Square Enix used Fan Festival 2026 in Tokyo to lock in the sixth Final Fantasy XIV expansion. Evercold launches on February 23, 2027, pre-orders open November 4, and the keynote confirmed the second new job, Zephyr, a full Collector’s Box, and an Evangelion alliance raid.
Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida opened the Tokyo keynote with a milestone: Final Fantasy XIV has now passed 35 million registered accounts worldwide. Then came the news players actually flew in for. Evercold, known in Japan as The Silver Wanderer, is the game’s sixth expansion, and Tokyo was the final stop of a reveal tour that began in Anaheim in April and passed through Berlin in July.
The dates: February 23, with early access on February 19
Evercold launches on Tuesday, February 23, 2027. Players who pre-order get early access from Friday, February 19, 2027, and pre-orders open on Wednesday, November 4, 2026. The date is a little later than first promised: the expansion was originally tracking for late January 2027, and Yoshida apologised on stage for what amounts to a three week delay to give the team more development time. Every pre-order, regardless of edition, includes early access plus two in-game bonuses: Halone’s Earring, which grants a 30% EXP bonus from defeating enemies up to level 100, and the Wind-Up Köttr minion.
Zephyr: a crossbow, a bird, and a brand new way to play ranged DPS
The headline reveal was Zephyr, the second of Evercold’s two new jobs and the game’s fourth physical ranged DPS. Zephyr fights with a crossbow, a weapon no existing job uses, alongside an avian familiar called a Nephele. The job is built around coordinated attacks with the bird, which supports the party as well as dealing damage, and trailer footage shows the familiar carrying its partner through the air for repositioning. Zephyr starts at level 90, its unlock quest waits in Gridania, it wears aiming gear shared with Bard, Machinist, and Dancer, and its traditions trace back to hunters in the mountains of Ilsabard. Players got their first glimpse of the job in patch 7.56, where the Miqo’te Visna appeared fighting in the Zephyr style.
Zephyr joins Bastion, the tank job revealed earlier in the tour. Bastion fights with a gunshield style weapon called a Skyltborg and is represented in the story by the red-haired Roegadyn Baldr. Both new jobs start at level 90, and both are playable only in Evercold’s new Evolved Mode combat system, with no Reborn Mode version.
The Fourth: a world of ice, ruled from giant Realmships
The story sends the Warrior of Light to the Fourth, one of the reflections of Etheirys, a world being consumed by ice and threatened by a new danger called the Solstice. Its people live aboard colossal flying vessels called Realmships, and four of them anchor the expansion’s new areas: Naglfar, the Realmship of Water, Hringhorni of Fire, Sessrymnir of Earth, and Skiðblaðnir of Wind. Two new cities, Fargarth and Hjartadunur, round out the map, and the level cap rises from 100 to 110.
Raids: Evangelion, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and a new Fierce difficulty
The raid lineup is doing a lot of heavy lifting this expansion. The new alliance raid series is EVANGELION: Ghosts of Desire, a full crossover with Neon Genesis Evangelion that got its own trailer at the keynote, and Square Enix will spin select alliance raid bosses into new high-difficulty eight-player battles. The standard raid series, Beyond the Lifestream, crosses over with the Final Fantasy VII Remake series, with new artwork from Tetsuya Nomura and a first tier titled Fated Collision. There is also a new Ultimate raid, a new duty called the Gauntlet of Power that chains up to five dungeon bosses back to back, and a new raid difficulty called Fierce, which sits between Normal and Savage so more players can step up to harder content.
Editions, bonuses, and the Collector’s Box
The Digital Collector’s Edition adds three in-game items: the Valhallar Odin Mount, the Entreat Crystal Emote, and the Crystal Skyltborg: Bastion Weapon. The physical Collector’s Box, sold in limited quantities through the Square Enix Store, comes in a special art box featuring an Evercold illustration by Yoshitaka Amano and includes a Warrior of Light Reaper figure, an Ethos metal keychain, a Köttr mini plush, and the Tapestry of the Fourth. The box does not include the game itself, so console and Steam players order the box on its own and pre-order the digital edition separately on their platform.
A systems overhaul, and a lot of it is free
Evercold also reworks how the game plays day to day. A new Seasons reward system changes how gear is earned, splitting progression between Seasonal Adventure Gear for everyday players and Raid Reward Gear for high-end raiders. Character creation gets expanded options plus new Character Action Skins, chocobo companions get an overhaul that lets them join you in dungeons, housing interiors can be resized freely, and PvP gets actions for both new jobs. Square Enix stresses that many of these system updates, including the battle changes, PvP updates, and housing updates, will be available to every player whether or not they buy the expansion. And if you have never played, the Free Trial now covers everything from A Realm Reborn through Shadowbringers, hundreds of hours with no time limit.
Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold launches February 23, 2027 on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, Windows, Mac, and Steam, with pre-orders opening November 4, 2026.