FFXIV Patch 7.45: The Merchant's Tale Issues and Fixes

What Patch 7.45 Brought to Final Fantasy XIV

Patch 7.45 landed in early March 2026 and gave Dawntrail its second Variant & Criterion dungeon, The Merchant's Tale. The release also came with a short list of launch-window problems that Square Enix tracked and fixed over the following week. With Patch 7.5 "Trail to the Heavens" now live, 7.45 sits two patches back, so this is a look at what shipped, what broke, and how it was resolved. Full details are in the official Patch 7.45 notes on the Lodestone.

If you skipped The Merchant's Tale at launch and are catching up now, the content runs cleanly today. This retrospective walks through its three difficulty modes, how the Corvosi currency works, and the one bug that genuinely blocked a reward path before the March maintenance.

Key Takeaways

• The Merchant's Tale is the Dawntrail Variant & Criterion dungeon added in Patch 7.45, playable in three modes: Variant, Advanced, and Criterion (Another Merchant's Tale).
• Each mode pays a different currency: Corvosi Potsherd from Variant, Corvosi Brass from Advanced, and Corvosi Manuscript from Criterion.
• Trisassant in Old Sharlayan runs the Corvosi Artifact Exchange and sells glamour, accessories, an emote, housing decor, and the Elevated Ester augmentation item.
• The launch bug hid the "Elevated Ester Augmentation" option on Khaldeen in Radz-at-Han unless Another Aloalo Island (Savage) was unlocked; Square Enix fixed it in the March 10-11 maintenance.
• Crystalline Conflict Season 19 began with Patch 7.45 alongside PvP potency adjustments to several jobs.

With the headline points covered, here is how The Merchant's Tale actually plays at each difficulty.

The Merchant's Tale and Its Three Modes

The Merchant's Tale follows the Variant & Criterion template that The Sil'dihn Subterrane and Mount Rokkon established in Endwalker. It is a self-contained dungeon designed to be replayed, and Patch 7.45 ships it as a three-rung difficulty ladder rather than a single instance.

The base Variant mode is the relaxed entry point. It supports a solo run or a party of up to four, scales to your group, and uses a branching-path vote system so different runs reach different rooms and bosses. The new Advanced mode is the step up: it is built for level 100, fields three bosses you can take in any order, and lets the group leave after each fight. Another Merchant's Tale, the Criterion mode, is the hardest tier. It locks the party to a fixed four-role composition, runs as a linear gauntlet, and restricts the Variant Actions that make the easier modes forgiving.

The structural change worth noting is that Criterion now sits at the top of the ladder on its own. Earlier Variant & Criterion content split the hardest fight into a separate "Savage" sub-mode; in The Merchant's Tale, Criterion itself is the ceiling.

Corvosi Currency and the Elevated Ester

Every mode pays out its own Corvosi currency. The Variant dungeon drops Corvosi Potsherd, Advanced drops Corvosi Brass, and Criterion drops Corvosi Manuscript. All three are spent at Trisassant, the vendor in Old Sharlayan who runs the Corvosi Artifact Exchange near the aetheryte.

Trisassant's stock covers the usual Variant & Criterion spread: glamour gear sets, accessories, an emote, an orchestrion roll, and housing decor. The reward most players are after is the Elevated Ester, the augmentation item that upgrades a glowing weapon from this content. It is bought with Corvosi Brass earned in the Advanced and Criterion modes. Once you hold an Elevated Ester, the augmentation itself is applied by Khaldeen in Radz-at-Han, who handles the glowing-weapon upgrade step.

The Khaldeen Augmentation Bug and Its Fix

The one launch issue that actually blocked progress involved Khaldeen. Square Enix acknowledged it in the "Known Issues" notice dated March 4, 2026: the "Elevated Ester Augmentation" option would not appear on Khaldeen unless the player had already unlocked Another Aloalo Island (Savage), the older Endwalker Criterion Savage dungeon.

The cause was a display condition that had not been updated. Khaldeen's menu still checked for the previous content's completion and never added the new 7.45 quests as a valid unlock path. Players who cleared The Merchant's Tale but skipped Aloalo Island were locked out of augmenting their weapon. Square Enix corrected the condition in the March 10-11, 2026 maintenance, and the option has displayed normally for every eligible player since.

Other Reported 7.45 Issues

Beyond the Khaldeen bug, a smaller set of problems circulated on the official forums during the launch window. The most discussed was a hard-freeze and character-disappearance report some players filed after the 7.45 patch. Square Enix did not publish a formal acknowledgement of that thread, so treat it as a player-reported issue rather than a confirmed defect.

The takeaway for anyone catching up today is simple: the reward-blocking bug is long fixed, and The Merchant's Tale plays as intended on Patch 7.5. There is no reason to hold off on the dungeon over launch-window friction that no longer exists.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Merchant's Tale in FFXIV?

The Merchant's Tale is the Dawntrail Variant & Criterion dungeon introduced in Patch 7.45. It follows the same replayable, branching-path format as the Endwalker dungeons Sil'dihn Subterrane and Mount Rokkon, and it is built to be run repeatedly for Corvosi currency and cosmetic rewards.

What are the three modes of The Merchant's Tale?

The dungeon has a Variant mode for casual solo or group play, an Advanced mode built for level 100 with three bosses in any order, and a Criterion mode called Another Merchant's Tale that locks a fixed four-role party into a linear, high-difficulty run. Criterion is the hardest tier.

What currency does The Merchant's Tale give?

Each mode awards its own currency: Corvosi Potsherd from Variant, Corvosi Brass from Advanced, and Corvosi Manuscript from Criterion. All three are spent at Trisassant in Old Sharlayan, who runs the Corvosi Artifact Exchange.

How do I get the Elevated Ester?

The Elevated Ester is purchased from Trisassant in Old Sharlayan using Corvosi Brass, which comes from the Advanced and Criterion modes. Once you have one, Khaldeen in Radz-at-Han applies the augmentation to your glowing weapon.

Was the Elevated Ester augmentation bug fixed?

Yes. The bug that hid the "Elevated Ester Augmentation" option on Khaldeen unless Another Aloalo Island (Savage) was unlocked was acknowledged on March 4, 2026 and fixed in the March 10-11 maintenance. The option works normally now.

Is Patch 7.45 content still relevant on Patch 7.5?

Patch 7.5 "Trail to the Heavens" is the current release, but The Merchant's Tale remains fully playable and its rewards are still available. Catching up on the dungeon now is straightforward, since the launch-window bugs have all been resolved.

What PvP changes came with Patch 7.45?

Patch 7.45 started Crystalline Conflict Season 19 and made PvP potency adjustments across several jobs. PvP tuning continued into Patch 7.5, so check the current Lodestone notes for the live values before laddering.

Where Patch 7.45 Stands Now

Patch 7.45 was a small but solid content drop: a new Variant & Criterion dungeon, a clean Corvosi currency loop, and one reward-path bug that Square Enix resolved within a week. None of the launch friction survives into the current patch. Players who would rather skip straight to the hardest tier can book a Criterion dungeon clear and run Another Merchant's Tale with a coordinated group.

Maintained by WowCarry's Final Fantasy XIV team. Last reviewed 2026-05-20 against Patch 7.5 "Trail to the Heavens".