As version 6.5 officially arrives, players can now go through Final Fantasy XIV’s main storyline and expansions completely by themselves.
Before the latest update and the update just before that (version 6.1), playing the main quest requires a player to party up with other people to progress through the game.
Square Enix made a landmark change to Final Fantasy XIV beginning with the April 2022 update, when the game first had the Duty Support system. The change, essentially first seen in the aforementioned version 6.1 update, allowed players to partner up with NPCs in place of human players.
However, the Duty Support system was not fully supported in-game. Meaning, that only up to certain chapters will a player be able to go solo while progressing through the main quest. Subsequent patches, meanwhile, opened up more areas in support of Duty Support, and it was not until the Growing Light update (version 6.5) that the feature became all-encompassing throughout the game.
In other words, players can now literally solo Final Fantasy XIV, starting from A Realm Reborn up to the Endwalker expansion, all while only aided by NPCs.
Adding to the changes imposed by the latest update, free players can now experience the game more extensively as the developers extend the trial to up to Heavenward and Stormblood expansions. Furthermore, the level cap is now set to 70 from what was previously level 60.
