Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail – everything we know so far
Final Fantasy 14 Dawn Trail is the next expansion for the incredibly popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Since the official announcement in July 2023, details have emerged from developer Creative Business Unit 3 and the game’s in-person Fan Festival events in Las Vegas, London and, most recently, Tokyo.
There’s plenty we know about now Dawn trail, including the preliminary release window, as well as the new jobs (classes), the main story and the raid content. But there are still many uncertainties about what we can expect Dawn trail Warriors of Light ushers in a brand new era Final fantasy 14 after the previous expansion, End runner (2021), concluded a storyline that had been in the works for over a decade. Here’s everything we know so far Final Fantasy 14 Dawn Trail.
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail – cut to the chase
- What is it? The next big expansion for Final Fantasy 14 Online
- When would be a good time? A tentative release window for ‘Summer 2024’
- What can I play it on? PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, PC
- Who makes it? Square Enix’s internal Creative Business Unit 3 development team
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail Trailer
The full cinematic trailer for Final Fantasy 14 Dawn Trail was revealed at the beginning of the Tokyo Fan Festival keynote speech in January 2024. Before that, the first teaser trailer debuted in July 2023 at the Las Vegas Fan Festival, and an extended trailer was shown at the London Fan Festival in October.
The full cinematic trailer for Dawn trail is only six minutes long and is the full version of the tease we received earlier. The full trailer shows the new hub city of Tuliyollal, located on the continent of Tural, which players previously only knew as the ‘New World’.
The full trailer also shows From Dawntrail two new jobs. The first, Viper, is the poster job for the expansion. Here we see it being taken over by Meteor (the promotional replacement for the player character). Additionally, the cinematic trailer debuted the Pictomancer job, which will feature popular character Krile in the expansion.
Finally, the trailer reveals a release date for ‘Summer 2024’, meaning the expansion will likely release between June and September. Director and producer Naoki Yoshida has confirmed that the team has set a date internally, but he won’t announce it until he is confident the team can meet that deadline and avoid disappointing fans who have been left in the lurch. Endwalkers two weeks postponement in 2021.
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail Courses
Two new courses (the game’s terminology for classes) are added to the game at any time Final Fantasy 14 Dawn Trail releases. The first to be announced was Viper, a melee DPS (damage-per-second) class that, alongside Ninja, will be in the Scouting subcategory.
Vipers fight with twin blades that can be combined into one twin blade. We don’t really know how the course will play in full at this point, but the teaser trailer shows the player entering combat with the two swords separated, taking on the Morbol enemy with the simple melee combos we’re used to from other jobs in the role. Later, the swords are combined and the player appears to enter a sort of buffed state that appears to increase skill speed (which reduces the time between weapon skills during the global cooldown).
The second Dawn trail The job included in the expansion is the Pictomancer. This job is a ranged DPS, sharing the role with Black Mage, Red Mage, and Summoner. Pictomancer differs, however, in that it uses a brush and palette to effectively paint spells, support buffs, and even bring creatures like a Moogle into existence. During the Tokyo Fan Fest keynote, director and producer Naoki Yoshida hinted that Pictomancer isn’t a full support class, but also won’t be as damage-oriented as the heavy Black Mage.
Although the feature identities have been revealed, we still don’t know the full extent of their capabilities. However, if From Dawntrail marketing will follow that of previous expansions, then in the months between now and release there will be a full video show of every task in the game – and their new abilities.
Also teased was the arrival of a brand new ‘restricted’ track Dawn Path: the Beastmaster. Following in Blue Mage’s footsteps, Beastmaster will likely differ in that it has its own set of unique mechanics and separate progression. We don’t know anything about Beastmaster beyond the name, but fans speculate that they can tame monsters and control them as their own.
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail Story and Locations
Final Fantasy 14 Dawn Trail takes the Warrior of Light and their comrades to the continent of Tural. Formerly called the New World and located in the far west of the planet, Tural appears to be a separate world from the existing continents of Eorzea, Othard and Ilsabard.
