Final Fantasy XIV: The New Dungeon is so good that I almost overslept today because of it

In Final Fantasy XIV, patch 6.25 introduced a new type of dungeon that is intended to bring variety into the game. They did it so well that MeinMMO editor Irina Moritz didn’t want to stop.

Let’s be honest: lack of sleep is somehow part of gambling. Sometimes a game comes out that you are really looking forward to and you forget the time. Sometimes you’re just having so much fun with friends that you don’t want to log out, even if it’s really late.

As an adult and responsible person (haha) I have discarded this vice. During the week, the PC or console is turned off at 10:00 p.m. sharp. That actually lasted a long time (with 1-2 exceptions).

What I didn’t expect was that the new Unsteady Dungeon in FFXIV was going to drag me in so hard I was breaking my rule completely.

“Oh, one more try”

In and of itself, the new dungeon isn’t anything that knocks your socks off. You start in a room and can choose between 3 different paths. These paths each have 4 different “endings” that can be reached, so a total of 12.

Which of the endings you reach depends on the choices you make throughout the dungeon:

• Which bridge should be activated?
• Which item do you pick up?
• What answer do you give to a question?

But there are also smaller puzzles that you have to solve to unlock secret endings. The runs can also be done very comfortably alone in normal mode. The higher difficulties require fixed groups and, especially in Savage mode, a lot of teamwork and skill.

This is what makes it so special: While I enjoy raids and heavy content a lot, I skipped the dungeon’s higher difficulties at first. Because what really grabbed me was the search for different endings.

It was a blast working through each path and figuring out how they work. The game gives hints in the form of text, dungeon items, and companion NPC dialogue, so as a group we started taking notes and jotting down what options we had already tried.

We already felt “like before, when there were no guides”. But that was also my undoing and made sure that I almost fell asleep through my alarm clock today.

Because the runs in the dungeon never last more than 30 minutes, I was repeatedly tempted to say: “Oh, one more try is fine”. It also didn’t help when my group broke up at some point (because people had to go to bed), since the dungeon can also be completed wonderfully smoothly on your own.

So I quickly switched to my warrior and continued solo. One run became another, then another, and maybe another to unlock the final ending in the second path. Until the clock finally showed me a completely godless time.

Connoisseurs are out and about alone or with friends

If you still plan to visit the Unsteady Dungeon yourself and let off some steam, I would recommend going in either alone or with friends. In groups with random players, it’s easy to spoil the solutions for the various paths.

I found it funnier to puzzle out the possibilities and puzzles myself to find the different endings. If you get stuck in one place, you can look for tips (we did that too). But I would definitely recommend tackling the dungeon blindfolded.

Of course, not everything is perfect. Since it’s the first content of its kind, a lot of it still feels very “basic”. For the future I would wish for trickier puzzles, which should also be more logical. Some of these made me wonder how people came up with them because it seemed so random.

Also the rewards could be better and more diverse. From what I’ve heard, they’re rather modest, especially on higher difficulties. There are only a handful of cosmetic items and materia for the hardest mode.

But these are all things for the future. The content is definitely a step in the right direction and I’d love to see more of it in future patches.

Now I also know how nasty this “one run is still possible” trap is. So next time should hopefully be accompanied by a little more sleep.

Have you tried the new content yet? What was your experience with it? Do you like it or not? Write it in the comments.

More about Patch 6.25 can be found here:

Final Fantasy XIV Patch Notes 6.25: Hildibrand and Unsteady Vault are coming today