Longtime fans of Final Fantasy 14 are quite familiar with seasonal events. As families celebrate Easter and children enjoy hunting for colored eggs in the real world, similar festivities are going on in the fictional realm of Eorzea. The springtime season is a period to partake in Hatching-tide in Final Fantasy 14, a 2-week event that rewards players with unique limited time items if they participate. The holiday comes around every year, and the 2021 event will take place from April 14 to April 28.
Those who participate in the seasonal quest will obtain the Chicken Head and Chicken Suit items. Over the course of the event, players will unlock a special minigame that can be played repeatedly. By completing the minigame enough times, fans can also earn the Archon Egg Pouch and Hatching-tide Confections tabletop furnishing items. These rewards are highly worthwhile for item collectors, whimsical glamour enthusiasts, or home decoration savants.
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The 2021 Hatching-tide event begins the quest Fowl Demands. Players should speak to Jihli Aliapoh at Mih Khetto's Amphitheatre in Old Gridania (X:10.2 Y:9.4). It should be noted that only characters at level 15 or higher can accept the quest, so brand new Final Fantasy 14 players will have to put in a bit of work before participating. Jihli Aliapoh is a recurring NPC that some players will recognize from Hatching-tide events of previous years. As in previous iterations of the event, Jihli will request the player to help her in hosting a spectacle that lives up to what she sees in her prophetic dreams.
After walking a short distance to the nearby Greatloam Growery, the player can speak to the required NPC and finish the Fowl Demands quest. This is enough to earn the Chicken Head and Chicken Suit. Players who want to complete the event and earn a couple extra rewards will then have to accept the next quest, A Poultry Sum. This will introduce players to a special egg-hunt minigame that can be completed multiple times for extra rewards.
The repeatable minigame for the 2021 Hatching-tide event comes in the form of a FATE (Fully Active Timed Event), which experienced players will be more than used to. This FATE takes place in a special event-exclusive area of Gridania that can only be reached by speaking to the NPC Pawlin in Old Gridania (X:5.1 Y:8.1). The objective of the FATE is to simply collect eggs from the chicken nests in this Easter-themed egg hunt and return as many as possible to the Hatching-tide Helpmeet before times runs out. The horde of protective chickens will try to keep adventurers at bay, but avoiding the orange area-of-effect indicators is simple enough.
Players will receive a number of Special Archon Eggs depending on their performance in the FATE. These can be traded to the Dreamer in Old Gridania (X:10.2 Y:9.2) for additional prizes, such as the Archon Egg Pouch and Hatching-tide Confections. The FATE can be repeated any number of times during the event period, so players can collect as many copies of these items as they wish.
After completing An Eggsistential Threat for the first time, players still have one more task to complete in the A Poultry Sum quest. This final objective is a gift-giving minigame in which the player will speak to a number of NPCs disguised in bunny or chicken costumes. The player gets to choose what kind of gift to give to each NPC. There is no prize or consequence for right or wrong answers, but longtime fans might enjoy the process of trying to identify these disguised characters that they may have met across multiple expansions of quests.
After completing A Poultry Sum, players will earn the achievement "A Fowl Temper" as proof that they participated in Hatching-tide 2021. While this seasonal event is rather short and sweet, it comes on the heels of the latest major patch. Patch 5.5 of Final Fantasy 14 brings a whole host of new content, including main story quests and a thrilling finale to the YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse raid series.
Final Fantasy 14 is available on PC and PS4 with a PS5 beta in the works.