Did you know that with the official release of FFXIV Dawntrail on July 2nd, you’ll still have access to some really nice changes in the game even if you don’t own the in-app expansion?

Here I’ll highlight some changes I know from the preliminary patch notes that affect all players, including base gamers. If you’re preparing to jump into the new expansion, don’t miss this guide. Let’s get started!

Before Entering

Before we get started, I want to remind you that these patch notes are available on the official FFXIV website. The patch notes will let you know which items require which paid expansions to unlock. For example, if you only own Stormblood, any 2.x items will work for you, but as soon as you sign up for Shadowbringers, you’ll also get access to 5.x content, and so on.

But here I’m going to focus on the content that all players have been able to access since the official release of the expansion on July 2nd.

Quest Changes

The first item we saw was the quest they added to give everyone a free Fantasia to go along with the graphical upgrade. This will show you where you can pick up the quest, the name of the quest giver, and the requirements. For example, if you are class level 1 or higher, and you complete the quest “Scions of the Seventh Dawn”, which is about 30 quests in ARR MSQ series.

You can temporarily hide the display of nearby player characters when interacting with quest-related NPCs or objects. It will be in your character configuration menu under General and “Quest Progression Settings”.

You can also choose to automatically advance on-screen text dialogue during voiced conversations. And, quests where you type in “say” chat will be a little more lenient with your input. Think of some quests that had punctuation or uppercase letters before, which looked like lower case letters.

Some Former Beast-Tribe Quests will now be Allied Society Quests in an attempt to improve relations with the more refined members of the aforementioned groups.

Also, some quest battles can no longer be played with limited jobs. For example, Blue Mage is OP, and Beastmaster is even more so. They won’t let you play with them on MSQ.

Quality Of Life Changes

The studio has added new craftable items for any FC leader, as well as new areas and items for Airship/Submersible programme, and new levels for Submersible.

They have also changed the settlement classifications for sparsely populated worlds. You can now kick people out of your house and lawn (10 days).

There will be new prizes in Gold Saucer, including new Furniture, Orchestrion Rolls, Aquarium Fish, and Seeds! Card numbers have been added to the item descriptions of all Triple Triad cards.

If you already own Shadowbringers, you can also play as a female Hrothgar, with a new hairstyle.

The layout of Blue Magic Spellbook has been adjusted, and the execution of Monk and DRG Limit Break animations has changed. Buffs may disappear when changing areas, and each job below your highest level now gives a 100% Armoury Bonus until level 90. Then 50% from levels 90 to 99.

New World and Preferred World character rewards now apply to all jobs at level 89 or below. You can pick up Viper and Pictomancer weapons from Deep Dungeon Vendors (like PotD vendor).

Duty Finder has been reorganized. Level 50/60/70/80 Roulette is now High-level Dungeon Roulette. You can now leave mid-fight if you enter out of sync.

New Items

New items in Wolves’ Den for Trophy Crystals and Wolf Marks! New PVP Serieses Face wear becomes a slot. Some fashion accessories will become face slot items, so if they are missing from your fashion accessories list, make sure to pick them up from Calamity Salvagers in your starting city. They will give you an equippable item of equivalent.

Fantasia and Retainer Fantasia now looks different. Dyes have also changed a lot, you can add 2 colors to many pieces of gear, and more colors will be added in additional patches. As long as you have enough FFXIV Gil, you can change the appearance of your gear to any amount you want!

Men and Male Viera can now wear princess dresses. And new armor can be obtained in exchange for Silver Chocobo Feather.

Allied Society now has some new items. Survival and Engineering manuals now tell you when you need to read them again. Crafters’ and Gatherers’ Scrips have changed color. Spiritbond when gathering will be based on the gear level of the gear instead of the item level. You also get extra Spiritbond when you catch a big fish. Desynth caps and stacks still work even if you accidentally click on a single item.

There are also new mounts, minions, and fashion accessories. After using Fantasia, you have 60 minutes of in-game time to re-edit your appearance.

Other Changes

The new and improved Blacklist has a bunch of new features. You can also mute people and filter messages with specific terms from the chat.

What’s more, Retainers can now be assigned adventures from the companion app! This is a big deal for people who actually pay for and use the app, as any additional features will make it work.

That’s all for today. While not an exhaustive list, here are all the things I felt were noteworthy in the latest patch notes. Hopefully, this helps! We’ll see you guys in-game!