10 Video Game Debuffs That Secretly Make You Stronger

The Final Fantasy series has a long history of bad items and classes with secret potential, from the early iterations of Onion Knights to joke weapons that can be turned into legendary gear.

Final Fantasy VI features a similar concept with the so-called "Cursed Shield," except the shield doesn't just start off weak—it also actively weakens YOU, making it especially annoying to use.

The Cursed Shield can be found in Narshe in the World of Ruin, hiding behind a locked wall. When you pick it up, the game will inform you that the item has a curse on it but that there might be a way to remove it.

By this, the game means using the shield in exactly 256 battles, so if you want to fix the shield, you'll spend a lot of time suffering its devastating debuffs that decrease your stats by seven points and make you weak to all elemental damage.

The struggle is worth it, however, as once you overcome the curse and meet the battle quota, the Cursed Shield will turn into the Paladin Shield, which makes you immune to most damage in the game and absorbs the effects of elemental forces.

It's the ultimate glow up of military gear!