Hello fellow adventurers. In this guide, I want to give you an overview of what it’s like during an expansion release, specifically for casual players, by looking back at my personal experience with previous expansions. I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIV since 1.0. So I’ve seen quite a few versions of the expansion and feel pretty confident about what to expect.

Additionally, I wanted to show off a tiny detail that people may have missed before that adds to the charm of each expansion update. There is no maximum uptime and readiness check, perfect time management and fastest upgrade experience. Just a look at the next two months, from one casual player to another.

From now on, I will go through it in chronological order until the release of Dawntrail. Before we start, I still want to remind you that if you want to have a comfortable gaming experience after entering the new expansion, it is a wise choice to purchase FFXIV Gil in advance.

Will Dawntrail Conduct A Media Tour?

First, let’s start with the media tour. By the way, all times and dates are from a European perspective.

The media tour will be held from May 15th to May 30th. This is an exclusive event for media, where invited media guests and influencers will get the first look at new abilities, trailers, and test job changes through a limited run of play, usually the first dungeon of an expansion.

Additionally, they will have the opportunity for exclusive interviews. All of this will be done in secret, and you won’t hear much about it until the embargo is lifted.

PLL

During this media tour, there will also be a letter from the producer live on May 16th. In this demo, we regular players will also see at least a job action trailer, some job changes, and possibly a new start screen for Dawntrail.

The second letter from producer live is scheduled to be sent out on Friday, June 14th. This will probably feature a release trailer.

The launch trailer is a story-focused video showcasing actual footage from the game. It will contain a lot of spoilers that many people may want to avoid, so they don’t know what to expect in the next expansion.

In the trailers, you’ll see and hear things that are completely taken out of context, and there are often a lot of red herrings.

Maintenance

The next big thing on the list is Early Access starting on Friday, June 28th and the associated major maintenance.

Every expansion release to date has been subject to 48 hours of maintenance, and this release also has one scheduled for maintenance. But there is a chance it can be extended to 72 hours.

This is because not only did we get a big software update, but the data center also got a physical update with the implementation of a new EU DC called Shadow. Obviously, preparations are already underway, but these times could still change.

On Lodestone, you’ll get actual maintenance times for your region and the usual patch notes. While these patch notes will be quite lengthy this time around, please note that some notes may contain spoilers, such as quest names, potential bosses and screenshots of cut scenes.

Typically, around half of the downtime, updates to the new launcher client and the game itself can be downloaded and installed by opening your usual launcher.

As a reminder, you must be logged in to get game updates. Simply opening the launcher will only update the launcher itself, so be sure to log in ahead of time and get game updates.

Early Access

The official release date is Tuesday, July 2, but most players will need to pay some additional fees to get into Early Access on Friday, June 28.

During this period, the logging queue will be very long. So be prepared to wait, maybe even up to an hour, for the line to finally clear up.

Frequent errors and queue crashes were common on Early Access launch day. Once you successfully enter the game, there is always the possibility of disconnection. So please be patient.

Also note that there is usually an auto-disconnect feature active that automatically logs you out if you haven’t moved for 30 minutes to avoid wasting time.

Because of new graphics updates, loading times may increase and overall frame rate and performance may decrease significantly. There will definitely be a detailed guide to the new graphics settings on Lodestone. Take the time to study them beforehand and it is recommended to set them up to your liking before jumping into MSQ.

Tips

The new main scenario quest will probably begin in Ojika Tsunjika in Old Sharlayan, where the previous quest ended.

Also, this small entrance hall can be very crowded. Check which button on your keyboard or controller is set to target the nearest NPC. By the way, please don’t stand on top of any quest NPCs so people can target them more easily.

It is important to note that one thing that can be activated to reduce the load on the server and clients is so-called instance. In the past, all new regions would have a maximum of three instances when the expansion launched. You can use command /instance to check the instance your character is currently on.

To switch to a different instance, you can go to Aetheryte in the area and select the instance you want to go to. Alternatively, if you have access to the zone border, you can exit and return to get a prompt asking which instance you want to access.

This comes in handy if you’re playing with a group of people, as party members may appear in different instances, even if you travel and teleport together.

Each extension update brings new job actions and abilities. Additionally, some may change and be updated or replaced. Please check your hotbars and the functionality there, and read the tooltip carefully to see if any changes have been made. You will read all the information about job changes on Lodestone in advance.

