Cursed Mode Is Coming: Every Treasure Has a Price

There is a particular moment in Vale when you spot a treasure across the chamber, hear a mummy nearby, and start working out whether you can get there and back.

The upcoming update takes that moment and builds a harder expedition around it. Cursed mode is coming to Vale: The Last Curse of Ra.

Every treasure matters

In Cursed, the exit stays closed until you collect every ordinary treasure in the chapter. Relic and city-record pickups are removed from this mode, so the objective is clear: search the chamber, plan your route, and bring the treasure count to completion.

A ledge you could previously leave unexplored becomes part of the escape. A detour becomes a decision about timing. Knowing where the door is only gets you halfway there.

Development screenshot from Pyramid 1: The Gate of the Valley. The treasure counter tracks the collection needed to open the exit. Visuals may change before release.

The mummies are less forgiving

Awake mummies kill on contact in Cursed mode. They react faster and search for longer, and selected encounters bring tougher mummy types into familiar rooms. Some later chambers also gain an extra pursuer.

That makes positioning matter. Watch the patrol, leave yourself room to retreat, and think about the route back before committing to a treasure. Extra lives also arrive more slowly: one for every 4,000 points in Cursed.

The challenge uses the existing chambers, tools, and treasure placements. The changed objective and encounters give those spaces a different rhythm.

The Cursed difficulty painting used in the game. Illustration, not gameplay.

Choose your expedition

The update also introduces an illustrated choice of three difficulties when starting or continuing an expedition:

• Explorer: a gentler route, with one pursuer at a time, more warning, and longer relief from knives.
• Adventurer: balanced encounters and familiar combat.
• Cursed: every treasure required, no relics, and lethal contact with awake mummies.

Cursed is there for players who want to learn the chambers more closely and make every move count. Explorer and Adventurer keep their own objectives and pacing.

Coming in the next update

These are features of the upcoming native-game update. The free browser demo here on PixelPicked remains a separate taste of Pyramid 1; it does not include Cursed mode.

While you wait, try the demo on this page, follow Vale for the next update, and tell me: which sounds harder—collecting that last treasure, or getting back out with it?

Cover: new AI-assisted promotional illustration based on the game's artwork. In-post images: existing game artwork and a development gameplay capture.