Curse removal

One very common problem in NetHack is being stuck to a cursed item. Cursed weapons weld themselves to your hand, cursed armour and jewelery cannot be removed, and cursed loadstones cannot be dropped. You can reduce your chances of being stuck with something cursed by testing everything with your pet or an altar, but because some monsters can curse your items, it is likely that even careful players will end up with cursed items at some point.

This page aims to list all possible ways to free yourself from a cursed item. Three general approaches, in order of preference for valuable items, are to uncurse the item, to get unstuck from it, or to simply destroy it.

Removing the curse

1. Read a scroll of remove curse. An uncursed scroll will uncurse loadstones and anything worn or wielded - even if what you're wielding isn't a weapon! A blessed scroll will uncurse everything in your main inventory.
2. Cast a spell of remove curse. If you're at least skilled in clerical spells, it will work like a blessed scroll. Otherwise, it will work like an uncursed scroll. You can't cast remove curse with both hands welded to a cursed two-handed weapon, and probably not while wearing a dunce cap.
3. Enchant it. (This does not work for chargeable rings.)
4. Dip the cursed item into a potion of holy water.
5. Dip the cursed item into a fountain for a 2/15 chance. Be aware that this will wet the item and may summon a water demon or water nymph. If a long sword is converted to Excalibur by dipping, it is automatically uncursed.
6. Pray. Your deity treats cursed blindfolds, levitation items, and two-handed weapons as a major problem, and other cursed wielded or worn items (plus loadstones and luckstones) as a minor problem. There is also a chance that you will be "surrounded by a light blue aura" and have everything in your inventory uncursed, if you pray with sufficient luck.
7. Wield it, and step on a magic trap. There is a 1/20 chance of this acting like an uncursed scroll of remove curse. Be careful, because the most common effect of a magic trap is to blind you and summon monsters. Don't deliberately wield cursed weapons.
8. Zap a wand or spell of cancellation at the object. Use . to zap cancellation at yourself--drop everything you don't want cancelled before doing this. This will set the item's enchantment to zero.

Removing the item

1. Drop everything else and let a nymph steal the cursed item. You can then hunt her down to retrieve it, if desired.
2. If the cursed object is armour, let an incubus or succubus remove it.
3. If the cursed object is causing you to levitate, float over a sink. You will crash to the floor, and the item will be removed, although it will remain cursed.
4. Loadstones only: drop everything but the loadstone, a wand of digging and your armour, enter a shop, pick up something in the shop, and dig through the floor. The shopkeeper will "grab your backpack", taking your inventory, including the loadstone.
5. If the cursed object is armour or a weapon, polymorph into something that can't wear armour or wield weapons. If you have a choice, go for a small monster so that the armour isn't destroyed. Changing into were-form also works; werewolves will destroy armor they are wearing, while werejackals and wererats will shrink out of it.
6. If the cursed object is armour, dip it in a potion of polymorph. It will either shudder or be removed. A comment in the source hints this may change in future versions ("for now, take off worn items being polymorphed").

Destroying the item

1. If the cursed object is armour that you don't mind losing, take off all other armour and read a noncursed scroll of destroy armour.
2. High-level spellcasting monsters can destroy armour if you're not magic resistant, in the order cloak, suit, shirt, helmet, gloves, boots, shield, but watch out for their other spells such as touch of death.
3. Black dragon breath can destroy some armors.
4. Polymorph into a form that can eat the object, and eat it. Rings and amulets might give you an intrinsic, though.
5. Stone to Flesh will convert a loadstone or some cursed rings to food. Drop all other gemmed rings, marble wands or gems beforehand.
6. If the cursed object is a ring, a blast of lightning may cause it to explode, but may also explode useful rings and wands.
7. Overenchant and vaporize it. You can also underenchant and vaporize items with cursed scrolls of enchant foo, if the enchantment is negative enough.
8. Similarly, you can overcharge a chargeable ring until it explodes. This is probably a waste of scrolls of charging. (In SLASH'EM you can also pay a shopkeeper to do this.)
9. A boomerang welded to your hand may be destroyed as you bash monsters with it in melee.
10. Dip the cursed item into a potion of polymorph. The item will transform into a new item of the same class, still cursed. Armor and jewelery will be no longer worn, and loadstones will become droppable, but weapons will still be welded to your hand.

SLASH'EM

In SLASH'EM, you can pay a shopkeeper to uncurse an item.

The castle moat is Lethe water. In addition to all its bad effects, it will uncurse anything dipped into it. See the SLASH'EM section in castle for more details.

See also

• Curse-testing
• Remove curse