Everything you need to know about Final Fantasy XIV’s new PvP mode, The Feast

Hello, everyone! It’s been a while! FFXIV has been updated to version 3.26, which means we’re prepared to kick off something big!

Imagine yourself in the following situation: During your travels as an adventurer, you’ve accomplished momentous feats of bravery and skill; you’ve saved untold innocents from a rampaging empire, defended a nation teetering on the brink of ruin, and worked to right the wrongs brought about by a bloody thousand year war.

You’re always on the lookout for new challenges, eager to further test your mettle. Your skill with weapons and the ability to read the flow of the battle are unmatched. Being able to plan your next move before your enemy has a chance to even react makes you a terrifying opponent. You want everyone to know when you’ve reached the top.

Then, my friend, you’re ready for the Feast, and season one starts today!

The Feast is the brand-new player vs. player (PvP) mode in Final Fantasy XIV that will allow you to show everyone that you’re the best at what you do! Victory brings with it fame and awesome rewards at the end of every season as the top ranked players will earn the rarest of items!

What is the Feast?

A new PvP mode that tasks players with proving themselves in skill-based combat against other players from their entire data centre (for instance, all Worlds in the Chaos data centre), featuring several new additions to PvP in FFXIV:

• Collect medals from your opponents as you race to earn the amount required for victory!
• Be careful collecting too many medals, as you’ll become the focus of the enemy team and you’ll lose half your held medals upon K.O.!
• Fight to the top of the leaderboards on your road from Bronze to Diamond tier!
• Everyone is synced to the same item level so you can focus on skill and teamwork instead of gear stats!
• Use your personal limit break, “Adrenaline Rush”, to turn the tide in a tight fight!
• Use strategic offensive and defensive supplies on the battlefield to your teams’ advantage!
• Earn exclusive prizes for the top 100, top 10 and the number one player on each data centre!
• Rankings will reset every Season so new players have an even playing field on their race to the top!

How can I participate?

Simple. After you have unlocked the Wolves’ Den at level 50, the Feast will become automatically available to you once you reach level 60. Just make your way to your Grand Company, where you can start participating!

Find out exactly where to go to unlock Wolves’ Den with the official Play Guide

How much time do I need to set aside for a match?

The Feast matches are a maximum of eight minutes and are meant to be fast confrontations between teams of four or eight that are meant to keep you on your toes the whole time. Quick, tactical thinking and reactions are just as important as streamlined team communication.

Can I play in a team?

For 4v4 mode, you can play either solo or in a party of four. For 8v8, you can sign up either solo, or with a buddy. It is important to note that team matches are ranked on a separate ranking list, while 8v8 matches are more fun-oriented and not ranked at all, as you progress through the tiers, so they won’t interfere with your solo ranking at all. 8v8 matches take place in a larger arena, giving you more tactical opportunities for sneaking up on or evading opponents.

Teams consist of an equal number of Tanks, melee DPS, ranged DPS and healers, so 4v4 mode will have one of each role, while 8v8 mode will have two of each.

What’s that about ranking lists and tiers?

Well, you want to be the best, right? As you win fights, you will progress through tiers. You quickly move up into the Bronze tier, and can work your way up all the way to the Diamond tier, where the best of the best compete with each other. And they do not just compete on their chosen server, but across the whole data centre!

We’ll update you regularly on who’s the best in your chosen data centre on the rankings website, which you can find here

Will I use the same abilities that I have available in normal gameplay already?

PvP modes offer a new set of abilities in addition to the ones you’ve been using while playing the game so far, and some PvE abilities will be different, so study them well. All of these skills are unlocked from the start, and as you raise your PvP rank, you will be able to modify or strengthen them using points that you earn (you can also reset these any time you’d like so find what works best for you)!

You also have access to the “Adrenaline Rush” ability. A powerful, role-dependent move which you can consider a personal limit break. Much like limit breaks, the adrenaline bar is fueled through combat, and makes a mighty ability available to the player. Thoughtful use of these abilities can turn a fight around that might already have been thought lost!

So, how do we win this thing?

Every player starts a match with 100 medals. Every time a player is knocked out, they drop half of their medals and members of the opposite team can pick them up. The more medals a player has, the more he loses on a knockdown – and everyone can be on the heels of a player with 250 medals very quick. If time runs out, the team with the most medals will win. If one team manages to amass 600 medals (in 4v4) or 1100 (in 8v8), that team will win!

There are more avenues of strategy involved surrounding the medals, such as a detrimental effect known as “Heavy Medal” where you take more damage when carrying a lot of medals, but, in general, whichever team holds the most medals wins. There’s also the Culling Time, which comes into effect if nobody is KO’d for a certain amount of time, and increases the damage received of everyone on the field. You can read more about the other effects, the types of supply kits available on the battlefield, Adrenaline Rush abilities, and further details on our special The Feast Play Guide.

So that’s it?

Yeah, that’s it! Jump right in and show the whole world who’s boss. You may even face off against some of us from the Square Enix offices, as we do regular PvP livestreams called “Culling Time”, in which we fight with and against normal players! If you want to be on the show with us, just keep an eye on the Lodestone and our Twitch channel. Maybe we’ll face off!

I’m looking forward to seeing all of you on the battlefield!