- Small update for Unity vulnerability. - 3 October 2025
Applied the UnityPlayer security patch, no other changes.
- Heretic Operative Update 1.2.2 - 22 December 2020
Happy Holidays! We have just released a small patch for Heretic Operative that fixes a couple of ways you could get the game into a bad state under the right combination of circumstances. Have fun fighting off the Cult, and stay tuned in 2021 for some info on what we've been working on next.... Bugfixes: - Fixed a bug that would cause the game to be soft-locked when attempting to clear Cult sites under the right conditions. - Fixed a bug where the game could sometimes fail to end properly when the player has no Operatives remaining.
- Year One Patch now Live! - 18 February 2020
It's been one year since Heretic Operative was released, and we are celebrating by releasing a major new update! - New difficulty modes! While the same standard challenging balance is still available by default, now you can choose which difficulty level is right for your play style. There are no XP adjustments based on difficulty, so play whatever you enjoy the most. To win on "Excommunicated" will require mastery of all of Heretic Operative's gameplay. - New free Operative! Corrian the Disavowed brings some powerful new abilities to the table, like gaining additional Action Points and being able to recruit for free. However his dark side leaves him vulnerable to Corruption. Using him requires a difficult choice: embrace his abilities and plan for the inevitable consequence, or attempt to bring him back on to a more sustainable path? - Lots of balance changes! We have made another major…
- Free DLC Update: Artifacts of Fate - 14 November 2019
5 new treasures can now be discovered, each of which is tied to the inevitable powers of Fate. These "Artifacts of Fate" generate powerful effects without any cost in Corruption. Some can generate Fate, others consume it, but each provides a valuable strategic tool to use against the Cult. The content in "Artifacts of Fate" is free to all players of Heretic Operative, so have fun with the new cards! Look forward to more new content, as the 1 year anniversary of the game's release is right around the corner...
- Patch Notes 1.1.5 - 19 June 2019
Magic has received a significant boost, with better tools for managing Corruption and an increased power level to make it more worth the risk and investment. Balance: - Most non-combat spells and Operative abilities no longer use an AP to cast, but have had their Corruption costs slightly increased and/or can only be cast once per turn. - Vyrian's "Contemplation" ability now reduces Corruption by 25 (was: 10) - Renni's ability "Research" now costs 1 gold, and no longer generates Fate. - Townsfolk "Mentor" has been improved significantly, and now always either reduces Corruption or improves Tranquility. - Townsfolk "Scout" now gives a significantly better results and is less likely to cause you to become lost. - Night spell "Insight" now grants +3 Arcane skill (was +2). - All 4 Night combat spells now have +1 combat die (Creeping Shadow, Darkbolt, Soulrend, and Unspeakable Truth). - Elem…
- Heretical Notions #3 - 28 May 2019
Hello again, fellow Heretics! The Blood Cult has been out for a little over a month now and hopefully everyone has had a chance to wrestle with some of the challenges that they bring. We've been a little quiet lately working on some internal C Prompt stuff like new game prototypes and other forward-looking pieces. However, we are definitely not yet done with Heretic Operative! In the next few weeks we'll be pushing out a balance patch, touching a number of areas but primarily focused on giving magic a boost. While we don't want to lose the unique feel that the existing magic system has - forcing Operatives to confront the dangers of Corruption - we do want to make sure that using spells is viable even on harder difficulty setups. As a very small studio, we really appreciate the time players have put into the game. We read every review and discussion post, so don't hesitate to share your…
- Heretic Operative 1.1.3 - 22 April 2019
The 1.1.3 build is now live. This is a very minor update, fixing a bad description string for Blood Cultists. It also includes a "reference" set of text for all the strings in the game, for anyone interested in doing text or language mods for the game. Thanks to Steam user "etrigane" (https://www.youtube.com/user/evasowana) for showing there's some possible interest in this sort of thing. For more details on how to do text mods, I've posted a brief set of instruction docs on our Discord (https://discord.gg/KfjK973). The underlying game engine is fairly well suited for modding or adding new cards, so if there is interest in card mods, I'd love to add support for them in the future. Meanwhile, I hope everyone is having a good time fighting the Blood Cult! Please leave a review if you can, as our Steam reviews make a huge difference in how new people discover the game.
