Final Fantasy XIV Evercold details Bastion job, FFVII Remake collab, system revamps

At the second of three year-long fan festivals for the Final Fantasy XIV community, the game’s producer and director, Naoki Yoshida, shared new information about the forthcoming Evercold expansion. In the keynote address from Berlin, Germany, we learned more about the world of The Forth and the massive Realmships that soar the skies over an ice-bound ocean.

The team revealed the first of two new jobs, a “main” tank named Bastion that uses a pair of shields that fire ammunition called skyltborg. We also learned more about the large-scale system revisions that are planned to shake up some of the long-standing game design.

Furthermore, it was revealed that the new raid theme will be a collaboration with Final Fantasy VII Remake series called Beyond the Lifestream. Series director Naoki Hamaguchi took the stage to share how both teams are deeply involved in the project.

Lastly, we have more details about the Nintendo Switch 2 version, set to release on August 4, 2026 with a month free trial and a collector’s edition with a new design by Yoshitaka Amano.

Our summary of the keynote address is below, following the debut of an updated teaser trailer:

Evercold will continue the story of the Godless Realms Saga, which started in Patch 6.1. It follows the conclusion of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark Saga in previous expansions. The setting this time is “The Fourth”, a reflection of the Source world in FFXIV’s universe. This world has fallen into ruin and is ravaged by ever-spreading ice and people have abandoned the land, taking to the sky for refuge by building great airships that became their new homes.

Much of your time on the Fourth will take place atop these massive vessels called “Realmships” or “The Five Firmaments” where people have sought out survival. Here, there are new characters, such as the one in the trailer using new weapons and another with pink hair that appears to converse with a creature.

The everlasting cold is not the only threat to The Fourth, however. The Warrior of Light will become the “Far Wanderer” and further threads to tie into the expansion will be woven as the main scenario continues with Patch 7.56 in September.

The ‘Bastion’ is a tank that is designed with both high-fantasy and mechanical design concepts combined. Their role is ‘main tank’ and they will only have Evolved Mode for their actions. Their main arm is the ‘Skyltborg’ — twin shields. Bastion will start at level 90 and their starting quest location will be Limsa Lominsa.

Located in the vast expanse of the Northern Empty, Aerslaent has long been protected by indomitable Bastions, heritors of the ancient martial techniques developed over generations by the archipelago’s rulers.

It is said that no raider’s axe can penetrate a Bastion’s hulking Skyltborg—and one would be foolish to try, for these shape-changing greatshields’ aetherial artillery has brought a swift end to many a marauder, be it from near or far.

Of course the Skyltborg also offer protection for its wielder and their allies in the form of defensive and curative boons.

As for the second of two new jobs incoming for Evercold, we’ll see more information during the Tokyo Fan Festival in late October.

Above ice-locked seas, there are five great Realmships that travel the skies. The team highlighted Naglfar, the Realmship of Water.

The development team is trying a lot of new things with regard to the design of these areas regarding their weather and so on. The crystals aboard the Realmships are key to the main scenario—the exact reason is a secret for now.

Falgarthr is a player town on the Naglfar realmship. In the video below, the music is a new composition but does not play in this location. Composer/sound director Masayoshi Soken apparently made the following track in one night, so they would have a new composition to use for this trailer. Falgarthr is on the Realmship of Water and appears to be encased in a protective barrier. They note an airship landing and a market that were previously shown as concept art.

Hringhorni is the Realmship of Fire. It has foundries and rivers of molten metal. The protective dome on here is different, including the hue. Despite the Fourth being encased in cold, it appears that the Realmships will offer different types of biomes than one might expect.

Onto 8.0 system updates, the main scenario will be a key component, like in previous expansions. That said, they want to switch things up in Evercold. The previously dabbled with branching narratives, but after the initial area, you will get to choose where you go next.

Because you may take a different path than other players, that means you may experience the story in a different order as well. For example, after completing Area A, you may proceed to Area B, C, or D. After completing B, C, or D and returning to A, the story will converge on the next area. Whatever order you complete them in doesn’t change the outcome of the story, but it will create conversations between players in different orders,

Regarding player levelling and matching with this method: in Evercold, they will introduce ‘Auto Content Balancing’ for fields and instanced dungeons based on your personal progression. This system accounts for enemies, FATEs, etc. for each player in real time.

