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Final Fantasy XIV Patch 6.5 Growing Light Part 1 Launching in October

by Alex Fuller · July 29, 2023

During this weekend’s Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest in Las Vegas, Square Enix held a new Letter from the Producer Live Presentation for Final Fantasy XIV. During the presentation, Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida and Global Community Producer Toshio Murouchi, with translations from English Localization Lead Kate Cwynar, provided details on the game’s next major Endwalker patch and other updates.

The upcoming Patch 6.5 update is titled Growing Light. Its Japanese title features a zero, hinting at the importance of the character Zero in its story. The main story content of Growing Light will be divided into two parts, the first planned to release in early October 2023 and the second planned to release (as Patch 6.55) in mid-January 2024. There will also be a smaller Patch 6.51 update a few weeks after the release of Patch 6.5.

Patch 6.55 will include the addition of Endwalker Tribal Alliance Quests. Players will need to complete all of the main Tribal Quests for the Arkasodara, Omicron, and Loporrit before being able to access these new quests. Patch 6.55 will also feature next part of the Tataru’s Grand Endeavor questline, as well as more Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures and Further Manderville Weapons content. Meanwhile, Patch 6.51 will add new Splendorous Tools.

The main Patch 6.5 will add a new dungeon titled The Lunar Subterrane, which have drastically changing scenery during it. There will be new Trials with the Abyssal Fracture as well as its Extreme version, as well the next Unreal Trial: The Singularity Reactor. Also coming is the third and final part of Myths of the Realm Alliance Raid series, titled Thaleia.

For system updates, Patch 6.5 will add Duty Support for Stormblood‘s The Drowned City of Skalla, The Burn, and The Ghimlyt Dark dungeons, which means that all main scenario dungeons from A Realm Reborn through Endwalker will be available with Duty Support. Patch 6.51 will include the third Variant and Criterion Dungeons, titled Aloalo Island. As usual, there will three difficulties — Normal, Criterion, and Savage — and players will note need to have completed the previous Sil’dihn Subterrane and Mount Rokkon dungeons to unlock them. Players will be joined by NPC Matsya in Aloalo Island.

There will be various job adjustments in both PvE and PvP, though there will not be any major overhauls. Series Five of the PvP content will begin with release of Patch 6.5, though there will no season changes with the initial Patch 6.5 release as Season Eight is planned to run from Patch 6.48 on August 8, 2023, until the release of Patch 6.51. The Crystalline Conflict will get minimap and UI adjustments, as well as a new arena, the Red Sands.

The Island Sanctuary will receive new sanctuary ranks and visions, as well as a new gathering area and new materials, craftable items, cops, animals, handicrafts, and structures. There will also be a new element titled Felicitious Favors that are unlocked with the Patch 6.5 progressions. These entail a feline issues individual requests for produced handicrafts, which will grant special tokens that provide exclusive rewards. The Gold Saucer will receive new content, including the Fall Guys collaboration announced during the Dawntrail keynote though it is not certain which update it be added in at this time. Other miscellaneous updates include new custom deliveries, the ability to store optional items in the armoire, item level restrictions for the Alliance Raid Duty Roulette, and the ability to sort teleport destinations by expansion.

Finally, as announced during the reveal for Dawntrail, Patch 6.5 will expand Final Fantasy XIV’s free trial version to include access to the Stormblood expansion. More coverage from Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest can be found with our coverage of the Dawntrail expansion keynote presentation and a 10th Anniversary press conference with Naoki Yoshida.