To unlock the latest area of flying, you may need to collect Aether Currents again. With Endwalker, Aether Compass, a device that helps you locate them, changes from a key item to a collection entry.

Once you complete all available main scenario quests in an area, the mount’s speed on land will increase. However, SDS Fenrir Mount allows you to drive faster on land in no time. If you plan on moving forward as quickly as possible, you may want to consider purchasing a store-exclusive mount before the expansion releases.

As for flying, possibly using Bicolor Gemstones or other new currencies to purchase additional riding maps will also increase flying speed.

As for inventory and items, make sure you have some form of food ready for the 3% XP bonus, as well as enough free space for all the loot and items that will drop.

Easter Egg

There may be a slight variation at the end, some even call it Easter Egg.

The extension may update images of Roulette of Duty Finder. For example, graphics of Expert Roulette and the highest level dungeon Roulette will always feature newly added jobs and races.

In Endwalker, this is Sage, Reaper and Male Viera. So in Dawntrail, expect to see Viper, Pictomancer and a Female Hrothgar appear in these images.

Now the last and most important thing is to have fun and take your time. You can only experience this new story chapter for the first time once. So you can explore new worlds at your own pace. Have a nice day!

With the much-anticipated FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail drawing near, just under 2 months away, are you feeling prepared? Here's an extensive list of everything you should do to ensure you're fully ready for the exciting launch!

Main Scenario Quests

Your first priority should be to catch up on the Main Scenario Quests (MSQ). You can't start Dawntrail if you haven't finished the existing MSQ content. If you're starting fresh with Endwalker, be ready because there are 108 quests to get through in those 50 days. For the Post-Endwalker MSQ, those quests number is a total of 47. Start getting to work on those now.

You'll have to do this as part of the MSQ anyway since the Post-Endwalker quests are Level 90, but make sure you get one job to the level cap as this is the level that the Dawntrail quests will start at. Even if you can complete them at a lower level, like Level 88, it may hamper you when it comes to dungeons, trials, so make sure you're as high as you can be.

Tomestones

Speaking of Tomestones, these are obviously going to change with Dawntrail. However, once you reach Level 100, you'll be able to turn all Comedy Tomestones into the next lower tier. So, for the release of Dawntrail, you should ideally be capped on the Allagan Tomestone of Comedy because that will give you an immediate gearing advantage.

You could also cap your Allagan Tomestone of Causality and the Allagan Tomestone of Poetics, especially if you haven't played the game in a while and you're lacking in Allagan Tomestone gear because all the item level 650 gear that you can get from vendors now. The Tome of Allagan Poetics will be available immediately after the expansion launches and you'll be able to exchange these Tomestones with Auriana in the Mor Dhona.

One very efficient and fun way of farming Allagan Tomestones before the expansion is doing the Hunt Trains. There's a Conductor who leads players from A-rank to the next, and each one that you slay in an Endwalker zone is going to give you both Allagan Tomestone of Comedy and Allagan Tomestone of Causality.

Duty Roulette

If you do want to level via Duty Roulette in FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail, then you should make sure to unlock as much of the content in the game as possible before the release of Dawntrail. I would strongly consider leveling a Healer or Tank on the side using roulettes because you're going to get the adventurer need bonuses pretty much every time.

Materia Transmutation

Now let's talk about how you can make some easy FFXIV Gil whenever the Dawntrail comes out. First of all, right now is a good time to store and stack up on all material that is available in the FFXIV. You can actually do something called the Materia Transmutation. This lets you turn 5 pieces of unwanted material into another type of material that can even be of higher level.

Meaning all of your Level 9 and 10 material that are basically worthless right now have a chance of giving you material that might be worth 10,000 to 15,000 Gil whenever the Dawntrail comes out. This is a much better use of material than trying to sell it for 500 or 400 Gil on the Market Board.

Grand Company Seals

Something else that you can prepare without having a crafting job is the Grand Company Seals. This is the currency that you can use to get various materials at your respective Grand Company. There's a good chance that there will be new materials added to the Grand Company vendor that will be used in crafts all throughout FFXIV. And it's just a good resource to have either way.

So before the Dawntrail comes out, you should make sure to get this as high up as possible. You may be capped, and all of this is going to be very time critical. So within the first few days of the launch, you should be checking this out if you want to get as much Gil as possible out of this. Everyone will be in a rush to make all the new gear and various other consumables.