Final Fantasy XIV builds most of its dungeons into the Main Scenario Quest, so you clear places like Sastasha and Copperbell Mines just by following the story. The optional dungeons are different. They sit behind blue quests with a plus icon, and it is easy to walk past them for dozens of levels without noticing. Each one adds a fresh four-player instance for loot, experience, and your Duty Roulettes.
Quick answer: Every optional dungeon requires you to accept and finish a specific side quest first. Travel to the map coordinates listed below, pick up the blue “+” quest, complete it, and the dungeon opens in Duty Finder. Unlocking any two of the level 50 through 90 optional dungeons also opens the High-level Dungeons roulette.
How optional dungeon unlocks work
Optional dungeons never unlock on their own. You have to find the NPC who offers the unlock quest, and those quests are marked with a blue quest icon that has a plus sign inside it. That symbol always means the quest opens new content. Most higher-level unlocks only appear once you have cleared the main story of the matching expansion, and a few require you to finish an earlier version of the same dungeon first.
There is a practical reason to grind through them. Clearing at least two optional dungeons from the level 50 to 90 brackets unlocks the High-level Dungeons roulette, which drops you into one of these previously capped dungeons for tomestones and experience. The dungeons also hand out minions, orchestrion rolls, and Triple Triad cards, and several early ones feed into the A Realm Reborn Zodiac and Heavensward Anima relic weapon chains.
Note: Any dungeon outside your current expansion can be run unsynced, meaning you enter at your real level and gear and clear it far faster than the original level range suggests.
A Realm Reborn optional dungeons (levels 20-50)
The base game holds the largest pile of optional dungeons. The early ones fill leveling gaps between story dungeons, while the level 50 hard modes cluster around a group of NPCs in Mor Dhona once you hit the cap. Nedrick Ironheart in Western Thanalan alone starts several of them.
| Dungeon | Level | Unlock quest | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Halatali | 20 | Hallo Halatali | Western Thanalan (12.0, 14.0) |
| The Sunken Temple of Qarn | 35 | Braving New Depths | Western Thanalan (12.0, 14.0) |
| Cutter’s Cry | 38 | Dishonor Before Death | Ul’dah – Steps of Thal (14.0, 10.0) |
| Dzemael Darkhold | 44 | Fort of Fear | Coerthas Central Highlands (24.0, 28.0) |
| The Aurum Vale | 47 | Going for Gold | Western Thanalan (12.0, 14.0) |
| The Wanderer’s Palace | 50 | Trauma Queen | Western Thanalan (11.0, 13.0) |
| Amdapor Keep | 50 | Ghosts of Amdapor | Western Thanalan (12.0, 14.0) |
| Pharos Sirius | 50 | Sirius Business | Western La Noscea (26.0, 26.0) |
| The Lost City of Amdapor | 50 | One Night in Amdapor | Old Gridania (6.0, 10.0) |
| Hullbreaker Isle | 50 | King of the Hull | Mor Dhona (22.0, 8.0) |
| Copperbell Mines (Hard) | 50 | Out of Sight, Out of Mine | Mor Dhona (22.0, 8.0) |
| Haukke Manor (Hard) | 50 | Maniac Manor | Mor Dhona (22.0, 8.0) |
| Halatali (Hard) | 50 | This Time’s for Fun | Mor Dhona (22.0, 8.0) |
| Brayflox’s Longstop (Hard) | 50 | Curds and Slay | Mor Dhona (22.0, 8.0) |
| The Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard) | 50 | Corpse Groom | Ul’dah – Steps of Nald (12.0, 8.0) |
| The Stone Vigil (Hard) | 50 | Blood for Stone | Mor Dhona (21.0, 8.0) |
| Sastasha (Hard) | 50 | It’s Definitely Pirates | Mor Dhona (22.0, 8.0) |
| The Sunken Temple of Qarn (Hard) | 50 | The Wrath of Qarn | Mor Dhona (22.0, 8.0) |
| The Wanderer’s Palace (Hard) | 50 | Not Easy Being Green | Mor Dhona (22.0, 8.0) |
| Amdapor Keep (Hard) | 50 | For Keep’s Sake | Mor Dhona (22.0, 8.0) |
A handful of these have prerequisites. Amdapor Keep opens after you clear The Aurum Vale, and each hard mode of Halatali, the Sunken Temple of Qarn, the Wanderer’s Palace, and Amdapor Keep needs the normal version cleared first.
Heavensward optional dungeons (levels 51-60)
Most of the Heavensward optional dungeons open after you finish the “Heavensward” MSQ. The Dusk Vigil is the exception and appears a little earlier, at level 51.
| Dungeon | Level | Unlock quest | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Dusk Vigil | 51 | For All the Nights to Come | Coerthas Western Highlands (16.0, 22.0) |
| Neverreap | 60 | Reap What You Sow | The Sea of Clouds (11.0, 14.0) |
| The Fractal Continuum | 60 | Do It for Gilly | Ishgard – The Pillars (14.0, 11.0) |
| Saint Mocianne’s Arboretum | 60 | An Overgrown Ambition | The Dravanian Hinterlands (12.0, 19.0) |
| Pharos Sirius (Hard) | 60 | Things Are Getting Sirius | Limsa Lominsa – Upper Decks (13.0, 13.0) |
| The Lost City of Amdapor (Hard) | 60 | One More Night in Amdapor | Old Gridania (6.0, 10.6) |
| Hullbreaker Isle (Hard) | 60 | Storming the Hull | Limsa Lominsa – Upper Decks (11.0, 10.0) |
| The Great Gubal Library (Hard) | 60 | Let Me Gubal That for You | Idyllshire (5.5, 6.6) |
| Sohm Al (Hard) | 60 | The Fires of Sohm Al | Idyllshire (4.6, 8.4) |
Pharos Sirius (Hard), the Lost City of Amdapor (Hard), and Hullbreaker Isle (Hard) each require you to finish their normal versions before the unlock quest becomes available.
