Being Cursed In Dead Cells is a punishment on the beheaded for angering the gods. Curses turn the player into a one-hit kill, and they 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.
Sources
- Opening a cursed chest (10)
- Breaking a golden door (10 for regular, 50 for specialist shop)
- Picking up a Corrupted Artifact (20)
- Eating food with Acceptance equipped (5)
- Equipping the Cursed Sword (As long as the weapon is equipped)
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 but consuming food curses you.
Notes
- Curse is the only mention of gods in the entire game.
- Gaining curse while having the Cursed Sword equiped still gives you a curse counter.