We’re incredibly excited about FFXIV: Endwalker here, and Patch 6.0 will bring it to life. You can find the full preliminary patch notes here, and it’s a lengthy read. We’re not going to cover every single facet of the patch notes, but we’re going to definitely be going in-depth on what you can expect. Not every feature teased in Endwalker is going to drop in this patch though. For example, the Pandæmonium raid will be available in 6.0.1. The treasure hunt instance the Excitatron 6000 and the raid Pandæmonium (Savage) are scheduled to be released in 6.05. In addition, the PVP content, Crystal Conflict will be in 6.1 or later.

The 6.0 Patch Notes for FFXIV: Endwalker talks about Playable Content, Battle Systems, Items, System, Quests, FATEs, Grand and Free Companies Changes, updates to the Manderville Gold Saucer, and The Feast. With that in mind, let’s talk about FFXIV: Endwalker, Patch 6.0! I don’t know about you, but I absolutely cannot wait. Once those servers open on Friday, I’m going to be there, pushing through so I can get a review out to you as fast as possible.

Some of the new areas have a screenshot in the Patch Notes for FFXIV 6.0, but none of them have spoilers. A few of the additional new areas were also not shown here for spoiler reasons. I can respect that. We have two new major cities: Old Sharlayan, and Radz-at-Han. They tease some of the field areas too, like Labyrinthos, Thavnair, Garlemald, and Mare Lamentorum. Garlemald looks especially sinister, and it should. After all, it is the home to the Garlean Empire, and they are decidedly not good. But the standout to me is Mare Lamentorum on the Moon.

You can see the planet we call home easily, and a brilliant lunar palace – much like we saw at the end of Final Fantasy IV. That cannot possibly be a coincidence. Perhaps a wise old Lunarian will be lurking? Maybe one with a gigantic white beard?

In this section, FFXIV announced a positive to change to an already great system. Flight! The number of aether currents in all Heavensward, Stormblood, and Shadowbringers areas has been reduced, and the location of the current aether currents was adjusted. This is likely to make it easier to get flying around these pretty massive areas. They also state that those who met these requirements prior to the release of 6.0 will unlock the ability to fly in these areas.

Sure, I’ve had flight for a while, but this is an incredible change for incoming players/alts. It was already a pretty easy system to master, and sure, people with aether current maps will have to adjust them online. But this is certainly a positive change. Some of these areas are just huge, and can be frustrating to travel on foot or on ground mounts. This will make flying up to higher platforms/areas much easier. Definitely a nice quality-of-life change.

Another minor change, Role Quests were added, and for Physical DPS, they were divided into Melee DPS and Physical Ranged DPS. You can see these quests in the actual patch notes, though they do not spoil anything.

This looks like it will be like the Delivery Quests we were already doing in previous expansions. Studium Deliveries will have Disciples of the Hand and Land going through one of five series of quests, associated with the Studium facilities. Completing the deliveries will also advance the story of that facility. This makes crafting/gathering more attractive as well because we get more story content in it.

More Tradecraft/Fieldcraft leves were added in Endwalker, but multiple turn-ins for these were not added. I’ll miss them, I won’t lie. They also changed EXP for Leves slightly. Experience awarded for a class at Level 80 or above, for a leve below level 80 will have its exp capped at 1,000. So make sure to be doing content that’s relevant to you!

They also discussed the “consideration for the inflation of gil, and potential rewards using a single leve allowance,” and this led to adjustments being made for EXP/Gil rewards for leves:

• The exp and gil reward for tradecraft leves that only allow a single turn-in has been increased.
• The experience and gil reward for tradecraft leves that allow multiple turn-ins have been reduced.
• The experience and gil reward for fisher fieldcraft leves that only allow a single turn-in has been increased.
• The experience and gil reward for fisher fieldcraft leves that allow multiple turn-ins have been reduced.

Yeah, this makes sense. It makes me glad I grinded all my Gatherer/Crafter classes to 80 before this, though! As a side note, spearfishing fieldcraft leves will now require more fish. It’s also going to be its own new mini-game, so spearfishing will feel like its own thing, and not just gathering herbs or ore.

