Heretic

ENEMY STAFF
Heretic	Access: Wherever your job has access to Additional Access: Wherever you can break into or teleport to. Difficulty: VERY HARD Supervisors: Forgotten Gods Duties: Find influences, realize they've all been taken. Sacrifice people and become all powerful (or die trying). Guides: This is the guide. Quote: ADMINS HALP HOW DO I SACRIFICE PEOPLE

"Forgotten, devoured, gutted. Humanity has forgotten the eldritch forces of decay, but the mansus veil has weakened. We will make them taste fear again..."

So you're a Heretic? Well, get ready for magic and battle. Grab influences, complete sacrifices, accomplish rituals, and ascend to godhood.

The Mansus Veil Weakens

You are a nasty little bookworm in search of truth and power, and you have arrived on a station ripe with opportunities. The ultimate goal of a Heretic is to research knowledge of the Mansus. Every knowledge gained grants you new abilities and unlocks new rituals until you become all powerful.

You can gain knowledge points and become stronger through a few ways:

• Harvesting knowledge by draining pierces in reality located around the station of powerel
• Waiting for new knowledge to be revealed to you over time
• Sacrificing crew members your dark patrons may hunger for.

Sacrificing

The Mansus desires only a select few Heathens (non-heretics) at any moment.

At the start of the round you will be assigned five sacrifice targets. You can reroll these with an optional knowledge later on, but until then, you're stuck with those.

• One target will be a Head of Staff. Heads of staff are worth an additional point!
• One target will be a member of security.
• One target will be a member of your department.
• Two targets will be completely random crewmembers.

You will only be able to sacrifice these targets. Your patrons will not accept just any old assistant.

Follow your Living Heart to your target of choice and incapacitate them through any means necessary. If your target's in critical or dead, they're ready to sacrifice. Drag them over a transmutation rune and invoke the rune to sacrifice them.

Whenever a target is sacrificed, they're healed up and sent to a Shadow Realm, forced to dodge the Hands of the Mansus to fight for their survival. They will then be sent back to the station and lose all memory of whoever sacrificed them, so your ass is covered on that front.

However, if you mess up the target something fierce and they're unable to be revived, they'll make a huge mess over your rune. Keep your sacrifices in good condition, or leave behind a large amount of evidence that you're on the hunt!

Eldritch Influences

Influences are the easy way to gain power points. Whenever there are Heretics aboard Space Station 13, influences will randomly spawn across the station. In this state, influences are only visible to Heretics. These are untapped and ripe for the picking. Ordinary right-click. It doesn't matter if Combat Mode Enable with 4, disable with 1 or toggle with F by default. Left-clicking people with an empty hand will Harm them if on, or Help them if off. Prevents you from switching places or being pushed when colliding with people. is on or not. on an influence with an empty hand to harvest it.

After being harvested, the influence vanish temporally. Soon after, it will reappear and change its appearance, becoming a pierced reality. More importantly, it will become visible to the entire crew. Influences can only be harvested once, so don't waste time trying to collect those that other Heretics have already taken!

(An already harvested influence. Notice the glow.)

Using a Codex Cicatrix to harvest an influence will reward double the knowledge points. Risk for reward!

Heretical Research

Once you have some power points, it's time to research! Open up your Antag Info UI (Action button, top left) and visit the second tab. The research menu forms a branching tree (see below), and your first selection will be to commit to a path that defines your initial abilities and Final Ascension. You can earn abilities from other paths to a limited degree, but overall your chosen path will heavily influence your play-style.

Transmutation is the Key

Eventually, you'll need to start using proper magics. To draw a transmutation rune, you'll need a writing tool, such as a pen or crayon. Activate Mansus Grasp in your offhand and click on the floor to begin drawing a rune. These runes are green and take up a 3x3 area, and while they can go under other objects, it's best to keep them clear for transmutation purposes.

You can remove runes by using your Mansus Grasp on it, and you can also freely use other Heretics' runes.

To transmute, simply click the rune with an empty hand while the appropriate object(s) are on top of it, making sure that nothing else is in the way. Transmutation Rituals allow you to create powerful artifacts, demonic monsters, and many useful tools that will help you progress towards ultimate power.

The Codex Cicatrix can also draw and remove runes, and does it as a faster rate than doing it by hand.

Focus is Necessary

To cast more advanced spells, you must focus by wearing an Amber Focus or holding an open Codex Cicatrix. You may transmute other items into them with your Starting Knowledge.

Some more powerful heretical equipment also functions as a focus - Namely, the Ominous Armor from the Armorer's Ritual (when the hood is flipped up) and the Warm Eldritch Medallion from the Ashen Eyes ritual. Ascending also disabled the need for a focus.

The Heretic Blade

The Sickly Blade will be your first unlocked research. It can be created by transmuting a common knife with a secondary ingredient based on your path, and serves as a powerful melee weapon as well as a one time use escape tool.

All paths have their own kind of blade, which only differ in appearance and name without any additional research. As with the Mansus Grasp, your blade will be upgraded by your research over time. Said upgrades will differ depending on the path you choose.

You are limited in the amounts of blades you can create at a time - Ash, Void, and Rust limit you to two blades, and Flesh limits you to three. Try not to lose them!

Additionally, you can break your blade by activating it in-hand to teleport to a random, (mostly) safe location in a pinch. Better to lose your weapon and live another day than die fighting.

