Final Fantasy XIV has stronger and weaker content patches. Accordingly, the number of players rises and falls during expansions. If you want to jump back in with the highly anticipated content of Update 7.2, you can best prepare with these tips.
Naoki Yoshida, the Director and Producer of Final Fantasy XIV, wrote in a column for the Japanese magazine Famitsu about a fan question he received at gamescom: Whether there was a reason to play the MMORPG permanently.
He replied: It’s okay if you [Final Fantasy XIV] don’t play every day. Since it’s just a game, you don’t have to force yourself if it’s difficult for you. […] So come back and play freely when the big patch comes […]
The head of the game itself says that you should play your game only as long as you really enjoy it, and 7.2 is one of the biggest patches ever according to him. However, how do you get back into Final Fantasy XIV after a longer break? We have four tips for your return.
Story is everything – Pick up where you left off
Final Fantasy XIV is conveniently very consistent. If you dropped out at a point, you can almost seamlessly continue where you left off after a break. No matter how many patches have been released in the meantime: Raids, dungeons, trials, and co. remain relevant and playable.
First, you should catch up on the main story that you missed. The MSQ of an expansion contains all the new content. Therefore, your focus should be on this.
The next related quest will appear in the scenario guide, a UI element that appears in the default setting at the top left of the screen.
If you dropped out at a point where the story was somewhat tedious, quest-heavy, or perhaps just boring, there are two options. The first would be to skip cutscenes with the press of a button.
However, if you need to catch up not just on one or two patches of quests, but perhaps even on several expansions, you can spend some money: With the Adventurer Stories from the store, you can jump to the start of the DLC you want to play.
You can’t get closer to the current state of the expansion than with Adventurer Stories: Endwalker
. This allows you to start directly with the first Dawntrail quest Endless Possibilities
.
Caution: If you use the Adventurer Stories, your desired job will not automatically be leveled up to the required level. Therefore, you will need to farm experience points before catching up on the remaining quests – or you can also buy a boost for the job.
Practice your job or just start a new one
Depending on how long you were away, your old class has received some updates. Especially at the release of new expansions, jobs are often significantly reworked. Accordingly, Final Fantasy XIV plays slightly differently upon your return than before.
The best way to get back into it is to find a training dummy. These can be placed as garden decorations in front of houses. You can also find and target the following level 1 dolls in the overworld, as long as you have unlocked the area:
- Deep Woods (X: 24.0, Y: 19.5)
- Middle La Noscea (X: 26.2, Y: 17.4)
- Western Thanalan (X: 26.3, Y: 24.7)
We focused here on the level 1 dolls. However, there are also dummies for levels 50 and up in the corresponding endgame areas.
Alternatively, you can also unlock a new class and learn the skills during the leveling process. The levels you need for the individual jobs of the expansions, you can read in our beginner’s guide.
If you are looking for the current rotations of the jobs, the site Icy-Veins.com has extensive guides for you.
Current armor is essential
To ensure you don’t get in your own way, you should definitely look for new armor as soon as your current job is ready for the next challenges. Equip the job crystal for your desired job and press the button for Recommended Gear
:
Equip what the game suggests as optimized equipment. This can be done quickly with the Equip
button.
If your armor class isn’t good enough for the next combat content, you can still exchange your Allagan stones. You can read which are currently relevant and which have been sorted out in our guide to current endgame currencies. In it, you will also learn how to obtain the latest armors:
Alternatively, you can stock up at the market board with enough gil. Here you can find crafted items as well as gear available from NPCs. So before you spend a lot of money, it’s best to check out the NPC vendors in the next larger in-game city. Their wares are usually sufficient for dungeons and normal trials.
A fresh UI for a fresh perspective
Depending on how intensively you played Final Fantasy XIV before your break, you may have tweaked your UI and are now faced with an outdated layout. Or perhaps a layout that you can no longer work with at all.
In fact, a functional UI can make the game worlds easier for you. Combined with clever macros, Final Fantasy XIV even becomes incredibly comfortable. Macros, however, are something for later.
You can read everything about the UI of the MMORPG in the official UI guide. In it, you will find everything related to the basics. If you are looking for inspiration, this Reddit thread is a good starting point.
If you aren’t sure which UI adjustments would be good for you when returning to Eorzea, you can of course take care of these only after you’ve played a bit. If you find yourself overwhelmed by your previous creation, you can simply reset the layout back to standard.
With these tips, you should be ready to jump into Final Fantasy XIV fresh after your break. We wish you a lot of fun!
What’s next after your return
On Tuesday, March 25, 2025, Final Fantasy XIV continues with Patch 7.2. The developers will bring new story quests, as well as the new tier of the current 8-man raid. In addition, there will be a new trial in two difficulty levels as well as a new dungeon.
However, the additional major content will unfortunately only follow during the patch series: The cosmic explorations will go live on April 22, 2025, with Patch 7.21. The field expedition Kreszentia starts on May 27, 2025, with Patch 7.25.
If you want to know how to access this content, you can read all about it in our endgame guide. We will update this upon the patch release when the final patch notes go live.
Many players have been waiting for the field expedition Kreszentia for a long time – during the Endwalker patch cycle, there was no similar content. The focus back then was on making the game overall friendlier for single players. But until May there is still plenty of time to catch up on the story and prepare for the challenge. By the way, if you want to fundamentally change your character by then, you can still secure a free Fantasia until Tuesday: You can still receive one of the most popular shop items in Final Fantasy XIV for free in-game for one more week
