Close Menu
    Facebook X (Twitter)
    Trending
    • The 9 Best Games Where Your Choices Matter You Need To Play
    • The 12 Best Triple-A Action RPGS Worth Playing In 2024
    • The 10 Amazing Turn-Based RPGS Worth Playing In 2024
    • 7 Best RPGS With A Silent Protagonist
    • 5 Unique Romance Games To Play And Gush Over
    • 10 Awesome Tactical Action Games Worth Playing In 2024
    • Ranking The Top 6 First-Person RPGS To Play Right Now
    • Ranking The Best Video Game Series By Rockstar Games
    Facebook X (Twitter)
    FPS Champion
    • Home
    • Featured
      Games where choices matter.

      The 9 Best Games Where Your Choices Matter You Need To Play

      February 1, 2024
      The Best Triple-A Action RPGS.

      The 12 Best Triple-A Action RPGS Worth Playing In 2024

      February 1, 2024
      Turn-based RPGS.

      The 10 Amazing Turn-Based RPGS Worth Playing In 2024

      February 1, 2024
      RPGS With Silent Protagonist.

      7 Best RPGS With A Silent Protagonist

      February 1, 2024
      Romance Games.

      5 Unique Romance Games To Play And Gush Over

      February 1, 2024
    • Guides
      payday 3 player using one of the best pistol loadouts for their build in the game

      The Best Payday 3 Pistol Build for True Gunslingers

      October 3, 2023
      player using a turret in Payday 3 that was part of their build

      The Best Payday 3 Turret Build For Chill Players

      October 1, 2023
      Running one of the best shotgun builds in payday 3

      The Best Payday 3 Shotgun Build

      October 1, 2023
      Assault Build for Loud Entry in Payday 3

      Best Payday 3 Loud Build for Exciting, Quick Assaults

      September 28, 2023
      a marksman player using the best payday 3 sniper build in heist game

      Best Payday 3 Sniper Build for Marksman

      September 27, 2023
    • Reviews
      HROT Game reviewed
      8

      Ultimate HROT Review: A Game with Many Hidden Gems

      September 2, 2023
      Review of Boltgun in the Warhammer 40k Universe
      7.6

      In-Depth Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun Review

      June 2, 2023
      Player fighting from base in Starship Troopers Extermination Game
      8

      Starship Troopers: Extermination Early Access Review

      May 25, 2023
      Cultic game imagery
      9.4

      Cultic Chapter 1 Review: A Retro Masterpiece

      May 20, 2023
      Elden Ring vs Skyrim games

      Elden Ring Vs Skyrim: Which RPG Should You Play?

      May 16, 2023
    • News
      Battlefield 2042 game

      Is Battlefield 2042 Dead?

      May 7, 2023
      Sons of the Forest Game on Xbox and PlayStation Consoles

      Sons of the Forest Console Release Dates, Updates, and More

      February 26, 2023
      Elden Ring game cover art showing kneeling knight on a battlefield

      Is Elden Ring Worth It In 2023?

      February 19, 2023
      Hogwarts Legacy on Last Generation Consoles like Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One

      Is Hogwarts Legacy Coming to PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch?

      February 16, 2023
      Payday 3 Feature Masks

      Payday 3 Feature Wish List from the Series’ Biggest Fans

      January 12, 2023
    FPS Champion
    Home » How to Unlock and Play Heretic in Risk of Rain 2
    Guides

    How to Unlock and Play Heretic in Risk of Rain 2

    Jake ButalaBy Jake ButalaAugust 3, 20221K Views
    Heretic Secret Character in Risk of Rain 2
    Heretic is the Only Secret Character in RoR2 | Source: In-Game Screenshot
    Share
    Facebook Twitter Reddit Email

    Heretic is the only secret playable character in Risk of Rain 2. The Heretic is a powerful scaling character who can only be played by obtaining several Lunar items, slowly transforming your current survivor into the Heretic.

    How To Unlock Heretic in Risk Of Rain 2

    Unlocking the Heretic is partially based on luck since transforming your survivor into the Heretic requires gathering all four of her Lunar items. The item set includes the following:

    • Visions of Heresy
    • Hooks of Heresy
    • Strides of Heresy
    • Essence of Heresy

    Obtaining any of these items swaps out your survivor’s abilities for one of the Heretic’s abilities, which are all tied to these items. You cannot permanently unlock the Heretic, but if you enjoy playing them, you must seek out her Lunar items in every run you wish to play her.

