"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 some magic and battle. Grab those influences, make some sacrifices, 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, aside from completing their objectives, is to gain power points to unlock their abilities.
You can increase your power in two ways: harvesting magic energies from the eldritch influences around the station, or by sacrificing any crew members your dark patrons may hunger for. To aid this task, you start with two items and a spell:
The Codex Cicatrix, used to draw runes, collect influences and research new abilities.
The Living Heart, used to find and sacrifice your targets.
Mansus Grasp, a modular spell that, without upgrades, lets you touch a target to cause knockdown and light burn damage on a 15 second cooldown. As you grow in power, your Grasp will gain additional effects.
All of these are critical to your ascension, so don't lose them, and keep them hidden from security!
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 at the start of the round. Initially, influences flicker with bursts of energy similar to electricity, have randomized names, and can only be seen by heretics. To harvest an influence, simply hit it with your codex and remain still for a short period. After being harvested, the influence vanish temporally. When it reappears it will lose it's electric-like bursts, gain a yellow glow with a rainbow border originating from the middle, change their name to pierced reality, and 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.
Heretical Research
Once you have some power points, it's time to research! Simply use your codex in-hand to open the research menu and spend your points on abilities. 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 playstyle.
Transmutation is the Key
Eventually, you'll need to start using proper magics. By hitting any empty tile with your codex, you'll begin to draw a transmutation 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 hitting them with your codex again, and 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.
The most important use of your rune is sacrificing. To get a sacrifice a (dead) target, drop your living heart onto a rune and transmute it with nothing else present, making sure your codex is in your inventory. You'll be given a choice between three targets, and can then squeeze your living heart by using it in-hand to get a vague idea of where your chosen target is. Kill them, drag them back to a rune, and transmute their body together with the living heart to messily sacrifice them and earn two power points.
Between influences and sacrifices, you'll eventually unlock more and more abilities; the last ability will be your Final Ascension, which guarantees a greentext and gives you massively powerful benefits or transformations. Once you've ascended, all that's left is to unleash your fury upon the crew! Use all of your powers to slaughter everybody who dares stand up to you, or just bask in your dark glory.
The Heretic Blade
The Heretic 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. If you lose your blade, simply transmute a new one. You can also break your blade by activating it in-hand to teleport to a safe location in an emergency!
Paths of Decay
There are different aspects of the arcane to which you can devote yourself. While all rituals and spells can be learned, your first and most important choice will decide how your weapon 
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, crowd control and being a slippery fucker that can jaunt while handcuffed. It grants the most forgiving abilities for a new heretic, such as the aforementioned jaunt and a potential mass heal, and is highly recommended for first-timers. It doesn't have the most powerful abilities until the later game, but it is still enjoyable. Ascending gives you the power to burn down the station in a living tornado of flame. |
| Path of Flesh | Principle of Hunger | The Path of Flesh focuses on resurrection and summoning player-controlled minions. Heretics on this path gain almost no offensive or defensive abilities and rely heavily on stockpiling corpses, but Flesh offers many fun and powerful tools to those who can make it to the end, making it the hardest 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. The path grants the ability to silence and lower the temperature of targets, opening the window to silent kills immediately with no other items or chemicals required. Void early on gives you full immunity to cold temperatures, a fully invisible armored cloak (with pockets!), and later a targeted blink that damages anything nearby. Void has access to a lot of strong transmuted items but requires smart use to realize their full potential, making the path one of moderate difficulty. Ascending silences those around you and makes you the eye of a deadly blizzard. |
| 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 gives you abilities that can one shot silicons, fry any electronics, destroy any turfs and take down any non-living being, while creating rusted tiles and healing while standing on them. Rust also grants access to some pretty powerful spells in the area of defense, making it a difficulty middle ground. Ascending grants you unparalleled healing and survivability. |
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.
