Final Fantasy XIV reveals major fan-requested changes coming to Occult Crescent and Forked Tower soon

During the Final Fantasy XIV 7.3 Live Letter, major changes coming to the Occult Crescent and Forked Tower were revealed. It turns out that some of these changes will be dropping sooner than expected. According to a post from Yoshi-P on the official FFXIV website, a hotfix will be deployed tomorrow, July 3, 2025 (or shortly thereafter), to make sure some important changes are made to make the Forked Tower a more enjoyable experience for large groups of players.

According to him, this Forked Tower change will not impact the current planned release date for patch 7.3 in Final Fantasy XIV. It is just that this important change will come ahead of schedule. This will address some of the important concerns players had with the mode, but not all of them.

Final Fantasy XIV hotfix to improve Forked Tower Entry System soon

According to the blog post by Yoshi-P (Naoki Yoshida), Final Fantasy XIV is going to add a pair of changes to the Forked Tower around July 3, 2025. On top of this, another update will also be coming somewhere down the line.

The changes made to Forked Tower are as follows:

Important changes to Forked Tower in FFXIV

The ability to enter the Occult Crescent instance with a preformed alliance of up to 48 players.
Allowing auroral mirages to generate sooner after the Occult Crescent instance has loaded.

Being able to queue with a 48-player group for Occult Crescent is huge (Image via Square Enix)

This is only a portion of the changes that will be made to the Forked Tower experience in Final Fantasy XIV, with the rest coming closer to, or during patch 7.3. The best part, according to me, is how it seems like players who want to set up 48-player alliances to clear Forked Tower before they go in will be able to do so.

While Occult Crescent is for up to 72 players in an instance, a group of 48 will be able to join one and work together immediately. We do not know if this guarantees that they will join the Forked Tower together, but it sounds like the odds will be decent.

Having auroral mirages generate sooner is also a great idea, meaning players will have to wait less if they’re ready to grind their way through the Forked Tower in Final Fantasy XIV. In addition to the already revealed changes, something major set to be implemented later was also discussed: enabling exclusive access to the Occult Crescent instance for a set time when joining with a preformed alliance.

This, however, will guarantee that players can set up Forked Tower groups that will surely be able to go in with just their preformed alliance.

The first two changes will be implemented on July 3, 2025, or as soon as possible after that date. The other change does not have a specified date as of now. The developers have said that the upcoming changes may require a little more testing and that they will make an official post on the Lodestone when the date has been confirmed.

Check out our other Final Fantasy XIV guides and features

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Edited by Jason Parker