Funguys Swarm Fire Curses Guide

Understanding Fire Curses

Fire Curses are optional modifier cards that appear during level-up screens in the 1.0 update. Each Fire Curse applies a specific penalty while simultaneously increasing your Dew and Starpath completion rewards. The January 2026 update extended Fire Curses from 4 to 9 total curses, with levels ranging from 5 to 30.

How Fire Curses Work

When you level up during an arena run, you are occasionally offered three upgrade cards. One of these three cards may be a Fire Curse. Accepting a Fire Curse immediately applies its penalty for the remainder of the current run. The reward multiplier from Fire Curses scales approximately twenty to thirty percent per curse taken.

Fire Blessings are positive modifiers that can appear alongside Fire Curses. They provide beneficial effects that help offset curse penalties.

Original Fire Curses

Fiery Speed increases enemy movement speed. This curse is particularly punishing in arenas with large enemy counts like Egglosseum and Hellscape. The increased enemy speed makes dodging more difficult and reduces windows for dealing damage.

King’s Favourite reduces your base weapon damage output. This curse directly impacts your damage scaling and makes runs longer. The damage reduction stacks unfavorably with builds that already have lower base damage.

Reinforcement spawns elite copies of enemies during waves. These copies have reduced health compared to normal elites but still deal full elite damage. The spawn frequency can quickly overwhelm players who are not prepared.

Fiery Aura gives certain enemies a fire damage aura on contact. This is the most dangerous curse for melee-focused builds. The aura damage can quickly chip away at health during extended close-combat situations.

New January 2026 Fire Curses

Infused Projectiles at curse level ten makes enemy ranged projectiles move faster. This significantly increases the difficulty of dodging projectile patterns, particularly in arenas with high enemy density.

Slowing Heat at curse level fifteen spawns slowing fields that reduce your movement speed. These fields appear periodically around your position and can severely limit your ability to reposition during critical combat moments.

Internal Catapult at curse level twenty causes fiery meteors to fall around your position. The meteor falls create dodge patterns that must be learned, similar to boss attack patterns but applied throughout regular combat.

Scorching Treasures at curse level twenty-five causes resources and XP Beans to expire after a short duration. This removes the ability to hoard pickups for later use and forces immediate collection, which can be dangerous in high-density situations.

Death Follows at curse level thirty is the most dangerous Fire Curse. A mass of death slowly pursues you throughout the arena. Touching it results in instant death regardless of your current HP or Armor. This curse fundamentally changes how you approach positioning in later stages of runs.

Fire Blessings

Treasure Hunter at blessing level five provides an additional bonus when picking up resources. This blessing offsets some of the resource management pressure that curses create.

Lucky Cards at blessing level fifteen increases the chance for Rare cards to appear more often during level-ups. This improves average build quality and helps offset the difficulty increase from curses.

Forest Power at blessing level fifteen grants a chance for all damage dealt to be a critical hit. This blessing adds burst potential that can help offset longer run times caused by curse penalties.

Risk-Reward Analysis

For efficient progression, two curses is the recommended maximum even for experienced players. The reward multiplier increase is significant at this level while difficulty remains manageable. Taking three or more curses significantly increases failure risk without proportional reward gains.

Counter-Strategies for Fire Curses

Against Fiery Speed: Slo Moe Treeling’s projectile-slowing effect is essential. Prioritize movement speed upgrades to maintain dodging capability.

Against King’s Favourite: Stack multiple attack multiplier passives to compensate for the damage reduction. Focus on percentage-based damage increases rather than flat damage.

Against Reinforcement: Prioritize crowd control skills that handle multiple enemies simultaneously. Area-of-effect abilities are particularly valuable.

Against Fiery Aura: Maintain distance and use ranged weapon builds. Avoid melee-focused strategies that require extended close proximity to enemies.

Against Infused Projectiles: Prioritize dodge skills and movement speed. Practice projectile pattern recognition to improve dodge timing.

Against Slowing Heat: Maintain constant movement to avoid staying in slowing fields. Movement speed upgrades reduce field impact duration.

Against Internal Catapult: Watch for ground indicators before meteor falls. Position awareness helps avoid meteor locations.

Against Scorching Treasures: Adjust collection strategy to immediate pickup rather than hoarding. Resource generation skills become more valuable.

Against Death Follows: Always be aware of the death entity position. Plan escape routes before engaging enemies. Consider defensive builds with high mobility.

Forest Strength Synergy

Forest Strength Level 4 is particularly valuable when running Fire Curses because it lets you ban one card type from appearing during runs. Banning Fire-element cards can reduce curse synergy with fire enemies in Hellscape. The ability to control available card types significantly improves build consistency when running multiple curses.