How to prepare for FFXIV: Dawntrail (2024)

Final Fantasy 14’s Dawntrail expansion is on the horizon, with the early access starting on June 28 before the full launch on July 2. If you’ve let your subscription lapse for a while, you probably need to catch up a bit before you’ll be able to jump straight back in when Dawntrail launches.

Below we list some of the things you can do to get ready for the launch of FFXIV: Dawntrail, whether it’s simple stuff like increasing your item level or more min-max tasks like capping out all your tomes and prepping gear ahead of time.

Check out the FFXIV: Dawntrail benchmark

There is going to be a large scale graphics update in Dawntrail, so if you play on PC, you should make sure your PC can handle it by downloading the benchmark. The original benchmark had a few issues with how characters were displayed, but now it’s all fixed, so you can both test your PC and see your characters in their future glory.

Finish your main scenario quests

As obvious as this may seem, sometimes it’s easy to miss an extra quest or two that you may have had laying around. Make sure to catch up fully. The MSQ guide UI will say “To be continued...” if you’re all caught up. If you see “???” or something like that, then that means you still have a quest to do.

Gear up to at least 630 ilvl on your main job

Based on the past few expansions, the first dungeon in Dawntrail should have a minimum ilvl requirement of 630, so you’ll want to make sure you’re at that point. It’s likely that you will get gear from completing quests before this, but we do recommend picking up Augmented Credendum armor, which is ilvl 660. This will carry you through a bulk of the expansion and you can get it now.

Image: Square Enix

You can exchange Allagan Tomestones of Comedy for this gear, and augment it using Divine Twine and Divine Shine. The Divine Twine and Shine are obtainable via trading in coins from the Myths of the Realm raids or Sacks of Nuts from doing hunts.

However, once Dawntrail launches, it’s likely that Augmented Credendum gear will be able to be purchased in whole in exchange for Allagan Tomestones of Poetics — so if you don’t have a complete set, don’t stress too much about it now.

Prepare level 80 gear for Viper and Pictomancer

Use your Allagan Tomestones of Poetics to nab Augmented Cryptlurker gear from Aymark in Eulmore. This gear is easy to get (as you get Poetics from doing just about anything in the game), and it’s the best level 80 gear on the market.

You may already have this gear if you’re leveling up other scouting and casting jobs, so make sure to check your inventory and retainers.

If you like to craft or gather: Get Scrip gear

The level 90 Afflatus gear you get from exchanging Purple Scrips should be good enough to set up your crafters and gatherers for a lot of Dawntrail content. While endgame crafts and gatherables may require more prep to create with this gear at first, this should be at least good enough to catch you up to where you need to be when the expansion drops.

You can grab this gear from any Scrip Exchange NPCs in hub towns.

Sort through your inventories, retainers, and saddle bag

Clean that stuff out! You can start getting rid of old gear (with the exception of leveling gear for scouting and casting, as mentioned above), raid food, and any other trash that may have built up in your inventory. Put some of those fish baits away, turn those extra Triple Triad cards in at the Gold Saucer, and sadly tuck that stack of 78 Rubicante totems back in your saddlebag. You can finish farming that fight later.

You can also sell off some of your extra materia, though crafting and gathering materia will likely still be valuable for overmelders in Dawntrail, so you should hold on to those.

Image: Square Enix

Hold on to those dyes

With a second dye channel coming in Dawntrail, the price of sought-after dyes is going to go up. This includes already popular colors like Pure White and Pure Black, but it’s a little too early to predict exactly what colors will pop off. That being said, hold on to any that you’ve gotten from dungeons or other means.

Cap your tomestones and scrips

Once you’re done buying gear, consider capping out your tomes and scrips. Both Causality and Comedy Tomes will be able to be traded into Poetics once Dawntrail arrives, though at a less than one-to-one rate. Having capped Poetics (and extra beyond that) is useful for buying old gear (like the previously mentioned Augmented Credendum gear). The same thing goes for Scrips — you should be able to score any extra old gear or materials you may need.

Pre-prep EXP to gain after level cap expands

If you really want to go the extra mile, you can stockpile EXP to claim once the level cap expands by doing the following:

• Completing high-level side quests and waiting to turn them in.
• Completing a Wondrous Tails book and waiting to turn it in.
• Logging off in a sanctuary before the update to ensure that you have accumulated rest EXP.

If you’re just starting out in the massive world of Final Fantasy 14, we have tons of guides to help you. We have a beginner’s guide to get you started, along with guides detailing when you’ll get your mount and which Grand Company you should join.

If you’re starting but are feeling overwhelmed, we have guides to help with picking a job and a guide that explains how long it may take to catch up to current content in FFXIV.

We also have guides on side content, like ocean fishing, relic weapons, and Island Sanctuary, for those who want to take a break from it all.