Objectives

All Heretics spawn with the same objectives.

• Research Heretic knowledge. You start with 6.
• Sacrifice multiple people.

Some Heretic paths will also gain additional objectives.

• Summon a number of monsters. (This only counts Heretic monsters, NOT ghouls!)

To purchase your Ascension, you must complete all of your objectives!

Paths of Decay

There are different aspects of the arcane to which you can devote yourself. While most all rituals and spells can be learned by a single Heretic, your first and most important choice will decide how your Blade and Grasp will evolve, and how your final ascension will transform you.

Path	Name	Description
Path of Ash	Nightwatcher's Secret	The Path of Ash revolves around fire, mobility, and crowd control. It grants multiple tools that are very forgiving for a new Heretic, including a short range jaunt that works while handcuffed and a mask that slowly saps nearby Heathens of sanity and soul, and is highly recommended for first-timers. While its abilities may not be the strongest until later in the round, they are very easy to get the ball rolling with and difficult to stop. Ascending gives you the power to burn down the station in a living tornado of flame.
Path of Moon	Moonlight Troupe	The Path of Moon is... creepy!
Path of Lock	A Steward's Secret	The Path of Lock grants you incredible area control as well as enough tools to bamboozle those who attempt to reach you. Your weaponry is mainly focused on utility, rather than offense or even defense, despite being able to branch into harmful sidepaths. Lock Heretics are able to quickly disappear and trick chasers with their Eldritch Card, as well as quickly return to safe points across the station. Ascending allows you to turn into empowered eldritch creatures and will open a portal into the Labyrinth's Heart at the side of the ritual, summoning an endless army of eldritch horrors at your service.
Path of Flesh	Principle of Hunger	The Path of Flesh focuses on summoning player-controlled minions and demons to do your bidding. Heretics on this path gain almost no offensive or defensive abilities, and rely heavily on stockpiling corpses and organs to complete rituals. Despite this, it offers many fun and powerful tools to those who can make it to the end, making it a difficult (but satisfying) path overall for inexperienced Heretics. Ascending allows you to shed your human form and become something much greater.
Path of Void	Glimmer of Winter	The Path of Void focuses on stealth, silence and the freezing cold. While the path offers very little utility early on, they quickly gain the ability to silence and freeze their victims, opening the window to silently ambush targets with no other items or chemicals required. It also offers full immunity to freezing temperatures, an invisible armored cloak (with pockets!), and later a targeted blink that damages anything nearby. The path has access to many strong transmuted items, but requires smart use to realize their full potential, making it moderately difficult but a good beginner choice. Ascending silences those around you and makes you the eye of a deadly blizzard.
Path of the Blade	The Cutting Edge	The Path of the Blade empowers you to become master of one-on-one combatant. The path lacks many spells or utility, especially early on, but as you grow in power, your blades gain the ability to counter attack and even dual wield. Blade Heretics can summon orbiting knives that will protect them entirely from any attacks, including stun batons. Additionally, Blade Heretics have a few tools to make getting the jump on your victims easier. Ascending grants you a whirlwind of knives to protect you from all kinds of attacks, as well as greatly enhancing your abilities in combat, especially with your curved blades.
Path of Rust	Blacksmith's Tale	The Path of Rust is about healing, corruption, and brute forcing through all obstacles, at the cost of stealth. Rust grants you the ability to destroy silicons and mechs in one strike, fry any electronics, and demolish any walls or doors. Most of your abilities will create rust - standing over rust grants you healing and resilience. While you will become immensely resistant standing on rusted tiles, you have very little in the way of tools otherwise, making it a moderately difficult path to take. Ascending grants you unparalleled healing and survivability when standing over rust and spreads a tide of rust over the station from your rune.
Path of Cosmos	Eternal Gate	The Path of Cosmos allows you to control the area by using cosmic carpets. Cosmic carpets cannot be entered by people with a star mark. The Cosmic Heretic has several spells throughout the path that give people star marks and generate cosmic carpets. The path only contains spells so an amber focus will be useful. This path is complex and requires knowledge of how the path works to realize its full potential. Ascending summons a controllable entity, albeit can require a lot of attention to function optimally.

Abilities

Below is a table with all your abilities. Upon choosing a path, you begin at the top of the tree, moving straight downwards; the first few abilities you unlock are thus based on your path. However, some abilities are located between paths, and can be unlocked by moving sideways once you're adjacent to them. With enough points, you can theoretically unlock all of these 'neutral' abilities, as well as dipping into other paths' abilities, but you can only ever unlock one Mark and one Blade/Steel ability, and you can only unlock the ascension that matches your starting path.

In the below tree, dark colored abilities can only be obtained by starting on the corresponding path, green abilities are "neutral" abilities that you can use to cross paths, and light colored abilities can be earned by any path by first going through the neutral ones.

Keep in mind that the mark ability, blade/steel ability, and your final ascension all cost 2 points each.

