Final Fantasy 14 patch 7.1 releases November 12

Final Fantasy 14‘s latest expansion Dawntrail arrived in early July and it’s time for the first major patch of the expansion, titled Crossroads. The content in patch 7.1 will follow directly on the events of the expansion, so players will want to make sure they complete the main scenario questline before reading up on the details of this patch. As is typical with FF14 patches not everything announced will arrive with the patch this week but will unlock with the minor patches 7.15  and 7.16 due December 17 and January 21, 2025 respectively.

The continuation of the main scenario story is the primary concern of most players, and it’s going to focus on the fallout from the events of Dawntrail especially those involving Sphene and the people of Alexandria. The new leaders of Tural will have their work cut out for them, and the Warrior of Light as always will be there to assist. There will also be a new dungeon Yuweyawata Field Station for players to explore.

Besides the main quests, there is additional story content coming. The first group of Allied Society quests and reputation will be implemented for the Pelupelu, the diminutive merchant-focused NPCs of Tural. Expect the quests to be on the lighter side to match their attitude during the campaign. There will also be an epilogue to the Pandaemonium raid of Endwalker added to complete that story.

Patch 7.15 will add new Custom Deliveries for the client Nitowikwe, allowing players to craft Collectables to earn currency towards rewards.  In addition the Wachumeqimeqi Deliveries available since release will have a capstone quest and finale. Those who have been follow the exploits of the gentleman hero Inspector Hildibrand will have Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures Quests to complete in this patch as well.

The final addition for solo game play are Role Quests that will be releasing in patch 7.16. These are described as a finale for those who have completed the quests for all of the player roles in Dawntrail so if there are some role quests you have not yet completed you’ll have until early next year to get them done to partake in the end quests.

New raids and trials arrive in Crossroads

“Echoes of Vana’diel” will be the level 100 24-player Alliance Raid series for the expansion, and is a collaboration with the story of Final Fantasy XI. The first part of Echoes titled “Jeuno: The First Walk” will release with patch 7.1, and additional raids will release in later major patches.

Futures Rewritten is the first Ultimate Raid of the expansion, and will go live one week after patch 7.1 alongside the minor patch 7.11. Like other Ultimate Raids players will need to have defeated the previous raid on Savage difficulty, in this specific case AAC Light-heavyweight M4 from patch 7.0.5. Futures Rewritten is based on the Eden raid series from Shadowbringers and posits an alternate future for Ryne and Gaia. A new wrinkle to Ultimate raiding is that with patch 7.11 passive limit break generation will only occur if no job is duplicated across the eight raiders — stacking probably Dragoons or Vipers won’t be a viable strategy!

The final new raid is The Cloud of Darkness releasing one week after the arrival of patch 7.15 in December. This is an Alliance Raid for 24 players, and will have the new “Chaotic” difficulty. Chaotic Alliance Raids are designed to be harder than normal Alliance Raids, reaching almost the same level of difficulty as the Savage version of standard 8-player raids.

There will also be two new versions of existing Trials with higher difficulty levels in Crossroads. The Minstrel’s Ballad: Sphene’s Burden will once again have players fight the Queen Eternal as they did in the level 100 Trial The Interphos, albeit in a new harder challenge mode. The Unreal Trial difficulty returns with a level 100 update of the Stormblood trial The Jade Stoa where the fierce White Tiger auspice Byakko awaits.

System updates in Final Fantasy 14 patch 7.1

The biggest system update in Crossroads is to PVP, as that mode is getting an extensive rework. At the center of the rework is a change in how action execution and hit detection work; previously hit detection was triggered at the time of action execution, but with patch 7.1 the hit detection will match visual effects instead. This change isn’t universal, however, and some actions will still fire on execution on a case-by-case basis — Paladin’s Guardian was used as an example of such an action.

All jobs except for the new Pictomancer and Viper ones will be getting big adjustments and new actions for combat, as well a balance pass. In addition, HP is going up across the board, making it much harder for players to K.O. using a burst damage attack so PVP players will need to rely on their basic combos as well.

To address the changes in PVP gameplay, two of the Crystalline Conflict arenas — Cloud Nine and Red Sands — will have mechanics and terrain adjusted.

New Game+ mode has been added for the Dawntrail Main Scenario Quests and Role Quests as well as for the Viper and Pictomancer job quests. As always, players will need to have completed the associated quests to unlock New Game+ mode.

The Hall of the Novice is getting additional training for a variety of battle mechanics in patch 7.1 as well as some explanations for concepts that may be unfamiliar to new players.

Finally, the Glamour Chest is receiving a highly desired update — outfits will now occupy a single slot rather than a slot for each article of clothing. Unfortunately this requires every article to be in a player’s possession, but it should help players who are running tight on space due to serious collecting.

Patch 7.1 arrives on November 12, and the patch notes detailing these and other features and updates can be found here.