Patch 1.23b

FINAL FANTASY XIV (Version 1.0) Trailer

See also: Legacy Achievements and Legacy Campaign

Patch 1.23b was the final release of the Legacy version of Final Fantasy XIV. The game would subsequently go offline for almost a year (beginning on November 11, 2012) before relaunching as A Realm Reborn on August 27, 2013. The Seventh Umbral Calamity caused by the impact of Dalamud was the in-lore justification for this downtime.

When 1.0 first launched, it featured only thirteen Main Scenario Quests: four based in your starting city and seven with The Path of the Twelve. Likewise, each class only had three quests total. The quests were separated by many levels which you had to grind out with other sources of experience, primarily Guildleves. At launch, there was no instanced battle content at all (dungeons, trials, or raids), no PvP, no jobs, no item search function, no Market Boards, no jump button, and very little reason to form parties. Crafting and Gathering were both incredibly random, with crafting success being extremely difficult even for normal quality items. A large number of changes were made over the course of the 1.x patches, including the addition of Grand Companies with 23 quests each. Fourteen of these functioned as an extended Main Scenario.

The "major patch" nomenclature had not yet been established during Legacy. None of the game areas or quests from the old version remain accessible. Items, job progression, and mounts (such as the exclusive   Goobbue) did persist on characters that were imported over.

Imported characters (called "Legacy" characters) received the following benefits in the Legacy Campaign as gratitude for subscribing during what was widely considered to be one of the darkest periods of Final Fantasy XIV:

• Permanently discounted subscription fees
• The   Legacy Chocobo mount
• A back tattoo called the "Mark of the Twelve" (toggable on/off with the command /legacymark)

Legacy characters also experienced slightly altered dialogue in A Realm Reborn's Main Scenario Quests and also received an exclusive introduction showing them appearing in the present day after being teleported forward in time by Louisoix in the Battle of Carteneau.

Lastly, there was a different version of Lodestone during legacy, which has been taken offline. This version was archived by players and is available for download.

Timeline

• Closed Alpha test. 11 March 2010
• Open Beta test. 2 September 2010
• PC-only release with "temporarily" suspended subscription fees. 30 September 2010

Prior to the reorganization, patch notes were all titled "Comprehensive Version Update Details" and version numbers were not publicly used. These links are reproduced from the official forums, but all before 1.16a are dead. A total of 14 sets of patch notes were released prior to 1.15, which is where the number comes from.

• Comprehensive Version Update Details 25 November 2010
• Comprehensive Version Update Details 15 December 2010
  • The Item Search Feature 21 December 2010
• Development on A Realm Reborn begins. Newly reorganized development team established with Naoki Yoshida as producer-director. January 2011
  • Patch 1.15a 2 February 2011
  • Patch 1.15b 17 February 2011
• Patch 1.16 03 March 2011
  • Patch 1.16a 25 March 2011
• Patch 1.17 14 April 2011
  • Patch 1.17a 25 April 2011
  • Patch 1.17b 23 May 2011
  • Patch 1.17c 15 June 2011
• Patch 1.18 21 July 2011
  • Patch 1.18a 5 August 2011
  • Patch 1.18b 10 August 2011
• Patch 1.19 30 September 2011
  • Patch 1.19a 13 October 2011
• Patch 1.20 12 December 2011
  • Patch 1.20a 27 December 2011
• Subscription fees begin. 6 January 2012
  • Patch 1.20b 19 January 2012
  • Patch 1.20c 31 January 2012
• Patch 1.21 8 March 2012
  • Patch 1.21a 26 March 2012
• Patch 1.22 25 April 2012
  • Patch 1.22a 9 May 2012
  • Patch 1.22b 6 June 2012
  • Patch 1.22c 20 June 2012
• Patch 1.23 25 July 2012
  • Patch 1.23a 13 August 2012
  • Patch 1.23b 12 September 2012
• Final server save. No progress was kept after this date. 1 November 2012
• Server shutdown. 11 November 2012