Starting Knowledge

Name	Description
Break of Dawn	Grants you the Mansus Grasp, a powerful and upgradable disabling spell that can be cast without a focus. It will cause temporary garbled speech, as well as knock your victim down and deal 80 stamina damage. This does not work on those with anti-magic.
The Living Heart	Grants you the Living Heart, transforming your heart into a Living Heart, which allows you to track your sacrifice targets. Beware that using this ability will pulse an audible heartbeat. If you lose your Living Heart, you can transmute a new one with a poppy and a pool of blood while standing on a rune. If your heart is cybernetic, you will additionally need to supply an organic heart in the ritual. If your species doesn't have a heart, one of your other organs will be used instead - check your research tab in-game to see which.
Heartbeat of the Mansus	Allows you to sacrifice targets who are in critical or worse condition to the Mansus, sending them to the Shadow Realm and rewarding you with two knowledge points; or three if your victim was a head of staff. If you have no targets, you can stand on a rune and invoke it to acquire some.
Amber Focus	Allows you to transmute a sheet of glass and a pair of eyes into an Amber Focus. This is a small neck-worn item that allows you to cast more advanced Heretic spells while worn.
Codex Cicatrix	Allows you to transmute a book, any unique pen, and hide/leather from any animal (humans included) to create a Codex Cicatrix. Draining influences with the Codex rewards double the points, drawing runes with it scribes three times as fast, and it can be used to remove runes with ease. Opening the Codex allows you to focus for your advanced Heretic spells.
Cloak of Shadow	Grants you the spell Cloak of Shadow, which will conceal your identity in an obvious purple smoke, making you move faster but interact slower. Requires a focus to cast.

