There is a lot to unpack from the Final Fantasy XIV Tokyo Fanfest, especially when it comes to gearing, as Evercold will completely change how item progression works in the MMO. The expansion will split main gear paths into two routes:
- Seasonal Gear: This will come from playing eligible activities and then raising your Activity Level.
- Raid Gear: These items will come from completing Savage content.
Both gear types can be improved; however, they will not use the same upgrade materials. They will also not have the same weekly allowances, nor will they have similar Materia rules.
So in Evercold, earning a gear piece, then raising its level, adding materia, and picking its secondary attributes will all have their own requirements.
So what are the main differences between Seasonal Gear and Raid Gear in Evercold?
Now, a Season is a reward cycle in FF14, which covers an even-numbered patch and is then followed by an odd-numbered patch. So, in the case of Evercold, it will start with 8.0 and then go into 8.1. There will be no paid season pass for this, and Square Enix has mentioned that you won’t need to pay any additional fee to boot up new seasonal content.
And this is how the two main gear routes work:
Seasonal Gear
Seasonal Gear will let regular players progress through their gear levels through certain activities. You will be able to raise your Activity Level and earn gear-exchange rewards at certain milestones. You will be able to claim the rewards through the Adventurer Activity interface; however, you will be able to get only one item-level upgrade per season. So the first season will take your item level from 840 to 850, and no Duty rewards are needed for this upgrade. Moreover, two regular Materia slots will also be available for this gear.
Raid Gear
Raid Gear, on the other hand, is designed for players who consistently clear high-end eight-player Savage raids. You obtain them by exchanging items from eligible Savage floor clears, which are claimed from the dedicated gear interface, and not from a loot roll against the party. Raid Gear will have two item-level upgrades across a season, and for the first season it will take your score from 840 to 850, and then 860. Raid Gear will also have editable secondary attributes, along with a separate route to unlock materia slots. So the upgrade ranks and the materia unlocks are separate.
Activity Points, Activity Level, and Job Level are not going to be the same things in Evercold
The new interface which will be coming with Evercold is the new Adventurer Activity. This will be tied to a reward track system, where clearing certain missions will gain you Activity Points, which in turn will raise your Activity Level. Then, upon reaching certain milestones, you will unlock specific rewards, including items that you can exchange for Seasonal Gear.
Completing quests, clearing dungeons, crafting, and taking part in PvP content will be some of the ways to earn Activity Points. However, do keep in mind that while some missions will be repeatable, others will have a weekly structure. So there are a variety of activities to pick from, but it’s unlikely that every activity will offer the same points per minute.
So here is a general flow of how the rewards system will work in Evercold:
To get Seasonal Gear, you first start by completing eligible activities like quests, battles, crafting, and PvP. As a result, you earn Activity Points, which then raise your Activity Level. You then claim a gear milestone and exchange its rewards for Seasonal Gear. Finally, collecting optimization items will let you upgrade your gear through the eligible duty rewards. So while you unlock gear through Activity Rewards, upgrading them will need separate duty rewards, as Activity Points will now automatically raise their item level.
When it comes to Raid gear, you first obtain it by clearing eligible Savage floors, but there will be reward restrictions for them, so look out for those. Once you complete a Savage tier, you will gain personal exchange items; you will not be required to greed them against your party. You can then exchange the items for Raid Gear, and the floor will determine the gear slots that you get. Finally, you will be able to optimize the gear throughout the season through separate rank upgrades and materia unlocks. However, do keep in mind that while the personal reward system will remove party loot rolls, it will not remove encounter clears, slot restrictions, or even the weekly limits which will be set during the first half of the season.
How will the Weekly catch-up system work in Evercold?
The expansion will have a weekly allowance system that your Activity progression will be tied to. A daily routine will no longer be required, and if you miss a week, you will now be able to earn points against the current week as well as the previous week’s allowance.
So, if you miss a week entirely, you will be able to earn activity progress against the missed week’s allowance after returning. You will need to actively complete eligible activities, as rewards will not be redeemed automatically upon login.
If you have more time to play in a particular week, you will be able to avail catch-up alongside the current week’s progression. But do keep in mind that you will now be able to farm the allowances belonging to a future week.
Moreover, upon missing Savage clears, the activity system will still be able to help you with the activity-track progress. However, you will not be able to receive the Savage exchange items that you did not earn.
Now, in the case that you return much later in the Season, catch-up will remain an intended part of the activity system. But you will not get an unlimited number of banked weeks, or a guaranteed time to finish the entire track. There will be a catch-up restriction, which will differ from raid-loot restrictions, as they will be completely different systems. Having more room on the activity track will not reset a Savage floor’s reward eligibility.
Getting and Upgrading Seasonal Gear in Evercold
Let’s get into a bit more detail on how you will be able to get and upgrade your Seasonal Gear in the expansion.
As I mentioned earlier, you will first need to complete the eligible Adventurer Activity missions to earn Activity Points and raise Activity Level. Then, as you reach a reward milestone, you then claim exchange items, which lets you pick a corresponding Seasonal Gear in the new interface.
No, the important thing is that unlocking the milestone for one job will unlock it for the others. This makes it very convenient for gear progression on your alternate jobs. You will also no longer need to visit an NPC for each piece of gear. However, do keep in mind that the system will not automatically remove item-level restrictions.
Additionally, earning a piece will not mean that you are gaining its upgrades as well. Seasonal Gear can eb upgraded once during a Season, and for the first season it will go from 840 to 850. And this upgrade will require separate optimization items whose source will change between the two halves of the Season/.
- On the 8.0 even patch, the optimization source will be eight-player Fierce raids. It will have an allowance of one piece per week.
