When does Heavensward begin ?

Hello everyone,

I just want to know when does Heavensward expansion begin. I did Van baelsar's fight but i see there are many quests before the expansion.

Thank you !

Officially after the Quest "Before the Dawn", around 100 Quests. Storywise, it starts slightly earlier.

Van Baelsar's fight is the end of the original 2.0 release. There's about 100 quests across the rest of 2.x content to get through, although some of that will take you to Ishgard adjacent content so it will probably feel like you're in HW even though you technically aren't. You'll get full access to 3.0 once you're done those 100 quests.

Consider the X.0 to be the base of each expansion.
2.0 is the base of A Realm Reborn.
You then have all of 2.X to get through, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5. In total, all of that content combined is almost as much as another 'base game'.

Same goes for Heavensward 3.0 base and then 3.X patch content.
Stormblood's 4.0 base and 4.X patch content, etc.
Although 3.X and 4.X aren't as much as 2.X

If you're rushing to get to Heavensward, you're gonna have a bad time. A lot of the 2.X series is decent content on it's own, but a lot of it is also tedious fetch quests.
They're actually trimming these quests down in patch 5.3 which comes out in about 3-4 weeks.

Yeah, 2.x was a chonk. I took a break from 2.3 to I want to say 3.1 and catching up took quite a while. I speak from experience when I said it will probably feel like you're in HW once you get to the later quests even though you technically aren't. Doing 2.x and 3.0 in one go took a very long time and felt like one big story since the last sections of 2.x are a direct lead-in to 3.0 story-wise. Aside from the 2.0 section, it's definitely the biggest section of the MSQ. The other expansions were not as linked as those two were.

The usual "story cycle" is that x.3 finishes that expansion's main story and starts setting up the next expansion's. So by the time you reach the 2.4 quests it may feel like you're in 3.0 territory. Unfortunately there's a lot of fetch quests and back and forth that's planned to be trimmed... "soon"

So... uh... keep at it!

I think that the xpac's narrative starts earlier than the X.0 patch, specifically I think it lasts from X.4 to X+1.3. However that depends on what the previous narrative focused on. ARR is wierd becuase it placed emphasis on the elemental primals and thus that arc "ended" in 2.4 (Dreams of Ice)...

However the seeds for Heavensward were patched in that patch as well, matchup to the trend of beginning the expac narrative two patched in advanced and the 2.X cycle also death with revitalizing the content of Eorzea on a societal level, given the apocalyptic effects of Bahamut's rampage as well as the Scions eventually moving to Mor Dhona, neutral ground that is independent of the citystates. In a way the Primal arc served a similar niche to the Raids and the Trial sideseries, a running narrative that ends at X.5...except again that plotline ended a patch early (technically so do the 8 man raids).

The primals were basically a way to bridge the ARR arc with the HW arc, overlapping with both and making it more "seamless", but I should note that had Moggle Mog XII were moved or made optional, then that arc would had ended at the 2.3 patch, bringing the ARR cycle more in line with the xpacs' narrative breakpoints.

Once you get about to the quest "Traitor in the Midst" you'll see yourself being introduced to story elements that are directly a part of the Heavensward quests or part of why you're even going to Ishgard in the first place. That said, there's a LOT of lore in those 2.x quests that will tie into the lore you encounter in expansions past that, in fact so far all three expansions have their roots in concepts introduced before 3.0 even launched. So while I know it is a lot to get through (I just did it all again myself about a month ago, so I get it) there's also a lot that's important to know if you want better understanding of the story you'll be told later.

I have tried to get through the 2.x story line so many times since 2013. Each time it gets too tedious for me and I leave for months or years.

Last time round (just pre the gender locked races) I boosted past it into HW, but I lost too much of the story.

Now back, and I decided to try again, and reroll with a fresh character, this time no story boosting.

But 45 on my latest attempt (gatherers are now 59, and crafters are over 54) and I'm in Mor Dhona and ugh, more deliveries.

Again, I can't take much more. I only ever seem to be fetching half of Eorzia the ingredients they need to make a burger. I should be the warrior of light, not a Uber delivery bikerider.

@above who are having trouble getting through the 2.x patch stuff.

If you are hating it, don’t worry! Take a break and do some other stuff. The very next patch is supposed to reduce a lot of the tediousness of the 2.0-2.x storyline. Of course you can just power through it..shouldn’t take you a week to do..but I do get it! (I just leveled an alt just got to Ishgard and yeaaaah, the tedium is real!)

Yeah, technically its "Before the Dawn" at the end of that long quest chain. I would say that the storyline starts to veer into HW after the fight with Ramuh. Previous to that, youre dealing with mostly issues for the Eorzean Alliance. After that, you start to spend a lot of time working on Ishgardian issues(trying to get them to join said alliance for instance). After Ramuh the storyline directs you to fight 2 dungeons and 2 trials that have a distinctly Ishgardian interest(along with the usual smattering of quests), while only one trial(and no dungeons) that are more generically Eorzean(optional content doesnt count, as you could easily skip it all).