Cursed

This page is about the item effect. For the card, see the article Curse card.

Cursed equipment cannot be removed once equipped, unless their curse is removed. They are a major reason to identify items before using them.

Besides the annoyance of being "stuck" with it, cursed equipment is often generated with other negative effects. Cursed weapons and armour are more likely to have enhancement penalties, while several types of cursed rings and amulets are especially designed to bring annoyance or harm to the wearer.

Even the fact that cursed items cannot be removed can cause harm. Wielding a cursed blunt weapon prevents you from butchering corpses, increasing the threat of starvation. Cursed gloves also prevent you from changing rings, and cursed cloaks prevent you from changing your armor.

On the other hand, the god Ashenzari rewards you for wearing cursed items, and can help you keep your items cursed.

Detecting curses

Identifying equipment will reveal whether it is cursed. If you cannot identify an item, there are several other ways to discern whether it is cursed:

• Reading a scroll of detect curse will reveal the curse status of all equipment you are currently carrying.
• Witnessing an enemy unequip the item.
• Equipping it yourself. (This will, of course, cause the curse to take effect, so be sure to have a scroll of remove curse handy).

In all these cases, the game will mark the item's curse status, even if it is otherwise unidentified.

Uncursing items

• Cursed armor will lose its curse if targeted by a scroll of enchant armor, unless you worship Ashenzari.
• A currently-equipped cursed weapon will become uncursed if you read a scroll of enchant weapon I, scroll of enchant weapon II, or scroll of enchant weapon III, unless you worship Ashenzari.
• Reading a scroll of remove curse will uncurse all currently equipped cursed items, but not any cursed equipment in your inventory. If you worship Ashenzari, you can choose which equipped items to uncurse and which to leave alone.
• Blessing your weapon with your god's power (Lugonu's Distortion, the Shining One's Cleansing Flame, etc.) will remove its curse as part of the upgrade.

Item cursing

Uncursed equipment is normally safe to equip. However, items can become cursed in a variety of ways, including:

• Reading a scroll of curse weapon, scroll of curse armour, or scroll of curse jewellery.
• A mummy's death curse can curse your equipment as one of its possible effects.
• Artifact items can have the "recurring curse" property - even if they are currently uncursed, they will automatically recurse themselves whenever they are equipped.
• Worshippers of Ashenzari will always receive cursed items from scrolls of acquirement. The items will otherwise be of normal acquirement quality.

Version notes

Before version 0.6.0 (and the removal of the Divinations school of magic), you could detect curses with the Detect Curse spell. The Remove Curse spell of earlier versions has also been yanked.