On the edge of your seat waiting for Tuesday evening when Patch 5.2: Echoes of a Fallen Star goes live on the Japanese, North America and European servers of Final Fantasy XIV? While subject to change and likely to have some omissions at this early stage, Square Enix has shared their preliminary patch notes for the MMORPG via its official website.
The initial takeaway is that like all previous major patches; content will be trickled out over the next few months. Updates to Ishgardian Restoration will go live in 5.21 while Save the Queen: Blades of Gunnhildr and Skysteel Tools will become available around the mid-way point in Patch 5.25.
From the outset, Patch 5.2 will introduce the next part of the main scenario, the Qitari beast tribe, updates to the crafting and Free Company systems, the new Cinder Drift trial, the next set of four Eden’s Verse 8-player raids and more. The new trial and raids shall also introduce extreme and savage variants, respectively, providing unique challenges for players who find the standard content a bit too easy.
As someone who is always running short on inventory space, arguably one of the most significant minor quality-of-life improvements is an improvement to instanced dungeons. Previously if you did a roulette run of a lower level dungeon, your inventory could come clogged by low-level items such as ‘Voidsent Blood’ or ‘Bat Fangs’. Going forward, items from at least some regular enemies will not drop, reducing the need to scramble should your inventory become full. Also of note are that the glamour equipment you receive during the Eternal Bond quest line is no longer gender restricted. Hopefully, Square Enix continues this trend going forward.
