Curse was a status in previous dark souls titles, but not in Elden ring. The closest thing I can think of is deathblight but it’s not quite as punishing as getting cursed was. Both instantly kill you

Ah right but nothing can inflict deathblight on you in the Cave of Knowledge - there's only a few weaker enemies and, of course, Soldier of Godrick :D

Dark Souls 1 had an area called The Depths with enemies that could inflict the curse status. Curse not only instantly killed you but also halved the health bar.

At least they patched out the effect where Curse stacked with each death to the debuff. Imagine playing the game with half health, then a quarter health, then an eighth health...

Damn FromSoftware don't mess around. I'm still yet to finish Elden Ring (just defeated Fire Giant this weekend and I'm now pottering around in the Consecrated Snowfield) and I intend to play through either DS3, Sekiro or Bloodborne after but I need to play something a bit simpler, more mindless and on-rails in between :)

But the curse status also has an interesting positive side effect: with it you don't need the "transient curse" item to temporarily make ghost enemies vulnerable.

> in the Consecrated Snowfield

The merchant outside of Leyndell sells an interesting torch that'll come in handy in Ordina, by the way.

Ha I touched that site of grace before leaving. I'll snoop around first and will check out that merchant if (lol, when) I run into issues

Thanks for the tip, I would've been really quite stuck fighting those invisible assassins otherwise.