Whenever a new expansion arrives in Final Fantasy XIV, get ready for some atrocious queue times. Congestion is a harsh reality for the release period, but here are some ways you can avoid it while playing FFXIV Dawntrail.
How to Avoid Congestion Time in Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail
Due to the huge influx of players trying to get into the servers at the same time, longer queue times are expected. However, you can prepare yourself to avoid some of these bigger timers if all you want is to log in as soon as possible.
1 – Heading to Other Servers
If you’re playing on a highly populated server, your queue times are bound to be bigger than the average. The main alternative Square Enix has proposed is to travel to the most recent servers, which are smaller in population. Use the Data Center Travel function in the menu screen to travel to them, which are:
- North America – Dynamis
- Europe – Shadow
- Japan – Meteor
Additionally, all players can travel to the Oceanian Data Center (Materia) as of Dawntrail‘s release, as the Data Center is also quite recent and less populated. Also, players cannot travel to older Data Centers during the release period. You can only visit the aforementioned Data Centers and other Worlds in your own Data Center for now.
2 – Logging In Early If Possible
The earlier in the morning you log in, the less likely you’ll be to face bigger queue timers. This has been true for every previous release, and it’s the same for Dawntrail. Queues can be as small as on any other regular day, so even if you do get some bigger-than-average periods at first, it shouldn’t be a big issue.
However, the dreadful AFK auto-kick is back into action. If you stay idle for more than 30 minutes, you’ll be automatically disconnected, so be careful if you not playing right now!
Related: FFXIV Dawntrail AFK Timer Explained
3 – Avoiding Prime Times
Trying to log in during your region’s prime times (e.g. 7:00 p.m. PDT for NA servers) is a no-go. You’ll likely face a huge queue during this period, so avoid that if possible. If you’re unable to get in earlier, there’s a very high chance to get a 1000+ queue, so brace yourself.
It could take from 30 minutes up to a whole hour before you can join, depending on your luck. You can play other games, watch some videos or just leave your computer/console for a while when waiting, as it could take some time. Servers are more well-prepared compared to the previous releases, though, so you shouldn’t need to worry about disconnections during the queue.
Servers are much more stable this time around, so hopefully the early congestion won’t hit us as hard during this expansion. Other issues can still arise such as the HTPPS error, but there are some ways to circumvent it.
