Mystic Power Optimization

Mystic power differs from raw power that, mystic catches ghost by chance. 70% mystic means 70% chance to catch, provided you have 0 raw power.

Mechanisms that have high mystic power are always Arcane type, meaning that the contracts are also restricted to Arcane type or Magic Circle type. As for now, the best mystic mechanism is Magic Maze (30), followed by Basilisk Pit (25) and X-kaliboo (25). Others include Abyssal Phone Booth (20), Ghost Bus (15), Magic Mirror, Crystal Spider, German Volkmusic Band, Emerald Pearl, and Sleeping Dragon (all 10).

There's nothing much to say about the magic circle, simply choose the one that give you highest mystic power. The best circle is Wax Pyramids (25) and Runic Candle (25), but RC gives you +1 cooldown time. Others include Dance-of-the-Wisps (20), Starlight and Ivory Candles (15), and Violet Candle (10).

Companions, same as raw power optimization, can give mystic power bonus too but unless it reached level 5, the contribution will be insignificant. Pets that have mystic bonus are Fire Dragon Whelp, Ghost Puppy and Special Ghost Puppy, Ghost Reindeer, Ghost Snake, Little Cu Sith, Little Devil, and Little Nessy.

Contracts, since we are mainly talking about Arcane type mechanism, I will only mention the Arcane contracts. The best arcane contract now is Countess Wilhelmina (10) followed by Mr. Bastian Shaw (10) and Sensei Nakamura (10). All three of them has different bonuses, though, but I prefer CW than the others. Last but least, there is Novice Bryan Bigglesworth (3).

There are some baits that give mystic power, too, the best one is of course the Highland Pride (10) followed by Nessy (5) and Midnight Rider (5). Nessy's give you -5 cooldown time and has very high attraction which is valuable to take into consideration.

What is the use of mystic power?
1. Raid Boss Ghost (Jonas Davey, Vocalist, Inspector, etc)
In this matter you need your highest mystic setup, meaning that setups like MM/RC/MBS/LilNessy/Highland Pride is the best combination giving 80 mystic power. However we know that the bosses drop rare loots, so you may consider to switch some part of the setup to increase the loot chance. The most common way is to change the companion into Pixie or Ghost Snake, and also to change MBS with SN or CW or VV. The best combo in my opinion for this raid boss ghosts is MM/RC/CW/Snake/HP, which gives you 80 mystic power (provided snake lvl 5), and the loot chance is x3.

2. Special Ghosts
Special Ghosts are ghosts that are only able to be captured using mystic power only. You may regard that they have infinite raw power. Additionally, they can only be attracted using Nessy's as bait. Examples are Kelpie and Luring Kelpie, Ghost Nessy and Glowing Ghost Nessy, Cu Sith and Howling Cu Sith, etc.

Here of course you need high mystic power which can be supplied by MM/RC/MBS/Snake/Nessy. However to increase your chance of encountering them, you need to increase your attraction level also. Since MBS contract already gives the most attraction, and the Nessy bait can't be changed, the only way to further increase the attraction is by switching the companion. Change your companion into Little Devil (+2 attraction) or Snake (+1) which still give mystic bonus, or you can just sacrifice the mystic bonus with a greater attraction from Unicorn or Emerald Dragon Whelp.

An advanced strategy in this matter is to extremely reduce the cooldown time although the mystic power is not maximised. Here MM/NL/MBS/LilNessy/Nessy will give you 2 minutes cooldown time with 50 mystic. Let's compare it to MM/RC/CW/Snake/Nessy which give 75 mystic with 6 minutes cooldown. Statistically speaking, using the first setup you can catch 1.5 special ghost in 6 minutes, while the second setup can only catch 0.75 ghost per 6 minute; hence the first setup is better.

Raw Power Optimization

This is the easiest optimization of the setup. Simply choose your mechanism and magic circle that gives you best raw power. However people seldom pay attention to the other 3 factors i.e. contract, companion, and bait. These 3 parts can contribute to raw power too. A difference in only 5 points of raw power can be significantly important!

Contracts that have raw power bonus
Traditional: IJS (+5)
High Tech: DFN(+5) ECT(+2) SOD(+1) MDR(+1)
Bio: ZEP(+3) TWL(+3) GTS(+2)
There is no Arcane and Magic Circle contract that gives raw power bonus.
So depending on the type of your mechanism, choose your best contract accordingly.

How about companion? They can give you raw power bonus too, but the best bonus that they can give is +5 only if they reached level 5. These pets includes Emerald Dragon Whelp, Ghost Kitty and Special Ghost Kitty, Ghost Owl, Little Kelpie, and Twilight Dragon Whelp.

Bait is the most underestimated component in this raw power optimization. Unlike contracts, bait gives the boost with no restriction to the type of mechanism used. Examples of these baits are Jimmy Stalker 12 y.o.(+5) and its older counterpart Jimmy Stalker 30 y.o. (+5). However these 2 Jimmy's have low attraction, meaning that it may not give you the best results. Mab Bier (+10) seems very attractive, but actually its attraction rate is very low, leading to FTA's or Angel's Share's if not properly managed.

Cocktails is better in terms of attraction, and these special cocktails that give raw power bonus notably is The Jesperian Way (+5), Cherry Bomb (+3), Midnight Smash (+3), Ruby Tuesday (+3), and Devil Driver (+1).

Optimizing Setup

In Ghost Trappers, you didn't simply click every 15 minutes. There's a lot of advanced strategy behind it. Optimizing your setup is useful if you want to catch a specific goals. There are 10 purpose of your setup, namely:
1. Raw Power
2. Mystic Power
3. GTP
4. XP
5. Cooldown Time
6. Efficiency (burner rate)
7. Attraction Rate
8. Loot Chance Multiplier
9. Midnight Attraction
10. Catch Rate

Before proceeding to the analysis of 10 purposes above, you should know that your setup consists of 5 parts i.e. Mechanism/Magic Circle/Contract/Companion/Bait. What does each of these parts affect?
Mechanism affects: 1,2,5,6
Magic Circle affects: 1,2,5,6
Contract affects: 1-9
Companion affects: 1-9
Bait affects: 1-9

Catch rate will be discussed specifically later, since it is quite complex.