The Heretic Ability Tree

	Path of Ash		Path of Moon		Path of Lock		Path of Flesh		Path of Void		Path of the Blade		Path of Rust		Path of Cosmos
	Nightwatcher's Secret		Moonlight Troupe		A Steward's Secret		Principle of Hunger		Glimmer of Winter		The Cutting Edge		Blacksmith's Tale		Eternal Gate
	Follow the ashen path. Transmute a knife with a match for an ashen blade. Limit of two at a time.		Follow the path of moon. Transmute a knife and two iron sheets into a lunar blade. Limit of two at a time.		Follow the path of lock. Transmute a knife and a crowbar into a key blade. It functions as a fast crowbar. Limit of two at a time.		Follow the flesh path Transmute a knife and a pool of blood into a flesh blade. Limit of three at a time.		Follow the void path. Transmute a knife in a sub-zero temperature into a void blade. Limit of two at a time.		Follow the path of blades. Transmute a knife with two bars of silver into a sundered blade. Limit of five at a time.		Follow the rust path. Transmute a knife and a trash item into a rusty blade. Limit of two at a time.		Follow the cosmic path. Transmute a knife and a sheet of plasma into a cosmic blade. Limit of two at a time.
	Grasp of Ash		Grasp of Lunacy		Grasp of Lock		Grasp of Flesh		Grasp of Void		Grasp of the Blade		Grasp of Rust		Grasp of Cosmos
	Your Mansus Grasp now temporarily blinds your victim.		Your Mansus Grasp now causes your victim to hallucinate and hides your identity for a short duration.		Your Mansus Grasp now allows you to access anything, from airlocks to consoles and even exosuits.		Your Mansus Grasp now raises the dead into ghouls, once per corpse. They will look like husks and have 25HP.		Your Mansus Grasp now mutes your victim for 8 seconds and lowers their body temperature.		Your Mansus Grasp deals additional damage and stuns your victim if they are lying down or facing away from you.		Your Mansus Grasp now deal 500 damage to inorganic matter. Ordinary right-click. It doesn't matter if Combat Mode Enable with 4, disable with 1 or toggle with F by default. Left-clicking people with an empty hand will Harm them if on, or Help them if off. Prevents you from switching places or being pushed when colliding with people. is on or not. will rust surfaces or machines. Already rusted walls are destroyed.		Your Mansus Grasp now star-marks your victim and creates a cosmic field where you stand. Those with star marks can't enter cosmic fields.
Scorching Shark	Ashen Shift	Ashen Eyes	Smile of the Moon	Mindgate	Key Keeper's Burden		Imperfect Ritual	Void Cloak	Aristocrat's Way	Shattered Ritual	Dance of the Brand	Armorer’s ritual	Leeching Walk	Priest's Ritual	Cosmic Rune	Scorching Shark
Transmute a pool of ash, a sheet of plasma, and a liver into a Fire Shark. Fire Sharks are fast and strong in groups, but are bad at combat.	A short-duration jaunt spell that makes you immaterial and pass through walls, allowing you to path roughly six tiles.	Transmute a shard of glass, a candle and eyes into Ashen Eyes, an amulet that enhances your dark vision and allows you to see the living through walls.	Grants "Smile of the moon", a ranged spell that mutes, blinds, and deafens your victim for a duration based on their sanity.	Grants "Mindgate", a spell which causes your target to suffer from hallucinations, oxygen loss and brain damage, besides being left confused for ten seconds, at the cost of 20 brain damage.	Transmute a wallet, an iron rod, and an ID into an Eldritch Card. Can fuse IDs into itself and take their appearance. May link two airlocks to create portals. Heathens will be teleported randomly. The effect can be inverted at will.		Transmute a poppy and a corpse into a Voiceless Death - a mute ghoul with 50 HP. Limit of two at a time.	Transmute a glass shard, any suit clothing and a bedsheet into a Void Cloak, able to can become invisible at will. It has extra storage space, hiding items you store in it as well as being invisible in strip searches. The Cloak is slightly armored.	You no longer need to breathe, and become immune to cold temperatures. You can still take damage from lack of pressure.	Transmute any suit clothing, a pair of latex or nitrile gloves, and a corpse with soul into a Ghoul. These Ghouls have 125 HP, but cannot hold any items. Instead, they have two powerful melee weapons for fists. Limit of one at a time.	Being attacked while wielding a Heretic Blade in either hand will deliver a free, instant counterattack to the attacker. This effect can only trigger once every 20 seconds.	Transmute a built table and a gas mask into Ominous Armor. These eldritch robes reduce damage taken roughly by half. When your hood is up, you are able to cast spells.	You slowly heal and gain passive resistance to baton knockdown while standing on rusted tiles.	Transmute a tank of water into a Flask of Eldritch Water. When consumed, the water will heal a bit of everything for Heretics, and hurt a bit of everything for Heathens.	Grants "Cosmic Rune", a spell that can create two runes linked to eachother. Only the entity activating the rune will get transported, and it can be used by anyone without a star mark.	Transmute a pool of ash, a sheet of plasma, and eyes into a Fire Shark. Fire Sharks are fast and strong in groups, but are bad at combat.
	Mark of Ash		Mark of Moon		Mark of Lock		Mark of Flesh		Mark of Void		Mark of the Blade		Mark of Rust		Mark of Cosmos
	Your Grasp applies a ash mark on hit. Attack a marked victim with your blade to deal stamina damage and burning. The burning spreads to other people, becoming slightly stronger each time.		Your Grasp applies a moon mark on hit. Marked victims will be pacified and will get confused when attacked with your blade, ceasing the pacifism.		Your Grasp applies a lock mark on hit. Attack a marked victim with your blade to bar them from all passages, depriving them of access, even from public airlocks.		Your Grasp applies a flesh mark on hit. Attack a marked victim with your blade to make them bleed profusely.		Your Grasp applies a void mark on hit. Attack a marked victim with your blade to lower their body temperature significantly.		Your Grasp applies a blade mark on hit. Blade marked victims will be trapped in the room the mark was applied in for the duration of the mark. Attacking a marked victim with your blade will remove this, but grant you an orbiting knife for one minute that will protect you from all attacks. This knife is consumed on use.		Your Grasp applies a rust mark on hit. Attack a marked victim with your blade to deal 0-200 damage to items they are carrying.		Your Grasp applies a cosmos mark on hit. Attack a marked victim with your blade to transport them back to the Cosmic Diamond, which is the location your mark was applied. After getting transported, they will be paralyzed for two seconds.
	Ritual of Knowledge (Ash)		Ritual of Knowledge (Moon)		Ritual of Knowledge (Lock)		Ritual of Knowledge (Flesh)		Ritual of Knowledge (Void)		Ritual of Knowledge (Blade)		Ritual of Knowledge (Rust)		Ritual of Knowledge (Cosmos)
