Final Fantasy XIV: How to Prepare for Dawntrail

Final Fantasy 14's Dawntrail expansion is on its way, with early access beginning on June 28 and the full release on July 2. If you haven't logged in for a while, you'll most likely need to catch up before jumping right back in when Dawntrail begins. We’ll be listing some of the things you can do to prepare for the new expansion.

The FFXIV: Dawntrail Benchmark

Dawntrail will receive a large-scale graphics update, so if you play on PC, download the benchmark to ensure your system can handle it. The initial benchmark had a few flaws with how characters were displayed, but everything has been resolved, so you can now test your PC while also seeing your characters in their future glory.

Finish All Main Story Quests in FFXIV

As simple as this may appear, it's easy to overlook an additional quest or two that you could have had lying about in Final Fantasy 14. Make sure to catch up completely. If you've completed it, the MSQ UI will state, "To be continued..." If you see "???" or something like that, it signifies you still have a quest to complete.

Gear Up Your Main Job in FFXIV

Based on the previous expansions of FFXIV, the first dungeon in Dawntrail should demand a minimum ilvl of 630, so make sure you've reached that level.

You'll likely receive gear from finishing missions before this, but we recommend getting the Augmented Credendum armor set (ilvl 660). This will see you through the majority of the expansion, and you can get it now.

You can obtain this set by exchanging Allagan Tomestones of Comedy and augmenting it with Divine Twine and Divine Shine. The Divine Twine and Shine can be obtained by trading currency from Myths of the Realm raids or sacks of nuts earned from hunting.

However, once Dawntrail is released, Augmented Credendum gear will most certainly be available for purchase for Allagan Tomestones of Poetics, so don't worry too much if you don't have a whole set right now.

Get Your Scrip Gear in FFXIV

The Afflatus gear you can acquire from exchanging Purple Scrips should be sufficient to equip your crafters and gatherers for a large portion of Dawntrail content in Final Fantasy 14. While endgame crafts and gatherables may require more preparation with this gear initially, it should be plenty to get you up to speed when the expansion is released.

You can get the Afflatus gear from any Scrip Exchange NPCs in hub towns.

Cap your Tomestones and Scrips in FFXIV

When you've finished purchasing items, think about capping your tomes and scrips in FF14. Once Dawntrail is released, both Causality and Comedy Tomes can be swapped into Poetics, but at a lower rate. Having capped Poetics is useful for purchasing old gear (such as the aforementioned Augmented Credendum gear). The same is true for Scrips; you should be able to get any extra old gear or supplies you may require for your alts.

Prepare Gear for Viper and Pictomancer in FFXIV

You can grab Allagan Tomestones of Poetics Gear for level 80 in advance if you don’t already have it, which will serve you well until you reach level 90 in Final Fantasy XIV. Then you can get the level 90 gear, which at that point will also be available for Allagan Tomestones of Poetics. This gear is easy to get, as you get Poetics from doing just about anything in the game.

If you're just starting your adventure in the massive world of Final Fantasy 14, you shouldn't stress too much about catching up and just enjoy your journey at your own pace. There will still be plenty of updates that impact the game as a whole and not just the new Dawntrail expansion.