Final Fantasy XIV patch 7.3 Live Letter 88 recap: Echoes of Vana'diel The Second Walk, PVP Updates, Deep Dungeon, and more

Final Fantasy XIV patch 7.3 Live Letter from the Producer 88 was dropped this morning, July 24, 2025, and it’s the second stream concerning this major update. Though only in Japanese, YouTubers iluna minori and miura have once again translated this live. Thanks to them, we’ll be able to give you the details of what’s going on in the Live Letter, without having to wait.

We’ll update this as it goes, though we imagine this particular Live Letter won’t be as lengthy or detailed as the previous one. Live Letter 87 went over a huge bulk of the content, such as Main Scenario Quests, the Yok Huy Allied Society quests, and much more.

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Final Fantasy XIV patch 7.3 Live Letter 88: Everything else coming with the next update

The Final Fantasy XIV patch 7.3 Live Letter 88 kicked off with the new trailer, where Yoshi-P said that maybe there were too many spoilers in it. It looked gorgeous, that’s for sure. We also saw that the patch release date: August 5, 2025, which is a Tuesday. You don’t have long to grind out those Moogle Tomestones! Below, you’ll also see a list of everything that was revealed throughout this stream:

Content discussed in Live Letter 88

• Patch 7.3 release date
• Recap of previous content
• Preview of Echoes of Vana’diel Part 2 - San d’Oria: The Second Walk
• PVP Updates
• New Treasure Dungeon - Vault Oneiron
• New Deep Dungeon
• System updates/Chat Bubbles

The producers did point out that some of the footage in the trailer is actual gameplay, and not just cutscenes, so that’s nice to see. He also went over the main features of patch 7.3, such as the New Main Scenario Quests. This will be the conclusion to the Dawntrail story. The story will also be longer than usual, so that’s something to look forward to.

There will be a new trial in Final Fantasy XIV patch 7.3 as well, according to the Live Letter 88. Unfortunately, they still aren’t going to reveal what the new Trial will be. Our guess is Necron from Final Fantasy 9, or Ozma. There’s also the new dungeon, The Meso Terminal.

They did give a teaser about the Trial, that instead of being more physical or magic-based, it’s more Execution-based. It’s also a slightly longer trial than normal. It sounds like it’s going to be a lot of movement and challenging mechanics to keep in mind.

What a gorgeous view of San d'Oria Castle! (Image via Square Enix)

That sounds like it’s on par with what we’ve seen throughout Dawntrail as a whole. There’s also a brief talk about looking into giving more Totems as rewards for Trials, at least this Trial. For this new Trial, we do know that you’ll get two totems instead of one, cutting the grind in half, if you want the new mount. I wish it were more than two, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.

In Occult Crescent: South Horn, a new, exclusive instance will not always be created when entering the isle as an alliance of 24+ players. If the group meets the Forked Tower entry requirements, the Auroral Mirage will occur in five minutes, which is five minutes faster than normal.

However, you will need more Sanguine Ciphers, up to 24 from 16. You will also be able to check the Sanguine Ciphers that have been offered, and your selection status, so that’s a nice QoL change.

Some important changes are coming to the Forked Tower (Image via Square Enix)

Players must now at least offer one Sanguine Cipher; if you don’t, you can’t join the run at all. That’s probably for the best, too. In addition, the occurrence of new Auroral Mirages will be put on hold during Critical Encounters. That way, players won’t have to pick between the two events.

Another change is that Treasure coffers found after encounters with Persistent Pots and Happy Bunnies will be adjusted to always contain Enlightenment gold pieces or silver pieces.

Echoes of Vana’diel Part 2: San d’Oria: The Second Walk and New Crystalline Conflict Arena - The Bayside Battleground was also teased. They also highlighted the upcoming new Treasure Vault Dungeon - Vault Oneiron. These places will be shown later on in the broadcast. Yoshi-P also brought up The Wreath of Snakes (Unreal) and the Chat Bubble Feature, which were discussed last time.

