Mystic Messenger: An Essential Guide for Beginners

Mystic Messenger is one of the many otome games available in the market today. Since its release in 2016, the game has captivated audiences from around the world with its unique game concept and unique plot. Needless to say, this game is a must-play for fans of the otome game genre as it showcases a different style to the genre.  

In this article, we’ll be giving you a rundown of what you need to know about the game as well as a few tips and tricks to practice!

What Is Mystic Messenger?

Mystic Messenger is a mobile otome game that features an entirely new format of the gaming genre. Compared to the traditional visual novel format of other otome games, the majority of Mystic Messenger’s narrative is told through a mixture of messages, calls, and a visual novel.

Since its release in 2016, the game has risen through the ranks and has become one of the most played otome games around the world for its unique concept, characters, and its thrilling plot. Mystic Messenger is a great game to cure your boredom as it gives players something to look forward to.

The game is available on the Play Store and App Store. You might need to allocate at least 1.5 GB of space for the game because you won’t be able to enjoy the game without downloading everything. The game is also constantly being updated. Expect that you might have to update every now and then to make sure that your game is running smoothly.

Download from Google Play Store

Download from App Store

Mystic Messenger Gameplay

Overview

The story starts when the protagonist downloads an app to her phone that disguises as a messaging app where you can meet handsome guys. However, she later discovers that the app is a messenger for a peculiar group of individuals in an organization called the Rika’s Fundraising Association (RFA). 

The protagonist later agrees to join the organization after finding out that the group’s leader, a woman named Rika, disappeared and the group has not been able to hold fundraisers since then. The new addition ignites a renewed enthusiasm within the group and the drama ensues as the story progresses. 

You will need to invite guests through emails for the fundraisers to push through. The success of the party will also affect the ending that you will get. 

Mystic Messenger widely focuses on the protagonist as a member of the RFA and their relationship with the members of the group.

Mystic Messenger Characters

The main characters that you’ll be encountering the game include: 

• V – the current leader of the RFA and Rika’s ex-fiance 
• Jumin Han – the heir and, and current Executive Director of C&R International
• Jaehee Kang – assistant to Jumin Han. She is the only female with a route that you can play through.
• Seven/707 – RFA’s hacker and informant
• Zen – a rising actor
• Yoosung Kim – a university student
• Unknown/Ray – one of the main antagonists of the game. He is responsible for bringing the player character to the RFA.
• Rika – RFA’s deceased founder, and Yoosung’s cousin.

Story Modes

While the general idea isn’t as compelling as it sounds, the plot is made better by the game’s story modes.

Essentially, there are three main story modes that the player can choose from. Under the three main story modes are individual plots involving the protagonist and the characters that must be played to finish the game. 

The Casual Story is the game mode that is free to play when you first download the game. Here, you’ll be able to access the routes of Yoosung, Zen, and Jaehee.

Deep Story contains the routes of Seven and Jumin. You will need to purchase this game mode with Hourglasses, the in-game currency earned by playing through the routes and in-app purchases. You will need to spend 80 Hourglasses to unlock the Deep Story permanently.

Lastly, Another Story will contain the routes of V and Ray. Like the Deep Story, you’ll need to spend about 550 Hourglasses to permanently unlock this game mode. Player discretion is advised when playing this game mode as it contains content that some audiences might find disturbing. 

Good vs Bad Endings 

Like most otome games, the story can end in two ways – the good and the bad. Each character route has its good and bad end that you will have to earn by making the right responses and by favoring the characters among others. 

You will essentially meet the Good Ending if you manage to complete all the chats, invite enough people to the party, and make good choices when interacting with your chosen character. On the other hand, the Bad Ending happens if you miss too many chats and select unfavorable responses among other things.

While you can essentially skip it in some game modes, you might want to play through the Common Route first, which takes around four days to complete. Here, you’ll be able to interact with all of the characters and, depending on the game mode, will be able to unlock random individual character routes. 

