Cursed items

[Paride]

i was doing a pretty good run, lot of health and great weapons.
all of a sudden, i picked up a cursed item (some shuriken) that reduced my health to like 10 and my run was ruined cause the bad guys killed me with like 2 shots. i tried to eliminate the item from the inventory but the curse didn't go away.
if i knew what item it was i wouldn't have taken it but you can't know earlier what it is in the box. is there a way to avoid this to happen? because it's a shame if a run can get f.cked like that without a chance to recover.

[Collateral damage]

Item wasn't cursed, box was. "Cursed" prefix on items has no negative impact, but opening a cursed chest gives you a curse. Cursed weapon boxes have a high chance of dropping cursed weapons that will most likely kill you, so it's fine to ignore them. Cursed item boxes are okay though, especially in first 2 or 3 worlds, the curse will be removed upon defeating a boss. But of course you need to consider your surroundings and heal up after opening the chest.

[Paride]

good to know, thanks

[BlackjackGT]

I think all the cursed boxes have these red ridges on them. Mostly I just avoid them, esp if playing a class (Engineer) that doesn't have a real self-heal (you can temp-heal via the repair tool. but doesn't seem a permanent heal).

[Simonsis13]

Cured chests are easily to recognize by their red color. They will set your HP to a certain point (potentially even heal you) and apply said curse. As Alt-Simp said, the curse gets removed after boss kills. BUT 50 shields and 10 damage absorb stay lost. You will never get them back. I say it's definitely not worth to sacrifice 50 shields for some random item, but you do you.

[Collateral damage]

Originally posted by BlackjackGT:

esp if playing a class (Engineer) that doesn't have a real self-heal (you can temp-heal via the repair tool. but doesn't seem a permanent heal).

What do you mean? Engineer has access to unidentified potion.

Originally posted by Simonsis13:

10 damage absorb stay lost.

Do you happen to have a source on that?

[Simonsis13]

Go test it

[Twichigo]

Yeah, 10 absorb is lost forever, "removed after a boss fight" part on the curse isn't entirely honest. I don't mind losing 50 shield because shield isn't really useful outside of specific builds, but there's no future for your character when your damage absorb becomes something like 50 if you got several of the curses. Getting killed before you can even react is never fun.

[Simonsis13]

Originally posted by Hollow:

shield isn't really useful outside of specific builds

Would you mind naming a few? The only build I can think of where shields are not useful is engi drone swarm. While you can argue shield down below movespeed, luck and dodge and MAYBE even below max health with assassin and demo, I do not possibly see how shield is useless. Shield is easier to regain than hp, ions, snipers, ballbots deal decreased damage to shields, shields, unlike plating or whatever, blocks DoTs. I personally rate it 2nd behind movespeed. So please tell me about these "specific builds"

[Twichigo]

Specific builds - those who focus on gaining max shield on top of already decent base shield. And other shield related stats like regen or delay.

And please don't put words into my mouth, I never said it's "useless". What I wanted to say is that it's far less useful than health. After second boss if not a bit earlier, most things hurt you so bad even a single hit will damage you through the shield, so having max health, health regen and other restorative means is far more important than getting 70 extra shield or something from android upgrade or stressing over lost 50 shield from a curse. Even little extra movement speed is better for surviving, once you are past first few floors.

Again, shield is always welcome on its own, but other bonuses are far more important when the choice is present, unless you meant to focus on the shield from the very start to the very end and are using a character with decent shield stats.

[Simonsis13]

First off, upgrading shield regen is completely pointless (unless you have 98k). Not very useful is not useless, I agree, but shield is always useful. I said Movespeed is more important that shields, now you're putting words into MY mouth. "After second boss if not a bit earlier, most things hurt you so bad even a single hit will damage you through the shield" This is not the reason why upgrading shield is unimportant, but it IS the reason why upgrading shield important. Think of it: the more shield you have, the less damage your hp take when your shield breaks."only" 70 or whatever other amount of shields means you take that number of hp damage less, EVERY SINGLE encounter where your shield breaks. " most things hurt you so bad even a single hit will damage you through the shield" This a but overkill, most stuff doesn't deal that much damage, but it effective means that you're saying that your shield breaks every encounter. Now let me compare 200 hp to 50 shield: 200 are 200 hp. 50 shieds mean 50 less damage every incounter. after 5 encounters, the 50 shield are already worth more than the hp. Now let me compare the means of regaining shield to the means of regaining hp: you start with 2 health regen -> 100 seconds to regenerate 200 hp. Various healing items do whatever, some better than others. Healing gets gutted to 18% in loop. You may now say that you don't care about loop, but that's a weak argument, since other people do and thus both loop and preloop are equally important. Now shields: 100 shield per kill with shielded, full shield with smoke nade (sniper can easily reach 1k preloop), full shield + 200 with dogtags, between about 30% and 50% with unceasing, thus about 300 per dash (depending on class and power). Since you say that most things kill your shields very fast, the effect of these "shield regainers" is even more potent. Of course movespeed is better than shield, and I also said that you may argue about shield being below dodge, luck and even max hp (cause dmg cap), but " bonuses are far more important when the choice is present"??? You have more than 5 encounters per playthrough, the value of 50 shields will go absolutely through the roof. This does not even take the reduced damage of named enemies into account. I mean come on dude. Shield worse than shield regen, worse than armor, worse than scavenging? are you ok?

[Collateral damage]

Originally posted by Hollow:

Yeah, 10 absorb is lost forever, "removed after a boss fight" part on the curse isn't entirely honest. I don't mind losing 50 shield because shield isn't really useful outside of specific builds, but there's no future for your character when your damage absorb becomes something like 50 if you got several of the curses. Getting killed before you can even react is never fun.

I can't see how it's not a bug, so I think we should file a bug report. Is it true for both cursed chests and cursed flesh? Any idea how to reproduce it?

[Simonsis13]

Cursed flesh gives cursed flesh, which is the same debuff as you get from dying in coop. I can't say whether it's a bug, but I THINK it's intended. Especially since the devs MUST know about it. It's on the wiki and people bring it up sometimes on the discord. But you can try to report it. In any case, I will keep telling people to not open cursed chests, since losing shield and dmg absorb is bad (dunno how that guy thinks losing shield doesn't matter)

[Collateral damage]

Originally posted by Simonsis13:

Cursed flesh gives cursed flesh, which is the same debuff as you get from dying in coop.

I am aware, that's why I'm asking if it has the same persistent damage absorb debuff. Dying in coop is much easier to reproduce than finding a cursed chest.