The Heretic Ability Tree
The Heretic Ability Tree | Path of Ash | Path of Flesh | Path of Void | Path of Rust |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Locksmith's Secret | Principle of Hunger | Glimmer of Winter | Blacksmith's Tale |
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 Follow the ashen path. Transmute a knife with a match for an ashen blade. |
 Follow the flesh path. Transmute a knife and a pool of blood into a flesh blade. |
 Follow the void path. Transmute a knife in a sub-zero temperature into a void blade. |
 Follow the rust path. Transmute a knife and a trash item into a rusty blade. |
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| Grasp of Ash | Grasp of Flesh | Grasp of Void | Grasp of Rust |
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| Your mansus grasp now temporarily blinds the people you use it on. |
Your mansus grasp now raises dead players into ghouls, ONCE per player. They look like husks and have 25 HP. |
Your mansus grasp now temporarily mutes your victim and also lowers their body temperature. |
Your mansus grasp now deal 500 damage to inorganic matter. Rusts any surface it's used on, and destroys any surface that is already rusty. Floors and machines can only be attacked if you are on Боевой режим  Включается при помощи клавиши 4, выключается при помощи клавиши 1 или может быть переключен при помощи клавиши F при стандартной раскладке. Нажатие левой кнопки на людей пустой рукой с включённым боевым режимом приведёт к удару  или приведёт к помощи  если он отключен. Также позволяет вам не меняться местами с человеком или толкнуть вас если вы столкнулись..
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| Priest's Ritual | Ashen Shift | Ashen Eyes | Imperfect Ritual | Void Cloak | Aristocrat's Way | Armorer’s ritual | Leeching Walk | Priest's Ritual
|
 Transmute a tank of water into a flask(50u) of eldritch water. Heals a bit of everything, harms others a bit in everything. |
 A jaunt spell that makes you immaterial and pass through walls. Very short duration, you will only manage 5-6 tiles in a straight line. |
 Transmute a shard of glass with eyes organ to produce an amulet of heatvision. You can see better in the dark, and can see living beings through walls. |
 Transmute a corpse and a poppy into a voiceless death: mute ghouls with 50hp, but no voice. Limit of 2 at a time. |
 Transmute a glass shard, any item of clothing that you can fit over your uniform and any type of bedsheet. Creates a cloak that 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 somewhat armored. DOES NOT MAKE YOU INVISIBLE, JUST ITSELF. |
 You no longer need to breath, and become immune to cold temperatures. You can still take damage from lack of pressure. |
 Transmute a table (built) and a gasmask to create a suit of eldritch robes. The robes more or less halves damage received. A hood is included as well. |
 You slowly heal and gain passive resistance to stuns while standing on rusted tiles. |
Transmute a tank of water into a flask(50u) of eldritch water. Heals a bit of everything, harms others a bit in everything.
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| Mark of Ash | Mark of Flesh | Mark of Void | Mark of Rust |
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| Your grasp applies ash mark on hit. Attack a marked person with your blade to deal stamina damage and burning. The burning spreads to other people, becoming a bit stronger each time. |
Your grasp applies flesh mark on hit. Attack a marked person with your blade to make them bleed profusely. |
Your grasp applies void mark on hit. Attack a marked person with your blade to lower their body temperature significantly. |
Your grasp applies rust mark on hit. Attack a marked person with your blade to deal 0-200 damage to items they are carrying. |
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| Curse of Corrosion | Mask of Madness | Curse of Paralysis | Raw Ritual | Carving Knife | Void Phase | Mawed Crucible | Aggressive Spread | Curse of Corrosion
|
 Transmute wirecutters, a pool of vomit, a heart, and an item that the victim touched with bare hands to curse them with 2 minutes of vomiting and slight organ damage. |
 Transmute a mask, a candle and a pair of eyes to create a Mask of Madness. It causes passive stamina damage and 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, a hatchet and an item that the victim touched with bare hands to curse them with 5 minutes of leg paralysis. |
 Transmute eyes, a left arm, right arm and a pool of blood into a Raw Prophet. Raw prophets have increased seeing range, as well as Xray. But are very fragile and weak. |
 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 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 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 5 potions, but it can be refilled with organs/body parts. |
 Spreads rust to nearby turfs. Destroys already rusted walls. |
Transmute wirecutters, a pool of vomit, a heart, and an item that the victim touched with bare hands to curse them with 2 minutes of vomiting and slight organ damage.
