Skip to Content

How To Prepare For Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker

How To Prepare For Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is less than two months away. Going into the expansion with no idea of what to expect might be fun, but a few preparations never hurt anybody.

The weeks before Patch 6.0 see the return of many players wanting to sink their teeth into Endwalker on release day. Let’s go over what we feel it’s necessary to achieve before November 23rd, or a few days earlier if you pre-order! No delays, fingers crossed!

Complete the Main Scenario

How To Prepare For Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker 1

Progress in Final Fantasy XIV is locked behind main scenario quests. You cannot advance into an expansion if you haven’t completed the story-driven quests from the previous expansion. This means that you need to be up to date with the Shadowbringers story to unlock the content that arrives with Endwalker.

The FFXIV store offers three premium items that will automatically complete the A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, and Stormblood main scenario quests. It’s up to you if you invest time or money. We recommend going with the old-fashioned questing to get a better understanding of the universe because the Final Fantasy XIV lore is awesome.

Clean Your Inventory

How To Prepare For Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker 2

What’s this throwing stuff away thing you speak off? Hoarder and proud of it! MMO players like to keep all items for two reasons. They never know when they might need them, never being the keyword here, and they just can’t be bothered with inventory management.

While cleaning up the storage is unarguably the most boring thing you can do in Final Fantasy XIV, it pays off going into Endwalker unencumbered. You will have more room to hoard new expansion stuff that you might actually use, such as crafting materials.

Decide What Job You Will Be Playing

How To Prepare For Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker 3

Having all jobs on a single character is one of the best things about Final Fantasy 14. No more logging on and off, all it takes is the press of a button to switch play styles. If you are tired of your Shadowbringers main, maybe a job change wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Check out the available Final Fantasy XIV jobs to learn more about them, ask around to get others’ impressions, and decide how you want to tackle Endwalker’s content. The next thing you’ll want is to have your new job at level 80 before the expansion goes live.

Use XP Boosters to Level Up Faster

There are a couple of ways to improve XP gain. One of them is to equip wearable items such as helmets, rings, and earrings. Starting with the Stormblood expansion, Final Fantasy XIV has pre-order earrings that boost the XP gain from monster kills by 30%. They are capped to the level of the current expansion. For example, the Menphina Earring that comes from the Endwalker pre-order works until level 80.

The item is available now, should you pre-order any of the two editions. There is also the free company XP buff, Heat of the Battle, that gives up to 15% more XP from kills. The food buff gives 3%. You can make the food yourself or buy it as it’s really cheap. If you want to start a new character on a new server, consider a Preferred Server for the double XP bonus.

Make Sure to Have at Least 500 Item Level

If you are one of those players that take breaks in between main patches, chances are that your gear is outdated. The maximum Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers item level is 530 for armor and 535 for weapons. The main Endwalker scenario will mostly have item-level requirements.

You are not expected to have cleared the most challenging Shadowbringers content to advance into Endwalker but it will be easier to complete the first quests and dungeons if you have 500+ item level gear.

Get Tomestone of Poetics For Sage and Reaper Starting Gear

Sage and Reaper are the new Final Fantasy XIV Disciples of Magic and War introduced with the Endwalker expansion. Both jobs start at level 70 and become available on the release day. What you can do before that is to buy a full set of 390-400 item-level armor. You will need around 2,400 Tomestones of Poetics.

Tomestones are rewards from duties and quests. Having a 400 item level set for your new Sage or Reaper is optional. The default gear is enough to get you started so don’t farm like crazy if you don’t feel like it.

Say Goodbye to Belts

Come Patch 6.0, belts are no longer a part of your outfit. You cannot acquire them, you cannot equip them anymore. If you have belts with materia, make sure to extract it so you don’t lose it. If you have belts that you want to sell, now would be a good time to do so.

Belts will remain in the game but they lose their function. The only reason to hold on to them is for collection purposes. If you have your eyes set on certain belts, do your best to obtain them prior to the FFXIV Endwalker patch.

Make Gil Like There is No Tomorrow

Having gil is nice but having gil at the start of the expansion is nicer. Look into the various ways of getting gil and make as much as you can before the expansion drops or before you get bored.

Playing the market – buying low, selling high – is one of the preferred ways. Supplying items such as crafting materials is another profitable activity. Don’t discard or vendor the items in the bags. Try your luck on the market first.

Stock Up on Items and Currency

Aetheryte tickets, buff food, ventures, crystal, shards, and other such items will be of great use in the first weeks of Endwalker. If you have your job and gear all set, then look into these. Aetheryte tickets can be bought with Allied Seals that are pretty easily obtained.

You can make the food yourself – this is a win-win if you are also leveling your Culinarian job – or buy it. Ventures come from dailies. Shards and crystals are obtained from gathering, desynthesis, quests, and other activities.

Complete Old Alliance Raids

Old but not obsolete. As you may or may not know, the Crystal Tower alliance raid from a Realm Reborn became mandatory for main story scenario progression in Patch 5.3.

We don’t know if we will have similar requirements in Endwalker, but it’s a good idea to complete old content just in case. You can easily queue with the Duty Finder. It doesn’t take too long to find a group and the fights are not that challenging anymore.

What’s the Deal With The Blue Mages?

How To Prepare For Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker 4
Will Endwalker have new content for Blue Mages? I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

Blue Mages are not your ordinary Final Fantasy XIV jobs. This is a limited job that can only achieve level 70. You cannot complete end-game content with a Blue Mage. These Disciples of Magic have access to exclusive activities.

Blue Mages don’t learn spells by leveling up. They acquire new spells after they see an enemy performing that spell in battle. It’s a very interesting system. Endwalker content for Blue Mages has yet to be announced but we hope that the developers have something planned for this job as well.

Pre-Order Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

In addition to the XP earring we’ve mentioned, the pre-order bonus includes a pet and a few days of early access. It’s likely that the expansion won’t get a discount for several months after the release, so why not score some goodies if you are planning on playing close to the release day anyway?

If you are curious to see how your computer is holding up in the new expansion, try the Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker benchmark. It’s available for free from the official website.

Do None of the Above

Except cleaning your bags, that’s a must! Joke aside, spend the last Shadowbringer weeks doing what brings you the most joy. Go for achievements, obtain mounts and pets, get glamour items, level up your Fisher job, complete the Hildibrand quests, hang out in the Gold Saucer, go exploring, or try PvP.

If you feel burned out, take Naoki Yoshida’s advice and have a break before the expansion. The game producer himself suggested that a breather or playing another game might be just what you need to spark your interest. We won’t argue with Yoshi-P.