Heretic

Heretic
SUPERIORS:	The Mansus
CLASSIFICATION:	Solo antagonist
RISK FACTOR:	Very High
CLEARANCE:	Depends on your job
"Forgotten, devoured, gutted, humanity has forgotten the eldritch forces of decay, but the Mansus veil has weakend, we will make them taste fear again."

Heretics are people who have been enlightened with magical (and illegal) powers, their goal is to ascend and become all powerful, by completing all of their objectives and doing the ascension ritual on a transmutation rune. Heretics are very weak to holyness so having a chaplain onboard the station will help.

To communicate with your summoned minions, you need a raw prophet to link your minions mind to the mansus link. Mansus link can be accessed with +M.

Heretic Paths

To start, you will need to choose a path, currently there are 7 paths:

- The Ashen Path: Focuses on damage overtime, and early mobility. Good for new heretics.

- The Path of Void: Focuses on cold, silence, and stealth. Also good for new heretics.

- The Path of Flesh: Focuses on necromancy, and summoning. Good for Heretics that want friends.

- The Path of Lock: Focuses on mobility, traps, access, and stealth. Good for Heretics that want to be sneaky.

- The Rusted Path: Focuses on healing, and area control. Good for Heretics that want to be extremely tanky.

- The Path of Blade: Focuses on pure melee power. Good for Heretics that want a bloodpath.

- The Path of Cosmos: Focuses on teleportation and confusion. A very hard path to master.

Knowledge Points

Knowledge points are a requirement to ascending, needing you to get 10 knowledge points or more. You can also use these Knowledge points to go your research tree becoming stronger and unlocking the final ritual once you've gathered enough points, note that spending Knowledge points does not affect your objectives. You can either get Knowledge points overtime or by doing the following.

Reality Shifts

Reality shift.

Reality Shifts are a way of getting knowledge points and spawns randomly when the shift starts. Whenever a Heretic completes a sacrifice, Shifts will randomly spawn across the station. Coming near a Shift will temporarily grant the Heretic X-ray vision making it easier to locate them. The average crew member will not be able to see these Shifts, however they will become visible 20 minutes after harvested. Shifts give 1 knowledge points when harvested normally, and can be harvested with a codex cicatrix or a codex morbus activated in hand to gain an additional point.

Reality fracture.

Sacrificing

The primary method of getting knowledge points is by sacrificing crew members. Your victims are random and could be fellow heretics.

At the start of the shift you will be assigned 4-5 sacrifice targets

- One will be a head of staff

- One will be a security member

- Others will be completely random crew members

Sacrificing a head of staff or a security member will grant 2 Knowledge points and 1 side points, sacrificing random crew members will grant 2 instead. You cannot sacrifice non target crew members

However other heretics are an exception, you can sacrifice another heretic to gain 3 knowledge points.

To track down your victims you will need to use the Living heart skill on the left of your screen, when you see the target you must incapacitate them to make their body worthy for sacrificing, after your done with that drag their body over to a Transmutation rune and then click the rune with your Mansus grasp to sacrifice them. You can reroll your sacrifice targets by doing the Relentless heartbeat ritual.

This is also a requirement to ascending as you will need to atleast sacrifice 4 crew members and 1 head of staff for your objectives.

Becoming Stronger

To actually kill people, you will need several tools and abilities to kill them.

Transmutations

Transmutation rune.

Whether you'd like it or not, you need to start using magic. To draw a Transmutation rune you need to have a writing tool like a pen or a crayon. Activate your Mansus grasp in your offhand and click on the floor to make a rune. These runes are very noticeable and take up a 3x3 area, it is highly recommended to draw these runes in rooms that are blocked off from the public like maintenance. You can also remove these runes with your pen and the activated Mansus grasp on it and you can also remove other heretic's runes even if you didn't make them.

To transmute you simply need to click the rune and choose the ritual you want to do, then use your Mansus grasp on the rune to see what objects you require for the ritual. You can see the chosen ritual by inspecting the rune.

Transmutation Rituals allow you to create powerful artifacts, weapons, monsters, and many other tools that will guide you to the path of ascension.

Abilities, and Rituals.

This is a list of all the Heretic's Abilities, and Rituals they can utilize/do to aid in their ascension.

