5 things you didn't know about Minecraft's curse enchantments

Curses in Minecraft are enchantments that no player wants to deal with. They are inconvenient enchantments that can have adverse effects on the player who bears them.

There are two curses in the game (as of the vanilla version of Minecraft 1.18): Curse of Binding and Curse of Vanishing. The former prevents players from removing an equipped piece of armor enchanted with the curse, while the latter makes the enchanted item immediately disappear upon death.

Curses can be very inconvenient, but they also make for a fun way to prank friends.

There are a number of facts about Minecraft's two curses that some players may not be aware of.

Note: This article reflects the opinions of the writer

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5 fun facts about curse enchantments in Minecraft

5) Both curses can be applied to heads

An assortment of mob and player heads (Image via Mojang)

Like carved pumpkins in Minecraft, mob/player heads can also be equipped on the player. As a result, curses can also be applied to the heads.

Since many of these heads cannot be obtained in the vanilla game's Survival Mode, having either curse applied to an equipped head can result in bad effects.

In many instances, the only way to remove a piece of gear enchanted by Curse of Binding is by breaking it or dying. This essentially forces players to grief themselves to remove the head.

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4) They can be traded

Librarian villagers can offer cursed books for purchase (Image via Mojang)

Minecraft villagers that have taken up the librarian profession can provide players with cursed enchanted books for the price of ordinary books and emeralds.

This implies that librarians are converting books into cursed books. Does that mean that librarian villagers have the ability to curse the books themselves? It certainly looks that way.

Regardless, players who are searching for cursed enchantment books and don't want to find them in loot chests can get them from their librarian villagers. However, players should keep in mind that this feature is only available in Java Edition.

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3) Curse of Vanishing is the most compatible enchantment

Curse of Vanishing can be applied to several different items (Image via Mojang)

The Curse of Vanishing can be applied to 24 different items in Minecraft, making it the most compatible enchantment in the game.

With that in mind, players should keep their precious items out of the reach of their prank-friendly friends, as it's quite easy to swipe an item and apply a curse on it.

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2) Curse of Vanishing is useless in Hardcore

Hardcore mode invalidates the threat of Curse of Vanishing (Image via Mojang)

In Minecraft's Hardcore Mode, players only get one death. Once players die, they can only spectate the world or return to the main menu.

As a result, in Hardcore mode, Curse of Binding is even more annoying than it normally is. However, the same cannot be said for Curse of Vanishing.

Since players are incapable of respawning in Hardcore worlds, their items vanishing won't make much of a difference. Other players in the world may not be thrilled that they can't loot a particular cursed item. However, that's not really a problem for the player who died and can no longer access the world.

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1) Curses used to be easily removable

Curse of Binding used to be removable due to a bug (Image via Gecko/Youtube)

Back in Minecraft 1.16, it was possible to remove curses from items by combining the cursed item with another in the crafting menu. This was revealed to be an unintended bug by Mojang. It was subsequently patched.

This was unfortunate for many players, who thought they had found a way to circumvent both curses. The tactic still works if a world is set on version 1.16.