What about dungeon equipment rewards? This too, will change. These changes are all intended to give the more agency in how they want to play. This feature will only be available for select 8.0 content, but they are already planning content after that which may use this.

The team wants to keep spoilers minimal, and they ask that you look forward to the new main scenario chapter in Patch 7.56 (September).

Previously, in Anaheim, they detailed their designs to transition from a daily-based reward system to a weekly-based system. Players can use points accrued to spend on upgrades for their character by completing objectives. There will also be “new ways” to upgrade gear, including Savage gear. A deep dive into this system will be shared in Tokyo.

Additionally, to make these weekly cycles easier to navigate, a “Season” system is being implemented that groups certain patches together. They underline that this is not a Season Pass as seen in free-to-play games.

Two battle system options, ‘Reborn’ and ‘Evolved’ will be available. The team is planning a four hour long broadcast to go further into these systems so that players are equipped with information about how a given job will change.

Evercold will include a character-focused design, including the Armoury System Update, which allows players to match their highest item level to other jobs (that are at the maximum level of 110). Note: this is only compatible with jobs at level cap.

Character Action Skins are alternate animations for existing skills that will be available as rewards, which they hope players will utilize to show their individuality.

Character Action Skins will be available for general actions (like Teleport) or Job-specific actions. You can also assign animations to existing actions. The idea behind this system is to offer players further ways to express their character’s individuality. They will gradually update the system to include various job actions as well.

Yoshida polled the audience to ask about players who’ve played since A Realm Reborn. He noted that players may remember animations for certain actions that have been culled. With this system, those actions can return. The plan is to release skins for general actions in 8.0, then release a new round job action skins in 8.1. The plan is to have many different skins for actions. Early on, options will be limited but with each patch the amount of skins will increase. It’s not a one-and-done thing.

More character creation options will include a color picker for eyes, hair, and skin tone. Improved customization for eyes and lips and eye shadow, as well as face paint layering and turning off parts of gear visually. In addition to this, more options will come in 8.1 and beyond. You’ll be able to turn certain features that are previously baked in. This includes nose shading on lalafell/viera and miqo’te war paint. Au ra will be able to change their horns.

More will be coming in the future, but that’s all they can show for today. Ultimately, these updates are thanks to the graphics update they implemented in Dawntrail—it created the foundation for these subsequent customization updates. Since A Realm Reborn, it was Yoshida’s decision to limit customizability for the sake of lore, but he has decided to change tack and offer the option to players anyway. Again, the latter updates will be in 8.1.

Battle content will also get a revamp in Evercold. Public fields are being re-thought, including things that you may have encountered in places like Eureka. The working title is “World Raid”.

Up until now, they’ve avoided a system that allowed players to automatically travel from quest giver to quest destination. However, newer games have implemented such features. If this feature helps certain players, they want to proceed. Auto-movement will be an optional feature.

There is a massive amount of data and pathing that needs to be created for said system, so it will take time to fully implement. It’s a lot of work, and there will be a staggered release starting in 8.0 and the 8.x patch series.

As we learned previously, a third (middle) difficulty for 8-player raids will be added, adjusted progression routes for alliance raids and all new types of battle content.

For 8-player raids, there are currently two difficulty options: ‘Normal’ and ‘Savage’. The completion rate for the former is 85% and Savage is around 14-20% depending on the raid. The amount of prep and time required for Savage creates a large gulf in effort versus Normal.

This new difficulty is said to be less than or equal to ‘Extreme’ difficulties found in trials. For rewards, completing Savage will directly earn gear drops. The middle path will reward ‘Season Gear’ that can be gradually upgraded to be “closer” to Savage raid drops.

You can use this new difficulty to practice for Savage or to gradually upgrade Season Gear. There’s a lot going on with this system, and so a future Live Letter will reveal more.

As previously revealed: same-region player matching will allow players in the same Data Center to match and use party finder. “As you might imagine, this will result in a lot more hits in the Party Finder.”

