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A<sc>bstract</sc> Curvatons are light (compared to the Hubble scale during inflation) spectator fields during inflation that potentially contribute to adiabatic curvature perturbations post-inflation. They can alter CMB observables such as the spectral indexn_s, the tensor-to-scalar ratior, and the local non-Gaussianity$$ {f}_{\textrm{NL}}^{\left(\textrm{loc}\right)} $$ $f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\left(\mathrm{loc}\right)}$. We systematically explore the observable space of a curvaton with a quadratic potential. We find that when the underlying inflation model does not satisfy then_sandrobservational constraints but can be made viable with a significant contribution from what we call a savior curvaton, a large$$ \left|{f}_{\textrm{NL}}^{\left(\textrm{loc}\right)}\right| $$ $\left(f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\left(\mathrm{loc}\right)}\right)$>0.05, such that the model is distinguishable from single-field inflation, is inevitable. On the other hand, when the underlying inflation model already satisfies then_sandrobservational constraints, so significant curvaton contribution is forbidden, a large$$ \left|{f}_{\textrm{NL}}^{\left(\textrm{loc}\right)}\right| $$ $\left(f_{\mathrm{NL}}^{\left(\mathrm{loc}\right)}\right)$>0.05 is possible in the exceptional case when the isocurvature fluctuation in the curvaton fluid is much greater than the global curvature fluctuation.