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(in Repentance)

The Heretic is a boss added in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance that can appear in the MausoleumMausoleum.

Behavior[ | ]

Phase 1[ | ]

  • During the beginning of the fight, 5 ExorcistExorcists, which are shielded and invulnerable, summon The Heretic from a large pentagram, after which they turn into FanaticFanatics.
    • The Heretic is incorporeal until all Fanatics and the PacerPacers or GusherGushers they turn into are dead, similar to Boss The Haunt ingameThe Haunt's first phase.
    • While incorporeal, The Heretic can still do contact damage.

Phase 2[ | ]

  • Lobs 7 projectiles that, after landing, burst into 6 fires that spread out in a radial pattern. The landing position of each projectile is marked on the ground.
    • The Heretic then follows up by launching itself towards Isaac, creating a radial burst of 8 lines of fire where it lands. It spends a short time readjusting its dislocated jaw before continuing to attack.
  • The arena of the Heretic always spawns a number of unlit Fire Places. The Heretic can light up 5-6 of them before firing a purple Collectible Brimstone iconBrimstone laser that connects all of the lit fires. The order the Heretic lights each fire indicates what order the laser travels.
    • These can be extinguished with an explosion, preventing Brimstone lasers from reaching the deactivated Fire Place.
  • Dashes off-screen and turns invisible before charging in again, predicting Isaac's movements and attempting to bite down on where Isaac is moving, doing a full heart of damage if the attack connects. It chains this attack a total of 4 times, each time from alternating sides of the room.
    • The Heretic occasionally does not finish the fourth charge, instead fading away and quickly charging in one final time from the other side of the screen.
  • Upon death, the Heretic's fiery eye drops down and sends out lines of fire in the cardinal directions.

Gallery[ | ]

Notes[ | ]

  • When not fought as a main boss, such as in a Boss Challenge room or a degraded boss, it will not be preceded by Fanatics and have no first phase.
    • The Heretic also cannot perform its Collectible Brimstone iconBrimstone attack outside of its regular boss room as there will be no unlit Fire Places.
  • The Heretic can be instantly killed with Collectible Vade Retro iconVade Retro if it is at 50% health or below.

Trivia[ | ]

  • The Heretic originates from a Reddit post by NotYourSaggitarius in 2015, as a versus screen mockup. The boss was later incorporated into the Antibirth mod.
  • It appears to be a resurrected variation of Boss The Haunt ingameThe Haunt or Boss The Forsaken ingameThe Forsaken.
  • The only time the Heretic's empty right eye lights up is during its Collectible Brimstone iconBrimstone attack.
  • The Exorcists that appear during the beginning of the fight to summon the Heretic are found nowhere else in the MausoleumMausoleum, unlike in Antibirth, where they were a regularly appearing Monster.
    • As of Repentance version 4.0.3, the Exorcists exist in the bestiary, but even using a Chaos CardChaos Card to kill them will not add them to the bestiary, leaving it currently impossible to complete.


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