Square Enix announces FFXIV 7.1 release date frame and details, including FFXI raid crossover and more Bakool Jaja

Square Enix confirmed a November FFXIV 7.1 release date in a new announcement and outlined what to expect from Dawntrail’s first big update

Square Enix

We had a pretty good idea that the FFXIV 7.1 release date was happening sometime in November 2024, and Square Enix confirmed it in a new announcement outlining what to expect from Dawntrail’s first big update. FFXIV 7.1, officially called Crossroads, will launch sometime in the middle of November 2024, and it brings with it new raids for the MMO game, including the long-awaited FFXI Alliance Raid, the first continuation of Dawntrail’s main scenario quest, a new dungeon, and a whole lot more.

• Read more: FFXIV Dawntrail review - A vision reborn

The biggest new additions are the FFXI Alliance Raid series and the first post-Dawntrail MSQ. The Alliance Raid series is Echoes of Vana’diel, a new 24-person raid along the lines of the Crystal Tower series and other crossovers, including the NieR Automata crossover raids. There’s no hint about what road the FFXIV 7.1 MSQ will follow, though the fan-favorite hunk of two-headed lizard Bakool Ja Ja will, apparently, return for a time, seeing as he features prominently in the update’s key art. Dawntrail told a self-sufficient story, but there are plenty of areas the post-game patches could explore – the other Shards, time travel, heck, even just some of the plot threads Dawntrail hastily resolved and moved on from.

Speaking of the Crystal Tower, FFXIV 7.1 adds the first-ever high difficulty Alliance Raid, the Cloud of Darkness (Chaotic). You can re-challenge Sphene’s Burden through The Minstral’s Trial, challenge an Ultimate version of the Futures Rewritten raid, and a level 100 challenge against Byakko. 

FFXIV 7.1 will add a new role quest story that pops up after you complete the Dawntrail role quests and a new Wachumeqimeqi quest. If you haven’t done any of the Wachumeqimeqi delivery quests yet, you absolutely need to fix that. They might be tied to leveling crafter jobs, but they have some of the best side quest storytelling in Dawntrail. 

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You can also expect Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures, aptly named considering Hildibrand’s outings have been ongoing since the post-A Realm Reborn patch days roughly a decade ago, along with duty support for Halatali and the promise of support for future, non-MSQ dungeons as well. That’s excellent news if you’re keen on running side dungeons for fun or for hunting logs, considering queues for these older challenges often take far longer than queues for normal roulette dungeons. 

Finally of note, under the “Miscellaneous Updates” section, Square Enix said FFXIV 7.1 adds new Hall of the Novice lessons for a variety of gameplay mechanics. The existing Novice training only covers the bare basics of how to generally play each role, so these new lessons should help ease newcomers into things more effectively – and maybe give some longtime players a better idea of what to do.