FFXIV 7.45 Special Site Updates & Release Date Info

What Patch 7.45 Added to Final Fantasy XIV

Patch 7.45 released on March 3, 2026 and dropped a full mid-tier content update into the Dawntrail cycle. It led with The Merchant's Tale, the fourth Dawntrail variant dungeon, carried the Inspector Hildibrand comedy arc forward, and handed collectors a fresh set of mounts, minions, and glamour. With Patch 7.5 now live, 7.45 has settled into the catch-up pile, and it remains one of the more rewarding stops for anyone backfilling Dawntrail.

This guide covers what 7.45 actually delivered: how the three Merchant's Tale dungeon modes differ, which rewards come from which mode, and where the Hildibrand questline picks up. Every name, currency, and vendor below is drawn from the official patch notes and the Into the Mist special site rather than pre-release guesswork.

Key Takeaways

• The Merchant's Tale is the fourth Dawntrail variant dungeon, a level-90 storybook adventure set in Corvos folklore that you join alongside the gleaner Y'nazqha.
• Variant mode runs solo or with up to three players; Variant (Advanced) needs two to four players; Criterion mode, "Another Merchant's Tale", is a fixed four-player premade.
• The Royal Magicked Carpet mount comes from Variant (Advanced) and the Genie of the Lamp mount from Criterion, each bought with 100 of the matching Corvosi currency.
• Trisassant in Old Sharlayan trades Corvosi Potsherds, Pieces of Corvosi Brass, and Corvosi Manuscripts for the dungeon's mounts, minions, and glamour.
• Patch 7.45 continued the Hildibrand arc with Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures, opening on the quest "A Need for Speed" in Solution Nine.
• Clearing every route in the dungeon earns the achievement "A Storied Collection" and its Comfortable Eye Mask facewear reward.

The patch splits cleanly into two pillars: a new variant dungeon with a deep cosmetic reward table, and the next instalment of FFXIV's longest-running comedy questline. Here is each one in detail.

The Merchant's Tale: FFXIV's Fourth Variant Dungeon

The Merchant's Tale sends the Warrior of Light into an enchanted manuscript, a storybook world rendered with a soft, cel-shaded look that sets it apart from the rest of Dawntrail. You travel it with Y'nazqha, a gleaner and one of Y'shtola's siblings, working through branching routes drawn from the folklore of Corvos.

Like the variant dungeons before it, The Merchant's Tale ships in three modes, each tuned for a different group size and difficulty appetite:

1. Variant mode: the entry difficulty, playable solo or with up to three players. It carries a level-90 entry requirement, difficulty scales to party size, and the branching routes change what you encounter on each run. Clears award experience, which makes it a viable side path while leveling.
2. Variant (Advanced) mode: tougher versions of the dungeon's three bosses for parties of two to four. Bosses can be tackled in any order, each drops its own rewards, and clearing all three pays out the largest haul.
3. Criterion mode: branded "Another Merchant's Tale", this is the bosses at their most punishing. It demands a fixed premade of four and hands out the rarest cosmetics tied to the dungeon.

The practical loop is to clear Variant first for the routes and the storybook glamour, step up to Variant (Advanced) once you want the marquee mount, and treat Criterion as the endgame chase for players who enjoy savage-tier, premade-only encounters.

✏️ Route tip: The Merchant's Tale has twelve branching routes plus a hidden thirteenth. Variant mode does not reset your route history between runs, so track which paths you have cleared and steer toward fresh ones to finish "A Storied Collection" faster.

Mounts, Minions, and Glamour from The Merchant's Tale

The reason to keep running The Merchant's Tale after the first clear is its reward table. Each mode pays out its own Corvosi currency, and you exchange those with Trisassant in Old Sharlayan, at coordinates X:12.0, Y:13.3.

• Corvosi Potsherds drop from Variant mode and buy the dungeon's storybook glamour set along with several minions.
• Pieces of Corvosi Brass come from Variant (Advanced) and cover the Royal Magicked Carpet mount at 100 Brass, plus the Soothing Sea-beast minion at 12 Brass.
• Corvosi Manuscripts come from Criterion and buy the Genie of the Lamp mount at 100 Manuscripts.

