Making progress in Heroes Of Hammerwatch 2 can often feel like an impossible uphill battle. But persistence pays off as the further you get in, the more fun the toys become. One particular interesting feature is the Shadow Curse, and whilst on the surface it may seem like it’s only going to make your run more difficult, there are benefits.
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It’s an interesting approach that rewards you for doing some homework and thinking outside the box a little with your build. It’s not something you’ll need to worry about until many hours in, but for those still unsure about that big blobby ball of darkness they keep running into, here’s a helpful guide to Shadow Curse in Heroes Of Hammerwatch 2 and how to remove it.
What Is Shadow Curse?
First and foremost, you’re not going to be worrying about Shadow Curse until you’re about mid-way through the game. Roughly around when you enter the Dungeons for the first time. The curse itself is basically a debuff that’s applied to certain items given out by a specific special merchant that looks like a floating ball of darkness.
The debuff will appear in your stats as Shadow Curse, and it reduces your armor. So if you’re already struggling with being too squishy, or you’re a glass cannon build, this can cause some problems.
To get Shadow Cursed you just need to purchase an item from the swirling black cloud, but it’s a completely optional decision. The curse is applied in stacks, and each item provides a different stack amount whilst also scaling with your level. The higher the stack of Shadow Curse, the larger the amount of armor that’s removed from your overall stats. With lower armor, you’ll be taking much more damaging hits from mobs.
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How To Remove Shadow Curse
Now if you’ve managed to find yourself afflicted with Shadow Curse then don’t worry there are ways to remove it, and it’s incredibly easy to do so. You’ll need access to the Courts, and all you need to do is run around until you find what’s known as a Pyre Room.
These are denoted by the purple candles dotted around the room and if you have a modifier that reveals the Dark Citadel map you’ll find it within moments. Walk up to the Pyre and interact with it. The mound will set ablaze, and it will remove a random amount of Shadow Curse stacks on your character.
There’s no guarantee that you’ll completely cleanse your build if you have a high amount of stacks. But if you roll in with a low volume of Shadow Curse, then you should be relatively fine.
In general, Pyres remove half of your stacks and a minimum of at least eight. So if you have less than eight you’ll be immediately cleansed each time you use a Pyre.
Pyres spawn one mound per level in random spots, and there’s no guarantee you’ll get one every run. Unlocking the Architect and then paying him small fee does spawn at least one Pyre per run.
The Benefits Of Shadow Curse
Now if you’ve read all that and are wondering why anyone would keep their Shadow Curse intact until the end of their run, then here’s some fun facts worth knowing about this particularly pesky debuff. With certain builds, or weapons, it can substantially powerboost you.
This is possible through two things. The first is that certain weapons will scale with your Shadow Curse level, so the more cursed you are, the harder you hit. The other is using the fact that certain classes don’t focus on or need armor to be effective. Such as Rangers, Rogues, Wizards, Warlocks, and so on.
Anyone that doesn’t need to ever get close can enjoy a tasty big powerboost, whilst those that get stuck in melee will need to play the long game. So you will often have to ask yourself; Is it worth getting rid of the curse now? Or should you just take the armor reduction to enjoy the damage boost?
It’s a fun feature worth putting some time into as it can often benefit you in the long run.
- Franchise
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Hammerwatch
- Released
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January 14, 2025
- Developer(s)
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Crackshell
- Publisher(s)
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Crackshell
- Multiplayer
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Online Co-Op
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