Merry Christmas! The Starlight Celebration, FFXIV’s festive event, returns for another year. Decorations have been stolen from a town in the black shroud, and one of the witnesses says that they were taken by the trees themselves.
The event revolves around you solving the mystery — while riding a bear. If you take a break from saving the world to save Christmas (or at least Eorzea’s non-religious version of it), you’ll get to keep your grizzly friend as a reward.
)
It’s a sweet event, but try and avoid making the same mistake my partner did the first time she tried it: The quest requires you complete a FATE, but it’s only level eight or so, which means you’ll have to level sync down in order to participate. Given how many people are there, it’s easy to lose yourself in the mayhem, forget, and end up empty-handed.
Other bonuses include the usual smattering of furniture (a poster and a baby tree) and an orchestrion roll. This year, it’s Starlit Gateway — not the theme you hear walking around Gridania, which was last year’s reward — a festive take on the Chocobo theme.
Pick up the quest that starts it off at Gridania (next to the Mih Khetto’s Amphitheatre aetheryte).The event ends on New Year’s Eve, so get in quick. It’s sooner than you think!
The sun rises on Patch 4.2
Naoki Yoshida delivered the last Live Letter of the year on Friday, detailing XIV’s next major patch: Rise of a new sun. As you can probably guess from the name, this one will take us to the Far East, where we’ll check in with the newly liberated Domans.
)
Outside of the story mode, we’ll see a brand-new raid tier, Omega: Sigmascape, alongside its savage-mode variant. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see what this looked like (they’re saving it for the January broadcast), but when I spoke to Yoshi-P last month he seemed really proud of what they were putting together with this one. Given that the whole Ironworks crew is front and centre in the patch art, too, I feel like they’re gearing up for a big reveal with this one.
In slightly more casual news, there were slides detailing the revamped glamour system. Commodes (wardrobes) will be added, which can store 200 items that you can then glamour onto your gear. You’ll be able to save outfits and use macros to flick between them. This is a huge step forward from the current system, and will probably allow people to empty a retainer’s inventory. You’ll only be able to access commodes in inns and cities for now, but they’re looking at broadening that in future, and the old glamour system will also be retained if you’re not into the new one!
)
Other additions? Two new dungeons — Hell’s Lid and a return to the Fractal Continuum — as well as a new Feast map, Ananta beast tribe quests, and the start of a new primal series, the Four Lords. Beginning with Byakko, this will essentially be Stormblood’s equivalent of the Warring Triad from Heavensward, and will be loosely based on the Four Symbols, Chinese deities. More housing will be available, too!
Sadly, Eureka won’t make it in 4.2, but will come out a month or so later in 4.25. It’s a shame, but for all those of us looking forward to / dreading a return of the relic grind, it’s finally on the horizon. The main patch will be released late January, so either the 23rd or 30th. You can check out an official summary on the forums here.
And finally...
Dates for the next Fanfests are out. North America will get theirs in November 2018, while Europe and Japan will have to wait until 2019. The fanfest site has been updated already, so if you’re looking to make plans, you can start now if you like.
Also, if you entered our festive Moogle giveaway, we drew winners. If you’re one of the lucky few we’ll be in touch over the next few days. Thanks again for entering — if you won, I hope you like it, and if you didn’t, hopefully we’ll be able to do something else like this soon.