	You learn a special, one-time-only ritual that requires 4 different items, from various organs to candles to stun batons, in various quantities. Performing this ritual instantly grants you 4 knowledge points.		You learn a special, one-time-only ritual that requires 4 different items, from various organs to candles to stun batons, in various quantities. Performing this ritual instantly grants you 4 knowledge points.		You learn a special, one-time-only ritual that requires 4 different items, from various organs to candles to stun batons, in various quantities. Performing this ritual instantly grants you 4 knowledge points.		You learn a special, one-time-only ritual that requires 4 different items, from various organs to candles to stun batons, in various quantities. Performing this ritual instantly grants you 4 knowledge points.		You learn a special, one-time-only ritual that requires 4 different items, from various organs to candles to stun batons, in various quantities. Performing this ritual instantly grants you 4 knowledge points.		You learn a special, one-time-only ritual that requires 4 different items, from various organs to candles to stun batons, in various quantities. Performing this ritual instantly grants you 4 knowledge points.		You learn a special, one-time-only ritual that requires 4 different items, from various organs to candles to stun batons, in various quantities. Performing this ritual instantly grants you 4 knowledge points.		You learn a special, one-time-only ritual that requires 4 different items, from various organs to candles to stun batons, in various quantities. Performing this ritual instantly grants you 4 knowledge points.
	Volcano Blast		Lunar Parade		Concierge's Rite		Flesh Surgery		Void Blast		Realignment	Lionhunter's Rifle	Rust Construction		Star Touch
	Grants "Volcano Blast", a spell which, after a short channel, shoots off a beam of fire to a nearby target. The beam will bounce between targets not already burning, set anyone who walks over it on fire, and deal ticking stamina and fire damage. It will also slightly heal fire and stamina damage on yourself. If the beam bounces off of four targets, it will knockdown all nearby mobs.		Grants "Lunar Parade", a spell which, after a short channel, sends a carnival forward, causing all victims in its path to join the parade and suffer from hallucinations.		Transmute a white crayon, a wooden plank, and a multitool to create a Labyrinth Handbook. You may use it on a distant tile to materialize a barricade for eight seconds that only you and people anti-magic can pass. It has three uses.		Grants "Flesh Surgery", a multi-use spell. Using it on minions or organs will heal them slightly, and using it on Heathens will allow you to remove internal organs without requiring surgery or brute force. This works on living humans, but at a much slower speed.		Grants "Void Blast", a spell which fires off a cone of ice in front of you. The cone will chill and damage any mobs hit, as well as freezing the floor. Best used in cold areas such as space, as room temperature is enough to thaw the floor almost instantly.		Grants "Realignment", a spell which will rapidly regenerate stamina and remove stuns from you, but force you into pacifism until it expires. Has a short base cooldown, but consecutive uses will increase it.	Transmute any ballistic weapon, such as an improvised pipegun, with hide from any animal, a piece of wood, and a camera to create a Lionhunter Rifle. This rifle has three shots and can be fired like a normal, albeit weak bolt-action rifle. However, you can click on distant targets to charge the projectile, firing a much more damaging and debilitating bullet that will hone in on the target and travel through walls.	Grants "Rust Construction", a spell that allows you to point at a rusted floor to raise a strong wall of rust. Any mobs over the floor where the wall is raised will be damaged and thrown aside, including you (though you will not be damaged). If you are on a map with multiple vertical levels, this has the potential of raising mobs to the floor above!		Grants "Star Touch", a spell that will star-mark your target, create a three-tile Cosmic Field barrier, and channel a beam towards your vctim, dealing burn and organ damage overtime until path is obstructed. If the victim is already star-marked, they will fall asleep for four seconds. Removes Cosmic Runes.
Space Phase	Mask of Madness	Curse of Paralysis	Moonlight Amulette	Unfathomable Curio/Unsealed Arts	Burglar's Finesse	Wave of Desperation	Raw Ritual	Blood Siphon	Void Phase	Carving Knife	Stance of the Torn Champion	Mawed Crucible	Aggressive Spread	Curse of Corrosion	Star Blast	Space Phase
Grants "Space Phase", a spell that allows you to move freely through space. You can only phase in and out when on a space tile or on tiles like lattices and catwalks	Transmute a mask, four candles, a stun baton, and a liver into a Mask of Madness. It deals stamina damage overtime and causes hallucinations to everyone around the wearer. Can be forced on a non believer to make him unable to take it off...	Transmute a left and right leg and a hatchet to curse a member of the crew with leg paralysis for three minutes. If you supply the ritual with an additional item containing the victim's fingerprints or blood, the duration is doubled.	Transmute two glass sheets, a tie, a pair of eyes, and a brain into a Moonlight Amulette. When used on a someone with low sanity, they will go berserk, attacking everyone; otherwise, it will decrease their mood.	Transmute 3 rods, a belt, and a brain into an Unfathomable Curio. This belt can hold knives and other ritual items. It veils you in a conspicuous aura that denies a hit, recharging very slowly out of combat. When examined, causes brain damage and blindness. Transmute a canvas and another item to create one of four paintings, each causing unique effects to those who come across them. You may find a table with the possible paintings below.	Grants "Burglar's Finesse", a single-target spell that steals a random item from your victim's backpack into your hand.	Grants "Wave of Deseration", a spell which may only be cast while restrained, removing your restraints and knocking adjacent people down while also applying the effects of the Mansus Grasp on them. The stress caused by the use of this spell renders you unconscious 12 seconds after casting it.	Transmute eyes, a left arm and a pool of blood into a Raw Prophet. Raw prophets have x-ray vision, a long jaunt, and the ability to increase their vision range. They also can blind foes and create a telepathic network between you and any of your allies. They are weak and fragile, but every consecutive attack will deal increased damage.	Grants "Blood Siphon", a ranged spell that steals a bit of life from your target, healing your bruises and restoring blood. Additionally, you have a chance of transferring wounds you are experiencing to the target.	Grants "Void Phase", a long range blink that allows you to instantly teleport to a targeted location. Teleporting causes AoE damage around you and your targeted location.	Transmute a knife, a glass shard and a piece of paper to create a Carving Knife. The knife, while also being a strong throwing weapon, allows you to create up to 3 carvings on the floor that have various effects on nonbelievers who walk over them. The runes are detailed later in this page.	You gain increased resistance to blood loss from wounds and complete immunity to having limbs dismembered. Additionally, when you fall below 50% of your maximum health, you gained increased resistance to receiving any wounds, and resistance to baton knockdown.	Transmute a table with a water tank to create a Mawed Crucible. The Crucible allows you to create potions of various effects (detailed later in this page). It starts with enough liquid to create 1 potion, but it can be refilled with organs/body parts.	Spreads rust to nearby turfs. Already rusted walls are destroyed.	Transmute wirecutters, a pool of vomit, and a heart to curse a crewmember with 30 seconds of constant vomitting and organ damage. If you supply the ritual with an additional item containing the victim's fingerprints or blood, the duration is quadrupled.	Grants "Star Blast", a spell that fires a projectile that moves very slowly and create a cosmic field on impact. Anyone hit by the projectile will recieve burn damage, a knockdown and a star mark.	Grants "Space Phase", a spell that allows you to move freely through space. You can only phase in and out when on a space tile or on tiles like lattices and catwalks
