Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker: A Spoiler-Free Endgame Guide
An MMO’s staying power depends on the quality of its endgame content.
For the uninitiated, this is the content designed for players who have reached the maximum level, completed the story and who are now ready to tackle the greatest challenges the game has to offer.
Final Fantasy XIV offers a very strong endgame experience in Endwalker. It is clear, from the outset, that it has been designed with the players in mind. There’s a lot to cover, here, so strap in.
Dungeons:
This is, perhaps, the weakest aspect of Endwalker’s endgame. At time of writing, the game boasts three endgame dungeons. Each fourplayer experience is roughly 15 minutes long. They are well designed, and couched in well executed storytelling. For the casual player, the best way to acquire gear is through tomestones. Unfortunately, the best way to acquire those is to repeat the same three dungeons over and over again.
Granted, they are very well designed pieces of content, with boss mechanics which will keep you on your toes over many playthroughs. However, unlike World of Warcraft, there are no ‘heroic’ or ‘mythic’ difficulties for Endwalker’s dungeons.
This process, though initially engaging, can get monotonous. However, it did keep me amused for many hours.
In a recent live letter to the fans, Naoki Yoshida (Final Fantasy XIV’s charming producer) did hint at the addition of ‘criterion dungeons’ which may add more challenging dungeon variants. For now, however, players must sit back and wait.
The Raiding Layer Cake
We cannot talk about a PvE-centric MMO without discussing raiding at endgame. On the whole, Square Enix offer a robust and engaging set of options for players. As with many MMOS, they are arrayed into tiers: Normal, Extreme and Savage.
Raids themselves are slick and efficient affairs. There are no waves of trash mobs to pull, here. Each raid is an encounter with a single boss, putting 8 players through their paces for anything from 7 to 15 minutes, depending on the tier.
At time of writing, there are fournormal and savage raids available, along with two extreme trials. By the end of an expansion cycle, you might expect to have roughly three times this amount of content available, with three Alliance Raids thrown in on top of that, too.
There are also Ultimate Raids and Unreal Raids, but we’ll get to those later.
Casual Raiding
As with many of Final Fantasy XIV’s strongest features, Normal raids are slathered in exactly the sort of energetic, bombastic storytelling one would expect from a JRPG. These eight person experiences are replete with melodramatic, cackling villains and eerie, unsettling monsters. They aren’t trivial, either. A full party wipe is a very real possibility, even relatively late during the patch cycle. A single mistake won’t kill you, though two might and three definitely will. Crucially, at this level of play, your mistakes are unlikely to wipe the rest of the party. This well calibrated difficulty plateau ensures a tangible challenge without steepening the on ramp too much. Once I’d acquired the gear I needed from these raids, I found myself making excuses to return to the well crafted encounters they had to offer.
Alliance Raids come next. Roughly equivalent to normal raids in terms of difficulty, these 24 person setpieces are often themed and always boast an engaging story. Endwalker’s alliance raid is scheduled for Patch 6.1, scheduled to drop in April. Alliance raids in previous expansions have been some of the most beloved content out there, so players are expecting big things for 6.1.
There’s a lot to enjoy about the casual raiding scene in Final Fantasy XIV. The bite size, well-paced 15 minute long encounters can be just the thing to unwind after a day at work, and, though there is some difficulty there, you’re unlikely to be tearing your hair out in frustration.
Less Than Casual Raiding
Extreme Trials are reimaginings of 8 person story setpieces which raise the difficulty ceiling and offer a meatier challenge. Seeing pivotal fights from the main story reimagined is a real treat. In terms of difficulty, these fights are a significant step up from Normal raids. Here, a single mistake will likely kill your character, forcing them to slack off on the floor while your pals try desperately to cover for you. Still, only the most crucial mistakes will wipe the party, so there is still room for error. At this level of difficulty, it is recommended that you find your own party, rather than a randomly generated one found through the duty finder.
This is, unfortunately, where the limitations of the MMO genre start to show themselves. At this level of play, a degree of planning is absolutely necessary. Though groups often form for these raids on the party finder, they are often precarious affairs, with players of varying skill levels who, through no fault of their own, might rub each other the wrong way. The alternative is to build a “static”: a regular group of players who intend to move through the content at their own pace. If you can get it right, this can be extremely rewarding, however, the time and energy investment can be off-putting and certainly provide a barrier to entry.
Savages are where the rubber meets the road in terms of endgame. These are the difficult, grueling fights where every player has to bring their best. Like Extremes, Savages are reimagined versions of the Normal Raids. If you can master your job, learn the fight and find a good static, this is some of the most rewarding content in gaming at the moment. However, those three ‘if’s can be pretty tall orders. This is why, despite the deft and skillful design on display in these encounters, Endwalker’s endgame should not be regarded as a silver bullet for MMOs. Endwalker’s Savage content embodies the best features of the traditional MMO endgame paradigm, but it absolutely does not break the mold.
Ultimate and Unreal trials are the very tip of the mountain and represent the most challenging content the game has to offer. If you are reading this and are already making progress on, or have cleared content at this level, I officially declare you overqualified for this guide. Go show off your cool weapons in Limsa Lominsa, you absolute champion.
Everything Else
If there is a secret sauce in Final Fantasy XIV, it’s here. This game has an extremely broad range of content. Though it offers the traditional raiding PvE fare, many players at endgame avoid the more difficult content in favor of setting their own goals.
Despite the game’s clunky transmog system, it is a common mantra within Final Fantasy XIV’s communities that “glamor is the endgame”. Why beat your head against a wall in a savage, when you could strut around Old Sharlyan in a carefully curated outfit replete with Dope Threads from all across Eorzea?
Why not take up crafting? FFXIV’s crafting jobs have their own storylines and leveling system. One member of my Free Company described fishing as “the most relaxing thing he has ever done.” You can even acquire special mounts from which you might look down upon the non-crafting peasants.
Housing is another great way to spend time. Though it is notoriously difficult to acquire real estate in FFXIV, anybody can buy an apartment. The housing decoration system is surprisingly well designed, and is reminiscent of the Sims in its intuitiveness and fun. Invite your friends over and watch them gawk with joy and/or disgust at your virtual home.
There’s more besides, too. Players can hunt for treasure, participate in seasonal events, level different jobs, take some cool photos with the G-pose tool or even start an in-game band. The truly adventurous could even embark on the famous Hildebrand quests — a screwball comedy that has to be seen to be believed.
A World of Possibility
There’s a lot to do in Eorzea, even after you finish the main story. Compared to other MMOs on the market, Square Enix presents players with a buffet. That said, as with any live service, content droughts are a problem. As avid a FFXIV player as I am, I often find myself taking breaks, but, I will always find myself coming back when something new rolls out.
When a player asked Producer Naoki Yoshida how to stay motivated to play every day, he famously replied:
“It’s alright not to play it everyday. Since it’s just a game, you can stop forcing yourself if it’s hard on you to keep that up. Rather, it’ll just pile up unnecessary stress if you limit yourself into playing just that one game since there are so many other games out there. So, do come back and play it to your heart’s content when the major patch kicks in, then stop it to play other games before you got burnt out, and then come back for another major patch. This will actually make me happier, and in the end, I think this is the best solution I can answer for keeping your motivation up for the game.”
This is what separates FFXIV’s endgame from the herd. It isn’t designed to be continuously binged for maximum profit. It is meant to be savored and enjoyed at the player’s own pace.
So, get out there and enjoy Eorzea’s endgame however you like, and, should you take a break, there will be plenty of fun waiting for you on your return.
Cat Bussell is a Grad Student and Wannabe Games Journalist from London
