Final Fantasy XIV has been adding support for players who wish to play solo over the past two expansions, and the development team is also looking to bring these changes to past content. Trusts were added to the game in Shadowbringers, giving players the option to tackle the expansion’s dungeons with the help of NPC companions in place of other players. Over the course of the next few patches, they plan to add this trust compatibility for most of the previous expansions’ dungeons as well to make the entire journey friendly for solo players.
Patch 6.1 will start this process off with the addition of trust compatibility for all 4-player content from the Patch 2.0 period of A Realm Reborn. The developers will improve some of these low-level dungeons and trials to account for NPC companions. Other patches will continue to add more trust compatibility to the remaining dungeons.
8-player content will currently not be receiving this update as the number of resources and adjustments would delay the team too much, though it is their goal to address this in the future. Players will take on these dungeons with the help of characters from the Adventurer’s Guild or others who possess the Echo whenever the story does not allow for Scion companions. They might also tweak content to allow for specific NPCs to join certain encounters, such as fighting Nidhogg with Estinien.
Square Enix will also address the 8-player main scenario mega-dungeons by reducing them to 4 players and separating the later encounters into solo story instances. The Camp Westwind trial will also be reduced to a solo encounter.
Final Fantasy XIV might be an MMO, but it contains an amazing story that is arguably better than any of the other numbered entries in the series. Players who wish to play solo will soon have every reason to dive in and experience it without concern.
