im considering a heretical playthrough.

[Desktop]

some spoilers ahead
considering you get stabbed by a deamon infused blade at the start of the game it feels clear to me that the main character is compromised (i mean the same exact thing happened to Horus). I figured for my next playthrough id run with it. Is it better to go full heretic from the start or to switch sides part way through the story? Like do an iconoclast run and slowly corrupt myself. there are some things im going to need to do to make the run work like keep the shards at the beggining. Are there any other plot points i need to keep in mind? i was thinking about leaving argenta in Commorragh but if im constantly choosing heretical then should i get rid of her sooner? Same with Henrix im not sure how i should handle him. Play nice until later in the plot maybe. What order should i do Dargonus, Kiva gamma and Janus?

[Lord_Eol]

I did it once before but then I bugged out in Chapter 5 so never completed. TBH it's the worst of the three arcs from the perspective of plot, gear, and power. They already mentioned a future DLC will be more alignment heavy so I read that to mean they are going to expand them all out and make them more interesting / unique. It came up when folk pointed out it's impossible to get alignment level 5 in most (all?) of them and a lot of early decisions expects you to be WAY hire up in the alignment level than you can possibly be at that time even min/mazing your choices.

[Novia]

While the new DLC content has added more reputation pulls for heresy, and even new ways for it to be expressed, like with all convictions it's generally better to fully commit to a pathway whenever you can, otherwise Act 4 onwards will be a lot of missed checks.

This is particularly true for Heretic as it can be awhile between events that award significant amounts of reputation. There's typically enough in the base game content alone to at least get one level out of another conviction too, but that's usually very late-game due to how often you need to prioritise heretical choices. So in general I'd advise caution with any dialogue that allows you to choose a non-reputation awarding option (the first scene past the prologue springs to mind here).

Wouldn't worry too much about companions, that said I'm unsure if there's a corruption path yet for the more dogmatically aligned (Cassia doesn't count despite her alignment), so a safe bet is to assume they might not be in the endgame for you, but nothing special is required of you in regards to this.

[Pierogolepca]

I haven't played the DLC yet but prior to that, it's best to go almost full Hereticus or else you risk not getting enough alignment points for key choices later on. This could of course be amended by playing with a guide, but where's the fun in that.

As for your companions and a Hereticus run, most don't matter that much BUT:
- Keep Idira alive, her Commorragh and companion quest in Act 4 are real nice
- Keep Heinrix alive
- Keep Yrliet alive, it gets quite cool with her later on.

[Desktop]

Ok thanks for the replies.
So its like mass effect 2 where you need to go all in. I was split between iconoclast and dogmattic but it didnt seem like much of an issue for me for my first playthrough. I can see how it can be a problem here. I could always edit my alignment with toybox so im at a high heretic level at the start. Id be able to choose whatever dialog i wanted then. My character could act with good intentions. like taking the refugess in act 1 and letting cultists on the ship, then later succumb to the entity in the blade.

[The Sylvan Learning Center]

Heretical path sucks.

people ignore your heresy, and it makes no sense.

It makes any immersion impossible.

[Desktop]

Originally posted by The Sylvan Learning Center:

Heretical path sucks.

people ignore your heresy, and it makes no sense.

It makes any immersion impossible.

this is what im trying to avoid. I want to try this realistically, im not going to be screaming death to the emporer right off the bat. I want to wait until the time is right. Maybe even find a plot point where it makes sense for the main character to fall to chaos. I want to corrupt subtly, you know the path to hell is paved by good intentions.

[Lord_Eol]

"people ignore your heresy, and it makes no sense."

I don't think so, I think it's more the Imperium is so messed up that often heresy is interchangable with normal short of open heresy. I think the heresy path is more along the lines of a sleeper agent until you have enthralled all the crew and allies whom at that point still think you are a agent of the emperor even if you are not to an outside objective observer at that point. You forget just how much deference there is to title in 40K, i.e. heresy and eccentric pious diehard are often interchangeable in practice to the rabble alike.

[The Sylvan Learning Center]

there's a bunch of points where you openly commit heresy, in front of a sister of battle and an inquisitor.

And they just go "uhh......??????" And proceed to ignore it.


But of course a steam bro shows up and says "in my opinion it's very well done. It's actually good."

[Lord_Eol]

Originally posted by The Sylvan Learning Center:

there's a bunch of points where you openly commit heresy, in front of a sister of battle and an inquisitor.

And they just go "uhh......??????" And proceed to ignore it.

Right but I think the the logic is they are enthralled by your RT at that point, i.e. one mans heresy is another eccentricity and RT's have always been granted much leeway in the fluff around heresy going back to when it was first published in the 80's. Hendrix is heresy flexible anyways, all inquisitors are since they got retcon'ed this century as it's all about ends justify the means for them (now) and while I agree with you on SOB, short of her actually getting corrupted, the problem is a SOB would never be on a RT ship anyways, that's not the way they roll so we just have to accept it. She really should have been a member of the Orders Sabinet or Famulous TBH as it works better from a RP RT perspectives but that would preclude having a woke transgendered space marine which is what people seem to want.

[Abaddon]

yeah the heresy was pretty flagrant, so it was hard to play it. heres to them making some changes to it to let it be more immersive and organic the the future.