Progression and Gear Changes to FFXIV in Evercold

There will be extensive character progression changes happening in Evercold. These are focused on reducing fatigue for players, especially after more than 10 years of the same gearing formula. These updates are in development and subject to change, and more information will be revealed at subsequent Fanfests.

The current gear and character progression system is successful when playing in a pre-made group, but leaves players matched with other players whether in duty finder or party finder out to dry. With the prominence of party finder content in modern FFXIV, the developers are focused on creating a progression experience suitable for everyone. This includes players that may not necessarily raid but want to, or players that want to gear through alternative methods.

The new progression system in Evercold, likely replacing Allagan Tomestones, is the Adventurer Activity page. The example shown is in-development and not finalized, but the general idea was explained during the North American Fanfest keynote. Currently, players do daily roulettes and other tasks such as Allied Society quests to cap tomestones, which can be exchanged for gear. In the new system, players can complete many different tasks each week to receive Activity Points, which can be used for rewards in some way. This reduces the burden of having to log on every day to cap tomes, and increases the breadth of activities players can participate in to receive rewards, similar to the Wizard's Vault in Guild Wars 2 or the Nameless Honor Battle Pass in Honkai: Star Rail.

In the new system, players can tackle missions that reset every week. There are a variety of missions, including doing the main scenario quest, completing a trial, doing PvP, and even crafting and gathering. Completing missions rewards Weekly Activity Points, and some missions are repeatable up to a certain limit. This allows players to gain rewards at their own pace with any activity they wish to do, though it seems like doing combat content is the most time-efficient. The Weekly Activity Points cap at 3000, though this is subject to change. In addition, they are considering the ability to gain additional Weekly Activity Points a player has missed in previous weeks if players cap the points in the current week, allowing for even more catch-up.

Currently, there are only two avenues of increasing item level past the base item level of the season: Allagan Tomestones and Savage Raid loot. They are looking at additional ways to increase item level. More information will be revealed at the Japanese Fanfest.

In the new Adventurer Activity system, Seasons are being added. This will function similar to PvP Series Seasons, resetting Activity Levels and rewards after a scheduled patch. The concept of Seasons in FFXIV PvE is not new, as every two patches there is an increase in base item level. These patches denoted with an even number introduce a Savage difficulty raid and new Allagan Tomestones, allowing players to acquire gear with a higher item level. This just codifies it into a system in the game itself; Seasons will change every two major patches.

Currently, players gearing multiple roles have to acquire gear for each job individually. In the new system, jobs below the item level of your character will be synced up to that item level. We didn't get much more details than that, but it's assumed the system simply removes the concept of item level and instead gives your character an item level based on their gear progression.