The free trial version of Final Fantasy XIV will be massively expanded starting August 11. Players will have permanent free access to all content of the base game and the first expansion.
What’s available for free starting in August: If you have ever wanted to thoroughly test FFXIV without spending any money, you will soon have the chance to do so.
Beginning August 11 with the release of Patch 5.3, the base game “A Realm Reborn” and the first expansion “Heavensward” will become accessible to players of the free trial version of the MMORPG. This means you will have access to hundreds of hours of content.
This includes among others:
- All jobs and classes from FFXIV ARR, including the Dark Knight, Astrologian, and Machinist with a maximum level of 60 (current maximum level is 80)
- 6 playable races
- All quests from A Realm Reborn and Heavensward up to and including Patch 3.56, which marks the end of the expansion.
- The raids “The Binding Coil of Bahamut”, “Crystal Tower”, “The Void Ark” and “Alexander” normal and savage
- 49 dungeons from ARR and HW
- All equipment up to level 60
The end of the Heavensward expansion with Patch 3.56 marks about half of FFXIV, this part is Free2Play. After that follows the content of the expansions Stormblood and Shadowbringers, for which a fee is required. If you decide to upgrade the trial version to a full version, your progress from the trial will be fully carried over.
There are no time restrictions, so trial players can play all content from ARR and HW as long as they want. If you want to test several jobs or try crafting in FFXIV, you can take as much time as you need.
Trial players receive the same content as active players and will play together with them in dungeons and raids. In FFXIV, there are no separate trial servers.
Compared to the current version, which only goes up to level 35, this is a massive expansion.
Are there restrictions? There are still some restrictions. Trial players will not be able to access a large part of the social features:
- They cannot sell anything on the market board
- Cannot join guilds
- Cannot send friend requests
- Cannot whisper other players
The full list of restrictions can be found on the official page of FFXIV (via Lodestone). According to the statement of Director Yoshida, nothing will change regarding this.
Starter Quests will be improved
Along with the expansion of the free-to-play version, the old quests of FFXIV will also be revised. They will be shortened or completely removed to provide players with a smoother gaming experience.
The main story quests are mandatory in FFXIV and accompany players all the way to endgame. However, they are often described as lengthy and consist of many fixed quests. This is set to improve now.
- 13 % of the quests will be completely removed and the rest will be shortened
- New players will receive special teleport tickets that will quickly take them to an important location in the game. Previously, players had to return there repeatedly, which made the travel time long.
- Flying will be possible in the old areas of A Realm Reborn
- The quest where you receive your first mount will be mandatory and can no longer be overlooked.
All in all, August will be the perfect time to get a clearer picture of FFXIV. So if you want to consider which class to start with, check out our guide on that.