Still, there may be difficulties based on peak hours to find a party, so they will be working on further adjustments to address. The system will be tested first in Japan on October 12th. Then, pending a successful implementation, it will be rolled out to North America, Europe, and China.

The more people that participate in the test period the more bugs they can find and fix. The team asks for players’ assistance in joining the tests for each region—details on the tests will be coming soon.

Other additional updates:
• Level cap is increasing to 110.
• New treasure hunts/FATEs/Hunts.
• New dungeons (pictured below).
• New job-specific gear (pictured below).

As part of the Duty Support update for Evercold, the team is overhauling chocobo companions. Starting in 8.1, you can bring chocobos into dungeons creating light parties with 2 players + 2 chocobos.

Depending on how you’ve raised your chocobo already, this may create friction, but they are going to balance the system to account for this, including the option to change your chocobo’s role.

The raising and summoning systems will be overhauled for this system revamp. Your chocobo’s current rank will be preserved. Again, these updates will start in 8.1, following the release of Evercold. In 8.2, changes to chocobo breeding will come.

An update regarding the new alliance raid collaboration Ghosts of Desire with Evangelion, with a “slightly updated trailer”. Special guest artist & designer Mahiro Maeda will be contributing to the collaboration. He has contributed to Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time, and Mad Max: Fury Road.

Final Fantasy VII Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi joined the keynote to announce that the new 8-player raid collaboration Beyond the Lifestream.

He shared that both FFVIIR and FFXIV teams have “come together as “a united Final Fantasy front for this collaboration and both teams are hard at work to put something special together.”

Beyond the Lifestream will have three full tiers of raids, with the first arriving in Patch 8.01 soon after Evercold releases. The story is written by Motomu Toriyama and the FFXIV scenario team. Kazushige Nojima is supervising the story. Tetsuya Nomura will serve as art design supervisor.

Hamaguchi went on to say that they had many requests for different characters from the FFXIV team and the FFVII Remake team wanted to try lots of different things in terms of setting. While it’s increased the workload for both teams they are all very passionate about the project.

Additionally, a new attraction for the Gold Saucer is incoming, based on Final Fantasy VII Remake. It’s called Keybound Brawler. It’s a typing game that can be played with up to four players. Gold Saucer arrives October 28, 2026, with subsequent updates later. It is the first in a series of typing challenges where the first is themed around Final Fantasy VII Remake. Yoshida noted that this collaboration is suited to swapping in different themes and collaborators.

Rewards will include glamour for Barret Wallace and Tifa Lockhart’s outfits. Barret’s gun-arm will be a fashion accessory (as players need to be able to hold weapons.)

Hamaguchi and Yoshida see this collaboration as a way for both teams create something exciting everything for everyone. Yoshida notes the two have worked closely in the last few years to bring Square Enix “into a new era.” Hamaguchi added “we’ve had lots of opportunities to talk and more will happen in the future.”

Hamaguchi closed by commenting that the FFVII Remake series is approaching its climax and FFXIV is in a new saga. He is delighted to collaborate across Final Fantasy titles at an important time for both teams and vowed to “work our hardest on Beyond the Lifestream and Final Fantasy VII Revelation so fans of both games can enjoy what we’re making.”

The Nintendo Switch 2 version of Final Fantasy XIV is coming August 4, 2026 with a month-long free trial. During this period they will monitor stability with the new platform. Pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch 2 version start today.

The physical Collector’s Bundle features a new illustration by Yoshitaka Amano for Evercold. The physical items include a Reaper Figure, Ethos metal keychain, a Köttr mini plush, a “Tapestry of the Fourth” and a special art box.

Exclusive digital in-game items include a ‘Valhallar Odin’ mount based on Final Fantasy XIII, as Evercold also draws on themes in Norse mythology.

Digital items for the Digital Collector’s Edition include a Entreat Crystal Emote and Crystal Skyltborg weapon for Bastion.

Final Fantasy XIV is currently available on Windows PC, Steam, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and Mac. A Nintendo Switch 2 client is forthcoming. A free trial for the game is available through the Shadowbringers expansion, with further progression requiring a paid subscription.