	Fiery Blade		Moonlight Blade		Opening Blade		Bleeding Steel		Seeking Blade		Swift Blades		Toxic Blade		Cosmic Blade
	Your blade adds firestacks to those you attack.		Your blade now deals brain and sanity damage, causing random hallucinations.		Your blade now has a chance to cause a weeping avulsion on attack.		Your blade causes additional bleeding to those you attack.		You can now use your blade on a distant marked target to move to them and attack them.		Attacking someone with a sundered blade in both hands will now attack with both at once, delivering two attacks in rapid succession. The second attack will be slightly less damaging.		Your blade causes toxic damage to those you attack.		Your blade now deals damage to peoples' organs through cosmic radiation.
Eldritch Coin	Nightwatcher's Rebirth	Ashen Ritual	Ringleaders Rise		Caretaker's Last Refuge	Apetra Vulnera	Lonely Ritual	Cleave	Void Pull	Maid in the Mirror	Furious Steel	Rust Charge	Entropic Plume	Rusted Ritual	Cosmic Expansion	Eldritch Coin
Transmute a sheet of plasma, a diamond and eyes into an Eldritch Coin. The coin will open nearby airlocks if it lands on heads and bolt nearby airlocks (or unbolt bolted airlocks) if it lands on tails. Using it on an airlock consumes the coin and permanently opens the airlock (if it's not bolted). Attempting to flip or use the coin as a non-heretic will deal brute and/or burn damage, depending on the side it lands on.	Grants "Nightwatcher's Rebirth", a spell that drains nearby living people that are engulfed in flames. It heals 10 of each damage type per person and extinguishes you. If a person is in critical condition it finishes them off.	Transmute a pile of ash, a head and a book to summon an Ashman. Ashmen can jaunt, cause bleeding wounds, and can release large waves of fire. They are somewhat fragile, but still strong in combat.	Grants "Ringleaders Rise", a spell that deals brain damage and causes hallucinations, escalating with lower sanity, to everyone in an area. If their sanity is low when hit they will snap and gain the insanity effect of the moonlight amulette. The spell will then half the sanity of anyone hit.		Grants "Caretaker's Last Refuge", a self-cast spell that turns you transparent and pass-through. While under this spell, you may not be harmed, but cannot interact with your hands or spells. This spell can be cancelled by being hit by an anti-magic item, and cannot be cast nearby other living sentient beings.	Grants "Apetra Vulnera", a ranged spell that causes heavy bleeding on all bodyparts above 15 brute damage. Wounds a random limb if none is sufficiently damaged.	Transmute a tail, a stomach, a tongue, a pen and a piece of paper to summon a Stalker. Stalkers can shapeshift into different creatures to blend in, inheriting their stats. They also have the ability to EMP and jaunt, and are strong combatants.	Grants "Cleave", a ranged spell that deals fire damage and grants severe bleeding wounds to the target and those around them.	Grants "Void Pull", an area spell that damages all victims adjacent to you. Nearby people are also knocked down and stunned, and distant victims are dragged closer to you.	Transmute five sheets of titanium, a flash, a suit of armor, and a pair of lungs into a Maid in the Mirror. Maid in the Mirrors are decent combatants that are also able to become incorporeal by entering and exiting reflective surfaces, such as mirrors. They are weakened from being examined by non-heretics, making them ideal for scouting and ambushing.	Grants "Furious Steel", a spell that summons three orbiting knives around you. These knives will protect you from all attacks, but are consumed on use. Additionally, you can click to fire the knives, consuming them but dealing damage and causing bleeding.	Grants "Rust Charge", a charge which must be initiated on a rusted turf, and will destroy any rusted objects you come into contact with	Grants "Entropic Plume", a spell that sends out a disorienting plume of pure entropy that blinds, poisons and makes enemies strike each other. It also rusts any tiles it affects.	Transmute a vomit pool, a head and a book into a Rust Walker. Rust Walkers can shoot large waves of rust and spread rust around them. They also heal on rust. Rust Walkers are somewhat fragile, but strong in combat.	Grants "Cosmic Expansion", a spell that creates a 3x3 area of cosmic fields around you. Nearby beings will also receive a star mark.	Transmute a sheet of plasma, a diamond and eyes into an Eldritch Coin. The coin will open nearby airlocks if it lands on heads and bolt nearby airlocks (or unbolt bolted airlocks) if it lands on tails. Using it on an airlock consumes the coin and permanently opens the airlock (if it's not bolted). Attempting to flip or use the coin as a non-heretic will deal brute and/or burn damage, depending on the side it lands on.
	Ashlord's Rite		The Last Act		Unlock the Labyrinth		Priest’s Final Hymn		Waltz at the End of Time		Maelstrom of Silver		Rustbringer’s Oath		Creators's Gift
	Transmute 3 husked or burning corpses to Ascend. You become immune to environmental dangers. You also gain two spells: One of which surrounds yourself with fire constantly for a minute, and the other sends off a massive wave of fire.		Transmute 3 corpses with over 50 brain damage to Ascend. You gain an aura that slowly drains the sanity of those around you. To the insane ones, it causes brain damage and blindness. On Ascension, a fifth of the crew will turn into your Acolytes at your service and receive a moonlight amulette each.		Transmute 3 corpses without chest organs to Ascend. You gain the ability to turn into empowered eldritch creatures and will create a tear to the Labyrinth's Heart, located at the site of the ritual, from which various eldritch creatures bound to your commands will endless pour.		Transmute 4 corpses to Ascend. Your Grasp ability can create 3 additional ghouls, and the Imperfect Ritual can create 4 additional Voiceless Dead. More importantly, you gain the ability to transform into a Lord of the Night and back at will. You can eat arms to heal in this form.		Transmute 3 corpses in a frozen area to Ascend. You now automatically silence people around you. Additionally, a deadly snow storm is summoned around you and everywhere you walk. The storm does not harm you or your summoned minions.		Transmute 3 headless corpses to Ascend. You have a constantly regenerating ring of knives which will protect you but are consumed on use. Your Sundered Blades will also deal much more damage, and gain slight lifesteal. Additionally, you will also gain full stun and wound immunity, and your Furious Steel spell will have a reduced cooldown.		Transmute 3 corpses on the Bridge of the station to Ascend. While on rust tiles, your healing is tripled and you become resistant to a wide variety of effects (stuns, shoves, shocks, pressure, temperature, airloss, piercing, explosions, radiation, etc). Rust also spreads from the ritual's rune, covering the station slowly.		Transmute 3 corpses with bluespace dust in their body Ascend. Upon Ascension, you become the owner of a Star Gazer. You will be able to command the Star Gazer with Alt+click. You can also give it commands through speech. The Star Gazer is a strong mob that can even break down reinforced walls. Star Touch can now teleport you to your Star Gazer when Star Touch is used in hand.

