Endwalker

Quick Facts

• Release Date: December 7, 2021
• Expansion Number: Fourth
• Level Cap Increase: 80 → 90
• New Jobs: Sage (Healer), Reaper (Melee DPS)
• New Playable Races: Male Viera
• Key Locations: Old Sharlayan, Radz-at-Han, Thavnair, Garlemald, The Moon, Elpis, Ultima Thule
• Main Antagonist: The Endsinger (Meteion)
• Patch Series: 6.0 through 6.55

Overview

Endwalker is the fourth expansion for Final Fantasy XIV and the monumental conclusion to the Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga, a narrative arc that has defined the game's story since A Realm Reborn. Released in December 2021, it serves as the capstone to over a decade of storytelling, resolving long-standing mysteries while weaving a profound narrative about despair, hope, and the intrinsic value of life in the face of inevitable ends. The expansion is celebrated for its emotional depth, narrative payoff, and its ambitious scope, taking players from the scholarly halls of Old Sharlayan to the edge of the universe itself.

History and Lore

The Dawning of the Final Days

Following the events of Shadowbringers, the world of Etheirys (the true name of the planet) is thrown into crisis with the sudden and inexplicable return of the Final Days. This apocalyptic phenomenon, which once destroyed the ancient, advanced civilization of the Ancients, manifests as a creeping despair that transforms living beings into monstrous blasphemies born of their own negative emotions. Unlike the prior Calamities orchestrated by the Ascians, this threat is universal and its cause unknown, forcing the Scions of the Seventh Dawn to seek answers not in conflict, but in understanding.

The Warrior of Light's journey begins in Old Sharlayan, where the secretive Forum is discovered to be preparing an ark for evacuation, having deemed the crisis unstoppable. Rejecting this path of surrender, the Scions instead pursue a plan to reach the moon, where the primal Zodiark—summoned by the Ancients to halt the original Final Days—is imprisoned.

To the Moon and Beyond

On the moon, the party encounters the Watcher, Zodiark's guardian, and learns a critical truth: Zodiark's continued existence has been acting as a seal against the true source of the Final Days. In a shocking turn, the Ascian Fandaniel, possessing the body of Zenos yae Galvus, orchestrates Zodiark's destruction, shattering that seal and allowing the apocalyptic song of despair to flood into the world unimpeded.

With the moon's Loporrits providing a clue—the existence of a forgotten research facility named Elpis—the Warrior of Light uses a time-traveling artifact to journey back to the age of the Ancients. In Elpis, a paradise for the creation of concepts and lifeforms, they meet key figures in their original forms: the cheerful researcher Hermes, the compassionate and powerful Venat, and a younger, more idealistic Emet-Selch. Here, they uncover the origin of the Final Days: Meteion, an empath created by Hermes and sent into the cosmos to find the meaning of life. Instead, she encountered only the death and despair of countless civilizations. This collective grief coalesced into a destructive song of oblivion, which she began broadcasting back to Etheirys, triggering the original Final Days.

Confronting Despair Itself

Armed with this knowledge, the Warrior of Light returns to the present. The journey to stop Meteion leads the Scions to the edge of creation, a realm known as Ultima Thule. This is the dead endpoint of the universe, where Meteion has manifested as the Endsinger, the avatar of universal despair. To traverse this void where dynamis—the energy of emotion—overwhelms aether, the Scions make a series of ultimate sacrifices. One by one, they give up their physical forms, using their own hopes and memories to forge a path for the Warrior of Light.

In a final confrontation that is philosophical as much as physical, the Warrior of Light and their allies face the Endsinger. The battle is not against malice, but against nihilism itself—the belief that because all things end, nothing matters. The counterargument, forged through the Scions' sacrifices and the bonds they've made across the star, is one of hope and meaning: that joy, love, and connection are precious precisely because they are fleeting. With this conviction, the Endsinger is defeated, the song of despair is silenced, and the Scions are restored. The Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga concludes not with a grand battle of gods, but with a quiet, hard-won affirmation of life.

Aftermath and New Horizons

The post-6.0 patch storyline (6.1-6.55) deals with the aftermath of this universe-spanning conflict. It focuses on smaller-scale, grounded stories: helping the people of Garlemald rebuild after their empire's collapse, resolving political tensions in Thavnair and Old Sharlayan, and confronting the lingering threat of the voidsent. These patches also reintroduce the mysterious Golbez from the Final Fantasy IV universe, setting the stage for the new story arc that begins with Dawntrail. The expansion closes with the world at peace, the Scions officially disbanding to pursue their own paths, and the Warrior of Light setting sail for the New World alongside Erenville and Wuk Lamat.

Gameplay

Endwalker raised the level cap from 80 to 90 and introduced several new areas, dungeons, trials, and gameplay systems.

New Jobs:

• Sage: A barrier healer that utilizes floating Nouliths. Its gameplay revolves around preventing damage through shields and converting damage dealt into healing for a designated partner.
• Reaper: A melee DPS that wields a scythe and forms a pact with a voidsent avatar. It switches between a fast-paced, positional-heavy combat style and a powerful, transformed avatar state.

New Areas: The expansion added multiple full zones and two unique "interdimensional" areas:

• Old Sharlayan & Labyrinthos: The scholarly city-state and its vast underground biosphere.
• Radz-at-Han & Thavnair: The vibrant, alchemical capital and its surrounding island region.
• Garlemald: The frozen, war-torn heart of the fallen empire.
• The Moon: A small, surreal zone housing Zodiark's prison and the home of the Loporrits.
• Elpis: The beautiful, pastoral research facility from the ancient past.
• Ultima Thule: The haunting, final zone at the edge of the universe.

New Instanced Content:

• Main Scenario Dungeons: Includes the Tower of Zot, Tower of Babil, Vanaspati, Ktisis Hyperboreia, and the Aitiascope.
• Trials: Key story trials include the battles against Zodiark and the Endsinger.
• New Raids:
  • Pandaemonium: A high-end raid series (6.0-6.4) delving into the ancient past and the secrets of Lahabrea and the facility of Pandaemonium.
  • Myths of the Realm: An alliance raid series (6.1-6.5) that explores the true nature of Etheirys's deities, the Twelve.
• New Beast Tribe Quests: The Arkasodara (crafting) and the Loporrits (gathering).
• Island Sanctuary: A major solo, casual gameplay addition allowing players to build and manage their own personal island farm, attracting wildlife and gathering resources.

Trivia

• Endwalker's theme song, "Footfalls," and its final boss theme, "With Hearts Aligned," are lyrical counterparts, with the former asking questions about purpose and the latter providing the answer.
• The expansion's title is a double entendration, referring both to the "final walk" of the Warrior of Light to end the saga and to the "walker of ends," Meteion.
• The Elpis zone is unique in that the Warrior of Light is not physically present; they are projecting their consciousness into the body of an Ancient named "Azem's familiar," which is why everyone perceives them as an unfamiliar Amaurotine.
• The scene in Ultima Thule where the Scions sacrifice themselves one by one is directly mirrored by a later scene where their companions (like Estinien, Vrtra, and the Lopporrits) arrive to help restore them, symbolizing that hope and connection always return.
• Director and producer Naoki Yoshida has stated that Endwalker was intentionally designed to provide a complete, satisfying ending, allowing new story arcs to begin with a clean slate.

Related Articles

• Hydaelyn
• Zodiark
• Meteion
• Scions of the Seventh Dawn
• Dawntrail