Secret survivor: the Heretic (predictions)

[Pmk]

It's a popular idea that, with the next updates, we could get two new lunar items about the heretic, letting the player replace all the skills of their character. More than that, though, some people think this could lead to a secret character that replaces the survivor when the 4 items are collected.

I really like the idea, so I spent a bit thinking how it could work and I came up with some ideas that I believe Hopoo could have actually had themselves. So these are my predictions about the next update.

Something that every update in the roadmap has in common is that they each bring a new survivor, but that isn't the same for next update: it's the Artifact update, so the developers probably wanted to focus on them, being such an important part of the game. But if the Heretic is actually real, half of their set is complete. This means that Hopoo could actually be able to bring the Heretic next update, given that they still need to work on only part of them.

If the player collects all 4 items, the Heretic posses the survivor and the player model changes to them OR the survivor gets some features on his model that makes them look corrupted. This is cool and all, but the 4 items don't only bring some graphical changes: they also give a new passive!

So, what this passive could be? Well, the Heretic is based on the lunar items: they give a positive and a negative effect. The 2 items until now have already that in the skill itself: Vision makes your attack have a long cooldown and Strides makes you unable to do (almost) anything while healing. So, I think the passive itself could have a negative and a positive effect: an idea is that, synergizing with Strides, it could be something that damages both the player and the enemies (that could be too similar to Rex, though), but a maybe more interesting one could be that the Heretic gets stronger the more enemies it kills, but becomes weaker for some amount of time if the killing spree stops.

All of this could make the Heretic synergize well with some lunar items, reinforcing the idea that they are connected to the origin of the items: this would also makes sense to guide the player towards getting more and more lunar items, tying to the idea that the Heretic is connected to them.

Finally, this could also have some implications for the story: if the players reaches the final level (or the alternate ending of the Beads of Fealty), something different could happen to the level itself, the final boss or just the ending. This could also be a way to unlock a new artifact, tying the idea that we could get the Heretic next update (about that, I already had the idea of an artifact that gives you a new lunar item each stage, maybe removing the previous one every time).

ROR2 really has a lot of effort put in the lunar aspects of the game, so I think something like this could really happen. Either way, Hopoo clearly has something in mind for this: it could not be the secret survivor, but I'm sure it will be worth the effort!

[maDEMOman]

isnt the last survivor guaranteed to the bandit tho?
since he was playable since the very get go if you cheated him in.

[Pmk]

Originally posted by maDEMOman:

isnt the last survivor guaranteed to the bandit tho?
since he was playable since the very get go if you cheated him in.

We still have two update: artifact, which doesn't include a survivor, and 1.0, which includes a survivor. So, bandit could be the 1.0's survivor, but it's far from guaranteed: not even that, he is basically deconfirmed because it's already in the game in an unfinished state (we would have got him already if they planned to include it).

[Ittrix]

Originally posted by maDEMOman:

isnt the last survivor guaranteed to the bandit tho?
since he was playable since the very get go if you cheated him in.

People asked Hopoo about it, and they pretty much said something along the lines of "there's usually a reason finished files aren't put into the game, and many games have finished files never put in" basically saying in a nutshell "this does not mean bandit will be in the game".

[Gsoderi]

I wonder if we are going to get more survivors besides the last confirmed one. It would be nice having lots of survivors like RoR1

[Tru]

I made a post about this exact topic a couple of weeks ago, but you gave it more thought and ideas then i ever could.

[Pmk]

Originally posted by TruSlav:

I made a post about this exact topic a couple of weeks ago, but you gave it more thought and ideas then i ever could.

Well yeah, your post and some others were my inspiration

[Kowalski]

Late to the party, but I like the idea of replacing the teleporter reward that is usually a green item with a lunar item.

[Pmk]

Originally posted by Kowalski:

Late to the party, but I like the idea of replacing the teleporter reward that is usually a green item with a lunar item.

My idea was that you're forced to take it, but I also like your version

[ScorchedVanilla]

ngl visions on artificer is considered a dps upgrade for how you trade 4 shots on a 3 second cd per shot over 12 shots on a 2 second overall cd

[TrueEvil]

Originally posted by vanillastuffing:

ngl visions on artificer is considered a dps upgrade for how you trade 4 shots on a 3 second cd per shot over 12 shots on a 2 second overall cd

Not gonna argue that it's a DPS upgrade because it's a bit intricate, but the cd for Flame Bolt is 1.3s, not 3s

[Strutr]

Ahem... IT HAS HAPPENED BOY. WE GOT THE HERETIC LETS GO.

[Jevmen]

It seems this person is a prophet or somthin

[Pmk]

Originally posted by Strutr:

Ahem... IT HAS HAPPENED BOY. WE GOT THE HERETIC LETS GO.

I was thinking about searching for this post to comment about it, thanks for doing it in my place

I'm very happy with the Heretic: I didn't expect it to be a vulture and I'm also happy that she gets special properties (health decline and triple jump), she's also the only character with with a starting speed of 8 m/s instead of 7! All of this makes her feel special!

This update was way better than I expected :D

[Kinomora]

I have played her and she's pretty fun. Posted a screenshot or two. I find her natural affliction a bit tedious to work with until you've got a few good items- namely Gnarled Woodsprite and Rejuvenation rack. Until then, you're stuck using you're 3rd ability to simply regenerate health.

I like that her basic attack as well as it's explosion effect both have proc coefficients. That means getting on-hits like Ukulele, Sticky Bomb, Flash Grenade, and Chronobauble are all strong on her. NOT ONLY THIS but it ALSO has a unique affliction which works with Deathmark.

The triple-jump is nice too, I guess. Wish she had a glide or something tho, she is a bird afterall

[Pmk]

Originally posted by Kinomora:

I have played her and she's pretty fun. Posted a screenshot or two. I find her natural affliction a bit tedious to work with until you've got a few good items- namely Gnarled Woodsprite and Rejuvenation rack. Until then, you're stuck using you're 3rd ability to simply regenerate health.

I like that her basic attack as well as it's explosion effect both have proc coefficients. That means getting on-hits like Ukulele, Sticky Bomb, Flash Grenade, and Chronobauble are all strong on her. NOT ONLY THIS but it ALSO has a unique affliction which works with Deathmark.

The triple-jump is nice too, I guess. Wish she had a glide or something tho, she is a bird afterall

The nice thing about the triple jump is that, like it does for the double jump of Mercenary, Wax Quail works for all three of the jumps.
I played her once and she' extremely fun to use: her M2 is difficult to use, but very powerful and rewards skill, while her R is very satisfying: the only bad thing is that you have to spend lunar coins to use her, so I won't be able to play with her as much as I want (I don't cheat coins).

Maybe Hopoo should consider creating an hard challenge to permanently unlock her .