Update: The scheduled maintenance period is done and Patch 6.01 is now live. For more on the update, please check out our Patch 6.01 summary, which includes details on the new Pandaemonium raid gear set and exchange system. The original story follows.
Despite the whirlwind of server issues and patchwork solutions to improve the player experience, post-launch content for Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker is staying on schedule. Patch 6.01 for FFXIV is going to go live on December 21. That also means there will be a regular maintenance period in which the game will be offline for all players. As announced in the official Lodestone site, FFXIV will be offline for eight hours starting on December 20 at 6 p.m. PT to December 21 2 a.m. PT (the exact finish time may change).
The main feature in Patch 6.01 is the first leg of Endwalker‘s eight-player Pandaemonium raid series. This chunk of the raid is specifically called Pandaemonium: Asphodelos and we suspect it to be four separate instances, as previous raid series’ have been. The story behind Pandaemonium will revolve around certain Ascian characters from previous story beats (as you can probably tell from the raid’s key art) and will dive deeper into their lore. Director and producer Naoki Yoshida assures that narrative surprises await. Yoshida-san did a walkthrough for one of Pandaemonium’s combat arenas in a previous Live Letter, and it looks vewy scawy and haunted. Of course, players will have to finish the Endwalker main story questline and use a level 90 Job in order to access the Pandaemonium raids.
Patch 6.05 is still on schedule as well, set for January 4 — this will implement the Savage difficulty versions of the Pandaemonium: Asphodelos raids. Players will then be able to earn the new Allagan Tomestones of Astronomy for more endgame gear and items. A new Treasure Dungeon, called The Excitatron 6000, is also part of the new patch content. Players should expect another FFXIV maintenance period on January 3.
If you need help getting prepared for the Pandaemonium raids, be sure to check out our Tomestone of Aphorism and endgame gear guide. And if you want to get different Jobs to level 90 and raid-ready, you can use our fast leveling guide for alternate Jobs. Pandaemonium isn’t the only endgame content available in Endwalker, make sure you’ve unlocked and played through the optional level 90 dungeons Smileton and The Stigma Dreamscape.
