to work on these updates and more to enhance your creative capabilities in FFXIV!