How to Play Cursed Companions

Cursed Companions turns your voice into both a weapon and a liability. You and your teammates are the Dark Queen's lowest-ranked minions — cannon fodder sent through portals into procedurally generated dungeons to retrieve cursed treasure. Say the right phrases to light torches, heal allies, and disarm traps. Say a teammate's forbidden word and you hurt them anyway. This guide walks you through your first run from hub setup to treasure extraction.

Starting Your First Day

When you spawn on your floating island hub, look for the quest stone. Click it to start the in-game day and open the portal to the Abyssal Lands. Before anyone enters, visit the shop — only one player can shop at a time — and purchase essential gear. At minimum, one player should carry a spellbook from our items guide so the team knows today's active spell phrases. Phrases rotate each in-game day, so never assume yesterday's healing incantation still works.

Assign roles informally: a torch carrier, a healer with the healing wand, and someone to call out spellbook readings. Share forbidden words without speaking them directly — describe them indirectly or use text chat. Our forbidden words guide covers safe team communication in depth.

Entering the Dungeon

Cross through the portal and locate the dungeon entrance in the outdoor map. Dungeons are procedurally generated, so layouts differ every run. Stick together early until everyone confirms their microphone and voice detection work — green speech-to-text captions should appear when you speak. If spells fail to trigger, stop and fix audio before descending. Wandering deep with broken voice control wastes an entire day.

Press H to open the in-game guidebook. Many new players miss this shortcut even though tutorial banners mention it. The guidebook logs monster weaknesses as you encounter creatures and refreshes when the game announces an update after a death. Treat it as your field manual alongside the spellbook.

Core Loop: Treasure and Extraction

Inside the dungeon, search rooms for treasure while managing light, traps, and monsters. Light your torch with voice commands — common phrases include variations of "Light my fire" though exact wording depends on the daily spellbook. Disarm traps with trap-removal phrases before walking into suspicious corridors. When monsters appear, consult the guidebook or our monster database for repel and kill phrases.

Carry treasure toward extraction points. Some treasures add extra forbidden words — the Crown of Curses is valuable but dangerous. Balance greed against survivability. When your quota is met, return through the portal, deposit loot in the home chest, and survive the day-end countdown. Failing the quota or dying before extraction ends the run painfully for everyone still alive.

Voice Mechanics Essentials

The game is always listening during a run. Proximity chat means nearby teammates hear everything, including accidental curse triggers. Use push-to-talk only if disabled — by default, open mic is the intended experience. If your environment is noisy, press Enter for text-to-speech: type a spell and a robot voice reads it for the group, triggering mechanics the same as spoken words.

Configure speech-to-text captions in Settings (Esc) to verify detection. Run the mic test with "Long Live the Queen" before committing to a long dungeon dive. Full troubleshooting steps live in our microphone fix guide.

Choosing a Game Mode

New players should start with standard Co-op Mode for up to eight players. Once comfortable with spells and curse management, try Challenge Mode for harder dungeons or Endless Mode for survival milestones. Traitor Mode adds social deduction for experienced groups — save it until voice mechanics feel natural.

Progression Through Acts

Version 1.0 completes three acts. Act I teaches fundamentals and early monsters. Act II introduces Antoinette — read our Antoinette boss guide before engaging. Act III adds the Jester, ten new creatures, and fresh equipment like the Jabber Walkie. Follow the Act I walkthrough when you want structured progression rather than random matchmaking.

Tips for Your Second Run

• Re-read the spellbook every in-game morning without exception.
• Designate a curse-word caller who tracks everyone's words in text chat.
• Upgrade the Spell Torch — it now defeats Mannequins and opens Grumble Chests.
• Join the official Discord for matchmaking if public lobbies feel empty.
• Check Steam achievements for optional challenges that unlock skins.

This section expands on community-tested patterns from version 1.0 co-op lobbies. Teams that treat voice clarity as a loadout requirement — not an optional setting — extract more treasure, die less to friendly curse triggers, and reach Act III without burning out on repeated Antoinette wipes. Use the linked guides on this wiki as a field manual alongside the in-game H guidebook, which updates dynamically when you encounter new monsters or die to unfamiliar mechanics.

Procedural dungeons mean no two runs share identical layouts, but systems stay consistent: spell phrases rotate each in-game day, forbidden words punish careless speech, shop access is single-player at a time, and the day-end countdown kills anyone who misses quota. Internalize that loop before chasing achievements or Traitor Mode lobbies. Cursed Companions rewards groups who debrief after wipes honestly — mechanical mistakes, communication slips, and technical mic failures need different fixes.

When public Steam matchmaking feels empty, the official Discord remains the healthiest place to find eight-player co-op or sixteen-player Traitor sessions. Pair external text chat with in-game proximity voice so curse officers can spell out forbidden words without speaking them. Streamers should enable speech-to-text captions for VOD clarity and use Enter text-to-speech when room noise makes open mic unreliable.