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Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Reveals New Viper Job, Other Details

by Alex Fuller · Published October 21, 2023 · Updated October 21, 2023

Square Enix opened its Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival 2023 in London with a keynote presentation from director and producer Naoki Yoshida, with English translation from Michael-Christopher Koji Fox. The presentation provided more details on the Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail expansion announced during the previous Las Vegas Fan Festival, including the reveal of its new Viper job. Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is planned to release in summer 2024. It will be available on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

The Viper job was the first reveal of the keynote, with Naoki Yoshida appearing in costume. It is a new melee DPS job and unlike many other jobs, is original to Final Fantasy XIV. It uses dual-wielded blades that can be combined into a single two-handed, two-bladed form. Like other new jobs, it will not have any class requirement, though players will need to own Dawntrail and have at least one job at level 80 to unlock it at Ul’dah.

With its dual weapon forms, the Viper alternates between quick, pressuring strikes with the twin blades and more powerful blows with the joined weapon. It can also call upon memories of ancient hunters to grant itself additional powers for a brief time. It is designed as a technically demanding but stylish job that gives players opportunities to unleash abilities between weapon skills. The expansion will also feature a second new job, a ranged magic DPS, which will be revealed during the Tokyo Fan Festival.

The next part features a recap of the previously announced story premise of the expansion. Taking place after the events of Endwalker, Dawntrail is set in the “new world” of Tural, a continent on the other side of the ocean known as the Indigo Deep. It sees Warrior of Light’s help requested for Tural’s contested rite of succession. Players join Alphinaud, Alisaie, and Erenville in a journey across the Indigo Deep that may lead them to a fabled city of gold. However, the contest will divide the Scions of the Seventh Dawn into two competing groups.

The new keynote provided some more details on and first in-game looks at Tural. Dawntrail’s new main hub city is Tuliyollal and is located in the northern reaches of an area called Yok Tural. It is the seat of the federal nation state that governs Tural, with its current ruler being Gulool Ja Ja, a two-headed Mamool Ja. It is home to many different peoples and has an established trade route with Old Sharlayan.

The presentation also showed the previously-announced new areas of Yak T’el and Urqopacha. Yak T’el is a thick forest and divided into separate high-level and low-level areas, while Urqopacha is a mountainous region in Yok Tural that is home to both large and small peoples and has the ruins of a former empire of giants. It also revealed two other new regions, Kozama’uka and Shaaloani. Kozama’uka is a tropical region south of Tuliyollal with rivers, streams, crags, and waterfalls. Kozama’uka is also home to the Moblins, a new Allied Tribe that are related to Eorzea’s goblins and are experts in procuring materials. Shaaloani is an arid region on which a railroad is being built after an economic boom following the discovering of ceruleum.

The presentation moved onto gameplay and other additions in Dawntrail. As is usual for expansions, it will feature a level cap increase, rising from the Endwalker’s 90 up to 100, while all current jobs will obtain new skills. There will be more F.A.T.E.s, hunts, treasure hunts, and level-synced side quests, plus numerous new dungeons. One dungeon screenshot showed a boat travelling down a river, while another showed a mountainous landscape with ancient ruins and mysterious purple growths. Two dungeons had concept artwork shown, wth some underground ruins and mysterious, apparently high-tech facility. Other concept art showcased a mechanical enemy called Eliminator, who is said to be an important figure in the expansion.

The Duty Support system, which lets players complete dungeons with AI-controlled NPCs instead of other players, will be updated to support for all main story dungeons in Dawntrail. Other content will be detailed at a later date, including new “lifestyle” content designed for multiplayer, new Variant Dungeons, a new eight-player Raid series, new Ultimate Raids, PvP updates, new Blue Mage content, Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures, new Deep Dungeon plans, and a Gold Saucer update. Naoki Yoshida, however, was able to reveal the title of the expansion’s new Alliance Raid series. Echoes of Vana’diel will be a crossover series with Final Fantasy XI, though no further details were given. He also a revealed that a new Limited Job (similar to Blue Mage) will be released as part of the latter parts of the post-Dawntrail patch series.

The presentation provided a reminder on the first major graphical update for the game. The update is designed to improve the screen-wide aesthetic appeal of the game, including higher resolution textures and shadows plus improved material qualities, while retaining its overall look. The presentation also provided an update on the release of the Xbox Series X|S version of Final Fantasy XIV, announced in Las Vegas. An open beta will be held between mid-January and February 2024, ahead of the planned release in spring 2024.

Finally, in other crossover news, Naoki Yoshida revealed two collaborations planned to launch ahead of the release of Dawntrail. The game’s Fall Guys-inspired Gold Saucer attraction will release on October 31, 2023, with the Patch 6.51 update. A crossover questline with Final Fantasy XVI — titled “The Path Infernal” — is coming. It will see players fighting alongside Clive Rosfield and is designed to not spoil the story of Final Fantasy XVI, but does not have a release date.

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