Stormblood optional dungeons (levels 63-70)
Stormblood spreads its unlock quests around Rhalgr’s Reach and the Ruby Sea. Shisui of the Violet Tides is unusual because it opens through an Aether Current quest rather than the usual blue side quest, and both Hells’ Lid and the Swallow’s Compass are picked up during the Four Lords quest chain.
| Dungeon | Level | Unlock quest | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shisui of the Violet Tides | 63 | The Palace of Lost Souls | The Ruby Sea (20.2, 20.1) |
| Kugane Castle | 70 | King of the Castle | Kugane (13.9, 13.4) |
| The Temple of the Fist | 70 | To Kill a Coeurl | Rhalgr’s Reach (12.9, 12.8) |
| Hells’ Lid | 70 | An Auspicious Encounter | The Ruby Sea (5.7, 15.7) |
| The Swallow’s Compass | 70 | Tortoise in Time | The Ruby Sea (27.9, 16.4) |
| The Fractal Continuum (Hard) | 70 | An Unwanted Truth | Rhalgr’s Reach (13.2, 12.2) |
| Saint Mocianne’s Arboretum (Hard) | 70 | Secret of the Ooze | Rhalgr’s Reach (13.4, 12.4) |
The Fractal Continuum (Hard) needs the normal Fractal Continuum cleared, and Saint Mocianne’s Arboretum (Hard) requires you to complete An Overgrown Ambition after clearing the standard Arboretum.
Shadowbringers, Endwalker, and Dawntrail optional dungeons (levels 80-100)
The newer expansions each add two optional dungeons on top of their story lineup. All of them open through blue quests once you have progressed far enough into the region.
| Dungeon | Level | Unlock quest | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Akadaemia Anyder | 80 | Akadaemia Anyder | Eulmore (12.9, 12.4) |
| The Twinning | 80 | By the Time You Hear This | The Crystarium (8.5, 10.9) |
| Smileton | 90 | Cutting the Cheese | Mare Lamentorum (11.8, 22.6) |
| The Stigma Dreamscape | 90 | Where No Loporrit Has Gone Before | Ultima Thule (34.8, 28.8) |
| Tender Valley | 100 | It Belongs in a Museum | Tuliyollal (14.0, 12.5) |
| The Strayborough Deadwalk | 100 | Something Stray in the Neighborhood | Solution Nine (18.5, 18.2) |
Variant Dungeons (level 90)
Variant Dungeons are a separate style of optional content that can be run solo or in a small party, with branching routes that change what you see on each run. They share the blue-quest unlock model, so the entry point is the same even though the format is not.
| Dungeon | Level | Unlock quest | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Sil’dihn Subterrane | 90 | A Key to the Past | Central Thanalan (16.8, 23.6) |
| Mount Rokkon | 90 | Mononoke Aware | Kugane (8.9, 8.8) |
| Aloalo Island | 90 | Stranger from Paradise | Thavnair (12.0, 13.3) |
| The Merchant’s Tale | 90 | A Spellbinding Read | Old Sharlayan (12.0, 13.4) |
Deep Dungeons
Deep Dungeons are roguelike runs with their own separate leveling system, and they unlock the same way through a quest. Palace of the Dead is the entry point, and every later Deep Dungeon requires you to reach Floor 50 of Palace of the Dead along with a specific Main Scenario Quest.
| Dungeon | Level | Unlock quest | Requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palace of the Dead | 17 | The House That Death Built | Complete MSQ “Into a Copper Hell” |
| Heaven-on-High | 61 | Knocking on Heaven’s Door | POTD Floor 50 + MSQ “Tide Goes In, Imperials Go Out” |
| Eureka Orthos | 90 | Delve into Myth | POTD Floor 50 + MSQ “Endwalker” |
| Pilgrim’s Traverse | 91 | Pilgrimage of Light | POTD Floor 50 + MSQ “Endwalker” |
Palace of the Dead’s unlock quest starts in New Gridania (12.0, 13.1). Heaven-on-High begins in the Ruby Sea (6.2, 11.7), Eureka Orthos in Mor Dhona (34.8, 19.2), and Pilgrim’s Traverse in the Crystarium (10.3, 10.7).
How to confirm a dungeon is unlocked
You know the unlock worked when the side quest turns in and the game displays a “new content unlocked” prompt. After that, open Duty Finder and the dungeon appears in its expansion category at the correct level. If it is still missing, the usual reasons are that you have not accepted or finished the blue quest, you are below the required level, or you skipped a prerequisite dungeon or Main Scenario Quest that gates the unlock.
Getting into the habit of clearing blue “+” quests as you move through each region is the simplest way to avoid missing any of these. They are short, they rarely ask for anything harder than traveling to an NPC, and they keep your Duty Roulettes stocked with more places to earn rewards.
