Final Fantasy XIV Windurst Alliance Raid – How To Unlock And All Available Rewards

This is the third in a series of raids linked to the game Final Fantasy XI. As someone who played the franchise back in the day, I have been personally really enjoying this raid series. Alliance raids are 24-player content that helps players get geared up for the next patch. It also gives an upgrade item for tome gear that you would otherwise need to do savage raiding for.

Look At All This Grass, It’s Quite First Class!

To unlock the Windurst: The Third Walk raid, you must complete San d’Oria: The Second Walk from a previous patch. This quest to unlock Windurst is located from the Hoobigo Messenger, who is at Tuliyollal (X13.0, Y11.6). You must also finish the main story for the expansion Dawntrail to be able to access the raid series. Also, you need Ilvl 755, which, if you need to catch up to, you can purchase crafted gear to help hit the item level requirement. This can be bought from the market board, or maybe ask a friend who is a crafter if you have one.

If you have not done the previous Alliance Raids for Dawntrail, then Hoobigo is also the NPC that will unlock Jeuno, The First Walk, and San d’Oria, the second walk. You will need to have completed both of these previous alliance raids to unlock the raid in 7.5.

And Now You Will See; Spoilers Are Ahead Of Thee

The first boss of the Third Walk is Shantotto; this character is well known for her rhyming and pure damage in Final Fantasy XI. She brings fear to anyone who hears her talk. She is probably one of the more well-known Final Fantasy XI characters, appearing in multiple different spin-off games, including Dissidia.

Once you have defeated Shantotto, you have several other bosses that are from the wonderful MMO Final Fantasy XI; this includes fighting a version of Alexander from the Treasures of Aht Urghan expansion. Though we won’t be posting a guide on the fights here, alliance raids are designed to be accessible for most players, and though the first week there can be quite a lot of deaths, it’s a fun learning experience. I know I died a ton during my first encounter with Shantotto (as it should be).

Equipment For All! Music, Minions – It’s Got It All!

So you died multiple times and got beaten by Shantotto and the other bosses during the alliance raid, but what rewards will you get? Well, each week you are locked to one equipment item per week from the alliance raid, though the cosmetic items such as the music scroll and minion are not part of this one-item limit. You can get gear that is item level 780. This item level is the same as the current base tome gear, though if you have coins from the previous two alliance raids, with this new raid you are able to purchase an item to upgrade your tome gear to 790, but this drop is limited to once per week. Rewards are reset on Tuesday at 8am GMT/9am BST. This can be a good way to either catch up on gear for the expansion or try to gear up other jobs that you may want to play. However, with the new level sync option that is coming out with Evercold, I am worried about the gearing system in the future for alliance raids.

So Many Raids, How Many Have You Played?

Those of you who are new to Final Fantasy XIV or haven’t really stepped into the alliance raid scene before, there’s alliance raids for every expansion so far. These can be unlocked by visiting these locations depending on your progress with the story and which expansion you currently own. And remember, Shadowbringers is now part of the Free Trial!

• A Realm Reborn: Outlandish Man in Mor Dhona at (X:21.8, Y:8.1) “Legacy of Allag” questline. This quest will start the Crystal Tower alliance raid series
• Heavensward: Unquiet Trader in The Pillars (Ishgard) at (X:14.1, Y:10.6) “Sky Pirates” Questline. This quest will start the Void Ark alliance raid series.
• Stormblood: Keiten in Kugane (X:12.2, Y:12.3.) “Dramatis Personae” Questline. This quest will start the Return to Ivalice alliance raid series.
• Shadowbringers: Gossipy Dwarf in Kholusia (X:12.9, Y:8.7) “Word about Komra.” This quest will start the YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse alliance raid series.
• Endwalker: Fresh-faced Student in Old Sharlayan (X: 9.1, Y: 11.5) “A Mission in Mor Dhona”. This quest will start the Myths of the Realm alliance raid series.

Though the gear that is dropped from previous alliance raids is level-capped and does not really serve any benefit for players, it can be quite the nice glamour depending on the raid series, plus doing them can unlock the alliance raid duty roulette, which will give you a bonus tomes daily to help with the current tome system.

Overall Thoughts

As someone who played through Final Fantasy XI back in the day, this series of alliance raids was probably one of my favourites that the development team have done to date. The team used so many key moments and pulled from the history of the game that you can tell it was done with love. I do hope that eventually we will get more Final Fantasy XI content in the game, as it’s not as if that game is getting any younger. If you have never tried it before, the servers are still live on PC, and it still receives updates. Still, I do wish we could see a console version in the future, considering it started off as a PlayStation 2 title.

The equipment, the fights, everything about it tells me that the development team had played Final Fantasy XI too in the past. You can even find little notes around the raid that have well-known references for old players of the game. I understand that for people who didn’t play Final Fantasy XI, a lot of this will go over their heads, but I’d personally just like to say thank you, Yoshida and the rest of the team, for the love you did put into this raid.

Thank you to BastionPR for the article suggestion!