With Tokyo Fan Fest less than a month away, more major details about Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold are likely to arrive before the expansion launches in January 2027. Even before that event, Square Enix has outlined a substantial update to the game’s jobs, combat, customisation, story structure and progression systems.
Here is a clear summary of the most important Evercold features revealed so far.
Two New Jobs Are Coming
Evercold will introduce two new jobs. The first is Bastion, a tank wielding the distinctive Skyltborg. The weapon combines a gunblade-style firearm with a shield and blade, allowing Bastion to defend with large barriers, fire bursts of aether energy from range and fight at close quarters.
That combination gives Bastion elements normally associated with tanking, melee damage and ranged damage. It is an unusually broad design for a single job, although its primary role remains tanking.
The second job has not been officially confirmed. Square Enix has established that it will deal physical ranged damage, while speculation points towards a crossbow-based concept. These job theories have a neat breakdown, and another analysis makes a strong case for the likely direction.
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More Ways To Customise Your Character
Character appearance remains one of Final Fantasy XIV’s major strengths, and Evercold will expand the available options. Players will be able to alter Au Ra horns, adjust nose shading and apply face paint. More detailed colour controls will also allow custom choices for eyes, hair and skin tones.
Customisation will extend beyond appearance. Evercold will add options for animation styles, including personalised teleport effects and variations for other job-specific actions.
A More Flexible Main Story
Evercold will change the traditionally linear structure of the main scenario. After completing one area, players will be able to decide which of three other areas to visit next, rather than following one fixed route.
Non-player character conversations will respond to the choices made along the way. To keep the experience balanced regardless of the selected order, each area will automatically adjust its content to match the player’s level.
Evercold’s Evolved Combat System
Square Enix is also responding to concerns that different jobs have begun to feel too similar. The new “evolved” combat system is intended to give each job a stronger identity by streamlining abilities and reducing the number of buttons and rotations players need to learn.
The evolved versions of every job have not yet been revealed. Some details are available, including a few early explanations and breakdowns of how the new abilities and combos may work.
Players who prefer the existing systems will not be forced to change. Evercold will retain the current approach through a “reborn” mode.
Less Daily Grinding For Endgame Gear
Evercold will revise the way players progress multiple jobs at the level cap. The current daily-quest structure, which provides currency for purchasing higher-level equipment, will be replaced by a weekly system.
Under the new arrangement, players will choose activities they can complete during the week. Those activities will award points that can then be exchanged for higher-level gear, giving players more control over when they make progress.
The expansion will also reduce the work involved in gearing several max-level jobs. Players will be able to “reflect” their highest item-level gear onto their other max-level jobs, making it easier to bring additional roles up to date.
This reflection system will not copy further enhancements such as materia. Players will still need to earn and improve their best-in-slot equipment separately, but the change should reduce the effort required to get secondary and tertiary jobs ready for endgame content.
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Chocobos Can Join Dungeon Parties
Evercold will expand the chocobo companion system by allowing chocobos to participate as combat party members inside dungeons. Previously, players could adventure with their chocobo but could not bring it into this group content.
The change could make smaller groups more practical. A dungeon party made up of two players and their two chocobos will be able to fill all four party slots, reducing reliance on the Duty Finder queue when players want to run content with a limited group.
What To Expect Next
Tokyo Fan Fest is expected to provide some of the final major Evercold announcements before the January 2027 release. The expansion is shaping up to be a particularly broad update, affecting not only its new jobs and story but also long-standing systems that govern combat, character expression, gearing and group play.
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