Heretic

Escaped : ..and so they left, bitterly avenged and deeply lost.
Vanished : ...and so they vanished, two stories ending as one.

**Kur-skan, the Heretic** is a secret playable character in Risk of Rain 2.

The Heretic *cannot* be selected from the character selection screen at the start of a run. Instead, she must be transformed into by holding all 4 Heresy items at once.

The items in the set, and their respective skills, are:

* - Hungering Gaze
* - Slicing Maelstrom
* - Shadowfade
* - Ruin

Along with these skills, the Heretic has extremely high base health, can triple jump, moves slightly faster than any other Survivor, and has a considerably higher base damage stat. However, she has *negative* health regeneration, causing her to lose health over time instead of recovering it.

## Skills

All

 Cooldown
 Description
 * This skill exists in all four of the Heretic's skill slots, but is usually not seen by the player due to being overridden by the four Heresy skills that are necessary to transform into her.
* Has no meaningful effect at all, emitting only a quiet squawk when used.
* Can only be used if a Cleansing Pool, Shrine of Order or  causes the Heretic to lose one of her Heresy items.

Primary

 Cooldown
 Proc Coefficient
 Description
 * The initial hit deals 5% base damage.
* Once the cooldown period is finished, all stacks are recharged at once.
* Each shot will reset the cooldown period back to the full 2 seconds.
* Changes the firing of  turrets.
* Replaces both of  selected primary skills. However, it does not replace the second primary while in Power Mode.
* Picking up an Ammo Box from a  will grant the full capacity.
* Getting a  will allow the player to only have a 0.5 second cooldown between shots.
* Takes about 1.29 seconds to fire 12 shots.

*See  for more details*

Secondary

 Cooldown
 Description
 * Correction: The in-game description of 175% damage per second is incorrect. The blade maelstrom can hit up to 5 times per second, dealing 175% damage per hit for 875% damage per second total.
* Charging up the projectile increases the initial launch velocity of the projectile, charging faster with increased attack speed. The projectile is automatically launched at full charge.
* Once thrown, the projectile rapidly decelerates and will usually come to a halt before it explodes on its timer.
* The projectile penetrates enemies and players but bounces off of terrain.
* The ending explosion has a radius of 14m and applies the  debuff to enemies, rooting them.

*See  for more details*

Utility

 Cooldown
 Description
 * Correction: The in-game description of healing 25% max health is incorrect. Instead, it gives 1.3% max health per tick for 14 ticks, for a total of 18.2% max health per activation, per stack.
* The player can fly during the skill's duration if activating it in midair.
* The invulnerable period cannot be cancelled early.
* While invulnerable, the player can still interact with things and activate their equipment, but cannot use any skills.
* The player's hitbox is removed while invulnerable, so even a  implosion can be avoided.

*See  for more details*

Special

 Cooldown
 Description
 * Multiple enemies can be affected by  simultaneously.
* The chance to inflict Ruin is multiplied by the proc coefficient of the attack, but it will always last for the full 10 seconds. Damage with a proc coefficient of 0, such as , will never add any Ruin.
* All stacks of Ruin are refreshed when a new stack is applied to that target.
* When the skill is activated, one shot is fired at each enemy suffering from Ruin. These shots penetrate terrain, and have a Proc Coefficient of 1.0
* While the skill is on cooldown, the player cannot inflict Ruin on enemies.
* Minions such as Drones will not inflict Ruin.

*See  for more details*

## Behaviors

*For an explanation of how these behaviors are implemented read about Enemy AI. This section only applies when the character is controlled by AI.*

The Heretic uses the exact same copy of behaviors as . Because of this the Heretic will never be able to use  and will use  in the same Commando uses his utility rolls without taking into consideration if healing is urgent or necessary.

## Tips

* Well-timed usage of Shadowfade is key to surviving as the Heretic. It provides healing to offset her negative regeneration, and invulnerability to ensure she doesn't lose more HP than she already does naturally.
	+ Stacking  increases the duration of invulnerability and total HP recovered.
* The Heretic's negative health regeneration is *amplified* by the . Without other items to offset the higher HP degeneration, this can swiftly lead to her death.
	+ Despite the  description claiming that it increases base regeneration, it does not actually amplify the Heretic's negative regeneration. Instead, it grants her a flat 0.1 (+ 0.02 per level) HP/s per stack.
	+ Additionally, the Heretic's negative regeneration will be reduced or amplified depending on the difficulty, with   Monsoon reducing the health degenerated per tick and   Drizzle amplifying the health degeneration.

* Obtaining at least two  will offset the negative health regeneration, and obtaining a third will allow the Heretic to heal normally again. This is only the case after avoiding damage for a sufficient period, which is easier with Shadowfade.

* Equipping a  at level 6 and above will offset the negative regeneration, with even more extra healing the higher level the player is.
* Obtaining  will completely remove the Heretic's negative regeneration, at the cost of turning all her health into shields.
	+ This is also the case when equipping the , although this is much more rare.

