Curse

Being Cursed In Dead Cells is a punishment on the beheaded for angering the gods. Curse makes it so you insta-die from damage and need to kill a certain amount of enemies to cure it. The amount depends on the source of the curse and the amounts stack. There are a few different ways to gain curse. Curse sources are risk-reward choices that can greatly benefit the player with rewards being Scrolls, Gems and healing. Curse also has synergies with some weapons and Mutations.

Insta-kills
The following damage sources insta-kill while Cursed:


 * Any enemy hit that deals at least 1 damage
 * Any trap hit
 * Jumping into a bottomless pit
 * Poison DoT (it is currently unknown whether still running poison instantly kills you after opening the chest)
 * Damage from using Lightning Bolt too long

The following damage sources do NOT insta-kill while Cursed:


 * Darkness in the Forgotten Sepulcher
 * Malaise damage

Synergies

 * While cursed Spite Sword does critical hits
 * Alienation makes it so decreasing the curse counter restores 5% HP but increases the number of enemies required to lift the curse by 50%. Reducing a curse 5 times removes 2 Malaise.
 * Acceptance reduces gained curse counter from sources by half. Consuming food curses you.