Occult Crescent: North Horn

NORTH HORN AND FORKED TOWER: MAGIC WILL RELEASE ON JULY 28th!!!

Preparing for North Horn

The only required thing is completing the South Horn MSQ. This involves completing the “Mysteries Abide” quest and have earned the achievement “Highly Crescentialed”.

But there are a few “nice to do’s” should maybe consider:

Getting pieces of Arcanaut’s+1/2 gear as in North Horn you will be able to skip certain upgrade steps.
Farming Silver/Gold pieces just in case!
Capping your silver and bronze chests, you never know!
Farming as many Fortune Carrots as possible. These might potentially grant extra currency to use and new rewards to sell.

Sources

Link to relevant sections of LiveLetter 91: https://www.youtube.com/live/JxR-gTLJmzM?si=k-HdMBE6Tch7dWY8
- Timestamps: 1:23:00 to 1:35:30
Link to the FFXIV Special Site: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/dawntrail/patch_7_5/
- Will contain spoilers of ALL patch 7.5 content, be warned!
Famitsu Interview: https://www.famitsu.com/article/202604/71816
- Has more tidbits about how certain things will work in North Horn along with other 7.5 spoilers.

Coming sometime in the 7.5 patch cycle, Occult Crescent: North Horn will feature an entirely new zone with new a locale, FATEs, engagements, Phantom Weapons, Occult Gear, and the second half of the Forked Tower dungeon series.

While we do know the schedule of the 7.5x patches; no release date for North Horn has been confirmed or mentioned.

The TL;DR

Knowledge Level cap increased to 40!
Knowledge Level 20+ is NOT REQUIRED to enter North Horn! Only requirement is finishing the South Horn story (FT: Blood is not required)!
New Mobs/Monsters, FATEs, Critical Engagements
8 new Phantom Jobs. This is supposedly the final number accord to Famitsu. The eight mentioned are:
- Black Mage
- White Mage
- Summoner
- Red Mage
- Dragoon
- Ninja
- Blue Mage
- Necromancer
New sets of Occult Gear
- Notably: If you have Arcanaut’s+2 gear, you will have the ability to “skip” some steps when enhancing your gear in North Horn.
New 48 person dungeon/raid - The Forked Tower: Magic.
Two difficulties of Forked Tower: Magic
- A more casual “Normal” mode geared towards story enjoyers.
  - Queued through joining a North Horn instance and standing on the Aetherial Node when active.
  - If not selected for an entry, you will be given priority for the next (think Notoriety from Bozja Duels?)
  - According to Famitsu, its possible to be solo’d
- A harder, “Extreme” version for those seeking a challenge.
  - Queue into an “extreme-mode-only” instance with Forked Tower immediately accessible
  - According to the Famitsu inverview, this is said to be HARDER than Forked Tower: Blood.
  - According to Famfitsu, only 12 people minimum are required to clear FTMEx? Might be scaled around gear upgrades?

First Look at North Horn

All they can show for now is the landscape. Maybe we’ll get more in the next LiveLetter!

SPOILERS: First Images of North Horn

SPOILERS: More Images of North Horn from the Special Site!

Looks like more nods to Lost City of Ampador and the deep Gridanian spores as well as Wanderer’s Palace!

New Features

New monsters, critical encounters, and FATEs will appear in North Horn!

First Look at a Critical Encounter

SPOILERS! Click this at your own risk

Looks like there’s all of the new job gear along with teasers for the following phantom jobs from left to right: Phantom Summoner, Phantom Ninja(?), Phantom White Mage, and Phantom Black Mage!

Knowledge Level Increase and New Jobs

The knowledge level cap is increasing from 20 up to 40! Along with new Phantom Jobs being added to be leveled and mastered.

Currently there are 8 confirmed/shown on the live letter. These are (left to right in image below): Black Mage, Dragoon, White Mage, Ninja, Summoner, Blue Mage, Red Mage, and Necromancer.

Gearing in North Horn

More grinds for more gear! You will get the ability to further enhance your gear to become even stronger than you currently are. There are items likely similar to the fixatives and aetherspun silver/gold needing to be gathered upgrade your gear.

If you currently have any upgraded gear from the South Horn, you will be able to skip some of the steps required to enhance/obtain gear from North Horn. Hope you have your Arcanaut’s+2 ready!

Forked Tower: Magic

Rejoice! There are now two difficulties. The “Normal” version for those who wish to experience the story in a more casual manner and the more challenging “Extreme” version for those who want something more.

A maximum of 48 players can join either version of the dungeon.

Ciphers are dead! No more ciphers!!

First Look at Forked Tower: Magic!

SPOILERS! Click this at your own risk

Showcases one of the stunning areas of Forked Tower: Magic! What could this be? Who knows…

To me its probably another hallway, there’s no purple lines or trap indicators anywhere. Also a teleporter exit in the bottom middle…

Normal Mode

Queued similar to Forked Tower: Blood, Castrum Lacus Litore (Bozja), Dalriada (Zadnor), and/or other Critical Engagements. Standing atop the Aetherial Node will mark you as “interested” to join the duty so when the recruitment time ends.

If more than 48 are present, players will be selected at random. There seems to be no lower player limit, so you could potentially queue in solo!

If not selected to join, you will be given priority for your next attempt (similar to Notoriety from Bozja Duels?)

Extreme Mode

Can be entered by queueing into an “extreme-mode-only” instance, which are different from the normal instances. These unique instances may be entered by a minimum of 12 players in 3 or more parties.

Once inside this “extreme only” insatnce, Forked Tower: Magic (Extreme) will be immediately accessible for entry.

Final Phantom Weapons Grind

The final step in the Phantom Weapons saga is here! Yoshi-P has mentioned that the final step should look really awesome as they’ve learned so much more over Dawntrail.

From the r/FFXIV translations channel:

Yoshida “A lot of effort went into these”

Yoshida “We got a lot more comfortable with the graphic update in our work flow as well, these are the last stages”

The new models will be shown off in the next LiveLetter!