The Weapon Enhancement quests for our Relics should be easier this time (Image via Square Enix)

He continued to highlight previous content, such as Duty Support: Cutter’s Cry and Headgear Support for Hrothgar and Viera. There will, of course, be the next Cosmic Exploration Location: Phaenna, which will show up in patch 7.31.

The next Weapon Enhancement Quests for Phantom Weapons are confirmed to be “drastically different”. It may be easier, and something that won’t be as stressful; thank God for that. If you rush the next weapon enhancement, he said, “You’ll be in trouble”. It sounds like it will be far less stressful than the first step, and completing that step will also finish the other jobs; it sounds like a shortcut like we had in the previous phase.

Then there’s Deep Dungeon - Pilgrim’s Traverse, New Allied Society Quests (Yok Huy), and Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures. The Hildibrand quests promise to be nice and silly, which is something we can probably all use.

Then they offered an in-game demonstration for Echoes of Vana’diel Part 2 - San d’Oria: The Second Walk, with the entrance cutscene. Lord, that music is a trip back in time! It makes me want to play FFXI again.

It even had summons like the original Kirin boss fight! (Image via Square Enix)

However, San d’Oria looks like it’s seen some better days. There’s a fire off in the distance, for example. It’s a beautiful area, and we’ll get some lore if you interact with items in the Alliance Raid. Yoshi-P recommends coming back to look after the raid has been cleared.

Familiar races, places, music, and visuals were displayed during the Live Letter 88 for Final Fantasy XIV. I was surely not the only one hit with major nostalgia during this preview. They even teased one of the bosses: Faithbound Kirin!

It’s a bigger, badder version of the Kirin boss. It has huge line attacks to avoid, which come down the middle, and from the arms that are sticking out of the ground, so you have to constantly be wary.

It's going to be much easier to collect Orchestrion Rolls in this Alliance Raid. Hopefully, this becomes a staple in future content (Image via Square Enix)

The original Kirin (a notorious monster in FF11) randomly summoned the four lords: Byakko, Genbu, Seiryu, and Suzaku. They won’t all be in every fight, though. It sounds like it will be randomized, much as it was in the original fight. During the Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter 88, Yoshi-P also highlighted a change in the UI.

You can now see that the boss's nameplate also has a cast bar underneath it. What a delightful change! You can turn it off, though, if you want. Bosses and monsters alike have this new feature. We can expect a change in Orchestrion Roll drops.

Now, claiming these aren't connected to your alliance-specific treasure coffers, and won't go against your weekly reward limit. In this raid, they've also put more of them in the second, third, and fourth bosses. This will make it easier for players to add these to their collection.

Before showing more in-game footage, they teased the outfits you can unlock in this Alliance Raid in Final Fantasy XIV. Long-time fans definitely were treated to familiar cosmetics from the original FFXI.

There's new PVP content coming as well, so take heart, fans! (Image via Square Enix)

PVP Series 9 will begin with patch 7.3, as officially confirmed in Final Fantasy XIV's Live Letter 88. This, of course, means PVP action adjustments and some new items that can be purchased with Trophy Crystals. There's also a new battleground and new PVP tiers added, which were discussed last time — Omega and Ultima.

Players will be able to register for casual matches in parties of up to 2, which is a nice change for new players/people uncomfortable with doing PVP alone. This might be increased in the future, since there's no ranking for these casual matches in Crystalline Conflict. They also added a display indicating the time before medicine kits appear on the field; now you know when to camp and stop other players from getting them.

You've got plenty of walls to hide behind in this map, too. It's a really interesting design (Image via Square Enix)

Purify is getting a change in patch 7.3 of Final Fantasy XIV as well. The recast time will be reduced from 24s to 4s, but the MP consumption will go from 0 to 2,500, to sort of balance that out. In addition, the Resilience effect duration was reduced from 3s to 2s.

In addition, several status will now have persistent visual effects: Undead Redemption, Nebula, Chiten, Wreath of Fire, and Wreath of Ice. This will simply make it easier to see when these are being used in-game, so this is certainly a positive change.

