Final Fantasy XIV players who own the Starter Edition can get Stormblood for free—but not for long

Final Fantasy XIV players who have or purchase the Starter Edition can now get Stormblood added to their account for free during a promotional period. And those who own it will have it permanently available to them even after the promo ends.

For a limited time, players can add the second expansion, Stormblood, to their accounts for free if they have the Starter Edition of the game. This version of the game costs $19.99 and if purchased or owned between March 27 and May 8, it will include A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, and Stormblood, along with a free 30-day play period. After those 30 days, players will need to purchase an active subscription if they’d like to keep access to the game.

The Starter Edition only includes the base game, A Realm Reborn, and Heavensward, but from March 27 to May 8, players can add Stormblood to their accounts by redeeming and registering the expansion from participating retailers such as Steam and the Square Enix store. Instructions on how to get and register the expansion are set out in the support section of Square Enix’s website.

Once Stormblood is added to a player’s account, it will never be removed, meaning that even if you don’t have an active subscription but own the Starter Edition, Stormblood will be readily accessible even after May 8. An active Final Fantasy XIV subscription is required to play, but players can still add the expansion to their accounts if it isn’t active during the promotional period.

This runs in tandem with the Final Fantasy XIV free login period for those who don’t have an active subscription to the game. Players who log in between March 27 and May 8 will get four days of free playtime as long as they have had a paid active subscription in the past and have been inactive for the last 30 days.

Those who do want to take advantage of the free login period should note that there will be a full day of downtime for Patch 6.38 maintenance beginning April 3 at 5am CT for 24 hours. The game will be inaccessible at that point, so players looking to take advantage of all four days should work around the maintenance period to not lose any valuable free time with the game.