Now that we have a better idea of what's coming in Final Fantasy 14's newest expansion, we can officially call this time period the "road to Dawntrail"—though we guess it's technically more like the sailing trip to Dawntrail, given we're setting sail on a boat to the new lands.
Once the expansion launches, chances are you'll want to get into the thick of it as soon as you can. With all the cool stuff teased during the different Fan Festivals and Letters from the Producer, or "Live Letters," there's going to be a lot ahead of us, and there's little time to waste. After all, very good journey needs great preparation!
Lost about where to start playing again after picking FFXIV back up? Don't worry, we've got you covered with a few ideas. Here's where to get going to prepare yourself for the Dawntrail launch.
1. Check Your Computer (And Character) In The Dawntrail Benchmark
Great news: Everyone in FFXIV is getting the graphics upgrade!
Bad news: Everyone in FFXIV needs to be able to run the updated client that includes the graphics upgrade! “Aha, oh no,” said every broke PC player.
Luckily, Square Enix has given us a way to check our PCs to see if it’ll run the game by way of the official benchmark. Basically, it launches a cutscene that loads up all the major laggy scenarios that you’ll ever need to know, including masses of characters, a ton of players using battle effects, and far-distance map loading.
Even better for many players is that the benchmark includes the new graphic update, meaning you can check how your characters look before Dawntrail launches. You can even make the new female Hrothgar, if you really want! Unfortunately, the upgrade has many people upset at certain changes already due to the shift in lighting and certain features, but at least it sounds like everyone will get a free upgrade.
Did you run the benchmark, and it yelled at you that your computer isn’t compatible? Or maybe you didn’t even have the chance to get that score because the new requirements caused you to chug along too slowly? At least you have two months to upgrade.
You can find the official benchmark on the FFXIV site.
2. Warm Up and Catch Up On MSQ
Been a few months since you’ve opened up FFXIV? For better or worse, that also means you’re a little behind on the Main Scenario Quests (MSQ). Maybe that’s intentional for some, because there’s nothing to get you excited for a new expansion like catching up on the old one and remembering where we left off.
Whether or not it’s intentional, it might be worth your time to get on that. Each and every 6.X0 patch included a dungeon and a trial to tackle, meaning you’ve got a lot of duties ahead of you. Fans of Final Fantasy 4 will definitely enjoy the ride, but regardless, all of the duty content is really interesting. The plot felt a little slow release by release, but hey, now you get to binge it like a Netflix series.
Charging through MSQ also has the added bonus of getting your fingers and mechanics memorization warmed up, because, hey, it takes a while to get back into things, we get it.
3. Get Your Item Level Up
The most annoying thing is trying to queue up for a duty and getting that cursed blocked sound. And usually, it’s either because you’re not using your correct class, or you are, but your item level is too low! Oh no. Don’t forget, you actually do need to meet the IL minimums to progress through certain multiplayer duties.
Very often, the game will hand you enough gear to get you through at least the first dungeon. However, if you get your IL up, you’ll be able to coast through much of the expansion without fussing over items, and you may even be able to get small sums of gil instead of the gear, or you can just sell it for teleport money. Plus, if you're taking up either of the new classes, chances are you'll be handed gear capable of taking the expansion on as you go along.
If you're up for the grind, in short, here’s where you can pick up some high-IL level 90 gear from standard-tier raids:
- IL 635 — The Lunar Subteranne dungeon loot
- IL 640 — Diadochos crafted gear (buyable/tradeable), Anabaseisos raid gear
- IL 650 — Credendum gear (Tomestones of Comedy), Augmented Diadochos gear (trade in standard Credendum items for notes + Tomestones of Causality), Thaleia Alliance Raid loot (“left-side” gear only, no accessories)
- IL 660 — Augmented Credendum gear (trade in standard Credendum gear + items acquirable through Alliance Raids and Sacks of Nuts)
- IL 665 (Weapon only) — Relic Weapons (Manderville storyline + 1500 Tomestones of Causality per “tier”, x 3 tiers = 4500 Tomestones total)
Wanna delve a little more into how to get these? Don’t sweat! We have a more in-depth guide on how to get these items before Dawntrail hits. You can pray that your Poetics get you there on launch day with whatever new vendor pops up, too, but why take that risk?
4. Do Some Lore-Relevant Side Content
While the Endwalker patch content arguably lacked long-term substance, the lack of “grinded” content means that you should be able to catch up to everything else pretty well. In fact, a ton of the major side content this time around unveils some important and cool lore, and it won’t take too long to do them. Not to mention, the primary raids here will, again, get you the most up-to-date items…
If you’re going to do anything, your best bet is to hit the primary raids, called Pandaemonium. You get to meet the original Lahabrea (and a special long-time guest), the predecessor to the Carbuncle, and even an important 2.0 relic many fans have been wondering about. Raids are also a great way to brush up on mechanics that may appear in the next expansion, as this tends to be an experimental stage for what does and doesn't work for the playerbase.
Assuming you have time after, the Myths of the Realm alliance raids are pretty fun, too. Aside from giving you the highest-level items that aren’t crafted, you get to meet the fabled Twelve gods that rule Eorzea. And I really do mean that you meet them, even get friendly with them for a while.
If you want to check out more cool world discoveries beyond that, the Variant dungeons give a little more insight on various locales on the earth. While Alo-Alo is just a little bit of fluff, I’d say, The Sil’dihn Subterraine has some cool tidbits about the reigning monarchy of Ul’dah.
Of course, you don’t have to do everything to catch up, and I’ve argued before that doing literally everything is detrimental to fun. Still, Endwalker did put out a few interesting endgame pieces of content that are worth consideration, especially if you’re hoping to keep your fingers agile and rotations (re-)memorized.
5. Clear Your PC Storage (Or Get A New Hard Drive)
Did we mention there’s a new graphics update? Yeah, there’s this new graphics update coming, bringing everyone with or without the expansion new textures, character appearances, lighting and renderers, and much more. And while there’s a lot of new features, that means there’s a lot of new assets coming once Dawntrail comes through.
Now, keep in mind that the current game already requires about 70 GB. It’s already a hefty MMORPG with four expansions’ worth of lands, characters, and more.
But for Dawntrail? The recommended storage jumps up to about 140 GB.
Yep, if they estimated 6.0 right with its shiny modern-game-ish graphics, the game size is nearly doubling.
In fact, during a recent Live Letter, the producers explained that Dawntrail/6.0 patch aintenance will be 48 hours primarily so that everyone has the damned time to download the files. So be sure that your computer has the storage for it—and if not, get a little spring and/or summer cleaning going to make some room.
Anything else you’re trying to clean up before Dawntrail? Let us know!
