After the spectacle and excitement surrounding the July 29 announcements of FFXIV’s next expansion, Dawntrail, few thought about today’s special edition of Live Letter at the 2023 Las Vegas Fan Fest may exceed all expectations. But with Naoki “Yoshi P” Yoshida once again present during the proceedings, FFXIV fans were given the opportunity to get a glimpse of Endwalker’s latest major patch, 6.5. And we’re here to give you a rundown of everything you’ll be excited about in Final Fantasy XIV Update 6.5:
Everything you need to know about FFXIV Endwalker Update 6.5
Here’s everything you need to know about Endwalker Patch 6.5: Growing Light, from the estimated release date to the new content!
Contents hide Release dates for update 6.5 More quests of the allied tribes: Arkasodara meets the Loporrits New story, new dungeon: Moon Dungeon New test: Abyss Rift Last raid of the Endwalker Alliance: Taleya Third dungeon option: Aloalo! < span class=”lwptoc_item_label”>New Crystal Conflict Arena: Red Sands
Release dates for update 6.5
Patch 6.5 is called Growing Light and has been confirmed to be released in two parts as a larger than usual patch. The first part will release in early October 2023, just half a month later than expected, and the second part will release in mid-January 2024, where we originally expected the new Dawntrail expansion to release. Dawntrail itself will be released in the summer of 2024.
More Allied Tribes Quests: Arkasodara meets the Loporrits
Topping the list of new content are new tribal quests. In this expansion, we helped Arkasodara and the Loporrits complete allied missions, and now it looks like they are destined to meet for the first time. An intergalactic collaboration between the moon-dwelling bunnies and the surface-dwelling elephant men seems ripe for us to get some more minions and mounts!
New story, new dungeon: The Lunar Subterrane
Of course, with the new major patch, this means more main story quests (MSQs). And that means a new dungeon. Our next dungeon appears to be on the moon of the Nether dimension, in a dark fortress ruled by the mysterious Golbez. It seems this is the last barrier between us and finally freeing the dragon Azdaja.
New Challenge: The Abyssal Fracture
But where there are dungeons, there are challenges, and we’ll have to fight the final boss before we have any hope of ending this expansion on a good note. Here we have to fight something extremely terrible in the Abyss Rift. Is this monster the result of Golbez’s nefarious plans? We assume so. And defeating him is the only thing that prevents us from going to the New World and enjoying the sun and fun!
Endwalker Alliance’s final raid: Taleya
There’s still unfinished business in Endwalker’s post-game, and that concerns the Twelve, the dozen gods that make up the Eorzean pantheon. We fought them in this expansion’s Alliance Raids series, attempting to uncover their true nature. Now we might finally understand it. Perhaps… Who knows? It was Emet Selch who advised us to do all this. Didn’t he bother to reincarnate and explain all this?
Third dungeon option: Aloalo!
Variant dungeons are the new hot thing in FFXIV. They have challenging solo content, challenging group content, and even have a Savage variety. And they have a lot of gifts and goodies. We expected this to be the second part of version 6.5, but we’re glad to be proven wrong.
New Crystal Conflict Arena: Red Sands
Crystalline Conflict is the developers’ favorite PvP mode and has had three arenas created for it since its early release. Endwalker’s lifespan. Now we have a fourth in Red Sands. Another reason to improve this very popular mode!
Another Island Sanctuary update!
The Island Sanctuary turned even the most casual players into property owners in FFXIV, giving us supposedly random content to play through (though Island Sanctuary could be called random for those who spent hours harvesting plants, mining minerals, and capturing animals). . The Island Sanctuary will receive what we expect to be the final update to the Endwalker expansion, although we hope it gets some love once Dawntrail releases!
