LIVE LETTER BREAKDOWN: Final Fantasy XIV Patch 6.2 “Buried Memory” Announced For Late August

On July 5 (following a 24-hour downtime on July 4), Final Fantasy XIV will get the last patch in the 6.1 series, bringing adjustments to the game’s data centers and making way for 6.2 to start rolling out. Now, the big question on everyone’s minds is what to expect out of 6.2. At least that’s the case if you weren’t up early to watch this morning’s Live Letter.

Today, Yoshi-P and Morbol took a couple of hours out of their day to offer players a look at what to expect from the game’s 6.2 content. The new series of patches is titled “Buried Memory” and are loosely scheduled to launch in late August, so players can probably expect it anywhere between the 20th and the end of the month. Of course, as with the 6.1 content, not everything will arrive at once. Instead, it will roll out over time. That said, we definitely know what to expect in the coming months.

Of course, Buried Memory will continue the main scenario quest from where we left off – right from patch 6.2. No, they’re not saying how. Of course, they’re not going to. Spoilers. Also not being spoiled, but we know it’s coming in 6.2, is the continuation of Tataru’s Grand Endeavor (for which players need to have completed the Shadow of Mhach quest series). New Hildibrand is on its way as well, but players will have to wait until patch 6.25 for that.

Speaking of Hildibrand, if you want to get the new relic weapons, and you haven’t been keeping up on those Hildi quests, you’re going to want to get caught up. This round of relic weapons isn’t tied to content like Eureka or Bozja, but instead a series of quests that will update over time. And yes, they’re unlocked in the “Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures.”

For those interested in what the next tribal quest will be, I was right and we’re getting the Omicrons next. Get ready to start building that cafe at the end of the universe. This set of quests are for Disciples of Land, so if you don’t have a gatherer at at least level 80, get on that. (Bets are still on that the last tribe will be the Lopirrits.)

Patch 6.2 will also introduce a new dungeon named The Fell Court of Troia”, two new trials (one of them extreme), and the continuation of the Pandaemonium raids – Abyssos. The normal raid will hit with 6.2 and the Savage version will drop a week later. They’ve pushed the release up a week as a test run as some players have been asking for it. A new Unreal Trial, Containment Bay S1T7, will drop with 6.2 as well.

Of course, there will be technical changes as well. PvP and PvE are going to get some love as will the Dragoon and Astrologian jobs (eventually). Speaking of PvP, PvP Series 2 will begin with 6.2 and Season Three of Crystalline Conflict will kick-off. Rival Wings is returning as well. Excellent news for PvP fans.

While we don’t know anything about the upcoming MSQ story, we do know that existing MSQ content is getting some love. Duty support is being added for five more dungeons: Snowcloak, The Keeper of the Lake, Sohm Al, The Aery, and The Vault. The Steps of Faith has been turned into a solo quest battle, and the Thornmarch duty is being revamped.

Speaking of dungeons, Variant Dungeons are coming in 6.25. Variable-difficulty dungeons are level 90 casual content for up to four players. The interesting thing is that they have no role restrictions and players can change jobs as they like. In addition, enemy strength is determined by party size and progression branches based on how players interact. This means players can experience different stories depending on their path. Players can play through the content multiple times in order to experience all the stories. The first Variant Dungeon will be Sil’dihn Subterrane.

For those wanting something a bit more serious, Criterion Dungeons are going to be the way to go. These are level 90 high-difficulty challenge dungeons for four players. The party must consist of one tank, one healer, and two DPS. The path is set, and no NPCs are involved. If players are in a party with less than four members, the party will be filled out with matching. The first Criterion dungeons will consist of “Another Sil’dihn Subterrane” and “Another Sil’dihn Subterrane (Savage)”. They’re high difficulty by default. To make these even more challenging, these dungeons prohibit the normal methods of resurrection and replace them with a limited number of revival actions. The good news is that once an enemy is dead, it’s dead – even if the party dies.

And now, we come to… Island Sanctuary! Yes. If you’re like me and have been waiting to find out what the devs have in mind for this thing they’ve been teasing us with forever… well… we now know stuff. For those who were hoping that this might be a replacement for housing, get ready to hop back into the bidding wars, it isn't. Nothing that happens in Island Sanctuary will have any impact on what goes on in the rest of the game. That said, if you just want to build cool stuff and let your minions run around free while getting some gardening in (not the growing Thavnarian Onions kind) then this is going to be your jam.

Island Sanctuary is casual, solo content. Players can gather materials, take care of critters, build stuff, craft items, and even sell those items – for currency specific to the Island Sanctuary content. All the activities described for Island Sanctuary take place in the sanctuary. This includes gathering materials and crafting tools from them, growing crops from seeds found on the island, collecting critters and caring for them, and building a base of operations. Everything is customizable. Oh, snd…the island is HUGE.

The one thing that does seem to cross from outer Eorzea to the island is minions, which can be set loose in the base.

While the Island Sanctuary is a super casual experience for players and pretty much solo, there are some social aspects to it. First, players can have their friends over to visit. They can also create “handicrafts” and export them. The idea is to track market demand and know what to make. Don’t go thinking this is a good way to get money to buy a house though. You’re not going to be getting gil here. Island Sanctuary will have its own currency – currency that can be traded in for special items.

On another “social” topic, adventurer plates and portraits are being upgraded. Once the changes hit, players will be able to create and use portraits for different uses. That means more portraits. It also means losing the portraits you have currently as they wipe the ones from the Beta Version and prepare for official release. (We also kinda suspect that this was just an easy way to get rid of some of the more questionable portraits players have created.)

One really nice change coming with the portraits is that it will allow players to create a portrait for each gear set. To make it easier, the gear set list will be displayed in the portrait interface. New poses and decorative features will be added as well.

In more general changes (that should be expected with new raid content on the way) a new tomestone is being added – the Allagan Tomestones of Causality. New high item level gear is being introduced as well. Speaking of gear, if you haven’t been keeping up with your crafters, you can now request repairs from other players (just like you can materia melds). This can be done both in and out of duties.

Changes are being made to how actions are displayed in action lists as well. Now players can view abilities either in the standard list that we’re used to or in a branching view. The latter will allow players to see how skills proc off of each other as well as what skills have been replaced by others. It can sometimes be confusing to players when a skill is simply replaced by a higher-level one on their bar, so this could be an excellent fix for that.

Crafters and gatherers are getting some love with 6.2 as well. New Rare materials have been added to the aetherial reductions performed by gatherers. The Return to Ivalice quests have been adjusted. Makin’ Bacon (Bread) and Wok on By will become obsolete. Oh, and kinda crafter related – if you make your own glams, glamour dresser capacity is being doubled. Soon, players will be able to store 800 pieces of gear and still only use about 20 of them.