- Blood Cult is now live! (1.1.2 patch notes) - 19 April 2019
Our first DLC, "Heretic Operative - Blood Cult", is now live! Available for $2.99 USD (or local equivalent), the Blood Cult brings an new enemy to the game with 20 new cards and challenging Cultist abilities to overcome. Let us know what you think in the forums or by leaving us a review! --- New content: - New Cult: Blood Cult (DLC) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060830/Heretic_Operative__Blood_Cult/ - New Operative: Aethys the Enduring Aethys is available upon reaching level 4, and is free for all players. Gameplay: - Arcane damage abilities now always give you at least one combat die, even if your Arcane skill is very low. Bugs: - Ambient volume setting was being ignored in some circumstances, now fixed. - Frontier Adventure card "Finders Keepers" now correctly increases Corruption. (thanks: Zeru) - Fixed an issue where the "Twisted Fate" story could fail if you recruited the Ast…
- Unknown Pleasures: Adventurer Time - 9 April 2019
Happy New Freelance Year! The receipt-flakes are falling, the accountants are singing their carols, and in every house the children are leaving out tripwires and caltrops to delay the inevitable march of the merciless Father Taxmas. Did you have a good time at Rezzed ? I didn’t go – humans, right? – but that’s fine because we clever ones, we get all the good footage without even leaving our tunnels. And because I showed up for the mixer anyway. They can’t stop me. Unknown Pleasures has spies everywhere. It’s an even wider selection of obscurities for you today, as Unknown Pleasures brings you the best unsung indie games on Steam once more. Confusing RPS staffers by saying their own names to them this week: Groundhog crimes, Bushido yo-yos, and robotic wanderers. (more…)
- Heretic Operative - Blood Cult! - 8 April 2019
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F34091081%2F2b84e70eaadff23fef0a1c0e3a5dc9dc7a020032.png We are pleased to announce the first DLC for Heretic Operative - the Blood Cult! Fully embracing the power of Blood magic, this new Cult is a dangerous adversary. Players will be required to change up their tactics to find new ways to fight the Blood Cult before all their loyal Townsfolk are rapidly converted to cultists... Releasing alongside the Blood Cult will be "Aethys the Enduring", our first additional starting Operative. Aethys is completely free to all players of Heretic Operative regardless of whether or not you own the Blood Cult. The Blood Cult will be arriving on April 19! Check out the full store page here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060830/Heretic_Operative__Blood_Cult/
- Heretical Notions #2 - 4 April 2019
April is upon us, and the first DLC is right around the corner. We're finalizing a few details before we announce all the details but with any luck it should be out this month. Alongside the DLC will be a new free starting Operative for you to use - Aethys the Enduring. Natural Bloodmage: Bonus damage to Blood dice while injured. Enduring Will: Recovers Health every turn. Like all our starting Operatives, using Aethys can really change up the strategies can use and the risks you can take. Also - we now have trading cards! Check your Steam Inventory for them if you are an existing player. They are all based on various locations in the game. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F34091081%2Ffb9933a875b469abb69a0e8d3153cbd8612df1d2.png
- Patch Notes - 1.0.5 - 25 March 2019
1.0.5 patch is live now! Combat UI has been tweaked slightly to improve tension and there are a few new Adventures to be found in commonly-visited areas (and of course, bugfixes). Next week we'll share some more details about our first DLC and the free content that accompanies it. New content: - Added 4 new Adventure cards. Gameplay: - The Barkeep at Copec's Tavern can now generate more resources, and help in some adventure cards. - The feast summoned by "Conjure Feast" no longer requires an Action Point to use, and can be used twice before disappearing. - Tavern Adventure card "Cultist Ambush" now has an option that spends Influence instead of rumors, to avoid redundancy with the general use of Rumors to redraw Adventures. - "Elven Herbalist" Adventure card is now more generous as to what constitutes "lack of Corruption". Misc: - Combat round results are now hidden until combat dice ar…
- Heretical Notions #1 - 17 March 2019
Heretic Operative has now been out for nearly a month! First off, I want to deeply thank all our players for checking out our difficult, dark, and strange digital board game. C Prompt Games is very small - just two of us - and building Heretic Operative has been a labor of love over the past year. I personally read every single review and discussions forum post and it means a lot to me when people take the time to leave us a review, give us feedback, or ask questions to learn more about the game. We are just getting started with Heretic Operative. There is more content, both free and in DLC forms, coming down the road for the rest of 2019 (and beyond, if possible), and of course we will be continuing to provide balance and bugfix patches as well. We will have more information to share with everyone about the timeline for DLC releases fairly soon. Meanwhile, the next patch is coming in t…
- Patch Notes - 1.0.4 - 25 February 2019
