The Curse of Vanishing enchantment in Minecraft is one of Minecraft's negative enchantments, meant only as a harmful effect that can be found on items. The other negative enchantment in Minecraft is the Curse of Binding. Both of these enchantments can be rarely found while fishing or already attached to armor that is in chests throughout the world. Generally these enchantments are extremely rare, thankfully too as they are agonizing to disregard if attached to good gear.
A unique workaround for items that are cursed with this unique enchantment is to carry them around in a Shulker box when you are likely facing death. Instead of their normal disappearance, retrieval of the Shulker box will find the item safe and sound inside storage container. Many online servers also use the command "/gamerule keepInventory true", which prevents players from dropping items upon death. This rule applies to all items afflicted with the curse as well.
Minecraft Curse of Vanishing
What does the Curse of Vanishing actually DO in Minecraft though? As an enchantment, it is attached to items and gear, and it alone doesn't provide any properties of it's own. It is objectively a negative enchantment to have on a piece of equipment. The Curse of Vanishing simply causes an item to vanish if in your inventory upon death (holding a Totem of Undying does not count). Does it give you extra armor? No. Maybe it looks cool? Not even that. Sadly, zero benefits.
Well, what's the point? It adds a bit of variety to the game and adds negative enchantments to the vanilla game for map creators to manipulate for the purposes of good balance or risk. In a normal survival Minecraft experience, you'll have zero purpose for the Curse of Vanishing equipment, let alone the enchantment books, but many Minecraft adventure maps take great advantage of Minecraft's intricate vanilla mechanics. If you're on a hardcore world, the curse does nothing at all!
Breaking the Curse
Normally, repairing two items together in your inventory or a crafting table will automatically remove all enchantments from both items (but it does repair the two items to their total remaining usage). Curses however refuse to be removed and will remain on the item no matter how many times it is repaired this way. If a player is to repair an item on an anvil, they are able to pay with levels to keep enchantments on the item while repairing, which also applies to curses.
Sadly, breaking the curse in Minecraft is no easy feat. The ONLY items that can have their curses removed are pumpkins and mob heads, which must be placed, then broken. The now-picked-up versions of their blocks will be the same item but with the curses removed. Unfortunately that Fire Aspect, Smite 3, Unbreaking 3, Iron Sword you found in a cave with the Curse of Binding is here to stay.
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