The first major post-launch update to follow Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker‘s December release will arrive in April, and will include a variety of new content and features. Titled ‘Newfound Adventure’, or Patch 6.1, it will include a continuation of the main scenario quest, new sidequests featuring Tataru and Hildibrand, a new alliance raid that will delve into the mysteries of the Twelve Eorzean gods, and more.

Part of this update will include the implementation of data center travel, and today, producer and director Naoki Yoshida supplied details including a correction for players who utilize the Japanese data centers. A quick note: only the Japanese data centers will undergo a redistribution of Worlds at this time. He clarified that the world redistribution will take place at the same time as the start of the Data Center Travel system. For a limited time, the Home World Transfer Service will be free to those who are mulling a move ahead of time, as amends for the disruption.

Currently, before the implementation of data center travel, you can use the World Visit system at each city-state’s main aetheryte to travel to another World housed in the same Logical Center. Data center travel will allow you travel to different logical data centers housed within the same Physical Data Center. For North American players on Crystal, for example, it means that you can visit your friends in the Primal or Aether data centers. This will be executed from the character select screen, and the team anticipates a wait of “less than a minute to three minutes” to complete. However, the team qualifies that with a statement that a 30 minute estimate was originally given for situations where servers are especially congested. Such situations may arise when a surge of players is using Data Center Travel right after it’s implemented in 6.1, or a surge of players arrives after a patch or expansion, or there’s congestion due to player-held events or gatherings in the destination data center.

Regarding the redistribution of Worlds on the Japanese data center, Yoshida shares that it’s a necessary improvement to the game, though regrettably, it does tend to disrupt affected communities. Over the course of the game’s operation, the team has been able to increase the amount of simultaneous logins in a logical data center, but therein too lies limitations. To that end, there will now be four logical data centers that will house eight Worlds, instead of three logical data centers that house 10 or more Worlds. This redistribution will allow the team to “significant” increase the number of simultaneous logins per World by about 2,000 players. Due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage, the team feels this is the fastest and most efficient way to do a large-scale expansion.

For players who operate a CWLS (Cross-World Linkshell) or a PvP team name that have some of their members relocate to another logical data center within the same physical data center, that linkshell or team name will be “copied” to the destination data center. While the linkshell and team name will remain intact (in the case of duplicates, a number will be affixed to differentiate) players can only communicate with others who are in the same logical data center. Also important to know is that changes to membership in these copied versions will be different than the original – so the team advises having your members join each iteration of the CWLS so that they are consistent.

Another feature in 6.1 will be the opening of a new housing area in Empyreum, Ishgard’s residential district. Featured prominently in 2015’s Heavensward expansion, players returned to the city in subsequent expansions to participate in special crafting and gathering activities to restore a previously destroyed district.

What’s different this time is that the team will be implementing a lottery system for lots in its 48 available wards (half of that total are subdivisions). When 6.1 releases, all of the land available to purchase will go through this lottery system, but at a later date, and with the development team’s discretion, some wards may be first-come first-serve.

These housing plots can either be purchased by free companies or individual, private buyers. To use the loterry system, players will submit a lottery entry for their desired plot during a pre-determined period of time and a winning entry will be randomly selected from the pool of entries. That winner will gain the ability finalize the purchase. The entry period will last 5 Earth days, after which there will be a 4 Earth day wait where players can confirm the results and finalize the land purchase if they win. Following that, a new lottery cycle will begin for unclaimed lots.

If you enter as a private buyer, you’ll need to have one class at level 50 and hold the rank of “second lieutenant” or above at any Eorzean grand company. If you enter on behalf of your free company, your company needs to be rank six or higher, have four or more members, you must be a member for at least 30 days and be authorized by your free company to purchase and relinquish land. Both types of entry must also complete the quest “Ascending to Empyreum” to be able to travel to the Empyreum zone.

To enter the lottery, you’ll need to interact with the placard outside an available plot of land in a housing area — this will open a menu in which you’ll be able to confirm the plot’s price, address, size, whether it’s available to free companies or private buyers, and whether it’s sold via lottery or first-come-first-serve basis. The entry deadline will also be displayed. By entering you will deposit the full sum of the plot’s value, which will be returned to you if you do not win the lottery – but you MUST claim that refund within the allotted time or you WILL lose it. You can confirm your entry by interacting with the same placard.

Should you win the lottery, you need to finalize the purchase of the plot by interacting with the same placard you submitted your entry from. If you are relocating from an existing plot, 15% of that plot’s value will be refunded to you. This amount won’t exceed the value of the new plot. The team is planning to retire the devaluation of plots over time in the same patch, so that all plots will retain the initial value.

More information on other content available in Patch 6.1 will be shared in the latest Letter from the Producer Live broadcast on April 1st – but if you’d like to read through our summary of the first 6.1 preview broadcast, you can find that here.

Final Fantasy XIV is now available on Windows PC, Steam, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.