Final Fantasy 14’s latest patch adds NPC support for solo players
The latest update for Final Fantasy XIV lets players take on the launch portion of the game entirely solo, with support for later chapters to come.
Patch 6.1 adds a new system called Duty Support, which lets players take on main scenario ‘duties’ with a party of NPCs.
Previously, these sections required players to team up with other human players in order to play through them, essentially making it impossible to play through the game alone.
The new update, however, applies to all the content that was available when the game originally launched (A Realm Reborn), making it playable solo.
A feature similar to this was introduced for Shadowbringers and Endwalker, the game’s third and fourth expansion packs, for experienced Final Fantasy XIV players who had already reached those stages in the game’s story.
For solo players looking to try the game out for the first time, however, this new update marks the first chance they’ll get to play through the game’s original launch content without any need to recruit other human players.
According to Square Enix, while version 6.1 only covers the multiplayer-only missions in the original A Realm Reborn scenario (version 2.0), further updates will add the feature to the rest of the version 2.X updates as well as the first two expansion packs, Heavensward and Stormblood.
The eventual aim is to make it possible to play through the entire game and all its expansion packs as a single-player adventure, should players wish.
This would also theoretically lessen strain on the game’s servers, which have been an issue for Square Enix of late. The game was temporary pulled from sale in December 2021, and remained unavailable to buy for more than a month, due to lengthy server issues caused by the release
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