Final Fantasy XIV Into The Mist Drops December 16 – Watch The Trailer And Read More Details From Live Letter 90
Square Enix recently dropped the second part of its announcements for Final Fantasy XIV Patch 7.4, which will arrive on December 16. This patch will start the new story leading into the 8.x expansion that will be announced during Fanfest 2026. In addition, ths is also the first main patch in which Savage has been delayed to avoid the holiday period, instead dropping in early January for raiders.
First of all, I’d like to give a big shout out to the FFXIV Reddit Discord, who did a live translation of the event and allowed me to write about it and digest the info as it was announced live. You can check out the trailer below.
Coming on patch day is the story, new tomes to grind (Mnemonics), the normal version of the eight-man raid (Savage is dropping later as mentioned earlier), and also new crafted gear will be available. This gear will help with Savage progression, though the delay will also allow people to get a few extra pieces of tome gear before the launch of Savage.
It’s Time To Go Into The Mist.
The new dungeon for the patch is called Mistwake, which kinds of reminds me of Lindblum. You unlock the dungeon as always from working on the MSQ, and the gear will help some players catch up on levelling up if they haven’t been putting in the time lately. The dungeon will feature duty support; this means you can take it on with AI partner rather than teaming with other players. This can help with learning the mechanics or simply if you’re nervous about playing with other people. There is a new buff also being added with 7.4 for duty support; previously, if you died, you would just lose the fight. Now if you die, you get a buff, and though the first time it will reset, the buff will stack and give you extra lives based on how many times you wipe to the fight.
The trial, Hell on Rails (Normal/Extreme), will also be dropping with the patch; previous trials will unlock from playing the patch story. The normal version will be unlocked this way, with the extreme needing to visit an NPC to unlock them. The trial seems to be a very memory-intensive fight, and you will get two totems for completing it. Totems can be used to purchase gear, or eventually you can buy the mount later down the line.
The Warrior Of Light With The Steel Chair
The new raid, Arcadion Heavyweight tier (Normal/Savage), will also be dropping, though Savage, as mentioned, will be out later. This current raid tier is very inspired by wrestling, and we will see more of this with this patch. We didn’t really see a huge amount of information on the raid, but this is normal as the team don’t want to spoil anything for players who are experiencing it for the first time
This will be the last of the eight-man raid series, as it wraps up in the 7.4 patch. As such, unless Square Enix announce a new ultimate for 7.5, this might be the last major patch for quite some time for raiders if they are only interested that type of content. The accompanying music track is being worked on by Tyler Smith and Tom Morello, and the lyrics were penned by Caleb Shomo; the track is called Everything Burns. The track will be out December 17, 2025, as a separate purchase outside the game.
The unreal version of Tsukuyomi will be dropping too; this is content that allows you to do previous trials for a weekly reward. The trial is scaled up to the current ilvl or close to it. This allows you to experience mechanics you might be too strong for. However, I’d personally like to see the team keep the unreal version of the fight in the game; currently, once the new patch is out, the previous unreal is removed.
Rise Up And Take The Enemy Base
The PvP, as always, will be getting a new series pass (battle pass), and the season will be resetting, but the big news is the fact we will be getting a new map for the frontlines mode. This is a large-scale battlefield in which you have different objectives depending on which rule is in effect. I myself am not great at this mode, but I am happy to see new PvP content being added to the game. The new map is called Worqor Chirteh.
For commendation crystals, Square Enix will be adding replica gear awarded for ranked seasons 1 and 2 of the Feast, with a different colour palette (Past gear will also be updated to feature two dye channels; however, to make them seem unique, the colour sections will be different on the original armour.)
Worqor Chirteh (Triumph) has new rules; in this mode, you are rewarded for going on the offensive, cutting down the competition as you claim triumphs across the arena. Triumphs cannot be retaken by other teams and do not need to be defended, so go on the offensive at all times. Weather also seems to affect the flow of battle during this match.
To increase your team’s tactical rating, you must defeat enemies or claim strategic locations (triumphs) that appear around the arena. Claiming triumphs is done by standing in a circle to raise your team’s flag; once all the circles have a flag planted within them, the triumph is claimed. You also do not need several people in the same circle. Split up and claim as many triumphs as possible!
Weather changes include snow, causing capricious snow spirits to appear; they can create frosty obstacles and bless you with a powerful barrier. Another weather change is auroras. Mystical energy fills the area, increasing the rate of limit gauges, and higher-ranking triumphs are more likely to appear, so this is a good time to counterattack and reverse the odds.
Massive Deep Dungeon Changes
Currently if you are disconnected while soloing the deep dungeon, you will lose instantly, but with this update this will change. If you log in within 10 minutes as either solo or in a group, then you can resume your progression, provided that the group while you were offline has not been killed. This is huge, as people have been frustrated due to a lot of DDoS attacks that have caused people to wipe in their solo runs.