Optional Knowledge

There are also a few optional, dead end knowledges you can research to help improve your ability to progress towards ascension.

Name	Requirement	Description
The Relentless Heartbeat	Mask of Madness, Raw Prophet, Void Phase, Stance of the Torn Champion, Aggressive Spread, Star Blast, or Burglar's Finesse	Allows you to transmute a harebell, a book, and any jumpsuit while standing on a rune to reroll your sacrifice targets. This grants you five new sacrifice targets (not guaranteed to be different from your old ones, though). This will never give you targets that you've already sacrificed before or dead targets.
Lionhunter Rifle Ammunition	Lionhunter's Rifle	Allows you to transmute hide from any animal with three ballistic ammunition casings, such as shotgun shots (used or unused) to create another clip of ammunition - three rounds - for the Lionhunter Rifle.

Carvings

Carvings are special runes that can be etched into the floor using the Carving Knife, an item gained from researching the Tier 2 Void-Blade side path. These carvings act as traps that trigger when a victim steps onto one. You can have up to a maximum of 3 carvings placed at any time, and having carvings placed grants you an ability to destroy all carvings should you ever need to replace them.

Icon	Name	Description
	Alert Carving	Gives you a message every time someone walks over it with their name and area. This carving has a very low alpha value in-game, making it very hard to see. It is not destroyed when someone walks over it.
	Grasping Carving	When walked over, the victim is stunned for five seconds and their legs receive heavy damage.
	Maddening Carving	When walked over, applies dizzyness, jiterryness, temporary blindness, confusion , stuttering, slurring and a large amount of stamina damage to the victim.

Crucible Potions

Crucible Potions (or brews) are unique consumable items that are created from a Mawed Crucible, a structure gained from researching the Tier 2 Blade-Rust sidepath. Each kind of potion grants a special buff to you once used. A crucible can make up to 5 individual potions before needing to be refilled with body parts or organs.

Icon	Name	Description	Buff Icon
	Brew of Crucible Soul	Allows you to phase through walls for 15 seconds. After the time runs out, you get teleported to your original location.
	Brew of Dusk and Dawn	Allows you to see clearly through walls and objects for 60 seconds.
	Brew of Wounded Soldier	For the next 60 seconds, each wound you have will heal you: Minor wounds heal 1 of it's damage type per second, moderate heal 3 and critical heal 6. Non-burn wounds will also restore lost blood. Additionally, you will no longer be slowed down from damage.

Unsealed Arts

Unsealed Arts are unique paintings crafted upon transmutation of a canvas and an item of your choice, the knowledge for which you may obtain from researching the Tier 2 Moon-Lock sidepath. Depending on the item you pick, your paintings will have different effects to both Heretics and Heathens. Heathens who come across your paintings will be inflicted with a curable severe trauma simply by being in their presence. If they examine a painting they have observed, its effects will be mitigated for a few minutes. Heretics may examine the paintings in order to obtain benevolent effects. The Great Chaparral over Rolling Hills immediately spreads Kudzu once placed. All these paintings have a high, collective cooldown for examining.

Icon	Name	Item	Effect to Heathens	Effect to Heretics
	The Sister and He Who Wept	Eyes	Hallucinate that everyone is a Heretic.	Buffs your mood.
	The First Desire	Bodypart	Increases their hunger and makes them like meat/gore while disliking vegetables.	Drops an organ or bodypart at the painting.
	Great Chaparral over Rolling Hills	Food	Spreads Kudzu by their feet.	Gives you a poppy or harebell.
	Lady out of Gates	Gloves	Scratch themselves (it will stop upon dropping the jumpsuit).	Removes all of your mutations.
	Climb over the Rusted Mountain	Trash	Rust the floor wherever they walk.	Buffs your mood.