FATES are returning, of course. There will be bicolor gemstone rewards for 6.0 FATES and can be traded with Gemstone Trades for a variety of goods. The items will get better over time, so don’t neglect your FATES.

There will also be new Treasure Hunt maps, of course, and the tomestones rewarded for 6.0 maps were changed from Tomestones of Revelation and Tomestones of Allegory to Tomestones of Poetics. But will we get new Housing options? Now that the Firmament is complete, the Empyreum housing district will be added in Ishgard. Only Ward 1 will be available in 6.0 to visit. The sale of plots and apartments will begin in 6.1. We wish everyone the best of luck in getting a house in The Firmament!

In 6.0, Male Viera can be selected at character creation. You can also use a Vial of Fantasia, or recruit them as your Retainers. Male Viera is finally here, so if this is what you’ve been waiting for, wait no longer! Female Viera also gets a new hairstyle to pick, and Hrothgar hairstyles will be added in Patch 6.1. This isn’t personally a big deal for me, but I know a lot of players are excited about it.

The Trust System also got some changes, such as the addition of Estinien as a new Avatar NPC. This will be a bit later in the Endwalker story, and he can’t journey with you into Shadowbringers dungeons. The Trust NPCs will also cap at Level 90, and the requirements for unlocking Scenario Mode were removed. Both the Avatars and Scenario Mode unlock after completing Shadowbringers. This is great news for people like me, who seldom use Scenario Mode at all.

On top of that, they’ll gain EXP faster, in accordance with downscaling of other in-game values. This also means the exp rewarded will also be adjusted. On that note, Wondrous Tails rewards were changed, and more duties have been added as objectives. The addition of these will not affect a Wondrous Tails already in progress, prior to reaching level 90 with at least one Disciple of War or Magic.

• The Tower at Paradigm’s Breach
• The Minstrel’s Ballad: Hades’s Elegy
• Cinder Drift (Extreme)
• Memoria Misera (Extreme)
• The Seat of Sacrifice (Extreme)
• Castrum Marinum (Extreme)
• The Cloud Deck (Extreme)
• Level 81-90 dungeons

Wondrous Tails are an excellent way to get EXP, so if you haven’t unlocked it in Idylshire, it’s worth looking into.

With the Battle Systems, the biggest change is that we’re going to be leveling to 90. We also get two new classes, the Melee DPS Reaper, and the Healing Class Sage. If you’re curious about the changes made to classes, we have a handy guide for you. Some people are going to just want to dive right into the new classes and start there – that’s perfectly fine! If you’re interested, here are where the Reaper and Sage class quests start:

Reaper: The Killer Instinct:

• Disciple of War or Magic – Level 70
• Ul’dah – Steps of Nald (X: 12.8, Y: 8.6)
• Quest Giver: Flustered Attendant
  

Sage: Sage’s Path:

• Disciple of War or Magic – Level 70
• Limsa Lominsa – Lower Decks (X: 9.4, Y: 12.9)
• Quest Giver: Sharlayan Maiden

Gear for both Reaper and Sage were added as rewards for some duties and will also be sold by NPCs. They can’t use the Hall of the Novice though or gain first-time completion bonuses from Guildhests. Combo timers and time allowed for executing actions were also extended, which is nice. Another nice feature is a change made to Limit Breaks. They don’t cancel combo actions anymore, and the range of effect for Healer Limit Breaks was increased (30 to 50 yalms) for greater effectiveness.

That’s right, a stat crunch happens in 6.0. Weapon damage is going to be adjusted, the effect of determination on damage was increased, and the determination/piety attributes of certain low-level gear has been adjusted to match critical hit/direct hit attributes. These are being said to be minor, and won’t affect game balance. HP, damage, several values have been adjusted, but will not affect game balance at all, according to Square Enix.

With this in mind, the amount of experience required to level up Disciple of War/Magic classes and jobs has been adjusted. This is why exp was reset on our classes. The patch notes did point out a reason:

“Because the database must be overwritten to implement the downscaling of values, any experience points accumulated between levels prior to the release of Patch 6.0 will be reset to 0.”

