What are curse enchantments in Minecraft?

Enchantments in Minecraft help players become stronger, but there are a few curse enchantments that don't. The game has an extensive system of enchanting various items for players to get stronger and have different magical powers imbued in their tools, weapons and armor.

These enchantments can either be applied from an enchanting table, or an enchanted book. Some are common and some are treasure enchantments which cannot be applied with the table. A couple of these treasure enchantments are curse of binding and curse of vanishing. Though treasure enchantments should be valuable and powerful, these are different as they are curses rather than boons.

---

What are curse of binding and vanishing enchantments in Minecraft?

Firstly, these two enchantments are rare. They cannot be found or applied via an enchanting table, hence players will have to find them in chest loot or by bartering and trading. These can either be found in a book or already applied to a tool or armor.

---

Curse of Binding

Curse of binding on a chestplate (Image via Minecraft)

The first curse enchantment is the curse of binding. This can be found in almost any chest loot in naturally generated structures, or by trading with a librarian. This will always be shown in red as it's a curse. This can only be applied to armor parts or Elytra.

What this does is that it will bind any armor part or Elytra to a player's body. Meaning the player won't be able to remove the cursed armor part from his/her body. The only way to remove the armor part is to keep using it until it breaks, or to die and respawn.

---

Curse of Vanishing

Curse of vanishing on a sword (Image via Minecraft)

Another curse enchantment is the curse of vanishing. This curse can be applied to all types of tools, weapons and armor. Being a treasure enchantment, this can only be found in chest loot or by trading with librarians. The name of this enchantment will be written in red as well, as it is a curse.

As the name suggests, any tool with this enchantment will have a tendency to vanish after a player dies. Hence, players won't be able to get that tool, weapon or armor back after they have died while the item is in their inventory.