☠ Curse Keeper

A Minecraft Java Datapack — Unique Curse System

Compatible with Minecraft Java 26.x (pack format 88)

What is Curse Keeper?

Curse Keeper is a datapack that puts every player under a personal curse from the moment they join the world. Each curse comes with its own unique cleanse tribute — a specific challenge that must be completed to lift it. Once lifted, a cooldown of 6 in-game days passes before the next tier of curse is assigned. Progress through all three tiers and the player is free of curses forever.

The system is entirely per-player — everyone is on their own curse journey, independent of others. Some will push through every tier quickly, others might choose to live with their curse indefinitely. There's no timer forcing your hand.

⚠️ This datapack is still in active development. More curses will be added in future updates. Currently 16 curses are implemented.

How It Works

The Three Tiers

Every player progresses through three tiers of curses, in order:

Tier 1 — The player starts cursed. Complete the cleanse tribute to lift it.
Tier 2 — After a cooldown of 6 in-game days, a new curse is assigned. Complete its cleanse tribute to lift it.
Tier 3 — After another 6-day cooldown, the final curse is assigned. Lift it and the player is permanently free of curses.

The 6-day cooldown only begins after the previous curse has been cleansed — there is no time limit to complete a cleanse tribute. A player can live with their curse as long as they want, or work towards removing it on their own terms.

Cleanse Tributes

Each curse has its own unique cleanse tribute — the specific challenge that must be completed to lift it. Examples include:

Kill a certain number of a specific mob (e.g. kill 150 Skeletons)
Earn a specific in-game advancement
Consume a specific item a set number of times
Reach a certain milestone while cursed

The tribute varies per curse, so every tier may require a completely different kind of challenge.

Curse Effects

Curses affect players in different ways depending on which curse they receive. Current effect types include:

Reduced max hearts — permanently removes a set number of hearts while cursed
Dimension damage — the player takes damage when entering or staying in certain dimensions
End access blocked — the player is prevented from entering the End
Reduced movement speed — the player moves significantly slower
XP drain — experience levels are slowly siphoned away over time
Mob aggro — certain mobs within range aggro onto the player automatically
Sunlight burn — standing exposed under the sun in the Overworld sets the player on fire
Moonlight burn — standing exposed under the night sky sets the player on fire
Water damage — being submerged in water deals constant damage
Villager sickness — proximity to villagers applies Poison and Nausea
Nature's toll — breaking grass blocks periodically applies Slowness
Sleep penalty — each time the player sleeps, they lose 1 max heart permanently
Death penalty — each death permanently removes 1 max heart

Curse List

Tier 1 — Quirk

Curse	Effect	Cleanse
Bone Debt	Max health reduced by 5 hearts	Kill 150 Skeletons
Sluggish	Movement speed reduced by 30%	Walk 5,000,000 cm
Villager's Bane	Poison & Nausea applied within 5 blocks of a villager	Kill 10 Iron Golems
Arachnophobia	Spiders aggro within 48 blocks, a spider spawns near you every 2 minutes at night	Kill 100 Spiders
Rootbound	Every 10 grass blocks broken applies Slowness II for 5 seconds	Kill 100 Creepers

Tier 2 — Affliction

Curse	Effect	Cleanse
Frail Vessel	Max health reduced to 5 hearts	Obtain full Netherite armor (Cover Me in Debris)
Nether Sickness	1 heart damage every 15 seconds in the Nether	Enter a Nether Fortress (A Terrible Fortress)
Soul Drain	Lose 1 XP level every 30 seconds	Reach level 50 while cursed
Vampirism	Standing exposed under the sun in the Overworld sets you on fire	Kill 50 Phantoms & consume 20 Milk Buckets
Grave Pact	Each sleep removes 1 max heart permanently, death resets to full	Reach 1 heart then kill the Wither
Landlocked	Being submerged in water deals constant damage	Obtain the Conduit Power effect

Tier 3 — Malediction

Curse	Effect	Cleanse
Bloodless	No natural health regeneration	Have every effect applied at once (How Did We Get Here?)
Ender Blockade	Cannot enter the End dimension	Kill 10 Ravagers
Bee Marked	Bees within 16 blocks aggro onto you automatically	Consume 100 Honey Bottles
Moonbound	Standing exposed under the night sky in the Overworld sets you on fire	Kill the Elder Guardian 15 times
Soul Debt	Each death removes 1 max heart permanently, stops at 1 heart	Kill the Ender Dragon 5 times & kill 10 players

Admin Setup

To grant a player access to the admin panel, run the following command in-game as an operator: /tag <player> add ck.admin

This must be done for each admin after every season reset. To revoke access: /tag <player> remove ck.admin

Without this tag, players will not be able to open the admin panel via /trigger ck.admin.

Commands

For Players

Command	Description
`/trigger ck.showcurse`	Shows your current active curse and its cleanse tribute. If you are in a cooldown period between tiers, it shows the remaining time until the next curse arrives.

For Operators

Command	Description
`/function curse_keeper:admin/panel`	Opens the admin panel
`/function curse_keeper:admin/reset_all`	Fully resets the datapack — clears all scoreboards, scheduled functions, and curse data
`/function curse_keeper:admin/reset_player`	Clears all curse data for the targeted player
`/function curse_keeper:admin/list`	Lists all players currently tracked by the curse system
`/function curse_keeper:admin/toggle_dev`	Toggles dev mode — shortens cooldown to 2 minutes for testing
`/function curse_keeper:admin/toggle_system`	Enables or disables the entire curse system

More curses and features are planned for future versions. For debugging and testing, see DEBUG.md.

Curse Keeper