FFXIV Alliance Raids Guide: Every 24-Player Series and How to Unlock Them
A clear rundown of all six 24-player alliance raid series in FFXIV, what they drop, and where to find each starting quest.
So you keep hearing about alliance raids in FFXIV, and the Duty Finder has a whole roulette for them, but nobody really explains what they are or why they matter. These 24-player duties are some of the most fun, low-stress group content the game has. They tell great side stories, drop cool glam, and a couple of them you actually have to do to keep the main story moving. Here's the full picture, from the old Crystal Tower all the way to the newest series.
How Alliance Raids Work
An alliance raid is a big 24-player duty. That sounds wild, but the game handles it by splitting everyone into three parties of eight. The parties get labeled A, B, and C, and each one runs the usual setup of one tank, two healers, and five damage dealers. So across all three groups you end up with three tanks, six healers, and fifteen DPS, all thrown at the same bosses.
You queue through the Duty Finder like anything else. A lot of the fights are built around the three-group structure. Bosses throw out giant attacks you handle as one big group, but plenty of mechanics ask one alliance to stand on a marker while the other two do something else. A classic move is splitting the raid so two halves press pads or grab adds at the same time. Wander off and ignore your letter, and people notice fast.
These are not savage or ultimate difficulty, not even close. The damage is forgiving, you can raise dead players freely, and a single mistake usually won't tank the run. That's why they're a favorite for casual play and for leveling alt jobs. Don't mistake that for "you can turn your brain off," though. Stand in the bad too many times and you'll still die, and some of the later fights have tricks that can chunk the whole alliance if nobody does the thing.
The Alliance Raid roulette
Once you've got two of these duties unlocked, the Alliance Raid roulette shows up in your Duty Finder. Pick it and the game drops you into a random one you've cleared before. The payout is generous: a chunk of experience and a pile of Poetics tomestones, which you spend on older endgame gear. A lot of players use this roulette daily to level a new job or farm currency. It's cheap as dirt in terms of effort for what you get back.
The catch is that the roulette can send you anywhere. You might get a five-minute stroll through Crystal Tower, or you might land in a longer one like Orbonne Monastery where the bosses have a lot going on. Roll with it. Most groups carry the run, and the bonus rewards scale up, so the slower duties actually pay better.
What to expect as a player
Mechanics-wise, expect a lot of "get under the boss," "stack with your alliance," and "avoid the giant telegraph." Healers stay busy because splash damage hits all three parties at once. Tanks swap or pick up adds. DPS mostly need to not eat the floor. If you're new, watch what the folks around you do and stick with your letter group. Nine times out of ten that's all it takes to look like you know what's going on.
That's the shape of it. Six separate series exist, each tied to one expansion, and you open them up one chunk at a time.
Crystal Tower and Why It Is Mandatory
Most alliance raid series are optional side content. Crystal Tower is not. As of patch 5.3, you have to finish this storyline to keep going in the main scenario quest. The game hard-stops you right before a quest called A Time to Every Purpose and points you straight at the tower. If you skipped it back when it was optional, the story now sends you there before you can march on toward Heavensward.
The reason is story. The Crystal Tower quests deal with the Allagans, an ancient civilization that pops up again and again in FFXIV lore. What happens here matters a lot later on, especially in Shadowbringers, which leans on these characters and twists hard. Playing Shadowbringers without Crystal Tower would feel like watching a sequel where everyone acts like you already know a friend who never got introduced. So the devs folded it into the required path. Honestly, it's a good call.
The three duties
The series runs at level 50 and splits into three parts:
- The Labyrinth of the Ancients, the intro. Big skeleton king, atomos you feed with adds, and the famous "stay in your lane" bit where each alliance handles its own path. Friendly to learn on.
- Syrcus Tower, a step up. More bosses, tighter checks, and some solid glam from the old Allagan sets.
- The World of Darkness, the closer. More punishing, with mechanics that hurt when one alliance isn't talking to the other two.
You start the whole line by talking to the Outlandish Man in Mor Dhona at about X:21.8, Y:8.1, right near the Revenant's Toll aetheryte. The opening quest is Legacy of Allag. You'll need to have finished the main scenario quest The Ultimate Weapon first, which is the end of the base A Realm Reborn story.
Why it's a rite of passage
Because it's required, pretty much every player has run it. That makes it the one alliance raid where newbies are the norm, not the exception. Groups are patient here. People expect a few sprouts who've never seen a 24-player fight. So if alliance raids feel intimidating, Crystal Tower is the gentle on-ramp, and you're going through it anyway.
Once you clear that third duty and wrap up the quests after it, the main story unlocks again and you can push forward. After that, every other alliance raid series is bonus content you pick up because you want the story or the loot.
