The Heresy is an enemy encountered in The Evil Within.
Background
The Heresy was originally created as just another mentally-enslaved minion of Ruvik, likely a Haunted, before the creature's host was consumed completely by STEM and became rampant. As it ran amok, the creature started assimilating the minds of whatever being stood in its way and mutated dramatically to become what it was when encountered by Sebastian Castellanos and co. on the Krimson Expressway.
Description
The Heresy is a massive creature with an enormous blob of flesh serving as its main body. It has three pairs of spindly sharp legs that lets it move around like a spider, while also serving as its primary means of defense.
Smack-dab in the middle of its front side is the creature's misshapen face, along with the remnants of whatever poor souls it had assimilated into its mass. The head appears almost humanoid, with swollen eyes and a nose, and multiple black tubes containing an unspecified fluid connects the Heresy's face to its rear end. The creature's body is swollen with hideous lesions and boils, and an orifice located below its torso allows it to spit out maggot-like spawns to attack prey with.
Plot
The Heresy is encountered by Sebastian Castellanos, Joseph Oda and Juli Kidman during Chapter 12: The Ride, as the trio tries to make their way out of the collapsing city. It ambushes their commandeered bus and chases them throughout the city, occasionally retreating out of sight only to suddenly appear and resumes pursuit. After attacking the party for the third time, the creature rears its legs in an attempt to crush the bus, but is killed when Juli Kidman drives the vehicle under a low pass, smashing the creature into solid concrete and ending its life.
Gameplay
The Heresy itself is unkillable with just firearms alone, but can be fought off every time it latches onto the bus.
- If Sebastian stands too close to the creature, the Heresy will expel some acid, which will damage him substantially.
- The Heresy may attempt to stomp on Sebastian in flurries of 3. The camera will automatically lock on to the legs to give the Sebastian an idea as to where they will stomp down in order to sidestep them, but can also disorient the player in the process. The player can aim to stop the camera from auto-locking.
- Heresy can spawn maggots out of its body by shaking it. The maggots will try to grab onto Sebastian's leg and immobilize him like The Keeper's barbed wire traps, where he must cut them off with a QTE. The maggots do negligible damage to Sebastian and will drop either ammo or Green Gel when killed.
- Heresy can plant its claws at the back of the bus and drag them down the middle of the bus. There is an empty space at the left of the bus that Sebastian must stand in to avoid it.
- Alternatively, Heresy can stab its claws at the middle of the bus to crush Sebastian. This is easy to mistake for the above move as they have similar wind-up animations.
- Heresy will also try to swipe at Sebastian twice. Sebastian must move near the middle of the bus and crouch to avoid the swipes. Kidman will warn the player of the boss performing this move for the first time only.
Strategy
- Using powerful weapons like the Magnum, Shotgun or Sniper Rifle can dislodge the Heresy quickly if one aims for the face.
- Playing on AKUMU makes the maggot spawns exponentially more dangerous as they can kill Sebastian in one hit. Blast them down with the Shotgun before they get close to get rid of them while also gaining some ammo and gel.
Notes
- The Heresy is immune to damage once it has been dislodged from the bus. Shots fired will go through it harmlessly, so do not attack it during this time to avoid wasting ammo.
- The fight with the Heresy is one of a very tiny handful of instances where Machine Gun ammo is mostly guaranteed to spawn. Check the tail end of the bus after losing the Heresy behind a collapsed building to find some.
Achievements
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Arachnophobia 15  -  Outrun a gigantic threat in the city. This is a Secret achievement. |
Trivia
- According to the artbook, the Heresy is not a creature under Ruvik's control, as he could not synchronize with it.
- According to the creature's artist, the black tubes connected to the Heresy's mouth are used to feed itself its own excrement in a process which allegedly gives it immortality.
Gallery