As mentioned, the game is a mixture of a visual novel format, chats, phone calls, and e-mails. You must be present for most of the chats that will take place because missing a lot of the chats can result in getting a bad ending.

Mystic Messenger Game Composition

Now that you have a background of what the game is, we’ll proceed to the game’s technicalities. Note that all of the game elements are essential to finishing the game and you won’t be able to achieve a good ending without performing necessary actions.

1. Hearts & Hourglasses

Hourglasses are the primary in-game currency of Mystic Messenger. They aren’t necessarily needed to progress through the stories, but you will need them to unlock the Deep Story, Another Story, After Endings, and extra content. 

You can earn Hourglasses by acquiring them in-game or by purchasing them. You can get them in random chat rooms whether or not you participate in them but there is a very low percentage of getting Hourglasses if you aren’t a participant. 

Hearts, on the other hand, are Mystic Messenger’s secondary in-game currency. These are relatively easier to collect because you’ll be able to get them by participating in chat rooms, messages, and the visual novel parts among others. There are eight different Hearts and seven of them symbolize a certain character. 

When interacting with the characters, you’ll notice that different colored hearts will appear. This is a sign that you’ve given a favorable response to a certain character. 

It’s important to keep track of the hearts because they determine which character route you’ll get after playing through the Common Route. 

Here is a heart guide that you will have to remember — especially if you’re looking to get a specific character route:

• Green – Yoosung Kim
• Gray – Zen
• Red – Seven
• Lavender – Jumin Han
• Yellow – Jaehee Kang
• Cerulean Blue – V
• Magenta – Unknown
• White – a confirmed glitch; it doesn’t affect your device and progress in any way
• Black – A broken heart, this typically appears if you made a response that is unfavorable to a certain character

2. Chat Rooms

The chat rooms are where the majority of the story happens. Mystic Messenger’s narrative will be told mainly through a series of chats and the player must finish each chatroom to get their desired route or ending. 

There are about 10 chat rooms in a day with each having an interval of one to two hours. You might want to turn on your notifications for this because if you miss a chat, you won’t get Hearts or Hourglasses that you might incur during the chat room.

Each chat room starts at around midnight, but if you miss the morning chats, you can always purchase them with Hourglasses so you can participate in the chats. Each route and day has different timings so check your game from time to time. 

3. Phone Calls

An aspect that makes Mystic Messenger different from other otome games is that you can make and receive calls to the characters. The calls will arrive at certain times and you will be able to receive calls from all the members regardless of the route that you’re playing in. 

Receiving calls is free but if you want to make a call yourself or if you missed a call and want to call them back, Hourglasses will be deducted from you. 

If you want to replay a call that you participated in, you can at no cost. But you won’t be able to change the choices that you’ve made during the call. Regardless, phone calls won’t affect your progress and act more as extra content for the players. 

Mystic Messenger is fully voiced so you won’t just be reading things on your screen. You’ll be able to act as if you’re experiencing an actual call.

4. Mystic Messenger Emails

An important element to be able to achieve the party is answering emails. By answering a series of emails, you’ll be able to invite guests to come to the fundraiser at the end of the game — the more guests that you manage to invite, the higher the chances are for a good ending. 

You will have three chances to interact with a guest before they agree on attending the party. Just like the chatrooms, the emails will come at random times of the day so it would be best to keep an eye on your phone.

5. Game Branch

Unless you skip the Common Route, how your game branches will depend on the number of hearts that you manage to get in the first four days. When you finish the last chatroom on the fourth day, you’ll receive a warning that your game is about to branch out into a character route. 

Apart from the first game branch, there will be a couple more of them in the game depending on whose route you are on. Usually, the last game branch in a route determines whether you’re getting a good or a bad end. 

Note that you won’t have control over how your game will branch once you’re in the last chat before the game branches. The best way to ensure that you’ll be getting a good ending or the route that you want is by getting enough hearts on the first four days and by receiving positive responses in the emails.

