Occultism and the curse

Adon brings you back with a gift attached. In his words:

You'll need to sate your urges... consume ichor from the living, or find totems from the world to fend off the power welling up inside you.

The game's own summary is shorter: "Your Curse meter is on your HUD. It fills as you fight, gather and craft. Hold Left Alt and hover over it to see your current curse effects."

What fills the meter

• Getting hurt. Every hit that damages you adds 1.
• Gathering. Most successful gathers add 6.
• Crafting. Almost every craft adds 6, even a failed attempt that earns no experience.
• Stealing. Each successful steal adds 4.
• Occult abilities. Each use adds a little, as listed on the ability.
• Cursed fields. Standing in one gives you Cursed Field: "Gaining curse. Lingers for 5 seconds after you leave the field."
• Some items, such as a totem you choose to absorb rather than purify.

The meter does not creep up while you stand still. At your estate, the everyday sources of curse do nothing until you finish Humble Beginnings.

The size of the meter

The meter is bigger the higher your Occultism level, so the same six points from a craft are a smaller share of it later on. Occultism also raises how much occultic charge you can hold.

Curse stages

Every 10% from 30% up brings a new stage. Each stage keeps everything from the stages below it and adds to it. The effects, in the game's words:

From 30% on, every stage also trades resistance for damage. This is where humanity helps: with enough of it, some or all of the resistance loss goes away while the damage bonus stays.

The stage names and effects are hidden from your usual effect bar; hold Left Alt and hover over the curse meter to read them.

Water deserves its own mention. From the first stage on you cannot touch it. Standing in it gives you Waterlogged: "Soaked, your curse begins to sting at your skin. Movement speed reduced 15% and 5 damage every 1.5 seconds while you stand in water." Deep water sends you back to the last safe ground. Adon warned you.

A Status Restore Potion "Clears afflictions, poison and curse effects, and blocks new curse effects for 3 minutes." Dying with your meter above 75% drops it to 75%.

Ichor and totems

Ichor comes from the living: creatures drop it. Totems turn up while you gather. Cassius Boone: "You will uncover totems naturally through mining, woodcutting or even fishing."

Crushing ichor in your hand lowers your curse and gives you charge. A totem gives you a choice: purify it to lower your curse, or absorb its power to raise your curse for more experience.

Small, Medium and Large Ichor stay in your pack when you die. Powerful Ichor and totems do not.

Shrines

Cassius again: "Now bring the Ichor to the Altar and use it there. You'll be able to make an offering up of the ichor and turn them into a charge."

Sacrificing ichor or totems at a shrine gives more charge and more Occultism experience than using them in your hand. Each shrine multiplies both:

• With 100 humanity or more, a curse meter above 30% multiplies the result by another 1.5, and above 70% by 2.
• Charge beyond your maximum is not wasted: every 4 points over become 1 Occultism experience.

Occultic charge

Charge is a second meter, separate from the curse. You fill it with ichor, totems, shrines and Occultism levels (15 per level gained, 40 more at level 50 and 75 more at 100). Occult abilities and rituals spend it.

Humanity

Humanity is the total of all your skill levels plus your quest points. The tutorial line from Cassius:

Your Humanity rises as you level any skill and earn Quest Points from quests. Higher Humanity softens your curse's debuffs and unlocks new perks. You can check it in your character panel.