What to know
- Hotfix 10 deploys a single change: no Energised Crystals drop from significantly over-leveled areas.
- Players react with requests for more crystals per map to offset the restriction.
- The patch addresses progression balance in the Fate of the Vaal league's temple mechanics.
- Forum discussion spiked immediately after release on Dec 28, 2025.
You’re experiencing Path of Exile 2’s fast-moving hotfix cadence as Grinding Gear Games continues tuning Early Access systems. The 0.4.0c Hotfix 10, published by Alexander_GGG on December 28, 2025, addresses a targeted problem involving Energised Crystals—critical progression items used to construct Atziri’s Temple in the Fate of the Vaal league.
This update removes crystal drops from zones where monsters are heavily out-leveled by the player, closing a loophole that allowed high-level characters to farm low-tier areas with minimal resistance. The goal is to steer players into level-appropriate content, preserving difficulty and pacing in temple advancement.
Community reactions surfaced almost instantly on the official forums. Within minutes, players began proposing increased crystal yields in endgame maps, with repeated questions such as “increase number of crystals per map?” Others debated whether the temple should unlock during the campaign or remain map-exclusive, reflecting broader concerns around progression speed and league pacing. Unlike previous patches that delivered crash fixes or temple bug repairs, this hotfix introduces no additional changes, keeping its scope intentionally narrow.
The adjustment ultimately benefits gameplay balance by discouraging trivialized farming routes and reinforcing meaningful endgame engagement. Instead of harvesting crystals through over-level dominance, you’re now incentivized to pursue maps and higher-difficulty encounters to progress efficiently. The hotfix rolled out without server downtime, though restarting your client may be required to apply the update. As always, monitoring forum updates remains valuable—developer edits and discussions continued into the early hours of December 29, 2025.
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