* The Heretic's negative regeneration reduces her health directly and is not considered taking damage. As such, it cannot be reduced by armor or the , and does not activate  or .
	+ However, this also means that it does not inhibit shield buildup.
	+ If health is reduced to less than 25% via health degeneration, it will not trigger the effects of either  or .
	+ The player should be mindful if they can consistently maintain high levels or barrier with , as it will be harder to notice if the health is dangerously low. The portion of the barrier that overlaps with the health bar behind it will have a darker shade.
	+ If the player's health reaches zero, they will die regardless of how much shield or barrier they have left.
* Since the Heretic's triple jumps are considered base jumps, each one is affected by , allowing for significant vertical and horizontal movement.

* Activating a Shrine of Order or Cleansing Pool can remove Heresy items. When this happens, the Heretic loses the skills corresponding to the missing Heresy items, and they are replaced with the non-functional Nevermore skill. If unlucky with a Shrine of Order, the Heretic may lose *all* skills and become unable to directly attack.
	+ Notably, the  will still activate when using the Nevermore in Heretic's primary skill slot (when the  are lost).

* Selecting  at the start of the game and transforming him into the Heretic will allow her to use  to destroy projectiles, as the Microbots are not lost when Captain transforms.
	+ Keep in mind that after Captain has become the Heretic, any newly repaired drones or turrets will *not* be given Microbots, as that is a result of Captain's passive skill and not the item itself.

* If the Artifact of Glass is enabled or the player has any , it is highly advised they do *not* become the Heretic. Her health degeneration is a flat amount, rather than a percentage of her health, unlike the healing from Shadowfade. As a result, lowering her maximum health too much makes her unable to outpace her degeneration with Shadowfade.

* Due to the Heretic's negative regeneration, she is especially vulnerable to fall damage. If the player fails to jump or use Shadowfade before hitting the ground from a long fall, her HP will become 1 and she will die instantly.
	+ Keep in mind that Shadowfade only removes Heretic's hitbox and does not prevent direct damage. For example, if the player neglects to use Shadowfade during a long fall, Heretic will still receive potentially lethal fall damage.

## Lore

```
A blue flash appeared in one of the storage bays of the Contact Light. The chaos ensuing on the ship was a perfect distraction.

As soon as Kur-skan stepped out the portal she ducked into a sprint. She had no time. She weaved between gunfire and fireballs, between blasts of Vagrant energy and on-board security systems. They paid no mind to the feathered figure as she darted through closing blast doors.

She flew quickly down the halls of the ship. Despite it being her first time onboard a human vessel, she could sense the electromagnets in the walls – and where they all joined. She corked right, shooting into the ventilation shafts with a bang.

The captain barely had a chance to see her before she blasted sideways out into the control room. She tore out two windblades as he reached for his pistol. The captain fell to the ground in intervals.

Her momentum crashed her into the control panels, both feet digging deep into monitors. She didn’t need those. Nimble, clawed fingers began ripping across keypads. She quickly split and rewired components, reaching into her feathered pouches for more bridges and other electronics. Various capacitors fell onto the floor. This ship was big, but not complex – and more importantly, it could still fly. But she had to go fast, or he –

And before she could finish her thought, he appeared in a flash of thunder. Blue and green light reflected off of his sword, cascading around the bridge. A cape fluttered, and Providence landed lightly on his feet.

Kur-skan bent her head backwards over her body, hands still tearing at panels. He was much faster than she expected. But maybe he would –

Her last thoughts were interrupted instantly by a crystalline blade.
```

## Version History

Survivors of the Void Update
* (Undocumented) Fixed an interaction where an ice explosion from a  can trigger multiple times on a single Heretic.

PS4 & Xbox One Patch
* Bug Fixes
	+ Solved an issue where the game would freeze during the last  phase as the Heretic.

PC Patch v1.1.1.2
* Bug Fixes
	+ Fixed the secret survivor dying instantly if she got the  elite buff
	+ Fixed  not working on characters without the display (i.e Heretic)
	+ Fixed  not working on characters without the display (i.e Heretic)

## Trivia

* The Heretic has the highest base health and base damage of any Survivor, at 440 and 18 respectively. She also has a base speed of 8 m/s, which is 1 m/s faster than all other Survivors.
* The  has several unique interactions during his fight:
	+ At the beginning of the 4th phase while absorbing items, he will *not* take the Heresy items and the Heretic will not revert to the previous Survivor.
	+ He has unique dialogue when the the Heretic has the : "THE HERETIC… THE GUARDIAN… HOW? WHO PULLS YOUR STRINGS, VERMIN?"
	+ Upon killing the Heretic, he will say either "Die again, Heretic," or "Return to pieces, Heretic," referring to how she was eviscerated and how her eyes (), arms (), legs (), and heart () were each scattered across "the farthest depths of the Moon."
* The Heretic's Nevermore skill is a reference to the poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.
* The ending phrases for the Heretic seem to be referencing the fact that she is actually two distinct beings: Kur-skan the Heretic, and the player's previous Survivor that is currently inhabiting her body.
* The Heretic seems to be a deformed .
* Completing an   Eclipse run as the Heretic will unlock the next Eclipse level for the originally picked Survivor.
	+ However, completing a Monsoon run as the Heretic will *not* unlock the mastery skin for the original Survivor.