The Royal Magicked Carpet is the flying carpet mount the special site teased, and the Genie of the Lamp is the lamp-and-genie mount that pairs with the dungeon's Arabian-nights theme. The Little Mermaid minion is a touch different: it drops directly from the Variant dungeon rather than sitting on Trisassant's vendor list, so it rewards repeat runs instead of currency banking.

📌 Common mistake: Players often grind Variant mode expecting the Royal Magicked Carpet to appear there. It does not. The carpet is a Pieces of Corvosi Brass purchase, and Brass only drops in Variant (Advanced), so a two-to-four player group is the requirement for that mount.

Players who would rather skip the Corvosi currency exchange entirely can farm the new 7.45 mounts through a carry instead and jump straight to riding them.

Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures

Patch 7.45 also pushed the comedy questline forward with Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures, the penultimate chapter of Inspector Hildibrand's Dawntrail run. It opens with the quest "A Need for Speed" (level 100), picked up in Solution Nine once you have completed "On the Trail of Destruction" from the previous batch.

The arc keeps the familiar cast in play and introduces Carnelian, a self-styled "Crime King" — the villain this batch of quests sends up. As ever, the reward for following the questline is the comedy itself plus the emotes, minions, and glamour the chain hands out along the way.

⚠️ Known bug: The follow-up quest "Meteorites and Meteor-wrongs" shipped with a black-screen issue during the 7.45 launch window. If a cutscene stalls there, a quick instance reset clears it; the bug was patched in a later hotfix.

Because the Hildibrand chain is self-contained side content, you can run it independently of The Merchant's Tale, and it is a low-pressure way to round out a 7.45 catch-up session.

Patch 7.45 Content at a Glance

Here is the short version of what 7.45 added, with the access requirement and the headline reward for each piece of content:

With those content pillars laid out, a few questions come up often from players returning to clear 7.45.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did FFXIV Patch 7.45 release?

Patch 7.45 released on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, as a mid-tier update in the Dawntrail cycle. It arrived alongside an update to the Into the Mist special site. The current live patch is now 7.5, "Trail to the Heavens", so 7.45 is catch-up content rather than the newest release.

What is The Merchant's Tale in FFXIV?

The Merchant's Tale is the fourth Dawntrail variant dungeon, added in Patch 7.45. It is a level-90 storybook adventure set in the folklore of Corvos, which you explore with the gleaner Y'nazqha. It has twelve branching routes plus a hidden thirteenth, and it offers Variant, Variant (Advanced), and Criterion modes.

How many players does The Merchant's Tale need?

It depends on the mode. Variant mode runs solo or with up to three players, with difficulty scaling to party size. Variant (Advanced) needs a party of two to four. Criterion mode, called "Another Merchant's Tale", requires a fixed premade of exactly four players and is the hardest version of the dungeon.

How do you get the Royal Magicked Carpet mount?

The Royal Magicked Carpet costs 100 Pieces of Corvosi Brass, bought from Trisassant in Old Sharlayan. Brass only drops in Variant (Advanced) mode, so a two-to-four player group is required. The other dungeon mount, Genie of the Lamp, costs 100 Corvosi Manuscripts from Criterion mode.

Where do you start the Patch 7.45 Hildibrand quest?

The 7.45 Hildibrand arc, Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures, begins with the quest "A Need for Speed" in Solution Nine. You must first finish "On the Trail of Destruction" from the earlier Dawntrail Hildibrand batch to unlock it.

Is Patch 7.45 content still worth doing?

Yes, especially for collectors. The Merchant's Tale rewards two mounts, several minions, a full glamour set, and the Comfortable Eye Mask facewear, none of which expire. The Hildibrand questline is also evergreen side content. With Patch 7.5 live, 7.45 sits comfortably in a catch-up rotation.

Maintained by WowCarry's Final Fantasy XIV team. Last reviewed 2026-05-21 against the Patch 7.45 notes.