Update March 26 2022: The guide has now been updated to work around the new requirement of steam accounts needing to be steam-linked and 'the launcher'

So you use Linux and want to play Final Fantasy XIV on it? Then you’ve reached the right guide. True, I could post this guide on protonDB in the comments, but as they are just comments this guide would likely fall down to the wayside when new comments are posted. Using the steps from this guide I am writing I was able to get FFXIV to run through Steam Proton on the following distributions:

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (Tested March 26 2022)
Arch Linux (Tested March 31 2022)
OpenSUSE Leap 15.3 (Tested April 2 2022)
Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish Beta (Tested April 3 2022)
Fedora 36 Beta (Tested May 5 2022)

Note: This guide is for the Steam version only and running it through Steam Proton.

Special thanks to Centzilius for the .py file they created and instructions on using it, without which this would not be possible. I'd add you as a contributor to this guide if I was able to or knew how.

1. First link your steam account to your Square Enix account by launching steam then using it to launch the FFXIV launcher on a windows machine, or a windows virtual machine. This is the ONLY time you will need windows. After it's linked you will be good to just use Linux from here on.

2. Make sure Proton 5.0 is installed and winetricks, and obviously WINE itself. You will need them later on. You can download wine tricks from your distros repository normally, and if you search for "proton" in your Library you will find it in the tools tab normally.

3. Download Glorious Eggroll version 6.21-GE-2 from here https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases/tag/6.21-GE-2 and extract the folder from the Proton-6.21-GE-2.tar.gz file. Move the extracted folder into ~/.steam/root/compatibilitytools.d (create the folder "compatibilitytools.d" if it doesn't already exist within that directory). You will have to relaunch steam at least once before you see it show up there.

4. In a terminal run paste these commands:
cd $HOME/.steam/steam/compatibilitytools.d/Proton-6.21-GE-2/protonfixes
./winetricks --self-update

5. Go to https://gist.github.com/Centzilius/57892e5d1aaea51b3f389e6f1d587c97 and click on the "download zip" button on the top right to get the files from that repository. Extract the files from 57892e5d1aaea51b3f389e6f1d587c97-d9941cf64dff28dcbfe1855113e2a10f162bbbd0.zip and in the extracted folder look for the file 39210.py (you will need this file for the next step)

6. Go back to the folder ~/.steam/steam/compatibilitytools.d/Proton-6.21-GE-2 that you had generated previously. Within that folder look for a folder called "protonfixes" and within that folder go to "gamefixes" folder. There will be a file called 39210.py which can be safely removed. Move the new 39210.py that you obtained from the previous step into this folder to take its place.

7. (optional) If you previously played Final Fantasy XIV before, at this point it is best to wipe out the previous wine container. Before you do that it's best to back up your "Final Fantasy XIV folder) (which contains settings / key bindings etc). You can find it in ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/39210/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/My Games/ (copy the folder "FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn" from there and move it somewhere safe, you will need it later on). Once you have backed up your folder completely delete ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/39210 (old prefixes may cause issues)

8. If you don't have Final Fantasy XIV already installed at this point go to your Library to install it. You must have "steam play enabled" for all other titles in the settings before this will work.

9. (optional) IF you have the game installed to another drive at this point you can save some download time by moving the game client folders "game" and "boot" into ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/FINAL FANTASY XIV Online (remove the "game" and "boot" folders that already exist in this directory before doing so). If not do not worry.

10. Before attempting to launch the game go to your Library. Right click the game title and click on "properties." In Compatibility checkbox "Force the use of a specific steam play compatibility tool. Choose Proton 6.3-8 (you can install this from searching in the tools section in steam Library if you do not have it

11. Click "Play" when viewing it in your steam Library to attempt to launch it. Steam will take a while to process vulkan shaders, before launching a "frozen" launcher. Let the launcher sit there frozen for about 10 seconds or so before closing it. This action will have made a new wine prefix located at ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/39210/

12. Right click Final Fantasy XIV title in your Library again and once again go to properties. In compatibility change the compatibility tool to Proton-6.21-GE-2 and in the "general" section set the launch arguments to XL_WINEONLINUX=true DSSENH=n %command%

13. Launch the game. It will take a LONG time before anything pops up. Be VERY patient. If an error pops up click "No" and wait a bit. Then Final Fantasy XIVLauncher Setup will show up. Set the location to where your Final Fantasy XIV install is. You will have to manually put in where it's at. In my case it was "Z:\home\xurias\.local\share\Steam\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY XIV Online" (replace "xurias" with whatever the name of your home user folder is, and if you are on Debian or Ubuntu based your steam folder might be located in "Z:\home\xurias\.steam\debian-installation\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY XIV Online" or something along those lines instead, as I know that the version of steam from debian or ubuntu repos places it in a different folder). It is VERY important that you tell the launcher it is a steam service account during the initial option and to enable steam integration. Let the game download and/or update at this point. If you didn't copy the game from another drive during optional step 9 then let the "XIVLauncher" download it.
NOTE TO STEAM DECK USERS:
You may also need to use protontricks to install dotnet48 and vcrun2019, also add "XL_NO_SPACE_REQUIREMENTS=true" to your launch arguments before it will work, per steam deck user Darkitz who cotacted me and said this got it to work on Steam deck for them. I do not have a steam deck myself to test this.

14. (optional). If you had a backup of your settings, keybinds, and saved characters (from step 7) you can now move it back into its proper place of ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/39210/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/My Games (when you launched the game during step 11 it will have made a new version of this folder, you are safe to remove it to replace it with your other Final Fantasy XIV folder)


15. (optional but recommended). Although the game will mostly run fine at this point, the pre-rendered cutscenes (e.g opening movie) do not always work right on Proton-6.21-GE-2. Since Proton-6.21-GE-2 has already set up the community launcher, I recommend grabbing a newer proton GE version for better compatibility. I have tested this newer version to work https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases/tag/GE-Proton7-14 and recommend moving the custom 39210.py file into the game fixes folder just as one done to the previous Proton-6.21-GE-2 and set compatibility tools options to use it. In my testing, there is no need to do the "winetricks selfupdate" command on this one (and I have seen it cause issues after the newer one is updated). In my case using the newer version fixed the issue where pre-rendered cutscenes (e.g. the opening cinematic) was able to play, as I was not able to get the pre-rendered cutscenes to play on all distros on the older 6.21-GE-2. However the cutcenes worked fine under the newer 7.14 GE release. Leave launch options as "XL_WINEONLINUX=true DSSENH=n %command%" and try to launch it with this new version. You will likely see the same error as was seen before with step 13, once again click "no" and the launcher will come up as before. For some reason 7-14 was unable to directly install the launcher when I messed with it, so in my case it was necessary to have previously used 6.21-GE-2 on step 13 for the launcher to be installed in the wine prefix before changing compatibility tool to 7.14-GE.

From this point on the game should be good to be launched and played without issue.