Effect: +10% Difficulty, 0.8x Max HP. 5% on-hit chance to cast curse on nearby enemies.
Unlock: Get Cursed Tome to Level 10
Cursed Grabbies is an Epic item with three simultaneous effects. It permanently increases overall Difficulty by +10% for the run, which makes enemies tougher but also improves drop quality and rewards. It multiplies your Max HP by 0.8x - so if you have 300 Max HP, picking up Cursed Grabbies reduces it to 240. And each hit you land has a 5% chance to cast curse magic on nearby enemies, dealing damage to the surrounding area.
The curse proc applies to nearby enemies around the target you hit, giving Cursed Grabbies an AoE damage component that scales with your Damage stat. Each copy adds another independent 5% proc chance per hit. In patch v1.0.41 a performance cap of 250 curse procs per game tick was applied, so extremely high attack speed builds will not exceed that limit per tick.
The item is squarely in the high-risk, high-reward category. The wiki describes it as suited for advanced players who want the challenge and reward boost, noting the Max HP penalty makes it "riskier but very powerful offensively."
Beefy Ring scales damage by +20% per 100 Max HP. Because Cursed Grabbies reduces your Max HP to 0.8x, it directly reduces how much damage Beefy Ring provides. The Gamer Goggles wiki page explicitly calls this out as the reason Gamer Goggles becomes a better damage item than Beefy Ring when running Cursed Grabbies - Beefy Ring is weakened by the HP penalty while Gamer Goggles is not. If your build relies heavily on Beefy Ring for damage, consider whether Cursed Grabbies is worth picking up.
Get your Cursed Tome to Level 10 in a single run. The Cursed Tome is itself unlocked by defeating the Stage Boss in under 5 minutes. Once you have the Cursed Tome in your pool, focus on taking it as your primary tome in a run and investing all upgrades into it until Level 10. Limit your tome slots to reduce dilution - taking only two tomes (Cursed plus one other) maximizes the chance of seeing Cursed Tome upgrades on each level-up. After hitting Level 10, purchase Cursed Grabbies from the Unlocks shop with Silver.
| Property | Per Copy | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Difficulty increase | +10% | Stacks additively with Cursed Tome difficulty and other sources |
| Max HP multiplier | 0.8x | Two copies = 0.64x Max HP. Compounds multiplicatively. |
| On-hit curse chance | +5% | Independent rolls per hit. Two copies = 10% chance per hit. |
| Proc cap | 250 per tick | Performance limit added in v1.0.41 - high attack speed builds will hit this. |
Unlike additive penalties, Cursed Grabbies' 0.8x Max HP multiplier compounds. One copy at 300 Max HP leaves you with 240 HP. Two copies reduces that to 192 HP (300 x 0.8 x 0.8). Three copies leaves 153 HP. Community consensus is that one copy is usually sufficient - additional copies for more curse procs rarely justify the compounding HP reduction.
Sir Chadwell - Sir Chadwell's passive increases Difficulty by +1% per level, meaning he is already committed to a high-difficulty run that escalates continuously. Cursed Grabbies adds +10% Difficulty on top of his passive, but since he is already scaling into that territory his build naturally compensates through size and damage investment. Crucially, the wiki explicitly names the Corrupted Sword as a Cursed Grabbies synergy - Sir Chadwell starts with the Corrupted Sword, making him the character whose starter weapon is directly called out in the wiki's own synergy list for this item.
Robinette - Robinette's Stonks passive scales damage from gold held. More Difficulty means more enemies per wave, which means more enemy drops per wave, which means more gold per wave. Cursed Grabbies' +10% Difficulty directly feeds Robinette's gold income and therefore her damage scaling. Additionally, Robinette does not typically run Beefy Ring as a primary damage source - her gold-based scaling occupies that role - so the Max HP penalty from Cursed Grabbies costs her less than it costs HP-stacking builds. Multiple Robinette build guides note Cursed Tome as a core pick for exactly this reason.
Athena - Athena's Lock In passive deals more damage at lower HP percentages. Cursed Grabbies reduces Max HP to 0.8x, which means Athena spends more of the run at a lower HP percentage relative to her reduced ceiling. This makes it easier to trigger Lock In's damage bonus without being in genuine danger - the HP total is lower, so the threshold is crossed with less actual HP lost. Athena also stays in close range using Aegis, generating constant hits that proc the 5% curse chance against packed enemy groups.
+10% Difficulty, 0.8x Max HP multiplier, and 5% on-hit chance to cast curse magic that damages nearby enemies. The Difficulty bonus improves drop quality. The Max HP penalty compounds with additional copies (two copies = 0.64x Max HP). A performance cap of 250 curse procs per game tick was added in v1.0.41.
Get Cursed Tome to Level 10 in a single run. The Cursed Tome itself unlocks by defeating the Stage Boss in under 5 minutes. Limit tome slots to two while grinding for Cursed Tome levels to maximize upgrade frequency. After hitting Level 10, purchase from the Unlocks shop with Silver.
No - the Gamer Goggles wiki page explicitly flags this as an anti-synergy. Beefy Ring scales damage from Max HP, and Cursed Grabbies reduces Max HP to 0.8x. Each copy of Cursed Grabbies directly reduces the value of every Beefy Ring you hold. Toggle Beefy Ring off in Cursed Grabbies builds and use Gamer Goggles, Demonic Soul, or other damage sources instead.
Yes, but the Max HP penalty compounds and the value of additional copies diminishes quickly. Each copy adds +5% curse proc chance and +10% Difficulty, but also multiplies your Max HP by 0.8x again. Two copies at 300 HP leaves 192 HP. Community consensus is one copy is optimal - the compounding HP loss from additional copies rarely justifies the extra proc chance.
