How to remove a curse from an item in Minecraft

It’s called a curse for a reason.

Image via Mojang

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Most of the time, when you find an enchanted item, you are excited to see what special bonus it has connected to it. Unfortunately, you will find a cursed item every now and then, which is the opposite of the helpful enchantments. So do you have to endure that item’s curse, or can you remove it?

Related: How to repair items in Minecraft

Can you remove a curse from an item in Minecraft?

There is no way to remove a curse from an item, meaning the only way to be rid of them truly is to die while holding it. They are meant to be a significant inconvenience to the player, so there is no way to do it without activating a command. Putting the item into a Grindstone will only remove any enchantments associated with it and keep the curse active.

This can be a difficult situation if you equip an armor piece with the Curse of Binding applied to it. This curse makes it so you can not remove any armor piece that you equip. If you put on a Carved Pumpkin on your head, you will be stuck with the impaired vision you have. The only way to truly remove it is to die, so you spawn without it. Make sure your inventory is empty, so you don’t lose your other items. With other armor items, you can continually take damage until that item is destroyed to remove it.

In the case of Curse of Vanishing, the only way to get around your item disappearing when you die is to turn  on the world setting for Keep Inventory. This will keep you from dropping anything when you lose health. Otherwise, you will just need to replace the item with one without the curse when you respawn.