FF14 Evercold Reveals Bastion Tank Job and Final Fantasy 7 Raid Collaboration at Berlin FanFest

The second Fan Festival of 2026 just wrapped up in Berlin, and Square Enix came loaded. Naoki Yoshida took the stage at FanFest Berlin to drop everything fans have been waiting to hear about Final Fantasy 14: Evercold — the expansion’s first new Job, the long-rumored raid collaboration, confirmed new zones, and a locked-in Nintendo Switch 2 release date. If you’ve been following Evercold’s rollout since Anaheim, this keynote filled in a lot of gaps. Here’s a full breakdown of what was announced.

What Is FF14 Evercold?

For anyone not fully caught up, Evercold is the sixth expansion for Final Fantasy 14, carrying the Patch 8.0 designation and currently targeting a January 2027 launch across all current-gen platforms. The expansion is the second chapter in what Square Enix is calling the Godless Realms Saga, the new story arc that followed the conclusion of the Hydaelyn-Zodiark saga.

The setting this time is the Fourth — a reflection of the Source world that has fallen to ruin, now consumed by an ever-advancing deep freeze. With the ground uninhabitable, civilization has abandoned the surface entirely and taken to the sky aboard five colossal elemental airships known as Realmships, or The Five Firmaments. The majority of Evercold’s time will be spent on these vessels high above the frozen world below, continuing a story that began seeding itself during Dawntrail’s late patch cycle. The next story breadcrumb arrives with Patch 7.56 on September 8, 2026.

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The Bastion — Evercold’s New Tank Job

The biggest job reveal of the keynote was the debut of the Bastion, a new main tank job that will be added to the game when Evercold launches. Yoshida came out onto the stage in a full Bastion cosplay — complete with the twin gunshields — and the Berlin crowd went completely wild for it. The presentation was classic Yoshi-P energy.

The Bastion’s signature weapons are called Skyltborg — a pair of massive greatshields that double as firearms. In practice, this means the job can deal close-range physical damage like a traditional tank while also firing mid-range projectiles to pick off targets or protect teammates. It’s a hybrid playstyle that sits somewhere between full-on bruiser and defensive support, and it visually leans into both Norse-flavored heavy fantasy aesthetics and a mechanical edge.

The Bastion is classified as a Main Tank role and starts players at Level 90, with the unlocking quest found in Limsa Lominsa. Once Evercold drops, the Tank role will have five jobs total. A second new job — confirmed to be a Physical Ranged DPS — was not revealed at Berlin. That reveal is being saved for the final Fan Festival event in Tokyo on October 31, 2026.

Beyond the Lifestream — The FF7 Remake Raid Collaboration

The single biggest shock of the keynote was the reveal of Evercold’s 8-player raid series. Yoshida brought Final Fantasy 7 Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi up onto the stage, and together they confirmed that Evercold’s main raid series is a full collaboration with the FF7 Remake team — titled “Beyond the Lifestream.”

This isn’t a light crossover either. Hamaguchi was clear that core members of the FF7 Remake development team, including creative director Tetsuya Nomura, are actively involved in building it. The raid will span all three difficulty tiers across the full three-wing structure that FF14 players are familiar with. The first tier drops in the 8.01 patch, expected a couple of weeks after Evercold’s January 2027 launch, with subsequent tiers rolling out through 2027 and into 2028.

Both Cloud and Sephiroth appear in the key art, but neither Yoshida nor Hamaguchi confirmed which other characters or bosses to expect. When Yoshida pushed Hamaguchi on what FF7 characters would show up beyond those two, the response was simply “Who do you guys wanna see?” — which is about the most Fan Fest answer possible, but also a pretty clear signal that more familiar faces are incoming. Further reveals are expected over the coming months.

On the timing of the collab, Hamaguchi explained: “We thought this was really the perfect time together in a united front” — a nod to the fact that Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, the concluding chapter of the Remake trilogy, is also on the horizon and still without a confirmed release date.

Keybound Brawler — FF7 Comes to the Gold Saucer Early

Players won’t have to wait until Evercold launches to get a taste of the FF7 collaboration. As part of Patch 7.56, Square Enix is adding a brand new mini-game to FF14’s Manderville Gold Saucer on Wednesday, October 28, 2026. The mini-game is called Keybound Brawler — a typing-based multiplayer game inspired by the Gold Saucer from Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth that supports up to four players simultaneously.

Rewards for Keybound Brawler include Barret and Tifa’s costume outfits from Final Fantasy 7, with Barret’s iconic minigun arm available as a fashion accessory. Square Enix also hinted that typing-based gameplay mechanics introduced with Keybound Brawler will carry forward into future content, so this likely isn’t a one-time event.

New Zones: Realmships of the Fourth

Yoshida gave the Berlin crowd their first real look at Evercold’s zones, each of which draws heavily from Norse mythology in both naming and visual design. Two Realmships were shown in significant detail:

• Naglfar, Realmship of Water — Features open plains, hills, cliffs, and sprawling lakes. The centerpiece of the ship is a massive structure called the Ark Crystal, which plays a key role in the expansion’s story. The main player hub on Naglfar is Falgarthr, a city protected behind a large barrier. Yoshida was particularly proud of the Falgarthr theme music, noting that composer Soken wrote the track heard in the trailer overnight — and that it’s not even the actual town theme that players will hear in-game.
• Hringhorni, Realmship of Fire — A stark contrast to Naglfar, Hringhorni has a heavy industrial look — rivers of molten metal, massive foundries, and mechanical structures dominate the visual language. Despite all that fire and steel, it also features its own forests and lakes, creating an unusual mix of industrial and natural environments.

The zone-order system is also getting a structural shake-up in Evercold. Rather than being forced through a fully linear path, players will be able to choose which of the expansion’s new zones to tackle first after completing the initial onboarding quests. Square Enix is adding automatic difficulty and level balancing to compensate for the different potential level ranges, along with adjusted quest rewards to keep things fair regardless of which path players pick.

Final Fantasy 14 Is Coming to Nintendo Switch 2 on August 4

Rounding out the keynote, Yoshida confirmed that the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Final Fantasy 14 launches on Tuesday, August 4, 2026 — which is practically right around the corner. Pre-orders are live on the Nintendo eShop right now, though new players will want to set aside 119 GB of storage space for the download.

To make the launch as smooth as possible for server stability, Square Enix is offering approximately one month of free play on Switch 2 after launch. After that free window closes, players will need to purchase the game and maintain an active subscription to keep playing, same as on any other platform.

Evercold Collector’s Bundle

Yoshida closed the keynote by revealing the Evercold Collector’s Bundle, which includes both physical and digital items. The physical side comes in a special art box featuring Yoshitaka Amano’s artwork and contains: an Expertly Crafted Reaper Figure, an Ethos Metal Keychain, a Köttr Mini Plush, and a Tapestry of the Fourth. The digital Collector’s Edition adds three in-game items: the Crystal Skyltborg Bastion weapon, the Valhallar Odin mount, and the Entreat Crystal emote. Pricing and pre-order details will be announced separately.

The third and final Fan Festival for the Evercold cycle takes place at Tokyo’s Makuhari Messe on October 31, 2026, where the second new job — the Physical Ranged DPS — is expected to be revealed. For more gaming news, check out our recent pieces on the Game of Thrones: War for Westeros delay to early 2027 and Xbox’s new ad-supported game streaming test.