More than six months into Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker and the touted Island Sanctuary feature still eludes us. At least now we have more details and a release time frame.
Shipwrecks no more as land is finally in sight! The latest Live Letter included long-anticipated info. Let’s see what the Island Sanctuary is all about!
Island Sanctuaries arrive in Final Fantasy XIV Patch 6.25. Patch 6.2 comes in late August. We estimate September or October as the release window for Patch 6.25.
Even though we cannot wait to step foot on our very own Eorzean Island, in a way, it’s a good thing that the Islands are not in the first part of Patch 6.2. Why? Because we can focus on the new MSQ, eight-player Pandaemonium Abyssos raids, and trials.
Once we tick off these challenges, the Island Sanctuary getaway can begin. The blurred picture of the map gives us a pretty good idea about the size of the place.
Island Sanctuaries are not instanced player housing, at least not as we know it. They are indeed instanced areas, but all Warriors of Light get one for free. No more competition for plots, no more making and saving gil like there is no tomorrow. It was about time that the saviors of Eorzea get more than just a free inn room to call their own.
Being an Endwalker feature, we anticipate MSQ completion as a (sole?) requirement to unlock the Island Sanctuary. We also expect that the accompanying quest will be nothing short of wholesome.
Normally, this is where we would post screenshots if we had some. Game producer Naoki Yoshida stated they’re not ready to show actual footage because of unresolved issues. Get them bugs squashed and out of our Islands before we move in, or you will have some extremely angry posts and memes to deal with, Yoshi-P! We didn’t get visuals, but we did get a wall of rather informative text.
The core Island gameplay concentrates on a solo experience, however, you can have friends and free company members over. In the future, we might also entertain NPCs in our Island Sanctuary. To what extent guests get involved in the host’s Island is not yet known. This brings us to the next point.
What is exactly that you do on an Island Sanctuary?
Gathering, crafting, farming, and tending to creatures are part of Island activities. Don’t worry, all these years of turning a blind eye to honest trades won’t catch up with you just yet.
Experience as a Disciple of Land or Hand is not a condition. Island Sanctuary activities do include gathering and crafting, but they have nothing to do with the crafting and gathering jobs you’ve blatantly ignored for so long.
Island Sanctuaries have their own content. The materials we gather here are not found somewhere else. A big sigh of relief when we learned that we will have a separate inventory for the Island materials. It probably won’t be big enough and we will call for a storage expansion in the next update, but at least we won’t overcrowd our bags and retainers even more.
We’ve gathered the mats, now what do we do with them?
We turn them into tools and handicrafts. We need the tools for more productive harvesting and new resources.
Handicrafts allow us to make moolah. Which is not gil. It turns out that the universal Eorzean money is not so universal after all.
Island Sanctuaries will have their own coinage. To make as much of this currency as possible, we must craft and sell the handicrafts that are in demand. We bet that this whole Island crafting thing will start off nice and easy and before you know it, we will be deep in discussing Island money-making strategies. This yet unannounced money is then used to obtain yet unannounced special items.
Growing crops is another Island Sanctuary pastime. We will plant the seeds we find on the Island and watch over them. Crops too are Island specific.
The Island crops are different from the estate crops. The announcement also mentioned that the weather is not constant. We wonder if the weather conditions will have any influence on our plants.
Caring for animals completes this farm-like life the Warrior of Light has come to enjoy so much now. The Island is home to critters of various shapes, sizes, and colors. They need someone to belong to and care for them. That sounds like a perfect job for a temporarily retired savior of the world.
To spice things up, some of these little monsters have unique features and coloring. You know what you gotta do with them all!
All these activities sound lovely, but we do need an abode of sorts, right?
We will be able to build and customize a base of operations. The materials and everything else we need for the base cannot come from the outside world, so get ready for more gathering and crafting!
We don’t know much about the base – except that is definitely not player housing – but we do know that it will become a playground for our minions. They can freely run around and make the place look more lively. We only hope that the number of active minions is not unreasonably low.
The announcement mentioned that we would be able to build facilities, but we don’t know if these amenities will be separate from the base or not.
Thanks to orchestrion rolls, our island home will be alive with the sound of our favorite Eorzean adventures.
On the matter of travel, we will eventually be able to fly, but not by unlocking aether currents.
Don’t forget that Patch 6.25 is just the start of the Island Sanctuary experience. In past Live Letters, the producers stated that over the lifespan of Endwalker more Island areas will become available. It’s likely that in the beginning, we will have access to only a small part.
More info on the Island Sanctuary will arrive in the future. We cannot wait to see fully fledged gameplay!