    How to Use Heretic’s Unique Abilities

    Passive – Nevermore

    Nevermore is Heretic’s Passive in Risk of Rain 2. It exists in all four of her skills. This passive has no meaningful effect, only emitting a quiet squawk when one of her skills is used. This passive usually is not seen by the player since it requires the four Heresy skills needed to transform into her.

    The meaningful part of her passive has no direct name, but when fully transformed into the Heretic, the player gains a high amount of base movement speed, vastly more base health than any other base survivor, and she can triple jump.

    However, her massive downside is negative health regeneration, causing her to lose health over time, which requires prioritizing healing items to stay alive while playing as the Heretic. You may also temporarily use her Utility to bypass this negative effect since it heals her when active.

    Related Article: How to Unlock and Use the Huntress in Risk of Rain 2

    Primary – Hungering Gaze

    Hunger Gaze is the Heretic’s primary ability granted by the Visions of Heresy Lunar item. It causes your primary ability to fire a flurry of tiny tracking shards that detonates for 120% base damage. Hunger Gaze does a small amount of direct damage, but the shards explode after a small delay. Even if you aren’t going for a run with Heretic, this ability is outstanding to get on Survivors with mediocre primaries.

    Secondary – Slicing Maelstrom

    Slicing Maelstrom is Heretic’s secondary ability granted by the Hooks of Heresy Lunar item. When used in Risk of Rain 2, Heretic charges up a small maelstrom which deals 875% damage per second to nearby enemies. After the projectile has been active for three seconds, it detonates, dealing 700% base damage and rooting enemies hit by blast. Slicing Maelstrom recharges after five seconds, and the charging speed scales with attack speed.

    Utility – Shadowfade

    Shadowfade is Heretic’s Utility skill, granted by the Strides of Heresy Lunar item. Heretic becomes intangible and gains 30% movement speed while healing for 18% of your maximum health for three seconds. While Shadowfade is active, Heretic can fly if the skill is used midair, and the invulnerability period can be canceled early.

    Related Character Guide: How to Play and Build REX in Risk of Rain 2

    Specials – Ruin

    Ruin is Heretic’s Special ability granted by the Essence of Heresy Lunar item. While dealing damage, you passively gain stacks of Ruin for ten seconds. Activating the skill detonates all stored Ruin stacks at an unlimited range, dealing 300% base damage plus an additional 120% damage per Ruin stack.

    Damage-over-time will not inflict Ruin, making direct damage only apply Ruin stacks.

    The Best Heretic Build in Risk of Rain 2

    Playing Heretic is just like building Void Fiend in Risk of Rain 2 in the manner of being unable to have alternate choices for her abilities – Except the abilities do change slightly for each stack of the lunar item that provides them. Each stack of Visions of Heresy provides 12 more shards to Hungering Gaze but adds 2 seconds to the time it takes to fully reload.

    Hooks of Heresy adds 3 seconds to the root from the explosion and 5 seconds to the cooldown of Slicing Maelstrom. Shadowfade is the only ability in the set that has no cooldown delay from stacking and only gets more healing and more invulnerability time per stack of Strides of Heresy. Essence of Heresy adds 8 seconds to the cooldown but adds 10 seconds to the life of each stack of Ruin.

    We don’t recommend stacking many Lunar Items in your Risk of Rain 2 Heretic build unless you have multiple Strides of Heresy. The long recharge time between uses of abilities can be waited off while invulnerable.

    Heretic benefits from most items, specifically Items that provide her with Armor, Mobility, Attack Speed, and Cooldown Reduction. The best item to take on Heretic by far is probably the Hardlight Afterburner, as it provides her with three total charges of her invulnerability move, cutting the cooldown of Shadowfade to a third of what it currently is.

    Related Guide: How to Use Transcendence in Risk of Rain 2

    Tips & Tricks to Playing with Heretic in RoR2

    • In Risk of Rain 2, Heretic’s negative health regeneration is not considered taking damage. Making items like Repulsion Armor Plate or Razorwire unable to activate from Heretic’s usual health decline.
    • If one Heresy item is removed, the corresponding skill is replaced with Nevermore. If one Heresy item is cleansed, the ability it grants is only resorted by obtaining the same Lunar item. This also includes the items consumed by Egocentrism, a death sentence to the Heretic.
    • Heretic’s negative health regeneration will kill her, making fall damage now fatal unless prevented by using Shadowfade at the right time.
    • If Captain is transformed into the Heretic, the Defensive Microbots passive will still be active, allowing Heretic to destroy projectiles.
    • Since Heretic has three jumps, Wax Quail provides massive additional air mobility.
    • Obtaining at least two Cautious Slugs is enough to offset the negative health regeneration outside combat.
    • Taking Transcendence on the Heretic removes her negative health regeneration problem.