Every Series From Ivalice to the Latest
There are six alliance raid series in total, one per expansion from A Realm Reborn through Dawntrail. The first, Crystal Tower, got its own section above. The rest are where the variety lives. Each one is a self-contained story with its own look, its own bosses, and usually a crossover or theme the rest of the game doesn't touch. Here's the rundown, in order.
Shadow of Mhach (Heavensward, level 60)
Sky pirates and a dead civilization that made a pact with something it really shouldn't have. The look is gloomy and gothic, full of voidsent and ruined cities. The three duties are The Void Ark, The Weeping City of Mhach, and Dun Scaith. Weeping City has Ozma, a famous boss that's basically a giant shape-shifting orb and a rite of passage for alliance raid veterans. Dun Scaith leans into big, cinematic fights. Of the older series this one tends to have the most "actually pay attention" mechanics, so it's not the one to zone out in.
Return to Ivalice (Stormblood, level 70)
This is the Final Fantasy Tactics crossover, with guest writing and design from the folks behind that game. The story drops you into a war over a ruined holy city. Duties are The Royal City of Rabanastre, The Ridorana Lighthouse, and The Orbonne Monastery. Orbonne in particular has some brutal boss fights with long, punishing mechanics, and it's where a lot of players first learn that "casual" alliance raids can still hurt. The music and bosses are pulled straight from Tactics, so fans of that game eat this one up.
YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse (Shadowbringers, level 80)
The NieR crossover. 2B, 9S, and the whole machine-lifeform look show up here. Duties are The Copied Factory, The Puppets' Bunker, and The Tower at Paradigm's Breach. Visually it's a huge swing away from anything else in FFXIV, all rust and industrial machinery. The Copied Factory is one of the most popular alliance raids to run because it's fast and flashy. The gear here is some of the most-used glam in the whole game, especially the 2P-style outfits.
Myths of the Realm (Endwalker, level 90)
No crossover this time. Instead this series goes hard into the Twelve, Eorzea's pantheon of gods who'd been name-dropped for a decade without ever really showing their faces. Duties are Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thaleia. The story finally tells you who these gods actually are, and the fights are gorgeous, set in a heavenly phantom city. Aglaia is quick and friendly. Thaleia is a longer, busier closer. This is the series for anyone who's been playing long enough to care about the lore.
Echoes of Vana'diel (Dawntrail, level 100)
The newest one, and a crossover with the other big Final Fantasy MMO, Final Fantasy XI. Duties are Jeuno: The First Walk, San d'Oria: The Second Walk, and Windurst: The Third Walk. The first dropped in patch 7.1 back in November 2024, the second came in patch 7.3, and the third wrapped the series in patch 7.5. Old-school FFXI players will spot a ton of familiar names and music, and the maps are even styled after FFXI. This is the current series, so it's where the weekly loot grind is happening right now.
A quick map of all six
| Expansion | Series | Level | Duties | |---|---|---|---| | A Realm Reborn | Crystal Tower | 50 | Labyrinth of the Ancients, Syrcus Tower, World of Darkness | | Heavensward | Shadow of Mhach | 60 | The Void Ark, Weeping City of Mhach, Dun Scaith | | Stormblood | Return to Ivalice | 70 | Royal City of Rabanastre, Ridorana Lighthouse, Orbonne Monastery | | Shadowbringers | YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse | 80 | Copied Factory, Puppets' Bunker, Tower at Paradigm's Breach | | Endwalker | Myths of the Realm | 90 | Aglaia, Euphrosyne, Thaleia | | Dawntrail | Echoes of Vana'diel | 100 | Jeuno: The First Walk, San d'Oria: The Second Walk, Windurst: The Third Walk |
Unlock Quests by Expansion
Each series opens up the same way. You finish a main scenario quest, then grab a blue side quest from a specific NPC. That kicks off a short chain. The quest that actually opens each duty usually shares the duty's name or something close to it, and you talk to a nearby NPC with a blue-plus marker to keep moving down the chain. The first duty of each series only needs the expansion's base story done. The second and third duties open up as you clear the previous one and keep doing the quests.
Here's where to start each line and what you need first.
Crystal Tower (level 50)
- Finish first: the MSQ The Ultimate Weapon, the end of the A Realm Reborn story.
- Start here: talk to the Outlandish Man in Mor Dhona, around X:21.8, Y:8.1.
- Opening quest: Legacy of Allag.
- Duty quests: the chain leads into the quest Labyrinth of the Ancients, then the next two duties follow in turn.
Shadow of Mhach (level 60)
- Finish first: the MSQ Heavensward.
- Start here: the Unquiet Trader in The Pillars, in Ishgard.
- Opening quest: Sky Pirates.
- Duty quests: To Rule the Skies opens The Void Ark, The Weeping City opens The Weeping City of Mhach, and Where Shadows Reign opens Dun Scaith.