How to Survive Mystic Messenger

Despite everything good about it, Mystic Messenger can be very tedious to play. Compared to other games in the genre, it’s a game that you need to be committed to because of its fluctuating chatroom routines and the conditions that you need to meet to get a good ending. 

That said, here are a couple of things to know that will help you survive the game.

1. Chat Timings 

Daily chat rooms start at midnight, and you can expect chats to happen in the early hours of the morning. That isn’t a problem if you’re an early bird though, because you’re guaranteed to miss only a couple of chats if you wake up at around four or five in the morning — if you wake up any later than that, you’ll miss a lot of the chats.

The best way to help yourself when playing is to take note of the chat times so you can plan. This doesn’t mean that you should interrupt your sleep schedule if chats are happening in the morning, but it helps so that you know if you need to spend Hourglasses. 

For brevity, we’ll only be listing down the first chat of the 5th Day. Again, 5th Day is the start of the character routes.

For more detailed chat room schedules, there are fandom sites like the Mystic Messenger Wiki that provide the entire schedule for all the rooms and the days.

2. Spending Hourglasses

Hourglasses can be used up real fast if you don’t know how to spend them wisely. Hourglasses can be quite difficult to obtain if you don’t want to shell out money for them. That said, here’s a list of where you should and shouldn’t spend our Hourglasses on. 

Remember that Hourglasses can only be maintained through the game and in-app purchases. It will be difficult for you to progress through the game without Hourglasses.

Mystic Messenger: Tips & Tricks 

Before you start playing the game, here are a few more tips and tricks to know so that you don’t get stuck while playing.

1. Save and Load

The Common Route is quite crucial. Not only will this determine which route you’ll go on, but if you fail to catch the attention of any character, it will also lead you to a bad ending. Yes, it’s possible to have a bad ending that early in the game. 

To avoid this, you might want to save your game manually and load it so that you can return to the last saved state if you find yourself in the pinch. For example, if you save your game on the third day and end up getting a bad ending on the next, you can try to revert this by restoring your saved file and try to win the hearts of one of the characters. 

When you reload from save data, you should do it as soon as possible or at least 24 hours later. If you decide to load it at another time, you’ll end up missing a bunch of chats as the game relies on your system time. Even if you save it in the morning and open it in the evening, you’ll still miss chats but if you open it at the same time, you’ll still be able to play in the same chat as when you saved the game. 

Make sure that you always save your game manually. This ensures that your game has indeed been saved as autosave can be a buggy.

2. Participate as Much as Possible 

Participation is very important and you won’t want to miss the chats. Participation is what more or less dictates how your game will go. However, you don’t have to be online the entire time especially if you can’t.

At most, at least 50% of participation a day should be okay and would help you get a good or a normal ending. However, that doesn’t mean that you’re safe from the bad ending because if you fail to interact with any of the characters properly, you’ll end up with a bad ending on the fourth day. 

To participate in the chat rooms is essential to the game, but you don’t have to participate if you can’t. You shouldn’t spend Hourglasses either if you don’t have a lot of them to spare because you will need them more in the latter part of the game.

3. Pay Attention to Your Responses

As an otome game, responses have a lot of weight to the game. The decisions that you make will affect the way that you progress through the game and how the characters will interact with you. Your responses will determine how the game will play out and how each scene will play out. 

If your responses aren’t favorable or if you happen to favor a character other than the one whose route you’re playing on, you might find yourself getting a bad ending.

Final Word

In all, Mystic Messenger is a game to play for those who are interested in the genre. It’s a game with a compelling story that’s almost reminiscent of a Korean drama. It also gives a new perspective to how otome games are played as it’s very interactive as it features aspects such as phone calls, messages, and emails. 

However, the game requires a lot of attention and might not be suited for players who are looking for a quick game. Mystic Messenger takes a lot of your time that you might find yourself devoting more time to it than necessary because of the chat rooms that pop up throughout the day. It’s not for players who aren’t looking to commit to a game for 12 days or more.