Then we got to see Yoshi-P head into battle in the new Crystalline Conflict map, to show what it looked like live in-game. There are no special gimmicks in this map, and it has a bright, colorful appearance. I'm a huge fan of this one, so maybe I'll have to come back to PVPing in patch 7.3 of Final Fantasy XIV. There's a jump pad on this map, but it's one way - be careful before you go!

After the brief PVP battle, Yoshi-P held up a variety of photos of the upcoming gear that you'll be able to pick up from competing in PVP in Final Fantasy XIV. Some of the designs were pretty modern and hip, but only one or two of them really caught my eye, personally.

Ahh, treasure dungeons - bane of my existence (Image via Square Enix)

Next up was the New Treasure Dungeon - Vault Oneiron. This just reminds me that I really should do Treasure Dungeons more. I often find myself skipping these. It has what looked like a slot machine UI, which led to Yoshi-P fighting "Small Dream" enemies. It was the weakest of the possible rolls.

A chest will await players who overcome the battles. Yoshi-P tried several times on stream to open a portal in this Treasure Dungeon, to no avail. If you get all three "miss" icons, it will boot you from the dungeon. However, in his third attempt, he did fight a Big Dream, and he totally didn't cheat to do it - or so he claims!

This led to a boss battle against a huge gold robot with a big head. On his fourth attempt, he got the three "miss" marks. There were also some gorgeous cosmetics shown off, like a ball gown and a tuxedo. The ball gown was very Beauty and the Beast, to be honest. Then he showed off some amazing Crafter and Gatherer outfits.

Deep Dungeons are a fun way to level up your jobs (Image via Square Enix)

After the break, the Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter 88 went into the new Deep Dungeon. As a Deep Dungeon fan, I'm excited to see this. There was a brief recap of what Deep Dungeon is, for players who aren't familiar - it's a dungeon that changes each time you go in, and you start on a specific floor and head to specific checkpoints, where you fight a boss.

They also have their own exp systems, and are often great ways to grind up jobs. These dungeons have their own gear system, so it doesn't matter what your loadout is. The next Deep Dungeon is called Pilgrim's Traverse and is coming in patch 7.35.

If you're familiar with Deep Dungeon content, the gameplay will no doubt be familiar (Image via Square Enix)

It's called a "Deep Dungeon for everyone", so whether you play alone casually or are a hardcore tryhard, there's something for you here. Yoshi-P also went into detail about the creation of Deep Dungeon, and how it was content for the more casual player, who wasn't trying to do the hardest raid content. However, this version of Deep Dungeon is for all types of players.

You must clear floor 50 of Palace of the Dead (original Deep Dungeon) first, as well as complete the Endwalker MSQ, before doing Pilgrim's Traverse. You'll start at Floor T1, and go to T10, and battle your way down to T100.

The new Deep Dungeon is more flexible and accessible, but you can go for difficult challenges and try-hard if you want (Image via Square Enix)

As always, you'll fight a boss every 10 floors. He also showed off quite a few of the new monsters we'll see. As usual, you'll also have special Aetherpool Gear, so no gear requirements to take part. The initial quest for this Deep Dungeon wraps up at T30 (Floor 30). This is pretty standard Deep Dungeon stuff for Final Fantasy XIV.

However, previous Deep Dungeon designs required a Fixed Party (prebuilt) to go beyond that fixed point. That changes in Pilgrim's Traverse! You can go beyond that point with a matched party (random party). What a brilliant move! I'm so glad to see this.

This is the most accessible Deep Dungeon it has ever been (Image via Square Enix)

Do keep in mind that the difficulty will definitely get harder the deeper you go beyond floor 30. There will be less emphasis on one-hit kills, and difficulty will be similar to Final Fantasy XIV's Heaven-on-High Deep Dungeon content, already available in the game.

This is also great, because I loathed the constant one-hit kills in the last DD. Another change concerns party wipes. If you get a party wipe, you can try again from Floors 31, 51, and 71, so you don't have to start over from the beginning.

