How to beat FFXIV Dawntrail queues and log in faster

The Dawntrail expansion for Final Fantasy XIV is one of the most exciting DLCs for the game in quite some time, sending players to the New World in search of adventure after the culmination of a decade-long saga in Endwalker. Speaking of Endwalker, the queue times are back.

If you were there for the launch of Final Fantasy XIV 6.0 (or any of the previous expansions, really), then you no doubt remember the queueing experience when trying to log into the game. Thousands upon thousands of players flooding the servers resulted in multiple hours of waiting, and that’s if you didn’t get booted or disconnected while in line. Thankfully, there are some workaround for Dawntrail that you can try if you’re struggling to get into Final Fantasy XIV.

How to Reduce Dawntrail Queue Times in Final Fantasy XIV

While the queueing experience should be much more stable this time around (and you shouldn’t get disconnected and lose your spot in line nearly as often), Square Enix has issued an official workaround to help players avoid long queue times in Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail so they can try out new content like the Viper Job.

The Data Center travel system introduced in Endwalker saves the day in Dawntrail, as players have been advised to swap Data Centers if they’re experiencing unusually long queue times. In particular, North American players have been advised to travel to the less-crowded Dynamis Data Center of any Oceanian Data Center during peak NA hours, while the Shadow Data Center or any Oceanian DC is recommended for European players.

If your home world is congested in Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail, just follow these steps to jump to a different Data Center.

1. Start Final Fantasy XIV and reach the character selection menu.
2. Right-click your character’s name to open the drop-down menu.
3. Select “Visit Another Data Center.”
4. Select your preferred Data Center and world.
5. Select “Confirm” and then “Proceed.”
6. Wait until the transfer is complete.

It may take some time for your character to be fully transferred to a new Data Center due to the Dawntrail congestion, but you’ll be notified with a pop-up when everything is done. At that point, you can just log into the game like normal and hopefully see a shorter queue! There’s a lot of cool stuff to see in Dawntrail like an all-new graphical overhaul for Final Fantasy XIV, so sticking with the queue is more than worth it.