Editor’s note: (7/5/2022): Maintenance for Final Fantasy XIV Patch 6.18 finished and the game is back online. However, players had difficulty using the new data center travel system. The FFXIV team said that it’s getting 15,000 data center travel requests per minute and decided to temporarily suspend the feature in order to fix it, via a blog post on The Lodestone.
Editor’s note (7/4/2022): Scheduled maintenance for FFXIV Patch 6.18 began on July 4 at 3:00 a.m. PT and is set to finish on July 5 at 3:00 a.m. PT. This 24-hour maintenance period takes FFXIV offline for the implementation of new data centers and servers and a number of in-game changes. Please go to our more recent article for full, up-to-date coverage of FFXIV 6.18, which includes specifics on data center travel, PVP tweaks, Job adjustments, and changes to endgame rewards. The following is the original article published on June 21, 2022.
A new post on The Lodestone detailed the rollout of new European and Japanese servers and data centers for Final Fantasy XIV. The post also revealed that it will be packed into FFXIV Patch 6.18, which is set to launch on July 5, 2022. This means the Data Center Travel system will go live on that day as well, which is the real story here. The long awaited feature is finally coming! Get ready to start visiting your friends on other data centers (in the same region).
Players should be aware that this also means the game will be offline for the implantation of FFXIV Patch 6.18. Because of the large technical overhaul, the scheduled maintenance is expected to last 24 hours. We do not have the exact timing of the maintenance period, but we can expect it to cover most of the day on July 5. We’ll update this article when we have the details.
How Data Center Travel Works
You will have to initiate the data center travel from the character select screen in order to visit servers on another data center. There will be an option in the menu once FFXIV Patch 6.18 goes live. You will be able to choose which data center and which server you want to visit, and the transfer process will begin.
In this implementation of the system, you can only visit data centers in your region (or physical data center). Players on North American servers cannot visit servers in Europe, Japan, or Oceania. The FFXIV team is considering expanding the feature to cover all data centers. They stated that they will be monitoring player activity and in-game economies given the differences between regions’ data centers.
Players who are visiting from another data center are marked with the [Traveler] tag next to their character name. There are a few restrictions to what you can do on other data centers, however.
Data Center Travel Restrictions
Those who visit different data centers will be subject to the same restrictions as if you’re simply visiting another server on your home data center. Visitors will also not be able to access their cross-world linkshells (CWLS) or free company chat while in another data center. Last we heard, FFXIV Patch 6.2 will allow players to start a CWLS on other data centers. Otherwise, players can party up, take on quests, and play through instances while visiting, the same way you would through the World Visit System.
New Servers and Bonuses
There will be four (4) new servers for European players once FFXIV Patch 6.18 launches. The Chaos data center will get Sagittarius and Phantom, and the Light data center will get Alpha and Raiden. Japanese players get a new data center, but no new servers. Servers will be shuffled around to create more on each data center. Additional servers for North American players will come at a later date.
Players who transfer or create new characters on a newly minted server will get some in-game perks. New characters will earn double EXP until level 80 and get 10 Silver Chocobo Feathers for gear. If they hit level 30, they’ll get 1,000,000 Gil and 15 days of free subscription time. Characters who transfer to a new server will also get double EXP up to level 80, but this will only last for 90 days. They will get 10 Gold Chocobo Feathers for rare mounts and more. And if that character owns a housing plot or apartment, they will get Gil in return.
Note that if you plan on transferring or making a new character on a new server, housing will not be available immediately. The FFXIV team will make sure servers are stable before opening up the housing system on new servers.
There isn’t much else set to come with FFXIV Patch 6.18. But that’s okay, because we’re getting another Live Letter soon. You can learn all about the content packed into FFXIV Patch 6.2 in our breakdown of everything we know so far, which includes Island Sanctuary, Criterion Dungeons, more glamour space, new Pandaemonium raids, and new main story quests.
