Jiyva altar should be guaranteed at L:6

[gameguard]

Why is this god so hard to worship? Its not even a strong god. If its to prevent people from easily getting the slime rune, make TRJ still fight jiyva worshippers. Its not like Mennas cares if you are a zin dude.

[Nekoatl]

I'm pretty sure that's not the reason, as Jiyva ceases to exist if you kill TRJ, and an altar is often found right outside the Slime Pits.... It's generally more practical to collect the items you want and then switch to Jiyva once your mutations start getting out of hand, anyway. I often pick Gozag initially when I'm planning to use Jiyva in the extended game, as he helps get the desired non-artifact items earlier, his wrath is very mild once you have those items, and Jiyva's passive nutrition gain means that running out of rations is even less of a concern than usual.

[Stonar]

I actually think the opposite. Diving straight for Slime:5 as soon as you can is some of the most intense gameplay I've ever had in Crawl, and immensely satisfying if you can pull it off. I really like that there's a god that's kind of rare - one that if you see it in the temple, you can pick it up for free, and that you might have to really work for if you want to win with it.