Patch 4.25 for Final Fantasy XIV goes live on March 13th, bringing fans a fresh load of content. The most exciting of these is the Forbidden Land Eureka.

Final Fantasy XIV is known for its regular content updates and the next one is coming up.

With Eureka, the development team brings a new instance on March 13 with a new level system and dangerous open world gameplay.

Reason 1: “Content that has never been this way”

For the first time, the Forbidden Land Eureka was mentioned in a letter from the producer shortly before the end of the heavensward expansion.

At the time, it was supposed to be a modified version of the already existing Diadem, which would provide players with Open World Content.

However, the development team went much further with their ideas than initially planned. The area grew more and more, which meant that Eureka was repeatedly postponed for over a year.

The director and producer Naoki Yoshida apologized several times for the delay. According to him, it should be content that “never existed before”, a strong promise.

But in FFXIV he seems to be holding this, because Eureka’s elemental system brings fresh wind into play with its flexibility.

Within Eureka own laws prevail. All players start with an Elemental Level of 1.

This can be increased with the help of EXP on the special Magia board, packing points into different elements and redistributing them depending on the situation.

So the system is interesting in that it makes the “powerlevel” of players within Eureka Island flexible. You can adapt to any opponent and use his strengths and weaknesses in combat.

At the demonstration of the first Eureka area, “Anemos,” Yoshida said that even a single point in one element would have a huge impact on the damage dealt and dealt with.

It’s a welcome break from the linear level and progress system that FFXIV knows otherwise.

Reason 2: Relic armor instead of just weapons

The quests for the relic weapons are meanwhile from FFXIV indispensable. The players have already had to complete two full cycles of development quests to get these weapons.

Accordingly, many players were disappointed to learn that the quests for the new relic weapons will be released half a year after the release of Stormblood along with Eureka.

Relic quests are content that can be relaxed and appeals to the casual players, because they can do it on their own and do not need a raid group.

This will be possible again in Eureka, because you can enter the instance alone.

But the hardcore guys and girls can also benefit from this because, according to experience, the relic equipment was always “Best in Slot” at the end of their quest series.

The reason that the weapons are best-in-slot is the flexibility, since you could choose the secondary status values of the weapon from a certain step itself.

Although the tasks of the quests are often “grindy”, you can do the relic weapons well in between or by the way.

With Eureka, however, the development team decided to go a step further.

For the first time in 4.25, players will also be able to upgrade their job-specific armor in the same way as the relic weapons from previous quest series.

There will be special monsters called “notorious” in the first Eureka area “Anemos”. These will leave after the death special materials needed for upgrading the weapons and armor.

Which item level the improved job-specific equipment will have is not yet known. Experience has shown that it could even get to the currently strongest raid armor.

And she will be dyeable beyond that!

Reason 3: More danger please!

With the Forbidden Land Eureka, the developers also come to meet the fans who want more danger in the Open World areas.

New threads with requests for dangerous open-world content are available on the official forums at regular intervals.

Because even in levels 60-70 areas the opponents pose no problems for the characters. However, they still attack the players and are simply annoying. For many fans, it spoils the fun of exploring new areas.

Naoki Yoshida emphasized that the extremely strong opponents will relentlessly follow you in their escape attempt, making Eureka a dangerous place.

In addition, death on the island should be punished more severely than outside it. Thus, the characters will lose a certain amount of elemental EXP if they are not revived within 10 minutes of their death.

This can even lead to the characters losing multiple elemental levels.

The opinions are however split. Just as many players say they have neither the time nor the inclination to walk the long way back after death, let alone grind the lost EXP again.

Eureka therefore seems to be a compromise solution. The world outside the island is still safe and lovers of thrills can now let off steam on Eureka.

Bonus Reason: Flashbacks for FFXI fans

Part of the FFXIV community consists of former or still active FFXI players and they will recognize many of the features in Eureka.

The EXP loss after death was a standard mechanics in FFXI, which could also lead to a level down.

In Dynamis, a parallel reality in FFXI, you could farm and upgrade strong job-specific Relic equipment similar to Eureka.

The new elementary system with the Magia Board is also reminiscent of the Elemental Wheel from FFXI, which has become flesh and blood to every ninja, black and blue magician.

All in all, it’s a little love letter to the first MMORPG from Square Enix.

It starts on March 13th

Of course, it’s still too early to say for sure how well the Prohibited Land Eureka will function as content.

The community is primarily concerned about the high EXP loss after death, because it sounds like a feature that can be used for griefing.

In addition, the relic quest line is notorious for the often one-sided grind. Whether Eureka manages to give it more variety, one will still have to see.

However, after all we know, it looks like interesting fresh content, in which you will spend a lot of time to get strong equipment. FFXIV is here on Final Fantasy! Just fill your bank with enough money and get the necessary players and gears to benefit the most from FFXIV. Make sure to gather enough Final Fantasy XIV Gil to enjoy yourself in the new content.