    Wrapping Up Our Guide on How to Unlock and Play with Heretic in Risk of Rain 2

    Heretic is a rare and hard-to-unlock Risk of Rain 2 Survivor that can only be obtained in the middle of a run. Yet, she has a unique playstyle that is hard to describe fully. The Heretic in RoR2 is based entirely on the ability to burst massive damage in one window before fleeing and getting all of her health back. While she is hard to master, Heretic is one of the strongest characters in Risk of Rain 2 for her ability to evade massive amounts of damage and dish it back in full.

    Even when all the pieces aren’t unified, Heretic has a very interesting kit in Risk of Rain 2 that provides Survivors with some alternatives if you’re lucky enough to get to the Bazaar Between Time in the middle of the run. While the Heretic is challenging to play in Risk of Rain 2, she is a blast to play once you have enough items to take advantage of her bizarre set of abilities.

    For a very different playstyle, you may also want to check out our guide on how to build and play Captain in Risk of Rain 2. His ability set is much more centered on support for running with your friends. And for those with friends on other devices, feel free to check out our coverage of Risk of Rain 2’s cross platform capabilities.

    Risk of Rain 2
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit Email
    Previous Article19 of the Best Tactical Shooter Games like Ready or Not
    Next Article How Old is CSGO?
    Jake Butala

    Jake Butala is a freelance writer who loves all types of video games, spending his time writing about different worlds and about video games just as much as he plays them.

    Related Posts

    Rogue-lite games.

    6 Awesome Rogue-lite Games You Need To Play

    January 18, 2024
    payday 3 player using one of the best pistol loadouts for their build in the game

    The Best Payday 3 Pistol Build for True Gunslingers

    October 3, 2023
    player using a turret in Payday 3 that was part of their build

    The Best Payday 3 Turret Build For Chill Players

    October 1, 2023
    Running one of the best shotgun builds in payday 3

    The Best Payday 3 Shotgun Build

    October 1, 2023
    Assault Build for Loud Entry in Payday 3

    Best Payday 3 Loud Build for Exciting, Quick Assaults

    September 28, 2023
    a marksman player using the best payday 3 sniper build in heist game

    Best Payday 3 Sniper Build for Marksman

    September 27, 2023
    Add A Comment
    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    location of quarried stone in Skyrim

    Where To Find Quarried Stone in Skyrim (All Locations)

    May 7, 2023
    Games With Romance.

    19 RPGs With The Best Romance, Ranked

    August 20, 2023
    Vermintide 2 Class Hero Firing on Orcs

    Vermintide 2 Classes Tier List, Ranked from Worst to Best (2023)

    October 23, 2022
    Follow Us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    Recent Posts
    Games where choices matter.

    The 9 Best Games Where Your Choices Matter You Need To Play

    February 1, 2024
    The Best Triple-A Action RPGS.

    The 12 Best Triple-A Action RPGS Worth Playing In 2024

    February 1, 2024
    About Us
    About Us

    We bring you the best First Person Shooter content on the web! At FPS Champion, we cover FPS guides, news, reviews, and more.

    Email Us: contact[@]fpschampion.com

    Categories
    • Featured (539)
    • Guides (263)
    • News (22)
      • eSports (2)
      • Opinion (8)
    • Reviews (79)
      • Game Reviews (13)
      • Hardware Reviews (7)
      • Skin Reviews (53)
    • Uncategorized (2)
    Games where choices matter.

    The 9 Best Games Where Your Choices Matter You Need To Play

    February 1, 2024
    The Best Triple-A Action RPGS.

    The 12 Best Triple-A Action RPGS Worth Playing In 2024

    February 1, 2024
    Turn-based RPGS.

    The 10 Amazing Turn-Based RPGS Worth Playing In 2024

    February 1, 2024
    Facebook X (Twitter)
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact
    © 2025 Lovely Magpie LLC DBA FPS Champion. All rights reserved.
    • English
    • Français (French)
    • Português (Portuguese (Brazil))
    • Español (Spanish)

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.