Eden isn’t a place or a person, exactly. It’s a being. And the raid that centers around it takes you on quite the journey. To understand Eden’s place in the Final Fantasy timeline, we have to delve into some rather significant lore points. So if you’d rather work it out yourself, or if you don’t want spoilers – well, spoiler warning. The Shadowbringers expansion sees us battling a seemingly endless force of Sin Eaters – twisted former humans who exist only to feed on the living. As we decimate Sin Eaters and the mighty Lightwardens they flock to, pieces of history begin to fall into place.
Where Did Eden Come From? (Shadowbringers Spoilers!)
Long ago, Ardbert (our broody counterpart from the First) defeated a pair of Ascians trying to bring about a calamity on their world. Despite their apparent victory, the Ascian named Mitron would transform into the first Sin Eater, a mighty being Ryne would later name as “Eden”. This was all according to the Ascians’ plan (somehow). Eden began to flood the First with light, until Minfilia finally stopped asking us to return to The Waking Sands and actually did something. Together with the Warriors of Darkness, Minfilia sacrificed herself to stop the Flood of Light from consuming the world. Eden still remained, though. Minfilia’s sacrifice placed it into a deep slumber, with Mitron’s consciousness imprisoned inside. The being would remain inactive for a hundred years, until the new Warrior of Darkness (That’s us!) brings an end to the Ascian plot and returns darkness to the First. Ryne (Minfilia’s successor) detects a massive source of light out in the Empty. The Empty is a dangerous wasteland, mostly devoid of magical aether. Eventually they get an expedition together and bring the Warrior of Darkness along to check out the disturbance. They discover Eden, half-buried in the wastes. One thing leads to another, and we’re saving the world again (yawn). I won’t spoil any of the raid’s actual story content, because it’s all good stuff worth discovering yourself.
How Do I Unlock Eden?
Thankfully, unlocking Eden is much easier than completing the damn thing. You’ll need to be level 80 and have cleared the Shadowbringers Main Scenario Quests (not including any post patch content). If you already fulfill both of these requirements, head to the Crystarium and speak to an Anxious Crystarium Guard. From here you’ll have to follow two simple quests: “In The Middle of Nowhere” and “Deploy the Core”. As soon as you’ve finished these, the first stage of Eden will become available to you. More will unlock as you complete the multiple duties the raid is separated into. So the process is basically like unlocking every raid that comes before it – nothing new for you if you’ve been exploring Eorzea thoroughly up to this point. Eden is a standard raid, so you’ll need a party of eight to take part. Luckily you can always queue for it through the Duty Finder if you don’t have a static or Free Company to do it with.
Is Eden Difficult?
Well, it is end-game content. So it’ll certainly be more difficult than the Crystal Tower you’re forced to clear early on. But for players capable of reading up on fight mechanics and role expectations, it probably won’t give you too much trouble on standard difficulty. The difficulty will also be massively influenced by the experience of your party members. Joining via Duty Finder always runs the risk of setting you up with a bunch of people who don’t know what they’re doing either. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – it’s just not the best way to learn the raid’s mechanics and progress. Moving up to the higher difficulty tiers is a different story, and they’ll require a good deal more practice and equipment to clear. If you’re doing it all for the first time, make sure you’ve got your rotation down right. Take care of the basics like watching/reading up on the fights beforehand and communicate with your party.
