Veteran Warriors of Light already know the drill and are aware that the first fan fest of FFXIV always reveals the next expansion, and this time it wasn’t the exception because our next destination is Evercold. This new expansion will take us all to the Fourth reflection for some new proper Final Fantasy adventures. While there isn’t much information about the story yet, there are several details about some of the updates coming to 8.0, and, as Yoshi-P has put it, it is an evolution of this legendary MMO in many impactful ways.
Evercold Will Take Warriors of Light to a New Reflection
Let’s kick off the roundup of FFXIV: Evercold with the new trailer, which, as you know, is just a small teaser of what’s coming to the expansion. Regarding what is coming for the MSQ, all we know is that we will take a trip to the Fourth Reflection, and it seems the events that will accompany the MSQ of 7.5 next week will start setting the stage for the new expansion.
The trailer only showed some of the new locations, a couple of new, mysterious characters, and also some of the Scions joining the Warrior of Light, including Estinien and Alphinaud. Oh, and it seems that the poster job for Evercold is Reaper, so if you want to do a “canon” run of the story, you’d better start leveling up that job. And now, with that out of the way, let’s take a look at the evolution FFXIV: Evercold will present to all players.
FFXIV Evolving Several of Its Systems When Evercold Launches
Let’s begin with one of the new systems that Yoshi-P and his team mentioned will evolve FFXIV once Evercold arrives, and that is “Adventurer Activity.” While still in development, Yoshi-P mentioned that they are moving away from the daily activities and instead offering players a weekly progress system, where everyone can log in and do certain activities to increase their item level, gear up, or something else.
The example showed a tracker with different things to do and each awarding different points, such as completing MSQ missions or turning in collectibles. Players will now be able to choose what to do instead of focusing on the usual daily roulette cycle that, according to the team, has become stale for many players.
Another thing that is changing once Evercold launches is how item level gear works, with players now being able to reach the highest item level with all their characters, as long as one has a high level. The example showed how a job with an item level of 790 would transfer that item level to other jobs, assuming they are all at the same level. In Evercold‘s case, the new 110 level cap.
Also, when it comes to job changes, we saw a confusing system called Reborn and Evolved combat, of which the former is the one we already know and will be available for all existing jobs, except for Blue Mage, but Evolved will apparently streamline combat rotations, while also providing a slightly more powerful combat mode, as Yoshi-P mentioned. However, he didn’t share much of it, so everyone felt a bit confused by it.
Beyond that, there are also changes coming to raids, with the biggest one being a new difficulty between 8-man normal and savage raids. This change will let players try a harder version of an instanced raid, but without having to jump to the extremely challenging savage tier. And in the case of Alliance Raids, Yoshi-P mentioned the team is working on streamlining some of the 24-man raids to make them faster to run, yet not shorter in terms of content. But, like many other things, we’ll have to wait for the Berlin Fanfest to learn more.
On top of all these additions, FFXIV: Evercold will also bring character customization updates, such as color selectors for eyes, skin, and even lips, and the ability to layer face paints. And if that wasn’t enough, we’ll also get the option to hide individual pieces from certain outfits, meaning that your glamours will be much easier to customize. Oh yes, and while it was only a teaser, the team is working on different action movesets for jobs, letting you customize your character even more, even when fighting.
There were several other changes announced during the keynote of FFXIV: Evercold, such as Same-Region Player Matching, season spanning two patches without season passes like in other games, two new jobs, a Tank and Ranged DPS, both of which are still a mystery, the crossover with Evangelion for the new Alliance Raid series, Shadowbringers included in the free trial, and the MMO arriving on Nintendo Switch 2.
Of course, this is just the beginning of the Fanfest tour, and we’ll get way more information during the Berlin Fanfest, according to Yoshi-P. But now, we finally have a new expansion on the horizon, meaning now’s the perfect time to catch up and jump into patch 7.5, which will land on April 28.