|
| Fiery Blade | Bleeding Steel | Seeking Blade | Toxic Blade |
| ||||
| Your blade adds firestacks to those you 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. |
Your blade causes toxic damage to those you attack. |
|||||
| Cleave | Fiery Rebirth | Ashen Ritual | Lonely Ritual | Blood Siphon | Void Pull | Rusted Ritual | Entropic Plume | Cleave
|
 A ranged spell that gives severe bleeding wounds to the target and those around them. |
 A spell that drains nearby living people that are engulfed in flames. It heals 10 of each damage type per person. 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 have ashen shift, and a spell that lets them send off a great wave of fire. |
 Transmute a pair of eyes, a candle, a pen and a piece of paper to summon a Stalker. Stalkers can shapeshift into different creatures to blend in, inheriting their stats. |
 A touch spell that steals a bit of life from others to heal you. |
 A spell that pulls all nearby people closer to you and damages those already close. If they are 4 tiles or closer they are also knocked down and a micro-stun is applied. |
 Transmute a vomit pool, a head and a book to summon a Rust Walker. Rust walkers can walk around and shoot waves of rust. |
 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. |
A ranged spell that gives severe bleeding wounds to the target and those around them.
|
| Ashlord's Rite | Priest’s Final Hymn | Waltz at the End of Time | Rustbringer’s Oath |
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 Transmute 3 corpses to Ascend. You become immune to fire/cold and space. You also gain two spells: to surround yourself with fire for a minute, and to send off a massive fire wave like Ashmen. |
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 Transmute 3 corpses to Ascend. You gain the ability to transform into a Lord of the night and back at will. |
|
 Transmute 3 corpses to Ascend. You now automatically silence people around you. Additionally, a deadly snow storm is summoned around you. The storm does not harm you or your summoned minions. |
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 Transmute 3 corpses 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. |
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Carvings
Carvings are special runes that can be etched into the floor using the Carving Knife, an item gained from researching the Tier 2 Flesh-Void 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. |
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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 Void-Rust side path. 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. | 
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Brew of Dusk and Dawn | Allows you to see clearly through walls and objects for 60 seconds. | 
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Brew of Wounded Soldier | For the next 60 seconds each wound will heal you. Minor wounds heal 1 of it's damage type per second, moderate heal 3 and critical heal 6. You also become immune to damage slowdown. | 
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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.
- If you ever lose your Living Heart, you can transmute a new one by combining a normal heart, a poppy (check the chapel!) and a blood splatter.
- If you lose your codex, you can make a new one by transmuting a bible, a pair of eyes, a pen, and some human skin (better hope the chef will let you use the gibber).
- A good idea is to make a second Living Heart/Codex and hide them somewhere you can easily access later. If you manage to lose one of these items, you'll now have a backup set.
- If your Living Heart target turns out to be a bad choice, you can make a new Living Heart to select a new target! Each Heart you make tracks their own individual target, allowing you to have multiple sacrifice targets at once.
- If your Living Heart says that your target is "on a different plane of existence!", that either means that your target is not on the same zlevel as you (check lavaland) or is hiding inside a locker/crate. In these situations, it would be best to locate a Proximity Crew Pinpointer from Medbay or Medbay Storage in order to estimate their location, assuming they have their suit sensors on. If all else fails, try and find them manually or just make a new heart.
- If your transmutations are failing, make sure your codex is on your person!
- 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.
- 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 before hand 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.
- For the first one or two sacrifices, leaving your blades, heart and book somewhere hidden and killing using other weapons is an option for hiding the fact you're a Heretic early on. Even if you do get caught by security, there wouldn't be any items that immediately tell security that you're a Heretic. That way, you can use your abilities to escape the permabrig if you end up in there.
- The Mawed Crucible can be wrenched/unwrenched by using your Codex on it, allowing you to relocate it if needed.
- There is no limit to the amount of blades to can make. Carry a few extra in your bag to break in case you need to escape from a sticky situation.
- 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 non-heretics depending on how you interact with them. Examining them as a non-heretic deals 10 brain damage. Interacting with them as a non-heretic has a 1/4 chance of your arm being eaten up by it. Interacting with them as a non-heretic 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.
 Игровые режимы на /tg/station
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