Final Fantasy XIV's new Deep Dungeon should have some fantastic rewards you can unlock (Image via Square Enix)

If you happen to die to the boss on Floor 99, you still go back to Floor 71, so it's not a completely miserable climb. There will also be a new duty that lets players challenge the Floor 99 boss as often as they like. That tells me the floor 99 boss will be an interesting one. The final boss is The Final Verse, and once you reach floor 99, you can challenge it freely, via Trial, with 1 to 4 players. It will also drop valuable rewards "on rare occasions", making it worth attempting.

There will also be new objectives added to the Final Fantasy XIV Challenge Log that can only be found here. Luminous Oil and a Piece of the Blessed Hoard will be weekly rewards, shown in the screenshot above. These items can also be sold on the Market Board, and there will be some great rewards you can trade them in for, it sounds like.

Ahh yes. Plant-based Omega (Image via Square Enix)

Yoshi-P also showed off some in-game footage of the Pilgrim's Traverse, which can be viewed in the livestream. He showed off some of the rewards, like a mount that looked like a flower jelly, or something, and another, much cooler mount. It was similar to Omega, but a flower monster you stand on top of.

There's also a Chandelier Mount in Final Fantasy XIV. The Cosmic Surfboard mount was also a big highlight, as was the Yan mount. Some of these can drop from the treasure chests in Deep Dungeon, it sounds like, but it's unknown what the drop rates are going to be. Probably very low. We were also treated to see a cute little hamster minion, which is also from Deep Dungeon.

Offerings are key to getting your rewards from this boss (Image via Square Enix)

If you finish the new Final Fantasy XIV Deep Dungeon and conquer the final boss, you can speak to the NPC to fight The Final Verse (Quantum). You use the offerings rewarded from the quest unlocked by hitting floor 100 to enter The Final Verse (Quantum) encounter.

You only consume the offerings upon defeating the boss, Eminent Grief, and opening the Treasure Coffer that they spawn. That way, you don't have to worry about going in and wasting your offerings. You can use Party Finder for this, and they recommend a full party of four players.

Final Fantasy XIV: Choose your own difficulty edition (Image via Square Enix)

You do, however, need at least 15 offerings to challenge this fight. You gain 40 offerings by completing the quest, and though there are five types of offerings, you just need 15 total for this Final Fantasy XIV boss fight.

More offerings can be found by opening Accursed Hoard in the Pilgrim's Traverse or via the Market Board. The five types of offerings are Sacramental Spirits, Spices, Grain, Light, and Lilies. You can use up to forty offerings at once. Depending on which offerings you use, the boss will gain stats, as shown in the screenshot above.

Piece of the Blessed Hoard can drop from a few ways, connected to the new Final Fantasy XIV Deep Dungeon area (Image via Square Enix)

Who knows what the best combo will be? Boss mechanics will also change depending on the total number of offerings as well, making this a truly unique fight. It will be up to players to figure out the combination and number that works best for them. Naturally, the higher the difficulty, the greater the rewards will be.

Reportedly, you gain the most rewards for completely capping the boss's stats, but that sounds like a terrifying challenge. You can make this up to "Ultimate" level difficulty, which is why there's no Ultimate this time. There is a title unlock if you manage to beat it with 40 offerings, also. If this type of content is well-received, they may try to use this as a way to update other content, so keep that in mind!

Still want to go at it alone? It's still worth it in Final Fantasy XIV (Image via Square Enix)

Yoshi-P then also explained where the Piece of the Blessed Hoard drops. It occasionally drops from The Final Verse in Final Fantasy XIV. It's a guaranteed drop in the Quantum fight, proportionate to the number of offerings made. It's also rewarded each week by reaching specific areas in the Challenge Log.

If you choose to go through Deep Dungeon solo, you gain an achievement and a title for completing the entire thing. There will also be a leaderboard. However, it will be just as difficult as soloing the previous ones, so don't worry - it will still be nice and frustrating.

If you've never challenged the Deep Dungeon before, they offered a sneak peek at what it will look like as you dive into Pilgrim's Traverse, which was around the 3-hour 23-minute mark in the stream.

Votives can hit your party with a variety of buffs (Image via Square Enix)

One new feature was revealed, though: Votives. They are a candle-lit item in the Deep Dungeon, and can produce a variety of positive and negative effects. You could become a powerful monster, the party could get regen, you could lose sight of the map, and much more.

