Mystery potions

[Sim0n]

Let’s talk about mystery potions! They can be really useful during onslaught if used correctly, but they can kill you if you don’t know what you do. Here’s a summary of everything you need to know about them.

Where can you find the mystery potions?
There are two ways to find them:
1) You get the recipe to craft them in the Accursed Steppe quests in the Vile Realm. To craft a mystery potion, you’ll need 10 Vile Lichen and 1 hour. The Vile Lichen can only be farmed in the Dense Forest in The Accursed Steppe. You can craft a maximum of 10 mystery potions in one time. The Dense Forest is where I drop my energy when I have nothing better to do with it (no event, raid or anything else interesting). I get essences, vile lichen and Vile Haunch (to craft bacon).
2) The Keepers in the Vile Realm also drop a mystery potion every time you manage to find and kill one of them. However, the potions do not drop in the Primal Mysteries raid.

How many types of mystery potions are there?
There are 4 types of mystery potions (let’s name them A, B, C and D). Each of them have a specific effect and take a distinct space in your inventory. If you use a “type A” mystery potion twice, you will get the same effect twice. It’s not random.

How can you know in advance what your mystery potion will do?
First of all, the order in which your mystery potions are presented isn’t the best way to identify them. Indeed, their order in your inventory, during fights or while selling items to Majerio’s Shop will change from one place to the other and depending how many types of mystery potions you have and which types you have. That make their order an unreliable way to identify them. It’s still possible, but not ideal.

To identify which types of mystery potions do what more easily, you should relate to the amount of potions you have of each type. You’ll need to perform a test in an infinite area to know which amount is what type of potions. Since each type of your mystery potions take a distinct space in your inventory, you can have a different amount of each kind. I recommend waiting until you have at least around 20 of each before testing them. It’s even better if you have more than that and if the amount of each type is far from each other, it will make it easier to keep up when you’ll craft new ones. When you have 4 random amount (example: 20, 16, 23 and 15), you can start testing. Note what the effect of each type is (ex: 14 type A, 19 type B, 22 type C and 15 type D). Watch out to not have twice the same number or if you have numbers that are next to each other. Otherwise you won’t be able to link a number to an effect without a doubt. If you have 20, 16, 23 and 15 mystery potions, you should test the 15 type before the 16 type, otherwise you’ll end up with two 15…

What are of each type of mystery potions?
A: Rampage. All of your spells cast are twice as fast as usual for 2 seconds.
B: Last stand. Increases damage dealt by 33% and reduces damage taken by 50% for 2 seconds. However, you will die when this debuff expires.
C: Poisoned. You’ll get poison damage over time.
D: Defense. Increase block and dodge by 15%, armor by 25%, and status resist by 50%.

What is the cooldown for mystery potions?
10 seconds like other potions (haste, crit, power, etc.). The 4 type of mystery potions are on the same cooldown, but there aren’t any other consumables on the same cooldown as them.

When should you use each type of mystery potions?
A: These potions increase the speed of your weapon. It does not affect your haste rating. Therefore, I recommend using them during onslaught when your haste stat is as high as possible (maxed out at 75% if possible). You can reach 75% speed with a 40% haste rating, an elixir of speed, a haste potion and a candy apple (or a deviled egg). If you use all that at the same time with a type A mystery potion, you’ll reach insane speed of 0.12 sec for toxic blade or incinerate.
B: Since this potion kills you after 2 seconds, it should only be used when there’s less than 2 seconds in a fight. An onslaught boss wave is 25 seconds. That give you time for 2 haste potions for 10 seconds each. After they expired, you can count the time of your attacks. After 3 seconds, it’s safe to use the mystery potions to get an extra power boost for the last few kills.
C: These potions are bad! They should be sold to Majerio as soon as you identify them. Once you’ve sold them a first time, they’ll be easy to identify once you craft more potions since you’ll always have a small numbers of them.
D: I use these potions in phase 3 TSR against Rampage or against the Keeper on my smaller toon.


I hope that summary was helpfull

[Derrin_Watson]

Thank you. I appreciate the strategy notes.

[Ames]

Thanks Simon, this is very helpful, I was just thinking of doing the same thing and actually getting use from mystery potions. The good ones are pretty good. I didn't realize they had their own cooldown timer and that changes things.

[Jumper]

Nice summary Simon. This is the same strategy I use (almost).

[Derrin_Watson]

Question: is vile lichen available anywhere other than the dense forest?

[Bâçôn_Mâddnêss]

I have not found vile lichen any other place, been crafting them since getting recipe & doing exactly as Simon does, except I also sell the last stand pots, as I've miscalculated too many times. I only keep defense & haste. I always have more of the defense, which is how I know which to use. Also keeping 3 kinds gets managing them a bit harder for me.

[Bj_Knows]

I only keep defense & haste. I always have more of the defense, which is how I know which to use. Also keeping 3 kinds gets managing them a bit harder for me.