Meanwhile, the developers are also dropping a new Variant dungeon. This information was covered in the previous live letter, but the team will be changing the overall structure of this system. They are now adding an advanced version of the dungeon, which will allow people to practise and get ready for trying the Criterion version of the dungeon. The two different variant versions will allow any party to be set up, but Criterion will be limited to 1 tank, 1 healer and 2 DPS. Variant dungeons are a kind of story-based dungeon with different routes you can take; advanced allows you to fight the bosses in any order, and Criterion is just the three bosses in a set order. You do not need to beat all three bosses in Variant Dungeon Advanced for the rewards, but you will get a bonus room if you do beat them all. They are adding a new variant action, Variant Eagle Eye Shot; unlike other actions such as Raise and Cure, this skill can be equipped by all three roles. This skill deals high damage to one enemy, so it will be good for DPS checks on bosses. Variant Raise 2, which revives one ally, will only be in Criterion Dungeons. Each player can use this action once per boss encounter, meaning it cannot be spammed.
Am I Pretty Now?
One of the biggest changes dropping with 7.4 is the new glamour system. This will be removing the lock on job gear so that anyone can wear any armour, no matter the job. So, if you fancy it you can be a Paladin in a full robe set or perhaps a white mage in a full heavy armour set! But due to issues with the animation system and the fact everything would need to be redone, there will be limits on the weapon system. You cannot glamour different job weapons on different jobs – so no greatsword for Scholars, for example. This is due to the attack animations.
This is actually a response to the modding scene; originally they were against this idea, but they have seen how much the community wants this and have decided to include the feature in the game. This is a good example of how much the company and team are listening to their fans.
Certain class/job gear, starting gear and fashion gear (other than level 1) will now be treated as outfit glamour. Individual items that are part of an outfit glamour can now be converted to an outfit glamour without owning the whole set. Outfit glamour allows you to set the gear as one piece in the mirage dresser, meaning it takes less space. You only have 800 slots, which sounds like a lot but will get filled fast depending on the type of player you are.
Quality Of Life Changes
Another new feature coming in 7.4 is a new temporary hot bar that you can add anything that you would have on a normal hot bar to, such as job switching, mounts, emotes or other actions that might be cluttering up your current bar. This can be accessed at any time and allows you to swap much faster rather than opening up the equipment menu anytime you want to swap (though I still wonder how this will work on a controller). The new panel has multiple different ways you can set it to open up, allowing for some nice customisations. This feature can also be used for job actions in specific fights or instances.
Square Enix is also adding a strategy board, a new feature allowing you to display a strategy diagram throughout a duty! Players can share and display the same board within a party; this means only one person needs to design it. This is mainly focused on raids; to prepare a strategy board, you can make it from scratch, make it from a preset or receive it from a party member, or you can share the code from making it, allowing people to copy and paste codes from websites, Discords or social media. This will really be used during the world’s first race, as the tool looks really useful and will help out with planning and learning mechanics on the fly, and will also be good for teaching folk in party finder due to sharing codes. Up to 50 strategies can be saved; you can create folders that each store 10, so I am going to guess this means you are limited to five folders.
You can screen share your strategy board while editing it, allowing you to discuss tactics within your party. This should make the process of designing the boards easier, as you can plan which location each player will be in with them visually seeing it. I am surprised they were able to do this. When sharing, it’s just a simple button press, and then you have to confirm that you want to share it with the party. For the party member, they will get a notification they can click, and then it will open up the layout design when they select the notification. It seems you can zoom in and out on the board, plus movement done by the original designer will be tracked in real time. They showed this by moving some markers, and the shared player was able to see it as it happened.
You have tonnes of options with the new strategy board; you can set multiple different layers, different job icons and can place markers so you can visually show where mechanics are often happening. All of this will hopefully allow for faster progression in savage and ultimate content. Furthermore, Yoshi P mentioned that in Japan, they just use DPS1-4, but for international players, they use different markers based on melee, ranged, or magical ranged. He also revealed you can apply this also on the board. The board will have different layouts based on the arena shape too.
Fanfest Details
In 2026, we will have Fanfest returning. Previously we had information on how to get the tickets for NA fanfest but they have officially announced the time and date that players will be able to purchase tickets. You will need an active account but you will be able to purchase the EU tickets for Germany Fanfest on Friday February 6th 2026, the event itself is July 25-26 2026.
Summary of details
Overall, most of this information was covered in our previous Live Letter coverage, but more details were given as we head towards the patch. Only 10 more live letters until the 100th, which is crazy to see, and I do wonder if they will do something special for this. Also, they mentioned that a tonne of staff have become ill recently, so we at PSU wish them the best of health and a swift recovery at the offices.