So, that’s the reason. It’s not terrible, and the exp should be easier to get. Speaking of EXP, the Armoury Bonus for classes below level 80 was increased from 50 to 100%. At level 80 and onward, it will be a 50% increase in Exp from defeating enemies and FATE rewards – so you still get something. On the topic of EXP: New World and Preferred World bonuses now apply to all jobs at level 79 or below. You can find more info on that here.

One thing is pretty vague. Experience points previously earned form standard dungeon enemies will now be earned from dungeon bosses. Does this mean the trash packs don’t give experience anymore, and it all comes at the bosses? That’s a strange choice, but I’m sure it will even out.

There will also be new trials and new dungeons, but these are not being spoiled at all. Unreal Trials are also temporarily disabled, but a new one will come in 6.1. You can still spend your Faux Leaves though. Many previous trials also now have a Weapon Coffer, which will be based on your current class. If you are a Paladin, you gain a Sword and Shield.

Not a lot of PVP announcements. Reaper and Sage received actions, and Season 20 of The Feast will end, and a pre-season is on the way. I think we’ll get more PVP announcements a little deeper into Endwalker.

Of course, there’s going to be awesome new gear in FFXIV: Endwalker, in patch 6.0 and beyond. There are some awesome gear designs based on Final Fantasy IV designs, and I cannot wait for them. New recipes are on the way as well, and certain items can now be sold, desynthed, or submitted for expert delivery missions.

Crafters and Gatherers’ Scrips are changing too. White will be the only usable Scrip. Red Scrips are being removed, and Yellows can be exchanged for Whites. Items obtained by exchanging Yellow Scrips will now be obtained via White Scrips.

Armoury Chest expansion is coming too, for Main Hand and Rings tab, going up to 50! What a wonderful world we live in. Gear for Reaper and Sage can now be acquired from Grenoldt in the Tempest, after reaching level 80, and completing the level 80 Role Quests for each job before getting their gear. Some items were renamed, and many items are no longer considered unique. A system was also added to dye artifact gear, after reaching a certain point in the story. Now that is awesome. I want my gear to look unique, even if it’s artifact gear. More items are dyeable, and more items can be equipped, regardless of gender, which you can see in the patch notes.

A wealth of items also lost the piety attribute, likely due to balance. Gear for Disciples of War Tank Classes, below level 50 gained more Physical and Magical Defenses. Another important crafting change, recipes for Gladiator’s arms and Shields have been removed. They were placed with a new recipe, to craft them as a set. That way, you get both the Sword and the Shield for rare, beautiful weapons.  This may cause problems for your “Recommended Gear”. But the most important thing from gear changes: Belts.

BELTS ARE GONE. They can’t be equipped, the Waist Tab of the Armoury Chest is gone, they can’t be repaired. You can’t extract materia from them, or equip it to them. You can get your materia back from current belts though. You can’t buy them anywhere, and they can’t be sold on the marketplace. You can’t trade them to friends, and recipes for belts have been removed from crafters that could make them.

Their category in-game is now listed as “Unobtainable”, and their descriptions have been changed (which is very funny). Belts were a part of the Calamity Salvager, under “Retrieve Obsolete Belts”. This also means item level calculations were changed, and all crafting achievements involving belts were adjusted. Even the Speed Belt in Eureka Pagos is gone but was replaced with a new item, Blitzring. I do not miss belts. But I am not looking forward to cleaning out my armory and inventory.

There are simply so many things we didn’t cover in this, but we just can’t get to it all. But I feel we highlighted as many of the important changes as we can. FFXIV’s Patch 6.0 is huge, and it heralds the arrival of Endwalker. Starting at 3 am EST, the Early Access will begin for players that pre-ordered the game, so they get a three-day headstart on the expansion. Be careful, be kind. Don’t go spoiling story content for people, either.

I’m incredibly excited and will be putting out as much coverage as I possibly can. The game is being changed in so many positive ways, and it’s refreshing to see a company listen to its fans, and shift the game towards the future, instead of leaving it in the past. I hope you’re ready to go to the Moon. We have so many new adventures to tackle starting this weekend!