Patch day breaks things in a predictable order. Working through it in that order saves a lot of guessing.
Do this first
Wait for Dalamud. After a game patch, Dalamud is disabled until it is updated for the new client. Plugins cannot load and this is normal. Launching repeatedly does not speed it up.
Open XIVLauncher and check whether it reports Dalamud as up to date. If it does not, stop here — nothing below will work yet.
Then, in order
- Update Dalamud, then launch once with all plugins and confirm the game boots to the title screen.
- Update Penumbra and Glamourer from
/xlplugins. Plugins broken by an API change show as disabled with a version note. - Launch with all mods disabled. In Penumbra, switch your collection to an empty one. If the game is stable, your install is fine and the problem is a specific mod.
- Re-enable in groups. Halve the set each time. Ten mods takes four launches to bisect; guessing takes considerably longer.
Telling the two failure modes apart
A broken mod produces a visual glitch: an invisible body part, stretched geometry, a missing texture. The game keeps running.
A broken install produces a crash at the title screen or during login, before any mod could plausibly have loaded.
If you are crashing with an empty collection, the problem is Dalamud or the game itself, not your mods.
Mods that need updating
Major patches move file paths. A mod referencing a path that no longer exists does not error — it simply does nothing. Penumbra’s Unused Files view under a mod’s advanced settings lists paths that no longer resolve, which tells you the mod needs a rebuild against the current version.
If you use TexTools
Revert to a clean install before the game patches, not after. Patching over a modded index leaves the launcher unable to reconcile the files, and the recovery from that is a full re-download.
Set a reminder for the night before. It is a five-minute job that turns into a 60 GB one if you forget.