Return to Ivalice (level 70)
- Finish first: the MSQ Stormblood.
- Start here: Keiten in Kugane.
- Opening quest: Dramatis Personae.
- Duty quests: A City Fallen opens The Royal City of Rabanastre, Annihilation opens The Ridorana Lighthouse, and The City of Lost Angels opens The Orbonne Monastery.
YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse (level 80)
- Finish first: the MSQ Shadowbringers.
- Start here: the Gossipy Dwarf in Kholusia.
- Opening quest: Word about Komra.
- Duty quests: On the Threshold opens The Copied Factory, Everything You Know is Wrong opens The Puppets' Bunker, and Brave New World opens The Tower at Paradigm's Breach.
Myths of the Realm (level 90)
- Finish first: the MSQ A Brother's Grief, partway into the Endwalker post-game.
- Start here: the Fresh-faced Student in Old Sharlayan.
- Opening quest: A Mission in Mor Dhona.
- Duty quests: The Realm of the Gods opens Aglaia, Return to the Phantom Realm opens Euphrosyne, and The Heart of the Myth opens Thaleia.
Echoes of Vana'diel (level 100)
- Finish first: the MSQ Dawntrail.
- Start here: the Hoobigo Messenger in Tuliyollal, around X:13.0, Y:11.6.
- Opening quest: An Otherworldly Encounter.
- Duty quests: the opening quest itself opens Jeuno: The First Walk, then Dreams of Paradise opens San d'Oria: The Second Walk, and The Hollow Promise opens Windurst: The Third Walk.
A couple of practical notes. These are all blue quests, so scan your map for that marker once you're in the right zone. And don't forget the roulette: as soon as you have two duties unlocked, the Alliance Raid roulette appears in your Duty Finder and starts paying out.
Gear Rewards and Weekly Coffers
The loot is the other half of why people run these. Each duty drops a set of gear themed around that series, plus a pile of collectibles. How much of it you can grab in a week depends on whether the series is current or old.
The current series and the weekly lockout
Only the newest series has a cap on gear. Right now that's Echoes of Vana'diel. For the latest duty in the line, you can win one piece of gear from the standard coffer per week. Once you've taken your piece, you're locked out of rolling on more gear from that duty until the weekly reset. The idea is to keep the current raids worth running for a while instead of letting people gear five jobs in an afternoon.
Your first clear of the week on the top duty also hands you a bonus. As of the Windurst tier that bonus is two Cracked Novaclusters and a Ranperre Coin. The clusters trade to vendors for upgrade materials, and the coin is the useful one for raiders. You hand coins to an NPC named Uah'shepya in Solution Nine, around X:8.7, Y:13.5, for tokens that enhance your tomestone gear. That's the main reason serious players keep clearing weekly, even after they already have the look they want.
The item levels show how the series scales up:
- Jeuno: The First Walk, item level 720
- San d'Oria: The Second Walk, item level 750
- Windurst: The Third Walk, item level 780
The rare-item chest
Every duty in the current series also drops a special chest at the very end that's separate from the weekly gear cap. This one can hold rare stuff like minions, mounts, and music rolls. Roll on it as many times as it shows up. There's no lockout on these, so collectors run the latest tier over and over chasing a specific mount or a Triple Triad card. There's also Tattered Sheet Music that pops up in these chests, which you trade to a peculiar goblin in Lower Jeuno, around X:6.5, Y:5.2, for extra orchestrion rolls.
The older series are uncapped
Everything from Crystal Tower through Myths of the Realm is uncapped. No weekly limit at all. You can roll on every piece of gear, every run, all week. That's why these get farmed nonstop for glamour. The gear itself sits way below current power levels, so you're not wearing it for stats. You're wearing it because it looks cool and you can stuff it in the glam dresser.
Those older duties still drop their minions, mounts, orchestrion rolls, and Triple Triad cards too, and again, all uncapped. After a specific mount from Dun Scaith or a card from Rabanastre? Just keep queuing. The Alliance Raid roulette makes this almost painless since you're getting paid in experience and Poetics the whole time.
Tomestones
Every clear hands over tomestones. Older series give Poetics, the catch-all currency you spend on previous expansions' endgame gear. The current series gives the expansion's relevant tomestone, which feeds straight back into that coin-upgrade loop. So even a run where you win nothing useful still nudges you forward on currency.
The short version
If you only care about getting stronger, run the newest series weekly for one piece of gear plus the coin, then spend the coin on upgrades. If you care about looking cool, farm the older ones to your heart's content with no cap in the way. And if you just want easy experience and Poetics, the roulette does both while occasionally tossing you into a duty you'd never queue for on purpose. That last part is honestly the best deal going. You bump into parts of the game you'd otherwise skip, the queues usually pop fast, and the payout is way better than the effort.