Build 1.04 is live now, featuring brand-new Adventure cards and some important balance changes to Iron and Night combat dice. Thanks to everyone who has posted balance & bug information in the forums / discussions. We read all of them and take the feedback seriously. New content: - Added 5 new Adventure cards. Balance - Scrolls of Prophecy now has two uses, and gives Rumors & Fate in addition to removing Cult Activity tokens, but also costs some Corruption when used. - Iron combat dice now get +1 for every 2 points of Physical skill (rounded down). - Night combat dice now generate Corruption equal to 1/2 the value rolled (final die of 6 doubles to the full face value of dice rolled). - Spell "Unspeakable Truth" now applies a Tranquility penalty of -4 (was -5). - Corrupted Operatives now always have 1 Health, instead of whatever Health they had before being corrupted. - Added repeatable…
- Mechanics #14 - Strategy Advice - 21 February 2019
As we finish our mechanics blog series, here are a few tips and tricks on how to succeed in defeating the Cult. How you spend your early Influence is vital. Spending it on Cell Leaders and other passive resource generators can pay off exponentially, since you can then re-invest those resources. Don’t be afraid to convert your unused Actions into Fate points - having Fate available can make a huge difference when avoiding a negative Adventure outcome, so you always want to keep one or two points on hand. That said - if you find another source of Fate in the world, that’s very efficient compared to spending your Actions. Time, in the form of your Action Points is your most limited resource across the game as a whole. Finding ways to save Action Points is tough, but optimizing movement is one of the most effective. Unlocking new travel routes via Townsfolk and gaining free movement points…
- Patch Notes 1.0.3 - 20 February 2019
Patch Notes - 1.0.3 - All story objectives now have rollover hints that provide some additional detail on where or how to complete them. - Mentor (Hideout) now will work with Operatives up to Corruption 60 (was 50). - Operative-specific combat abilities now show up in the Spells & Abilities panel so that they can be viewed outside of combat. - Fixed a misspelling in the view text for Mask of Deception. - Fixed the missing strings in the "Destroy the Storm Obelisk" skill challenge. - Guardian effect now shows up in game log. - Fixed an issue that would cause the Storm Altar to keep retargeting the same location. - Lyrica's art in the main menu tryptych has been updated.
- Getting Started with Heretic Operative - 19 February 2019
It's great to see people jumping into the game and battling against the Cult, but Heretic Operative can be a challenging and mechanically dense game with a lot to learn. We'll be adding a few more in-game hints later this week, but in the meanwhile here are a few quick tips to get you started on the basics. Selection & Movement To select an Operative, left-click their portrait on the center bar or on the map. To move a selected Operative, left-click a movement arrow (along the lines that show possible destinations) or right-click your destination. Resources The best way to get more resources is to recruit the right Townsfolk. You can recruit Townsfolk in any location where you have an Operative by clicking on their "scroll" in the bottom-left of the game UI and paying some influence. Note that recruiting Townsfolk never takes an action, but many of them unlock special abilities you can…
- Launch day! - 18 February 2019
We are live! Heretic Operative will be -10% off for the first week as a launch discount. Check out the game and please let us know what you think by leaving a review! Come chat about the game here on our Discord server: https://discord.gg/KfjK973 But of course we're not done with Heretic Operative at launch. We look forward to applying your feedback to the game on both balance and bug patches, as well as adding more new Adventures, Operatives, and more.
- Patch Notes 1.0.1 - 15 February 2019
We've been busy pushing a few last minute builds to squash bugs before the game goes live on Monday! Here are the patch notes for your reading enjoyment: - Tooltips show unmet requirements in red now to draw attention. - Fixed an issue that could cause "Initiation" story to become stuck when replayed. - Cleaned up some duplicate sound FX. - Another pass on text cleanup. - Fixed a button overlap issue between game log & help button. - Adjusted formatting of random outcome tables. - Fixed an issue with the location-specific results in the Apocalypse story. - Renni's ability "Research" is now only usable 5 times, but gives +1 Fate each time it is used. - Tooltip colorization for not having an Action Point available now also triggers when the selected Operative is Exhausted. - Normalized the frequency of a few outlier Adventure cards. - Fixed a bug where the Transmute minor spell would not…
- Mechanics #13 - Victory & Defeat - 14 February 2019
There is only one way to win a game of Heretic Operative - complete every Chapter in the Story deck. But Heretic Operative is not an easy game, and there are many ways to lose. Here’s an overview of each of them so you can best be prepared to stop the Cult. The most direct way to lose the game is for all of your Operatives to be killed. Repeated combat can take a toll, and losing Health from Adventures or Events is always a possibility. It is important to gain Influence and recruit additional Operatives so that the loss of one isn’t the end. There are also ways to heal, but unlike a lot of traditional RPGs there isn’t a dedicated healing class or easy ways to recover fully between combats. Healing can always be found by returning to the Hideout, but there are other ways to be discovered that are much less expensive in time and momentum. The other most common way to lose is for the Cult…