Abilities/Rituals	Cost	Tier	Ingredients/Type	Description
Heartbeat of Mansus	0	Roundstart	Target's Corpse	Sacrifice your Target (or another heretic) for knowledge points and your objectives.
Phylactery of Damnation	0	Roundstart	Blood, Beaker	Creates a cursed beaker that can siphon blood from a distance for curses. The victim feels the blood being drawn out.
Feast of Owls	0	Roundstart	Your soul	Gives 5 knowledge points but forsakes your ascension.
Codex Cicatrix	0	Roundstart	Book, Pen, Organ/limb	Creates a cursed book that can extract Reality shifts more effectively and can act as an focus
Relentless Heartbeat	0	Roundstart	Heart, Book, Pen, Jumpsuit	Grants you a new set of ritual targets, up to five.
Amber Focus	0	Roundstart	Glass sheet, Eyes	Grants you a Focus that can be worn on the neck. Focuses allow you to cast more advanced spells.
Living Heart	0	Roundstart	Active Ability	Locates your sacrifice target, but is loud. Be careful when you use it.
Cloak of Shadow	0	Roundstart	Active Ability	Hides your identity, makes you immune to stuns, and makes you faster, but you interact slower and if you take enough damage it will expire.
Mansus Grasp	0	Roundstart	Active Ability	Iconic spell of the heretic that garbles target's speech, knocks them down, and deals 40 stamina damage. It has additional effects based on your path, cannot be used through clicking the mob with the context menu, but using it in harm mode works. Note that Mansus grasp cannot miss.
Heretic Robes	1	Special Knowledge	Table, Suit with sensors, Mask, Unique ingredient based on your path.	A set of robes that act as the Heretic's armor, Each path has different effects and different robes.
Ritual of knowledge	2 Side points & 2 Knowledge points	Special Knowledge	3 Random items	A ritual you unlock after researching your heretic robes, gives you your T3 passive and knowledge points.
Ether of the Newborn	1	T1 Side	Vomit Puddle, Glass shard	Creates a one use potion that heals everything, diseases, wounds, but the cost is 1 minute of sleep.
Void Cloak	1	T1 Side	Bedsheet, Glass shard, Winter coat	Creates a weak armor that is invisible when the hood is up and grants focus and space immunity when the hood is down.
Ashen Eyes	1	T1 Side	Eyes, Glass shard, Flare	Creates an eldritch medallion that gives thermal vision and acts as a focus.
Priest's Ritual	1	T1 Side	Glass shard, Water tank	Creates a flask of eldritch essence, heals heretics but poisons non heretics.
Scorching Shark	1	T1 Side	Three ash, Liver, Three sheets of Phoron	Summons 3 sharks, fast but weak monsters that ignite anyone they bite.
Realignment	1	T1 Side	Active Ability	On use removes stuns, knockdowns, and restraints from you, as well as giving you resistance to stuns, pacifies you temporarily.
Mask of Madness	1	T1 Side	Mask, Stun baton, Liver	Gives flash immunity and eye protection, instills great fear upon heathens. Can be toggled to give night vision.
Eldritch Coin	1	T1 Side	1 Bar of Gold/Silver	When thrown has a 50% chance to either bolt a door or open a door.
Mysteries of Creation	1	T1 Side	Spear, Cold temperature	Creates a spear, a weapon that can be thrown at people to freeze them into ice cubes, can be recalled unless destroyed
Unfathomable Curiosity	1	T2 Side	Utility belt, 3 Rods, Lungs	Creates a waist bag that goes on the beltslot, provides alot of storage space, focus, and acts as a shield.
Carving Knife	1	T2 Side	Knife, Glass shard, Paper	Creates a knife that can be used on a tile to set a trap of your chosen, the traps activates when stepped on.
Codex Morbus	1	T2 Side	Codex Cicatrix, Corpse	Creates a more enhanced version of the Codex cicatrix, can draw from runes faster and curse crew members.
Greaves of the Prophet	1	T2 Side	Magboots, Combat boots, Two silver bars	Creates a pair of greaves, that act as magboots, no-slips, and jackboots.
Mawed crucible	1	T2 Side	Table, Watertank	Creates a cauldron that can be used to brew potions, must be refilled with organs or body parts.
Through the Boundary	1	T2 Side	2 Heretic blades, 2 Id cards, 2 Bars of gold	Creates a sword that inflicts people with random marks and hits from a long range.
Rusted Ritual	1	T2 Side	Pool of Vomit, 15 Cable coil, 5 Sheets of steel	Creates a rust walker that spreads rust and heals while on rust.
Shattered Ritual	1	T2 Side	Corpse, Latex gloves, Armor	Summons a shattered risen, a creature that has high health and regeneration, has two strong items they cannot drop.
Lionhunter's Rifle	1	T2 Side	Wood plank, PDA, Organ or limb	Creates a weak gun that can be aimed at targets by right clicking them in harm mode which empowers the projectile massively.
Rust Sower Grenade	1	T2 Side	Grenade casing, Rag, 2 Trash	Creates a grenade that spread smoke, instakilling silicons and blinding organics caught in it.
Crimson Cleave	2	T3 Side	Active Ability	Makes people bleed heavily in a moderate area, heals for every target.
Forest Abomination	2	T3 Side	Active Ability	Upgrades cloak of shadow, spreads a disorienting fog wherever you go.
Mind Grasp	2	T3 Side	Active Ability	Upgrades your mansus grasp, it now affects anyone in a large area around you.
Space Phase	2	T3 Side	Active Ability	A spell that allows you to move freely through space, can only be used in low pressure environments and outdoors.
Maid in the Mirror	2	T3 Side	Five glass sheets, Jumpsuit, Lungs	Summons a creature that can go into glass to become incorporeal, and freeze targets on hit.
Sharp Medal	2	T3 Side	2 hands, eyes, knife	Amulet that gives focus and allows you to throw your blades like boomerangs.
Ashen Ritual	2	T3 Side	Bonfire, book	Summons a creature that has a long range jaunt and a deadly laser blast.

