FFXIV Dawntrail Relic Weapons will not be "Tome Dumps," developers assure

Modified Mar 15, 2025 15:49 IST

Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail Relic Weapon — Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail's Relic Weapons won't be a mindless grind like last time (Image via Square Enix)

Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail’s Relic Weapons will not be such a tedious, mindless grind like they were in Endwalker. The Manderville Relic Weapons did have a sort of fun storyline connected to them, but the actual unlock was remarkably mindless. On one hand, I didn’t mind, because I wasn’t collecting signs, symbols, or grinding FATEs like earlier expansions. Conversely, it was just getting Tomes and buying items, and that wasn’t very fun either. The weapons were great at least.

However, in the most recent Live Letter, Live Letter 86, Square Enix's Yoshi-P and Toshio Murouchi opened up about some changes. The information is vague at this time, considering the Live Letter is not subtitled, but we do have good news for fans of Relic Weapons in Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail — it’s time for a change in 7.2!

Unlocking Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail’s Relic Weapons will be different from Endwalker

During the lengthy Live Letter 86, a wealth of 7.2 topics were brought up for Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail, including the Relic Weapons. Endwalker, as an example, was a very boring path to getting the Relic Weapons — arguably the most powerful weapons you unlock for each Job in an expansion. They should take some work, but it also shouldn’t be frustrating.

Thanks to translations by the FFXIV Discord and SmoreOfBabylon on Reddit, we have a great deal of information concerning update 7.2. The upcoming Relic Weapons, known as Phantom Weapons will be unlocked in two paths, giving players agency and choice that wasn’t really available in previous expansions.

Here's what was mentioned in SmoreOfBabylon's post:

"Relic Weapons (Phantom Weapons): two methods will be available for advancing relic weapons this time: through doing Occult Crescent content, and through doing existing activities. Relics will NOT be a basic tome dump this time around."

Instead, this time around, players will unlock and improve their Relic Weapons through the Occult Crescent content — a new area similar to the Bozja Front — as well as doing existing activities. We don’t have the full details now, but it won’t be long before we have a good idea, since the release date for 7.2 is March 25, 2025.

I am, however, very excited to see how the unlock of the Relic Weapons will work in 7.2, considering how frustrating the grind was in Endwalker. All we had to do was grind dungeons until we had enough Tomes, and then turned those in for items — that was literally it. Once the method has been found, we’ll help guide you on the path to unlocking Relic Weapons in Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail, rest assured of that.

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Edited by Angad Sharma