- The 8.1 odd patch will gain two sources. The first will be an eight-player Fierce raid with unlimited allowance and no restrictions, with the second being weekly normal trials with an allowance of one piece per week.
In the fanfest, Square Enix does not elaborate on the total cost of a complete set with the weekly allowances. So, without exchange quantities and slot cost information, we can’t exactly be certain about how many weeks each piece will take.
Getting and Upgrading Raid Gear in Evercold
You get Raid Gear through eligible clears of eight-player Savage floors. Every player will receive a personal exchange item, and you will not be required to fight your party members for the loot roll. You then exchange the item for the gear, and the different floors that you clear will correspond to the different equipment slots.
This means that the cost and eligible slot will matter when clearing floors. A personal exchange item will not necessarily mean a finished equipment piece after a floor clear.
Also keep in mind that during the weekly limited-phase, redoing a clear again will not grant you additional reward after you have already claimed that floor’s weekly drop.
Now, once you have a gear piece, upgrading it to Rank 1 and Rank 2 will require different inputs. The base level will be 840, and to take it to Rank 1 of item level 850, you will be using the same type of gear-exchange items, and for Rank 2 of item level 860, you will need to use Alliance Gear Tickets and crafted materials.
During an even patch, the Rank 1 materials will be obtained from eight-player Savage raids with a limit of once per week per floor. Rank 2, however, will not be present as an even-patch upgrade.
During an odd patch, on the other hand, Rank 1 materials are obtained from eight-player Savage raids with no weekly limits. Rank 2 materials are obtained as Eight-player Alliance Raid (Savage) rewards with a limit of once per week per floor. Rank 2 will also need other crafting materials.
So while crafting will play a key role in the second upgrade, what is not yet established is the recipe, materials required, or even the market price. So it will be interesting to see how the system plays out when Evercold goes live.
Raid Gear will now have secondary editable attributes
Raid Gear will now have secondary attributes that you will be able to edit. And the cost of secondary attributes will be equal to a fully filled set of regular materia slots for that item level.
Moreover, the gear will not have guaranteed melding slots like we are used to. You will instead be able to unlock up to three advanced materia slots through a separate progression system that is tied to Activity Rewards. So, while materia-slot unlocks and item-level optimisation are related to gear progression, they do not follow the same upgrade path.
In short, looking to adjust secondary attributes of a gear will change its secondary-stat allocation. Raising its optimization will increase the item-level, while unlocking advanced materia slots will unlock additional melding opportunities. So editable stats alone will not establish a best-in-slot list, as exact attribute restrictions, materia costs, and success rates will matter quite a bit.
Understanding the new Raids in Evercold
The Raid system will also be seeing a significant change and will be directly tied to the new Gear system in Evercold.
- First, you have the Eight-player Normal raids, which are story accessible and likely tied to Seasonal Gear progression.
- Secondly, you have the Eight-player Fierce raids, which are the difficulty between Normal and Savage. They provide Seasonal gear optimization items whose availability will change throughout the season.
- Next, we have the Eight-player Savage raids meant for high-end progression. It will provide Personal Raid Gear exchange items and the first optimisation rank.
- After this, you have the Regular 24-player alliance raids. These raid runs will be divided into two separately matched halves. Rewards will be planned for each half; however, Savage upgrade rules apply to this version.
- Finally, there is the Eight-player Alliance Raid (Savage); this is the reworked alliance-raid encounter for a smaller, high-difficulty party. Materials for the second Raid Gear optimisation rank will be available here during the odd patch.
However, do note that for the first eight-player raid series, the Normal version will be released with 8.1, the Savage version will be going live with 8.5, and Fierce will drop a week after Savage.
Additionally, the shorter alliance raid format splits it into two duties. Each half will have its own matchmaking, and you will be able to enter any section you want and target any reward you want.
This is especially beneficial for players with limited sessions. And to make things even better, there is going to be no fixed completion time, so a shorter format won’t mean a limited time.
So what do the new Evercold systems mean for every type of player?
According to Square Enix, the new systems will have something to offer for every type of player.
If you are more into relaxed sessions of play, where you invest more time in story and crafting, then you will want to complete eligible activity missions and Seasonal gear milestones. So make sure to find the activities you like to play, the points they offer, and which gear slot the next milestone unlocks.
However, if you are returning from a long break, then you will need to check the current activity progress and any available catch-up allowance. You can see how much progression can be recovered, and if a particular upgrade needs separate duty equipment.
If you want to go for content which is a bit harder, then you can go for the Fierce aids, which will also let you upgrade your Seasonal Gear.
Now if you aare looking to dial up the difficulty even more, then you have your Savage raids, which will let you get Raid Gear. You will need to look for your weekly eligibility here along with slot costs, and the stat options, which is important for your job.
What is yet to be confirmed about Evercold’s Gearing?
While the Tokyo Fanfest has given us a lot to think about, there is still a lot of information that Square Enix has not given us yet, when it comes to certain Gearing details.
The first of which is the Activity point caps and earning rates. We don’t yet know what the weekly amount will be or even the individual mission values and the time required to complete each milestone.
We also do not have information on catch-up boundaries, how much unused allowance can be accumulated, and how its transition between seasons will work out.
Gearing upgrade costs are also not something we know much about. There are yet to be any details on exact exchange quantities, slot-by-slot requirements, and even full-set completion time.
Another thing I would love to have more information on is how activity milestones will interact with every job, slots, and the Item Level Link system, which is another new feature that is coming to Evercold. Details on stats and materials restrictions are also quite hazy, especially when it comes to things like available attribute combinations, detailed unlock conditions, costs, and success rates.
Hopefully, we get more information on all of this and more in the coming weeks.
