How to Get Started with Palace of the Dead in FFXIV

Palace of the Dead is a unique type of Final Fantasy XIV activity. It’s called a deep dungeon and it’s a good place to level up and to obtain gear.

Palace of the Dead is the first deep dungeon added in Final Fantasy XIV with patch 3.35. It’s not a traditional dungeon as it has no fixed party size, composition and layout. Palace of the Dead has 50 randomly generated levels. These levels are divided into five sets. Each set is more difficult to complete and ends with a boss fight. Character leveling is another unique mechanic.

All characters are downgraded to level 1 when they enter the dungeon. XP is earned very fast so characters will eventually unlock all their usable abilities. Unlike the other Final Fantasy XIV dungeons, Palace of the Dead doesn’t require a fixed party size of two DPS, a healer and a tank. The maximum number of players per group is still four but players can enter with smaller groups or even alone. The party can have any classes or jobs.

Palace of the Dead becomes available at level 17. Players should head out to New Gridania and look for the NPC in the Adventurer’s Guild to start the quest. There’s just some traveling involved, nothing complicated to unlock Palace of the Dead. The main appeal of this deep dungeon is that it has something for all players. Those who are not max level can use Palace of the Dead for leveling as it provides a massive XP gain. Level 50+ players get Poetics while level 60 characters obtain Allagan tokens, 150 lore, Potsherds currency and an item level 235 weapon.

It takes a bit of time and multiple runs to obtain the weapon. This dungeon can only be cleared while wearing Aetherpool equipment. Players will obtain and upgrade it as they clear Palace of the Dead levels. Another uncommon thing about Palace of the Dead is that it has save files that keep track of a player’s progress. Progress can be saved after defeating the last boss from a stage. So far, Palace of the Dead is the only deep dungeon in Final Fantasy XIV but with Stormblood increasing the level cap we can expect to see it upgraded or maybe another deep dungeon added to the game.