This is brilliant. Great idea Bâçôn_Mâddnêss.



Other tricks I found with Mystery Potions and consumables:

Resetting Consumables
Doesn't help with Onslaught, but works with regular raids, If you leave combat and re-enter combat (press "Leave" button instead of "Continue" button), you lose any active consumable, but to compensate, all the consumable cool down timers are reset. Very handy for testing consumables. This also the opposite of how you find Elite Potion Mobs and Keepers.


Stashing items as Majerio's
You can sell up to 10 items to Majerio's Shop, and then buy them back. This can help you adjust the quantities of each Mystery Potion for testing, crafting, and use.

Example
You have 16 Rampage and 17 Defense,
you sell 8 Rampage to Majerio's Shop,
You now have 8 Rampage and 17 Defense,
After the raid you have 6 Rampage and 14 Defense,
You buy back 6 Rampage, leaving 2 with Majerio's,
You now have 12 Rampage and 14 Defense,
If you craft more Defense potions later, you can buy the remaining 2 Rampage back from Majerio's Shop.

Note: you can sell any combination of Mystery Potions to Majerio's (Rampage, Defense, Last Stand, Poison), during testing and crafting.

A: Rampage. All of your spells cast are twice as fast as usual for 2 seconds.

I thought Rampage lasted 1.25s in BoH, but since all your spells cast twice as fast, it was the same as if it lasted 2.5s in BoH (Note 1). Now I wish I hadn't sold all my Mystery Potions back when inventory was only 100 items (Feb 2015, also miss patch notes being posted on forums)

Note 1)
https://www.venan.com/boh_forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=5927

Edit: The below trick does not seem to be true about Tomato's cool down timer. Looks like someone mucked with the consumables timers. How are they split up now? More research is needed. FOR SCIENCE!
Edit 2: Yay! Testing this in the Dense Forest and got Bromet, Keeper of the Ages. I wish I could use an Elixir of Luck in combat with a Keeper. Fighting Bromet is much easier with tips from forum to replace my faulty memory. viewtopic.php?p=30631#p30631
Edit 3: Majerio's Box Prestige ability is hysterical versus Keepers.
Edit 4: Argh. Keep getting Blood Raven Tears. RNGoddess wants some crafted Blood Oranges.

Tracking consumable cool downs
If you have lots of minor potions, or potions from TVal, you can use it as a cool down indicator. Use a Mystery Potion and then immediately use Power 10% Potion, when the Power 10% Potion expires, both will be out of cool down. This trick works with any consumable with a duration of 10.0s in BoH (Note 1).

[Fara]

I sold all my mystery potions for inventory space too

If vile lichen ever becomes more easily available then these tips will be very useful. Thanks for the tips

[Fara]

I sold all my mystery potions for inventory space too

If vile lichen ever becomes more easily available then these tips will be very useful. Thanks for the tips

Well, that was quick! You can now farm keepers for mystery potions lol

Nice

[Bj_Knows]

Subject
Mystery potions starting from zero

Testing for Rampage and Defense, while selling Last Stand and Poisoned.

First Potion Test
A) Make Mystery Potions in batches of 2 (20 Vile Lichen), until you have at least 4 of each Mystery potion.

B) Sell 2 of the smallest set of potions to Majerio's (Test 1), keeping 2 of it and 4+ of the other sets.

C) Test a potion.

D1) If it is bad, write down what it was and sell the remaining single potion to Majerio's and then sell a cleanse potion to Majerio (as a divider to let you know not to buy these 3 potions back).

D2) If it is good, write down what it is and buy the other two back so you now have 3 good potions (Test 1), 4+ of each unknown, and zero of each bad.



Second Potion Test, one or more 4's remaining
E) If you still one or more set of 4's, sell 3 of one of the sets of 4 to Majero, keeping 1 potion of the set (Test 2).

F) Test it.

G1) If it is bad, write down what it is and sell a cleanse potion to Majerio (as a divider to let you know not to buy these 3 back).

G2) If good, write down what it is and buy the other 3 back so you now have 3 good potions (Test 2).

If you still have any potion sets of 4's, and you have not yet discovered both Rampage and Defense, repeat steps E through G.

Third Potion Test, two sets of 5's remaining
H) If you have two sets of 5 remaining, and you have not yet discovered both Rampage and Defense, test one of the sets of five.

I1) if it is bad, write down what it is and sell all four remaining to Majerio and then a cleanse potion (as a divider to let you know not to buy these 4 back).

I2) if it is good, write down what it is and keep all 4.

Final Potion
If you have not yet discovered Rampage OR Defense, the remaining potion is whichever you have not yet discovered. If you have discovered Rampage AND Defense, the remaining potion set is a bad potion.

Once identified, never use good potions if you have only 3 left.

Always craft at least 1 less potion than your smallest good potion. Ex: if you have 5 Rampage and 7 Defense, only craft 4 or less Mystery portions at a time.