Point of no return: The Heretic Aura (in slang and literally)

This is the most important turning point for any Heretic. When you either craft your path-specific Robes or acquire 10 Knowledge points or researching path-specific blade upgrade (whichever comes first), the following changes occur permanently:

- You lose the ability to Blade break (emergency teleport when using your blade in-hand)

- You gain an aura that identifies you as a Heretic and marks you valid to kill.

If you choose Feast of Owls (reject ascension for points) or pick the Lock path, you will not receive the aura.

Once the aura appears there is no hiding what you are, plan accordingly.

Ascension

This is the end. When you've finally researched your final ritual, completed all of your objectives. You must do the final ritual, the requirements to the ritual depends on your path. Either requiring you to have three corpses with specific conditions or four corpses for the Path of Flesh.

When you've done the ritual there will be a broadcast message announcing your ascension to everyone on the station, you will unlock powers that can basically annihilate any normal person.

Other stuff about Heretics

Tips and Tricks

- You are limited in how many blades you can make, most paths limit you to 2 but the blade path limits you to 4.

- All heretic blades have the ability to teleport you randomly when using it in-hand, beware that this breaks your blades. Broken blades can be recovered by doing the blade ritual while you've reached the max limit of blades.

- Your blade and mansus grasp has the ability to act as surgical tools, allowing you to get organs that you need for your rituals or healing yourself as a last resort.

- It is highly recommend you make the Codex cicatrix as it'll allow you to draw from shifts and gain more knowledge points, you can also remove runes by using the codex cicatrix on a rune.

- Monkeys and other animals can be used for rituals, it is recommended as no one will suspect you dragging a monkey into maints instead of a dead crew member.

- As a Heretic minion you can us +m to communicate with your master to plan accordingly even if far away.

- Eldritch flask can act as a cryostasis beaker allowing you to make dangerous mixes that are easily triggered.

- Need vomit? just spin around or do a flip multiple times in quick succesion to make yourself vomit!

- Be wary of other Heretics, they worship false gods and will sacrifice you for knowledge just as easily they would on normal heathens, you can sacrifice them to the Mansus aswell. Let the strongest god win.

- You can enchant with your Codex cicatrix and a transmutation rune. Info on enchanting (no page on enchanting yet sorry) here.

- Your cloak of shadow can prove useful when getting away from a seccie, when cloak of shadow is in use it will speed you up and make you immune to any sort of stun, but beware as taking enough damage will remove your cloak.

- You can heal Holy damage by standing on a transmutation rune, standing on rust as a rust heretic, being near raw prophets as a flesh heretic, drinking from the eldritch flask, using nightwatcher's rebirth ashen ability, hitting people with your blades as a ascended blade heretic.

Counters

- Holiness is a very viable weapon that can be used against heretics, the chaplain can either bonk a heretic that has robes on or a heretic that has crossed the point of no return with their nullrod or bible, holy water can also damage heretics when splashed on them