Official story details are currently scarce. However, we know that we are being called to Tural to help resolve a succession ritual that will determine the next ruler of the continent. However, it looks like the stakes are much higher, as Square Enix teases that the succession ritual will sow division among our comrades. This may have something to do with the legendary ‘City of Gold’, which the match would apparently shed some light on.
We will probably start the expansion in Tuliyollal, the capital of Tural, which we will reach by sea from the port of Old Sharlayan. Endwalkers hub city. Surrounding areas include Kozama’uka, a tropical region south of the city, and Shaaloani, an arid region in central Tural.
The Tokyo keynote also teased a hyper-futuristic city called Solution Nine. Shares his name with a Trance ability of Final Fantasy 9, this cyberpunk-style location is truly unlike anything we’ve ever seen Final fantasy 14 so far.
Again, not much is known about Solution Nine beyond its sci-fi aesthetic. However, fans are going off the official description of “a city with towering facades built by an entirely different civilization” and theorizing that Solution Nine is a virtual space. Perhaps created to protect something digital from the threat of The Final Days, which we faced during the events of End runner.
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail Raids and Content
Just like everyone else Final fantasy 14 expansion, Dawn trail will feature challenging raid content that players can participate in together with others. This expansion’s 24-player raid is known as Echoes of Vana’diel and acts as a collaboration with sister MMORPG Final fantasy 11.
During the Tokyo Fan Fest keynote, it was revealed that the expansion’s eight-person raid series would exist The Arcadion. Yoshida described the Arcadion as a completely original story, not drawn from the past Final fantasy games as we are used to with older eight-man raid content. The only thing we know about The Arcadion is its futuristic aesthetic, which leads fans to believe it is connected to the city of Solution Nine, as described above.
Finally, Dawn trail still receives Ultimate raids as semi-frequent content. During the keynote in Tokyo, Yoshida confirmed the first Dawn trail The ultimate attack will be ‘Futures Rewrite’. Used this Shadowbringers’ Eden raids as inspiration. As a result, players brave enough to take on this hellishly difficult encounter can likely expect to cross blades (or books) with iconic bosses like Shiva, Fatebreaker, Eden’s Promise, and The Oracle of Darkness in the same battle.
As for non-raid content, it looks like players will be eating well From Dawntrail patch cycle. We’re getting a brand new lifestyle content mode: Cosmic Exploration. Yoshida described it as an attempt to restore civilizations on distant planets. Again, possibly in response to the galactic devastation that was The Final Days. Yoshida has also confirmed new Field Operations content, which will be similar to Eureka’s open combat zones Stormblood and the southern front of Bozjan Shadowbringers.
Further updates include new Variant and Criterion dungeons, updates to Deep Dungeon content, new Unreal trials and more listed on From Dawntrail official landing page. We can also expect the usual additions of more dungeons and trials as the patch cycle continues over the next few years, assuming CBU 3 sticks to the formula of one of each per major patch.
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail News
A major graphical update is coming
The launch of Dawn trail will bring a graphical overhaul that will update much of it Final Fantasy 14 Online textures and lighting. The new look isn’t dramatically different from what we have now, but the improvements to lighting in particular seem to be quite transformative, including more reflective surfaces and more realistic details on characters and objects.
Female Hrothgar
Dawn trail the female variant of the Hrothgar race will finally be added to the game. Hrothgar was initially taken there Final Fantasy 14 Online in the Shadowbringers expansion, but only as a male character. Now the addition of female Hrothgar rounds out the game’s selection of races. During the Tokyo keynote, Yoshida stated that the female Hrothgar “will be the last”, although he cheekily hinted that he may not be able to say that for sure as it depends on the demand of the player base.
Final fantasy 14 coming to Xbox Series consoles
After years of promises and waiting, this has been confirmed Final fantasy 14 is finally coming to Xbox Series X|S consoles. An open beta will arrive sometime in late February (Square Enix has earmarked February 21st, but has emphasized that this is subject to change), and the full game will likely be ready for From Dawntrail Edition.
Taking a break from Final Fantasy 14 until Dawntrail comes out? Consider our guide to the best RPGs for top recommendations within fans’ favorite genre.