Mystera Annur
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| Punishment |
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Contents
Unlocking
Mystera is the goddess of magic and glyphs. Mystera is well-suited to a variety of races and strategies, but has very few repeatable boons. She also has few offerings to help you in the end-game. Mystera is best worshipped during the early exploration phase when there are still plenty of tiles left to reveal to earn piety, and if found late is usually not worth following.
Mystera is unlocked to the north, in a subdungeon protected by the Guardian of Magic. Although it is theoretically possible to kill this guardian, the intended approach is to use magic to get past him. This can be done by any of the following ways:
- Using
ENDISWAL to dig around him
- Using
WEYTWUT to teleport past him
- Using
PISORF to push him out of the way
Boons
Magic
Fairly straightforward boon, but its piety cost increases rapidly and only 2x purchase is enough for most characters. Raising your maximum mana to 15 means each mana potion will restore exactly 6 mana, but beyond that point the piety cost for a mere 1 mana is seldom worth the trade. Dedicated spellcasters can purchase this boon 3-4 times, then use various %-based mana restoring methods to utilize the raised maximum mana.
Refreshment
One of Mystera's powerful boons, granting you bonus mana regeneration every time you convert a glyph. If you can raise your maximum mana, this can be a major benefit. But it does mean the timing for converting glyphs becomes more difficult to gauge, and races like 
Elf or 
Human will have to go without their conversion bonus. Races like 
Gnome, 
Halfling, and 
Goblin have no problems leaving all their converting for the end of the dungeon and they benefit enormously from this boon. Only 
Elf Wizard is the exception. Keep in mind Refreshment gets reduced to 25% if you convert to another religion! For obvious reasons, this boon is not very helpful when attempting the 
Hoarder.
Mystic Balance
Mystic balance is a double-edged boon that causes expensive glyphs to cost less and inexpensive glyphs to cost more. 
Wizards, who already have a discount to their spell costs, get disadvantages more than benefits from Mystic Balance. 
Berserkers, on the other hand, are largely unaffected by its downsides and benefit enormously from this boon. Ironically, this makes Mystera one of the better deity choices for a Berserker, essentially cancelling out their spellcasting penalty.
For most classes, whether you want to use Mystic Balance depends on which glyphs you rely on primarily. Most glyphs already cost 5 MP and are unaffected. The 
BLUDTUPOWA glyph has no mana cost to begin with and is also unaffected. The 
BURNDAYRAZ and 
CYDSTEPP glyphs are the most notable improvements, which makes this boon very useful to fireball spammers and to 
Warlords. The WEYTWUT glyph is also dramatically improved, and becomes easier to use as a finisher. On the other hand, the PISORF glyph becomes impractical for offensive purposes (it's still functional for breaking through walls and moving monsters, however) and the 
GETINDARE glyph becomes less mana efficient (though still worthwhile). The 
BYSSEPS and 
LEMMISI glyphs are the hardest hit by mystic balance, and are below-average to begin with; they should be consigned for conversion if you select this boon.
Flames
Flames is rarely worth pursuing. The massive attack penalty on the flames makes it a terrible idea for hybrids and even for most spellcaster builds. For it to actually be profitable, one normal character would need to cast fireball 2.5 times more often than regular attacks on average, or you can't get any hits on the boss in which case you only do fireballs. You will need to be very dedicated to a pure caster approach or a rat monarch for either of these to be worthwhile. Most characters will skip out on these two.
Weakening
Weakening is also not very attractive to most characters. It costs an enormous amount of piety, and it's only usable if you don't have any resistances of your own. You're usually better off using a 
Piercing Wand or 
Stone Heart, which have no downsides and reduce resistances with less effort. Only dedicate fireball casters without Piercing Wand will take this boon.
Strategy
Mystera rewards you with piety whenever you cast spells, and deducts piety whenever you kill monsters that deal magic damage. Like playing 
Taurog, only in reverse, so long as you ensure you cast sufficient spells between each kill you will turn a net profit in piety. Unlike Taurog, the amount of piety Mystera offers is proportional to the mana cost of the spell, so it really doesn't matter which spell you are casting.
Unlike all other deities, Mystera does not carry a piety-based spiking boon. This means you want to convert out in the lategame to convert the spare piety into damage, obviously after you fully exploit your Refreshment bonus. Thus for most characters the best approach with Mystera is to worship early, earn lots of piety, purchase a handful of boons that suit your strategy, then convert out. You're usually better off converting into another religion to spend your remaining piety in the end-game. Furthermore, in a dungeon with lots of magic-user monsters you can be facing massive piety penalties for clearing out the weaker monsters. Converting before doing so is highly advisable. The best deity to convert for the last resortis probabily 
The Earthmother, who can give you mana spike.
The alternative approach is an extreme spellcaster strategy, better if fuelled by BLUDTUPOWA. Since Mystera carries boons built around BURNDAYRAZ, she is the best deity if you are going to be a dedicative fireball caster. You need to find or prepare BURNDAYRAZ first, while investing piety, and purchase Mystic Balance and Flames.
