In the 71st Letter from the Producer Live broadcast, Final Fantasy XIV director/producer Naoki Yoshida and global community manager Toshio Murouchi revealed the first look at the game’s upcoming Patch 6.2 and what players can expect when it launches in the coming weeks.

We’ve summarized the major information below — check it out!

Patch 6.18

• Tuesday, July 5 Release (after 24 hour maintenance)
• Data Center Travel
• Addition of Meteor to Japanese Data Center and World Distribution
• Addition of New Worlds to European Data Center
• Replacement of server equipment in European Data Center

Patch 6.2 – Buried Memory

Patch 6.2 is scheduled for late August 2022 and is titled “Buried Memory”. Here’s a look at what’s to come:

• New main scenario quests.

• New sidequests: Tataru’s Grand Endeavor continues (Players must first complete the Shadow of Mhach quest series to participate.)
• Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures (Patch 6.25).

• New Weapon Enhancement Quests (Patch 6.25). Unlocked in Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures are the legendary Manderville Weapons.
• Quest-centric progression which updates throughout the 6.x series.

• New Tribal Quests (Patch 6.25) – The Omicrons (Disciple of the Land (Gathering).

• New Dungeon – The Fell Court of Troia.

• New Trial – it’s a secret! Of course there will be an extreme version.
• New Raids – Pandaemonium: Abyssos and Abyssos (Savage). The Savage raid will be released one week after Patch 6.2.
• Pushing the release of Savage by one week is something they’ll be doing as a test run as there are both requests for and against it. Whether or not the next Savage will also be moved by one week will be considered based on the results of this test run and player feedback.

• New Unreal Trial – Containment Bay S1T7 (Sephirot).
• Job Adjustments including PvE and PvP adjustments. Extensive adjustments to the dragoon and astrologian jobs have been postponed.
• Intentions behind job adjustments will be explained.
• Critical & Direct Hit Adjustments – Planning adjustments for instances in which buffs, debuffs and attributes related to critical/direct hits do not result in expected benefits. Further details will be shared in Part 2.
• PvP Updates – PvP Series Two begins. Season Three of Crystalline Conflict (Season Two begins July 5 with the release of Patch 6.18). Rival Wings will also return.
• Continued Improvements to Main Scenario Quests – Duty Support will be added to various dungeons including Snowcloak, The Keeper of the Lake, Sohm Al, The Aery and The Vault.

• The Steps of Faith is now a solo quest battle and is no longer a duty.
• Thornmarch has been revamped because it was thought to be too difficult.

New Battle Content

• Variant Dungeons.
• Variable difficulty dungeons, previously introduced as Criterion Dungeons.
• Level 90 casual play for 1-4 players (4-player party when matched).
• No role restrictions, job changes permitted.
• Enemy strength is determined by party size.
• Route of progression branches based on player action.
• Variant Dungeon #1: The Sil’dihn Subterrane. You’ll explore the depths alongside a certain someone. Experience a different story depending on your chosen path (All stories can be enjoyed through multiple playthroughs.)

• Another Path – Criterion Dungeons.
• Level 90 high-difficulty challenge for 4-player parties.
• Players must comprise one tank, one healer and two DPS.
• Visually similar to Variant Dungeons, but structure and enemy difficulty level is entirely different.
• Criterion Dungeon #1: Another Sil’dihn Subterrane and Another Sil’dihn Subterrane (Savage).
• Parties fewer than 4 players will be supplemented via matching. Normal methods of resurrection will be prohibited – players are granted a limited number of revival actions.
• Defeated enemies do not revive after party KO.
• In the Savage mode, you’ll have to pre-form the 4 player party as no matching is available. All methods of resurrection are prohibited. Enemies will become much stronger if they’re not defeated in a certain time limit.

Island Sanctuary

• Build your own personal island sanctuary.
• Enjoy new casual solo gameplay; gather materials, care for creatures, build facilities, craft items and more.
• Gather materials from nature – materials are island-specific and take up separate inventory space.
• Craft tools from gathered materials.
• Grow crops – plant and cultivate seeds you find on your island (different from estate crops.)
• Collect and care for creatures. Keep an eye out for rare coloring and unique creatures.
• You will also build a base of operations, with the ability to customize its appearance and unlock further tools for development. Minions will wander freely within your base.
• You can create “handicrafts” by assembling collected materials and exporting them. Try to align exports with market demand for the best possible results. Note that handicrafts will be sold for an island-specific currency, not gil, and gameplay is not affected by other players.
• Earn rewards and exchange accumulated island currency for special items.
• Socialize with friends by inviting visitors to travel to the islands of friends and Free Company members.
• This content is intended to be played at a casual, comfortable pace. You’ll unlock flying at a certain point.
• More details will follow in Part 2 of the Patch 6.2 live letter.

Other Updates

• Adventurer Plate and Portraits move on from beta phase. Includes changes to portrait linking.
• Portrait linking will be changed. Currently, a number of portraits could be created and then used for any purpose. When previewing gear, current gear was reflected.
• As of 6.2, a different portrait is created for each avenue of use. When previewing or editing, gear used during portrait creation is reflected instead of current gear.
• Note: all portraits created in the Beta Version (current version) will be lost after official release. Yoshida apologizes for the inconvenience.
• Adventurer plate portraits and search comments may be edited from the Adventurer Plate interface. Portraits may be updated to reflect current equipment, but platers may also choose to edit only camera settings, motions, etc.
• The gear set list will be displayed in the Portrait interface, allowing players to create a corresponding portrait for each set.
• Instant portraits used during Doman mahjong.
• New poses added.
• New decorative features added.
• Feature for copying pose/camera settings for portraits added.

• Allagan Tomestones of Casualty added.
• New high iLevel crafted gear added.
• Ability to request repairs from other players (both in and outside of duty).
• Combo sequence display added to the Actions list.

• Rare materials will be added to aetherial reductions performed by miners, botanists and fishers. (Materials not used in crafting battle-related items.)
• Glamour dresser capacity expanded from 400 to 800.
• Adjustments to the order of certain Return to Ivalice quests. “Makin’ Bacon (Bread)” and “Wok on By” will become unavailable.
• Video of a lot of today’s features will be in Part 2’s presentation.

Announcements

• THE PRIMALS Live in Japan – Beyond the Shadow Blu-ray will release on September 14. Includes ‘Close in the Distance (Beyond the Shadow)’ & ‘Hic Svnt Leones (Beyond the Shadow) in-game orchestrion rolls.
• Embody’s Immerse Gamepack ‘FFXIV Edition’ is on sale now through Monday July 18/Tuesday July 19th depending on timezone.
• A new TV show featuring entertainers from Yoshimoto Kogyo Co. “Looking for Party Members” will air on Japanese TV. Starting July 9th and you can stream for free on PC & smartphones.
• The Eorzea Cafe will have a limited opening Kyoto, Nagoya, an Yokohama (Japan) from June 15 through August 31st.
• Recent important announcements have been posted to the Lodestone regarding network delay and packet loss as well as details on the expansion of the Japanese data center, European data center, and revisions to Housing Ward Classifications.
• Yoshida notes they had a lot of feedback from players on improving the quality of the connection and work toward improving that during maintenance. Working with several ISP since the FF11 days to further improve.
• Data on lag and packet loss is valuable to the team, so they ask that you continue to share that information.