Beyond floor 30, these can get incredibly dangerous, so you'll want to exercise caution before you activate them. Consider the status of your character/party before you choose to activate one of these. The negative buffs don't start happening until Floor 31, so before that, you're free to use them in Final Fantasy XIV's Deep Dungeon.

You also have Juniper Incense, which are items you can activate similar to Heaven-on-High's summons. One can eliminate all enemies on the field (but they can respawn), but you also gain the exp for defeating them. Another can buff your party.

While exploring, you can also unlock Illumed Aetherpool Glass Fragments to purchase cosmetics and other useful items. The Accursed Hoard drops can feature mounts, minions, and orchestrion rolls, but these will probably remain uncommon to find.

Phoenix. Down. Changes. (Image via Square Enix)

After the second break, we moved into Final Fantasy XIV's new Chat Bubble System as well as System Changes/Quality of Life changes. Before getting too deep, they made a Housing announcement. They've seen comments about housing. They're working on optimization of the upcoming features. It sounded like they were going to give more items for a smaller house.

Then the Final Fantasy XIV producer moved on to System Updates. This includes that they are putting in some Blacklist Improvements to improve the overall system. They gave a link for more information. In addition, Phoenix Down Changes were revealed.

Ready for some Gpose updates? We sure are (Image via Square Enix)

They can now be used in combat in Deep Dungeons, Instanced Dungeons, Treasure Dungeon Guildhests, Trials (4-player only), and Variant Dungeons. What a huge change! Phoenix Downs are actually useful now! In addition, they will be available from vendors and stackable up to 999 units, instead of being unique. It will have a 360s recast timer, but that's perfectly fine.

There were also Gpose Updates, with Portrait Mode added. This lets players rotate the screen 90 degrees with a button press, to make it easier to take great photos. You can preview it without rotating the screen, too. In addition, they added Chromatic Aberration as an option to adjust color fringing and distortion.

This isn't something I'm too familiar with, but I'm a fan of more cool Gpose updates. I do have to admit, I don't like looking at it. The Chromatic Aberration effects make me feel almost nauseous; definitely made my eyes hurt.

Wuk Lamat, Koana, and Bakool Ja Ja's voices were also added to Doman Mahjong - if you're into Mahjong. However, something more serious is Character Display Range was increased. This isn't the number of characters that can be displayed, though. It looks like it's increasing Draw Distance. It also depends on your screen. It can be adjusted from Standard, to Wide, to Maximum. This will affect framerate, so be careful.

Interesting note: You can have your private tells turned off in this, so they don't pop up on your screen, say, while you're streaming (Image via Square Enix)

The Chat Bubble Feature also comes with patch 7.3 of Final Fantasy XIV. It's an optional feature, disabled by default, but it is a cool feature and will probably be one I start using. Don't worry, you'll still see text in your chat log; it's just an immersion thing, a way to see what's going on without having to glance down.

You can toggle the various channels on and off, and they have different shapes and colors. Another neat feature is that you can change their color of the top corner of the bubble, and the color of the font.

They can display one or two lines of text, but beyond that, it will be truncated. Chat Bubbles will not be displayed in battle or during PVP either, so you can focus on what's most important: combat.

One reason the development team chose that is they didn't want to create situations where you need to force people to use it in combat situations, so instead, it's off completely for combat/PVP. It's not permanently set like that; the development team could change their mind in future iterations of Final Fantasy XIV.

From there, they moved on to Announcements, including things like new merchandise that players can purchase. As far as the major news from this Live Letter for Final Fantasy XIV, most of it will drop in patch 7.3, on August 5, 2025. Some of the content will drop in later patches, which I denoted above.

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Check out our other Final Fantasy XIV guides and features:

• Final Fantasy XIV reveals major fan-requested changes coming to Occult Crescent and Forked Tower soon
• Final Fantasy XIV patch 7.3 is changing up Cosmic Exploration and Occult Crescent: Live letter recap
• Final Fantasy XIV: All new mounts available in patch 7.25 and how to get them