The Heretic is a very uniquely strange character in Risk of Rain 2, one not about defeating bosses or blowing oneself up, but rather collecting a specific set of items. To become a Heretic, players will need to pick up the set of four special Lunar items: Visions of Heresy, Strides of Heresy, Essence of Heresy, and Hooks of Heresy. These will replace your current primary, utility, special, and secondary with strong Heretic abilities.
Probably the best way to get these is from the Artifact of Command, where you can choose what rarity of items you get, so targeting Lunar items is way easier. You could go to the Bazaar Between Time and then access the Lunar Bud to open it up; sometimes, on regular levels, you will find the Lunar Bud. Keep in mind that opening Lunar Buds requires Lunar Coins.
Remember, with the use of their abilities, you are not necessarily going to turn completely into a Heretic; items of Lunar Heresy will just change your already existing skills and give you the ability to play with different combinations of them. But don't forget to be careful with the choice of items, because they might break already working synergies with other abilities or items.
For those who get straight to the point, some community-made mods are available that will let you directly select Heretic as a survivor from the character select screen.
The Heretic is an in-game survivor who conveys delayed damage with strategic play, specializing in Risk of Rain 2. It's hella durable and able to be a force to be told on the battlefield with the highest base health of all playable characters. But with its negative health regeneration, there needs to be careful management as it constantly loses health over time.
Its abilities complement such a playstyle: Hungering Gaze fires shards that track a target and explode after a delay, accurate targeting, and area-of-effect damage. Slicing Maelstrom charges into a mighty projectile that would damage and root enemies, ideal for crowd control and burst damage. Shadowfade offers this character a temporary invincibility with additional movement speed and healing; hence, the ability comes in super handy in bad positioning or while escaping.
Its passive is Ruin, which marks enemies with stacks that explode in a burst of heavy damage when activated. It's an ability that promotes a rather thoughtful pace because players must manage their Ruin stacks with finesse if they want to realize the most damage possible. Put together, the Heretic is a durable, delayed-damage dealer but strategic in a way that's very challenging yet rewarding to master.