Tips

• Unlike most other solo antagonists, Heretics start weak but grow stronger over time. It would be best not to attract too much attention to yourself until you unlock more powerful spells and equipment.
• Many unlockable transmutations require body parts or whole corpses. You can get these from your victims, as well as by raiding the Morgue, or with the correct access, turning monkeys into catatonic humans.
• Even if you never fight other heretics, you're inherently at odds with them. Each influence can only be harvested once, so the heretic that goes the fastest and grabs the most influences first has to do less killing and sacrificing to reach their ascensions.
• Your Mansus Grasp will temporarily garble the speech of people who you use it on. This can let you get away with murder while comms are online, but be careful - it's not foolproof!
• Influences can spawn in almost any location on the station, ranging from the main hallways and public restrooms to Command staff offices and restricted security areas in the Brig. It's best to check every area you can access, public and department.
• If you can't find any influences by peaking in windows, try getting to a Security Camera Console either breaking into a security post or by building your own. Simply cycle through the cameras and make note of any influences you see. Do watch your back while doing this, you don't want to be busted by an officer while you're distracted!
• As a Heretic, access is more important than ever! The more areas you can easily access, the more influences you'll be able to snag. Getting all access can be a godsend, and knowing how to either hack or talk your way into other departments can help you beat other Heretics to the free points.
• A Paramedic ID is very valuable, as it gives at least basic access to a wide variety of airlocks across the station. Having one of these (either by being a paramedic yourself or stealing it from a coworker) makes it that much easier to reach influences.
• Drawing new runes requires you to stand still for a very long time. Draw your runes beforehand to avoid having to hold on to a body for much longer, and to leave quicker. You might not have time to draw a rune if Security is hot on your tail.
• The Mawed Crucible can be wrenched/unwrenched by using your Codex or your Mansus Grasp on it, allowing you to relocate if necessary.
• You can create two blades as most Heretics, or three as flesh / five as blade. Carry an extra in your bag to break in case you need to escape from a sticky situation. You can also carry blades on your Eldritch Armor and Void Cloak!
• The Carving Knife, while useful for making defensive traps, is also a robust throwing weapon with high embed chance. Make a few of them for a good ranged weapon!
• Having Aristocrat's Way researched allows you to spacewalk with only a firefighting suit and helmet, as they are pressure resistant. Useful if your job doesn't have access to actual spacesuits/hardsuits.
• Entropic Plume causes any living mob caught in the plume to randomly strike other nearby mobs, which includes Beepsky and other Securitrons. Use sec's robot pets against them!
• Even after ascension, you aren't completely invincible. Don't get too hasty and end up eating a barrage of deadly lasers to the face.
• Pierced Realities cause harm to Heathens depending on how you interact with them. Examining them as a Heathen deals 10 brain damage. Interacting with them as a Heathen has a 1/4 chance of your arm being eaten up by it. Interacting with them as a Heathens using telekinesis will cause your head to literally explode in a very flashy manner.
• When starting out, you may want to rely on certain makeshift weapons. You can craft flashlight eyes for use in certain rituals, and create shivs by wrapping cloth (cut up bedsheets) around a shard of glass to transmute your blade.
• Live or die, victims you send to the shadow realm will never remember that you did it. This means that for avoiding detection, the most important thing is to make sure nobody else knows about you.
• Your Ritual of Knowledge is a great way to get a ton of points without drawing too much attention (probably.) Completing it as soon as possible is a good way to get a lot of power fast.
• By default, nothing on you is incriminating. If security suspects you, but can't actually pin anything heretical on you, you might be able to pass off as a Traitor instead.
• Monkeys, and monkey-humans (created by giving a monkey mutadone) make for great, usually non-suspicious sources of organs or corpses for your heretical rituals.
• Security about to check out your ritual hideout? Remember your grasp can instantly destroy a circle, leaving no evidence behind you were up to no good. But be careful - It'll go on cooldown after, and people may hear the cast sound.
• Remember that other players can hear your Living Heart, too. Don't use it in public unless people are distracted.
• Ashen Shift and Void Phase make for incredibly powerful escape tools. If you have either of these, it might be wise to have an Amber Focus somewhere on you at all times for emergencies.
• Fear the syringe gun. Mute Toxin will single-handedly shut down your ability to cast your spells.
• Summoning rituals can be incredibly powerful if you get a good player on your side.
• Most summoned monsters will drop the components used to create them on death. While having them to die is not ideal, you can easily grab the parts and summon another.
• Shattered Risen ghouls are strong enough to bash open locked lockers and airlocks.
• Furious Steel will allow you to melee attack while it's active. Use it for a leg up in close quarters combat!

Jobs on /tg/station
	Command	Captain, Head of Personnel, Head of Security, Chief Engineer, Research Director, Chief Medical Officer, Quartermaster, Bridge Assistant
	Security	Head of Security, Security Officer, Warden, Detective, Veteran Security Advisor, Prisoner
	Engineering	Chief Engineer, Station Engineer, Atmospheric Technician
	Science	Research Director, Geneticist, Scientist, Roboticist
	Medical	Chief Medical Officer, Medical Doctor, Paramedic, Chemist, Coroner
	Supply	Quartermaster, Cargo Technician, Shaft Miner, Bitrunner, Cargorilla
	Service	Head of Personnel, Janitor, Bartender, Cook, Botanist, Clown, Mime, Chaplain, Curator, Assistant, Lawyer, Psychologist
	Non-human	AI, Cyborg, Positronic Brain, Drone, Personal AI, Construct, Imaginary Friend, Split Personality, Ghost
	Antagonists	Traitor, Malfunctioning AI, Changeling, Nuclear Operative, Blood Cultist, Heretic, Spy, Revolutionary, Wizard, Family, Blob, Abductor, Holoparasite, Xenomorph, Spider, Revenant, Morph, Nightmare, Space Ninja, Slaughter Demon, Pirate, Sentient Disease, Obsessed, Fugitives, Hunters, Space Dragon, Elite Mobs, Sentient Slime, Regal Rat, Paradox Clone
	Special	CentCom Official, Death Squad Officer, Emergency Response Officer, Chrono Legionnaire, Highlander, Ian, Lavaland or Space Role, CentCom Intern

Game Modes on /tg/station
Traitor	Changeling	Nuclear Emergency	Revolution	Blood Cult	Wizard	Heretic	Other Modes