Anticipating what’s next for the Warriors of Light in Final Fantasy XIV? The Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXXXVIII aired just earlier today (not Friday!). So let’s see all the upcoming changes in Patch 7.3!
The Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LXXXVIII is Part 2 of the Patch 7.3 Live Letters. If you missed out on Part 1, we summarized it back in June. Most Live Letters are in Japanese audio only, so a big thank you to Miuna and Iluna Minori for the fan translations at r/FFXIV Discord!
Feel free to navigate to any part you find interesting! The summary covers everything announced from Patch 7.3 to 7.35!
- MSQ (New Dungeon & Trial)
- Occult Crescent (Forked Tower & Relic Weapon Updates)
- Echoes of Vana’diel Alliance Raid
- PvP Changes
- New Treasure Dungeon
- Disciple of the Hand and Land (Occult Crescent & BiS Changes)
- New Deep Dungeon
- System Updates (Chat Bubbles, Blacklists, & more!)
- Win10 Support Ends in October
Patch 7.3 Release Date
FFXIV Patch 7.3 releases Tuesday, August 5th, 2025. If you missed the trailer, check it out below! Other trailer languages are also available on Final Fantasy XIV’s official YouTube channel.
Main Story Questline and EX Trial Update
The upcoming Patch 7.3 will conclude the main story beats of Patch 7.0. The upcoming main story quests will focus on the Warrior of Light more, such as what’s coming next (hints for Patch 8.0 story?)!
Along with the main story update, Patch 7.3 will also add a new Level 100 dungeon The Meso Terminal, and a new Level 100 trial ???. The duty’s name is currently hidden for spoilers, but it will have both normal and extreme versions of the trial.
As completing the new extreme trial may take a little longer, players will receive 2 totems upon clearing the EX Trial. This means you only need 50 runs (at worst!) to exchange for the trial-exclusive mount! Or maybe you’ll get lucky with drops 👀
There is also a possibility the development team will review how many totems to give out as rewards in the future.
Occult Crescent Update
When queuing as an alliance of 24 players or more, you will have a new exclusive instance starting in Patch 7.3. You can check out all of the Forked Tower related updates in our summary on Icy Veins.
Side Content Updates
Along with the main story quest updates in Patch 7.3, we’ve also got updates for:
| Echoes of Vana’diel Part 2 – San d’Oria: The Second Walk |
| Crystalline Conflict |
| Treasure Dungeon – Vault Oneiron |
| The Wreath of Snakes (Unreal) |
| Duty Support: Cutter’s Cry |
Echoes of Vana’diel Alliance Raid Update
The Live Letter showcased the beginning area of the new alliance raid San d’Oria: The Second Walk. In addition, they also previewed some mechanics from the first boss, Faithbound Kirin. There are a lot of telegraphs to dodge, so better bring your game on!
Completing this alliance raid will reward you with 1 alliance raid token each week, exchangeable for augment tome gear upgrades! You’ll need these to complete your Patch 7.2 Best-in-Slots. The token is a perfect upgrade alternative to completing Savage Raids from the current raid tier, Cruiserweight.
If you like collecting Orchestrion Rolls, there is also a reward system update for San d’Oria: The Second Walk. Orchestrion Rolls will now drop from alliance-specific treasure coffers, not subject to the weekly reward limit.
The Live Letter also showcased the new equipment for different roles. You can obtain 1 equipment piece per weekly completion while the lockout is active. The reward lockout is active until the end of Patch 7.3.
PvP Updates
Starting in Patch 7.3, PvP Series 9 will begin! As well, there are also PvP action updates and new items to exchange with Trophy Crystals.
For new PvP updates, they’ve added a new Crystalline Conflict map. The Live Letter also showcased the new map and its unique features.
In addition, the rank tiering system now has two new tiers: Omega and Ultima. Previously, matchmaking at higher tiers was fairly difficult, so (hopefully) the new tiers fixes this issue. You can also now queue in casual Crystalline Conflict matches in parties of 2, so bring a friend along!
For PvP visual updates, there’s also a new timer added for medicine kits in Crystalline Conflict. Now you can’t lose track of when the next medicine kit will arrive!
For some PvP actions that grant status changes, they now have persistent visual effects:
There’s also a big update to the PvP action Purify, which you can review the details below:
Treasure Dungeon Update
Introducing in Patch 7.3 is the new Treasure Dungeon Vault Oneiron! It’s a little different from past roulette wheels, but the “Dream Slot” determines if you will challenge a small dream, or something bigger! If your slot machine shows too many broken hearts, you have a chance of either getting kicked, or if you’re lucky, maybe continue further… 👀
Good luck with your Treasure Hunts! If you win the new crafting material, maybe you can craft a nice formalwear glamour for you and someone special. 💖
Crafting, Gathering, and Relic Updates
In Patch 7.31, you can expect content updates for:
- Cosmic Exploration – Phaenna
- Weapon Enhancement Quests – Phantom Weapons
With Patch 7.3, there will also be a new best-in-slot update for all Disciples of Hand and Land. If you want a quick how-to guide, check out what to prepare on Icy Veins!
Patch 7.35 Updates
In Patch 7.35, expected around October, FFXIV will also add the following updates:
- A New Deep Dungeon, the Pilgrim’s Traverse
- New Allied Society Quests – Yok Huy
- Inconceivably Further Manderville Adventures
Deep Dungeon Update
The latest addition to FFXIV’s Deep Dungeon is Pilgrim’s Traverse! To put it mildly, Pilgrim’s Traverse has so many new and upgraded features from past Deep Dungeons. 😅 We’ve included all the updates in its own article on Icy Veins, so check it out!
System Updates
In Patch 7.3, you can expect the following quality-of-life changes:
- Expanded Headgear Support for Hrothgar and Viera (such as hiding Viera ears!)
- Hair bangs will now display while wearing hood-type headgear
- Chat Bubble Feature
- Phoenix Down Changes
- Enemy Cast Bar Changes
- Blacklist System Updates
- Group Pose Updates
- Windows 10 Support Ending
We previously covered most of this information in Part 1 of the Live Letter. However, we weren’t expecting changes to Phoenix Downs or Cast Bars!
New System Features
If you’re unfamiliar with Phoenix Downs in Final Fantasy or FFXIV, they’re special consumables that can raise fallen players. Phoenix Downs in FFXIV are pretty niche, but perhaps it’ll be different Patch 7.3?
If you’re having difficulties keeping track of the enemy’s cast bar, Patch 7.3 adds a new HUD setting to enable it under a Boss target‘s name tag. This is enabled by default.
There are also Group Pose updates, which are summarized below:
There are also new voice lines added to Doman Mahjong. As well, the Character Display Range has been increased with various visibility options. This may affect your frame rate, so be sure to check it out!
Chat Bubble Details
Introducing in Patch 7.3, players can also enable the Chat Bubble feature. This is disabled by default, but you can customize the feature with various options. For example, you can set chat bubbles to only show for certain chat modes.
However, this feature is not available in battle or PvP. Sorry, no funny messages when you fall over in combat! But perhaps the developers may change their mind later on. 👀
Blacklist Improvements in Patch 7.3
Developers are constantly on the lookout for ways to improve FFXIV’s blacklist feature. We’ve previously covered one of the ways it was (unfortunately) exploited. There’s a pretty significant change coming to Patch 7.3, so we highly suggest you read up on it yourself!
Windows 10 Support Ends in October
If you missed out on the news earlier, Final Fantasy XIV will stop supporting Windows 10 and older systems in October. For more information, check it out on Icy Veins!
