Final Fantasy 14 players are experiencing server issues again, as a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack has affected the game's North American servers. The timing of this Final Fantasy 14 The problem couldn't have been worse, as the game has just launched the final Savage Raid level in the Dawntrail expansion, where hard connections are mandatory for success.
Final Fantasy 14s latest Savage raid tier arrived three weeks after Patch 7.4 went live. The 7.4 update introduced new main missions and the finale of the Arcadion raid series on normal difficulty. Additionally, Patch 7.4 made some job balance updates, including some changes to Red Mage and Gunbreaker during their burst window. Future content, including the next relic weapon update and the Merchant's Tale variant dungeon, will be available in less Final Fantasy 14 updates rolling out in early 2026.
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Final Fantasy 14 servers come under fire from DDoS attacks
While DDoS attacks Final Fantasy 14s servers are unfortunately not new, the latest wave of problems has come at an inopportune time for the game's best striker. Just as Arcadion's final Savage raid level went live at 5:00 AM Eastern on January 6th, players on Final Fantasy 14s North American data center experienced outages and latency spikes. This issue is due to a DDoS attack on a connecting node to Final Fantasy 14s North American data center, and has been a recurring problem since November 2025. The problem has largely been localized to North America, as the game's servers in Europe and Japan have been safe from attacks so far.
In short, a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal server operations by sending floods of traffic all at once. While there is no known way to make a server completely immune to a DDoS attack, games like Final Fantasy 14 can reduce the flow of traffic from a botnet by redirecting it or by taking other countermeasures. The affected search node is owned and operated by NTT, a Japanese telecommunications company, with whom Square Enix has partnered to connect Final Fantasy 14 players to their California-based servers.
As of this writing, at least five raiding teams have completed two of the Arcadion Heavyweight battles on Savage difficulty, two of which are from North America. But to get around the server issues affecting the game's North American data center, a few Final Fantasy 14 raiding teams that play primarily in North America have taken a few extra steps to ensure a stable connection. Some players have used a gaming VPN to redirect their game connection away from the faulty node and keep some players connected during a DDoS attack. Other teams have chosen to use the game's Data Center Travel system to play at the Materia Data Center in Australia. However, the latter solution comes with extra latency due to geographical distance, which can affect the timing of how certain combat mechanics are handled. However, the damage may have already been done.
Final Fantasy 14's server issues may affect the world's first Savage raid is cleared
While Final Fantasy 14 released a patch on Christmas Day to fix some bugs introduced with Patch 7.4, the server issues remained an outstanding issue. Given that high-end Final Fantasy 14 raids require a consistent connection to the game's servers to overcome them, the ongoing server issues in North America have forced players to find workarounds. With the server problems compelling FF14 players to take different actions, it can affect which teams take world first victories in the Arcadion Heavyweight Savage Raid tier. While Square Enix released a statement saying it was re-investigating the issues, time will tell what fixes will be implemented.
However, the Arcadion Heavyweight Savage Raid battles aren't the last bit of high-end battle content Square Enix has planned for Dawnrail. FF14The upcoming Patch 7.5 content update, which will arrive in Spring 2026, will add another Ultimate raid for eight-player teams to challenge. Whether Square Enix fixes the ongoing server issues remains to be seen.
- Released
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August 27, 2013
- ESRB
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T for Teens – Language, mild blood, sexual themes, alcohol use, violence
- Engine
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Originally the Crystal Tools engine, but currently a custom engine using parts of the Luminous Engine.
Sources: Eurogamer, IsXIVUp
