Patch 0.4.0d dropped on January 15, 2026, and if you've been deep in Fate of the Vaal, you'll feel it straight away. The league's been fun, sure, but it's also been the kind of fun that comes with a headache: one misread mechanic, one sketchy UI moment, and your whole run goes up in smoke. This update doesn't add some flashy new system. It just fixes the stuff that kept tripping people up, especially once you start risking real time and resources like Fate of the Vaal SC Divine Orb on your plans.

Atziri's Temple finally respects your time

The Temple changes are the headline for most players, and yeah, that tracks. Before 0.4.0d, dying in a key boss fight felt like getting your ticket ripped in half. You weren't just punished, you were basically dismissed. Now the respawn rules have been adjusted so that if you die during a boss encounter, you can re-enter a fresh Temple instance and take another shot. There's a trade-off: most side content won't be there on re-entry, so you can't just farm extra value for free. But the main thing is you can actually finish what you started, and the endgame loop feels closer to what PoE players expect.

Room layout clarity that should've been there day one

A lot of the league frustration wasn't even difficulty, it was uncertainty. You'd be staring at the layout thinking, "Wait, what did that upgrade actually change." or "Why is this option greyed out." The update adds clearer visual feedback for how rooms connect and what your current choices really mean. You'll notice it when planning routes: fewer blind clicks, fewer "guess I bricked it" moments. It doesn't make the mechanic simpler, it just makes it readable, which is what players were asking for in the first place.

Stability and UI fixes that matter in real runs

Under the hood, 0.4.0d is also doing the boring-but-important work. Visual effects that failed to load, skills behaving inconsistently, and crashes that loved to show up at the worst possible second have been addressed. The UI also got a pass, with inconsistent info cleaned up so what you're seeing lines up better with what's happening. It's not the kind of change you screenshot for social media, but it's the difference between a clean run and a run you're salty about for the next hour.

Why players are logging back in

The mood around the patch is noticeably lighter because it targets the exact pain points people kept ranting about in chat. Fewer dead runs from unclear rules. Less punishment that feels random. More confidence when you commit to a Temple setup. And if you're the type who likes smoothing out your gearing curve without waiting on lucky drops, it's pretty normal to see players mentioning marketplaces like U4GM in the same breath, since it's an option for buying currency or items when you just want to get back to playing instead of stalling out.