Curses

Curses are a deadly attribute put on specific items you obtain, mainly put on the more powerful ones. These are represented by a purple skull overlapping your health bar and a number on your planet. The Curse effect lasts between 4 - 12 waves(?) with the exception of the Faulty Dreamcatcher, which has a much higher duration.

While the curse effect is active, you are unable to survive any damage directly taken. However, Shield Cells sold at the shop will enable you to survive a hit while cursed.

Boss waves deplete the curse counter by 2 waves instead of 1.

List of items that sometimes have curses

black hole	Coolant	Firework Bullets	Forbidden Gummi
Magnet	metronome	minigun	mirror bullets
rocket

List of items that always have curses

Bubble Bullets	Carnage Engine	Cursed Bullets	Cursed Chip
Drill Bullets	Faulty Dreamcatcher	Heckfire Bullets	Reaper's Pearl
Remote Control	Snowball	Trigun	Violet's Petal
Voodoo doll